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[Helplist] [Boettcher Tree] [Holt Tree]
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Whether you wish to trace your family's medical history, discover if a famous person really is your ancestor or simply learn more about your ancestors, the first steps are the same.
Start with yourself and what you knowIn the beginning, before doing any research or interviews, you should record everything you already know about your family. The two preferred records for this (and really all genealogical records) are family group sheets and pedigree charts. Most genealogical software programs have the capability to print blank record sheets. However, since you are just starting, you probably don't own a software package yet. Most researchers will want to wait until you know a bit more about research before deciding to spend money on software (more about this in the software article).Blank sheets can be obtained at a number of sites online. Heritage Quest has some Family Group Sheets and Pedigree Charts. The forms are in PDF format. These files are read with Adobe Acrobat, a free program that can be downloaded at http://www.adobe.com. These forms can't be edited, but can be printed. Print them, and enter all the information you know. Either form can be used first. If you start with the pedigree chart, use yourself as the base person and enter your parents, grandparents and other direct ancestors. (A direct ancestor is a parent, grandparent, great grandparent, great-great-grandparent, etc. Aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, in-laws, etc. are consider collateral ancestors.) Enter birth dates, places (including the county, if known), marriage dates and places. Include as much information as possible. Then move to a family group sheet. All unions (whether or not they married) should have a family group sheet. Again, include as much information as possible. If a specific date or place is not known, then enter an estimate or educated guess - clearly marking it as such. For example, if you don't know in which city your grandparents were married, enter the province or state. If you don't know that, record the country or a good guess (ex. "probably Pennsylvania" or "prob Italy"). Follow the same procedures for dates. Marriages probably occured before the birth of the first child. Grooms were probably about 20 and brides at least 15. The convention I use is to go back 20 years for the men, and then round the estimated date to the nearest 5 or 10. For example, if the first child (that I know of) was born in 1884, then I record the marriage as "before 1884." The birth date for the groom would be "about 1865" and for the bride "about 1870." This is not very precise, but it doesn't need to be. The goal is to distinguish a person who was living in 1900 from someone born in 1940. Women should be recorded by their maiden name. If her maiden name is not known, I use her married name and then annotate it with a "*". Sometimes, I'll know a husband's last name, but not his first. In these cases, I'll record him as "JD" for "John Doe," a typical no-name designation. No initials are used, to distinguish him from a man named J. D. Note: These are simply my devices, rather than genealogical standard. Once you have recorded all the information you know, decide what you want to discover. Some researchers concentrate on their paternal line only, following their surname back. Those interested in medical history wish to know about collateral ancestors as well. Still others go back to an ancestor and then record all of that person's descendants. Whatever you wish to do, remember you can change your mind later, so continue to record everything you discover about a family. (For example, you might only be interested in your direct ancestors. Recording information on collateral relatives will help distinguish one family from another one with similars names.) Talk to living relativesWhat not to do: Call your oldest living relative, whom you barely know, and say, "Tell me everything you know about the family."
Start small. Talk to your parents, aunts and uncles. Online, you'll find several lists of questions and interview techniques. Here are a few good sites. I'll just add this personal note. When I asked my grandfather about his grandparents' other children, he said he knew nothing. When I asked him about his aunts and uncles (i.e., his grandparents' other children), he listed their names, birth order, spouse's names, jobs, and told how my grandma's uncle had given him a great job. Try not to use unusual or complicated terms. Most of us have one cousin or aunt who is the repository of all family lore. These fellow genealogists will often be more receptive to your inquires then other relatives. Still, asking someone who has been researching for twenty years for a copy of "everything they have" is a favor of Herculean proportions. Start by asking for a copy of a pedigree chart and the family group sheets for your four grandparents. Do not publish their work (on the web or elsewhere) without their permission. If you use even some of the information they provide, then acknowledge their contribution. While it may seem unnecessary at times, offending someone is the quickest way to stop receiving information from them. Publishing someone else's life work as your own can easily offend. After collecting family lore, research into official documents and records can dispel or coroburate the stories. Family lore is a starting point, not an end. Several stories are commonly found in every family. A link to someone famous and important, perhaps an immigrant on the Mayflower or a royal line, is very common. Unless this heritage is well-documented (perhaps by the Mayflower society or a royal genealogy), then it may be just a story. Don't spend a lot of time by starting with the famous "ancestor" and trying to work down to your family. Start with yourself and work backwards. In the United States, a common myth is that the family name was changed "upon immigration." While many immigrants did change the spelling of the family name, this change would not have occured at the immigration facility. Continue to research all possible spellings of the family name. In my tree, five brothers used no less than seven different spellings of the name VOSIKA over a period of three years while living in the same house!. About ten years after immigration, they appeared to have settled on the current spelling. Now that you have decided on your research goals, collected some information, you may wish to purchase a software package to record and present your findings. The software article explains how to evaluate the various options.
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