Looking for info on family and not sure where to start?

Question:

Looking for info on family and not sure where to start?

De Graw is the surname- I know my dad is in wyoming but i have no more info than that. Any help would be appreciated.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: OK, let's start with the real basics. Everyone should know 4 generations back for medical reasons, legal / probate reasons, etc. In the history of the USA, it was a tradition to have a family bible where that family information was recorded and passed down.

So, starting point is your own family. Mother, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, ....anything. Contact as many as you can and ask them about what THEY know. There is, actually, an outline of how to do "interviews" (and record all of the info) in the software package called Family Tree Maker. Recognize that it'll take awhile for Aunt Betty to remember her cousin in Michigan that she hasn't seen in 76 years. Be patient and try to make the "chat" pleasant for them, too. But, if you keep at it, you can a basic tree worked out (at least 4 generations) within a few months. That's Phase I. Make up your mind to continue or stop right there, depending on what you want. The family will continue to remember tidbits over time but, once you're at that point and thirsty for more, you need to go larger for the info.

Start Phase II. Best approach is to join Ancestry.com or Genealogy.com (I prefer the first) and to seek out The World Tree project. All G-info is eventually collected and fed to the Mormons (LDS), who have been collecting / connecting it for 100 years. Between the LDS database in Salt Lake, The World Tree project, and the on-going data collection that Ancestry and Genealogy are doing, you're on to Phase II. That's several years (2-3) of on-line research at Ancestry.com, buying special CDs of databases (like Passenger Lists of Immigrant Ships), and contacting distant cousins that you've found (expanding your tree with their info). By this point, you'll probably have some branches back into Europe in the 1600s and 1700s. And some branches will be short because of fires in records, etc.

Phase III, if you choose to continue back further, is to GO to those origin lands and find homesteads, tombstones, very distant relatives and you'll be "swapping" info with LDS and The World Tree. The more info that goes in, the better they can connect you to other pieces of the giant puzzle that they might have. This can go on forever because it's so damn fun travelling... Besides, the places you visit are PERSONALLY significant so they are REALLY interesting.

I'm between Phase II and Phase III (it's mushy). I have one branch in Ireland back to 425AD and another in Scandanavia in 910AD. Most of the 10-12 main branches are back to about 980AD and 1050 AD or so but I have one stubborn branch stopped at 1841 because of a 1922 fire in a parish church where the records were held. I have to GO to London and Northern Ireland to fix that one.

I wish you luck but advise you to decide how deep you want to go, early on. It can easily take over your life.