Genealogy sites?

Question:

Genealogy sites?

I want to try to trace my family's history, but I don't even know where to begin. HELP!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: One of the most common genealogical questions on this forum is How do I find my _________ ancestry. (You can fill in the blank with Native American, Irish, Scottish, English, or any other nationality) I have a standard answer I give on how to start your genealogy?? from the beginning. The important thing to remember is that in order to find your ancestors of other nations, it is important to start with yourself. You will never find your ancestors of other nations without first starting with yourself, then working back to your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. I once had an uncle who told me for years that my maiden name was French. I believed him because my surname ends with the letter ??o?? and he told me that it was ??Americanized?? from the French spelling ending in ??eaux?? . It seemed plausible. My personal research eventually revealed to me that my lineage on that line was Dutch, not French. My point is this?? you may have been told that you are Native American, Irish, French?? but the fact is you might not be what you think you are.

If you are interested in doing your genealogy, the best way to get started is to start with yourself. Write down everything you know about your parents, then keep going back until you run stuck. Most people can get back to their grandparents and maybe a set of great grandparents. At this point there are so many ways to get back further in your tree. Much of it depends on the records available Many localities in the United States for example, weren't required to keep records until the late 1800's or even early 1900's,. In Europe and many other countries, records go back a lot further. Other avenues of getting information are studying old land records, wills, cemeteries, city directories, local histories and military records. Another gold mine of information is if your parents kept old letters of the family. It wasn't uncommon in the early twentieth century for women to have post card books. Some old post cards have some interesting information as well. If you are young, you may have the honor of being able to interview your grandparents for information. If you do this, I would recommend taping the conversation because often it is impossible to remember everything they said and you will have a treasure for future generations. Even though tracing your tree yourself takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, you learn so much and it is so much more worthwhile than pulling up a tree on a website and wondering where in the world the author got their information.

First you might want to invest in a family tree program. Downloading a free one such as PAF will do you just fine, but if you feel so inclined there are programs for sale such as Family Tree Maker, and countless others that will do, with the big differences being primarily layout and user interface. Most of them have the GEDCOM format incorporated, making it possible to switch from one program to another without reentering all of your information. Another important thing about GEDCOM files is that you can share them with anyone making it easy for them to import your information into theirs. (I strongly discourage importing anyones file without checking all of the information yourself)

Here are some websites and tips for the beginning genealogist who have yet to discover their family. These websites have a worldwide audience and can be very instrumental in getting your search off the ground. I am not guaranteeing that you will find your family information on these sights; however, if you do some digging around, it is likely that you will find something. Genealogy is a hobby and it takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of practice to hone your skills. Don't expect to go to any website and pull up a full ten generation family tree. That simply won't happen. Keep in mind that genealogy is something that is unique to each and everyone of us. Even our cousins only carry half the genes that we do.

http://genforum.genealogy.com
http://boards.rootsweb.com/

These are the messageboards at both GenForum and Rootsweb. You can look at the message boards either by surname, county, state, country and there is even some little specialty boards like ones for wars and cemeteries, etc. You may or may not find your relatives on these boards and even if you don't it would be wise to post a query and see who answers. I have found these to be very useful boards for finding your genealogy. If someone responds to your query, the board will send you an E-mail to let you know that someone has responded.

I must say, however, that a good genealogy query, doesn't just say. " I need information on John Smith" Try to provide as many dates, places, and details as possible. One little thing can make the difference as to the answer you get.

a good query has

1) the persons name
2) all of the biographical information you know to date and
3) asks a specific question

The reason a query should be so specific is because people won't waste your time and theirs telling you what you already know. I have done lookups for people already and reported my findings only to be told, "Well, I knew that!" It would have been helpful if they would have told me that they knew that from the beginning. I probably would have checked a different set of sources to further the search. Also, by providing ALL of your known information (for example, the childrens names) it gives people alternate people to research to help arrive at your answer.

http://lists.rootsweb.com/

This is the link to the mailing lists at Rootsweb. Basically a mailing list is like a study group. All of its members are interested in a particular surname or locality in one way or another. Everytime someone posts, you receive an E-mail. You can always unsubscribe at anytime. If you aren't interested in joining the list, there is a searchable archive of all the postings. Some of these mailing lists at Rootsweb go back 10 years. Simply click the "search the archives" link and then enter your search terms.

http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/......

This is the link to the world connect family trees at Rootsweb. These are user contributed family trees. These may or may not be related to your family, but it is a starting point. If you find one with members of your family, I always recommend double checking it, or getting in touch with the contributer whose name and E-mail address should appear with the tree.

http://www.gencircles.com/

This is a link to the trees on the gencircles website. Again, I recommend double checking any information you may find on your particular family.

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/f...

Finally, here is the site for the church of the Latter Day Saints website. Simply put in your search terms and press search. I'm sure you can figure it out from there.

Another important point I want to make is that from the very beginning you should document ALL of your sources. It may sound silly now, but believe me after you have several thousand people in your tree, there will come a time when you will ask yourself, where did I get this information? If you document your sources, you aren??t left scrambling later.

If you start your search for your ancestry, it will probably turn into an obsession. It is very addicting and it is like a big puzzle with so many benefits. You learn where your family came from, where they've been, often you can learn about family medical history. There just isn't a down side. You are not going to just find your entire genealogy in one search. It is an ongoing puzzle. I tell people, if you can find one thing every time you are searching, you are doing GREAT. If you find any more than that at any given time you are LUCKY!! Write to me if you have any questions. I would be happy to help if I can. Blessings.