Basic Genealogy - Getting Started on the Search

• Solving the Problem - Getting Started
  • Start from Your Own Own Knowledge
    A "Good Practice" Hint
  • Collect and Evaluate Your Family Records
    What's Missing? What is Confusing? What can you easily Verify?
  • Relatives and Other Researchers
    • (Unpublished) Immediate Family Histories
    • Family memorabelia
      Warning - Don't Throw Away Anything!
      A "Good Practice" Hint
      Especially if Don't Understand
  • Personal Interviews - Especially with older family members
  • Researchers - Close Cousins - by e-mail, phone and snail-mail
• The Problem - Briefly
  • Finding a person - Name - Date - Place
    A "Good Practice" Hint
  • And how he/she is related to others
    • Usually Only By the Records - Match in Name Not Adequate
    • Multiple Records Usually Necessary
    • Especially to Connect Persons
    • Example:
      • Wm Smith - Census Record (place1, date1, [learn age of Wm Smith as of date of the census, name of spouse Anne M. and possibly names of some of the children])
      • Bill Smith - Birth Record (place2, date2, [may learn names of parents])
      • William J. Smythe - Marriage to Margo Smith (date3) [known from a published family tree for the Smiths.
      • One, Two or Three Men?
        A "Good Practice" Hint
      • One starting point - locate marriage record for Bill Smith (or Wm Smith) and learn if he married Anne or Margaret or Anne Margaret or Salome.
      • Of course, Wm or Bill may not have gotten married in the same location as they were born or where they lived at the time of the census.
  • Must Tie People and Records Together - Reconstructing History
    • Other's Conclusions are not necessary correct, and can't by themselves be used as proof
    • Quote Sources - Good Technique Requires You to Examine the Source (and prove the source).
      A "Good Practice" Hint
    • Caution - emphasis on proof shouldn't hinder you from using any source, whether hearsay evidence, old family legends, other people's undocumented data, etc. as clues to get started.
• Expanding the Search - Once Personal Sources Exhausted

© Prepared by Jay December 18, 2005