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Position:Home>Genealogy> What are some easy tips for starting your family tree?Question: What are some easy tips for starting your family tree!? Can anyone provide some tips for me on how to begin a genealogical search in an easy and cheap manner!? I have interviewed my parents and grandparents but they can't tell me much about where my family comes from and I would really like to find out!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history!. Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department!. Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc!. Our public library has both www!.ancestry!.com and www!.heritagequest!.com free for anyone to use (no library card required)!. Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers!. They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you)!. A third option is one of the following websites: http://www!.searchforancestors!.com/!.!.!. http://www!.censusrecords!.net/!?o_xid=2739!.!.!. www dot usgenweb dot com/ www dot census dot gov/ http://www!.rootsweb!.com/ www dot ukgenweb dot com/ www dot archives dot gov/ http://www!.familysearch!.org/ http://www!.accessgenealogy!.com/!.!.!. http://www!.cyndislist!.com/ www dot geni dot com/ Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever!. Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example!. Good luck and have fun! Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites: www dot associatedcontent dot com/article!.!.!. Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test!. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father!. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA!. I used www!.familytreedna!.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program!. As to keeping the information organized, if you have a computer to use, type it up in a word processing document!. Unless you are one of the few who cannot find your way back more than a few generations, none of the commercial genealogy programs will work! These programs take up so much space because of their designs!. alson, all of the programs are subject to crashing, meaning you will loose all info you input to them!. For a word processing document, you can have one for your dad, another for your mom!. Each parent would be "1", their dad would be number 2, their mom #3, and so on!. The format I use is 1!. name date/place of birth/death!. For Females, date/place of birth; marriage; death!. All important info follows, then the sources, and, after the female, the offspring!. (If the man was married/had children by more than one female, list his children by the other female (not your ancestor) under the man's info!. I have about 1,000 pages typed this way!.!.!.including wills, etc!.Www@QuestionHome@Com depends on where you live!. family names are good helpers!. if you try to collect as many family names as anyone can remember, you can google those and most likely you will find the origin of the names!. old personal documents will help in this respect!. church archives are also a good source of information in case your family were and are christians ( about muslim archives i am not informed )!. the church archives supply information!. for example ask you grandparents where an in which church they married!. contact this church and they will tell you the name of your great grandparents ( including your great grandmothers maiden name )!. if you have that, you can follow up the greatgrandparent's origin with the same method!. and so on and so forth!. i've done this myself and found out that i really am an international conglomerate - really interesting!.Www@QuestionHome@Com If your family has been in the US for many generations, ancestry!.com is a great place to do genealogy research!. They allow you to use their site for free during a trial period too so you can see if it will be useful for your family!. I could go way back to the 1600's for one side of the family, but the other side didn't come to the States until the 1920s so I couldn't go back any further than the people that are still alive!.Www@QuestionHome@Com One of the best 'tips' I can offer is document, document, document AS YOU GO!. When you cannot determine if a document is 'the right one!.!.!.meaning the right person!.!.!.whether the document is legitimate or not!.!.!.etc'!.!.!."STOP IMMEDIATELY!" on that particular 'branch'!. Many an hour is wasted when a person 'continues' with the incorrect document and creates a BIG 'mistake'!. Another 'tip' is to 'early on' develop an organized format for referring to your 'proof of documentation'!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Talk with and video as well as take notes on your oldest family members which includes cousins!. Names, homeplaces, birthplaces, employment, criminal records ask about everything and do so several times!. In doing research for some people I found that there were several questions answered from criminal records that opened up a stonewall!.Www@QuestionHome@Com to get the best answers start will the old members of your family, not your mom or dad start with your grand aunties and grand parents!. you can start from thereWww@QuestionHome@Com |