subject: Begin Tracing Your Family History In Steps [print this page] 1. Start with what you know. Record life events such as birth, marriage, and death places and dates for each of your relatives. Starting your family tree with yourself, then your parents, and then your grandparents, makes it easier for you to record and research your family history.
2.Once you start to gather this information, you should record in a way that is laid out in a chronological fashion using a blank family fact sheet or a genealogy program that helps to organize the information and record family kinship.
3.After your record what you know; interview your relatives. Because the hobby is mostly enjoyed or researched at a later stage in life (average age is over 40), we dont get all the family stories from our grandparents, who are a wealth of family history ladled with stories. Since genealogy is a quest for family information, the people that could have helped may no longer be alive to do just that. From your interview, ask many questions to help get as much family details as possible. Your genealogy is more than just dates and events. It is also the fond memories that each of has endured through our life time. Record and treasure these stories.
4.From the interviews and the information you know, you will have holes in your family history that need to be filled with missing family information. To do this, find sources to back up the family history. Sources are found in local history books, directories, census, birth, death, and marriage records. They are found in newspapers with birth and death announcements. Church records, immigration, and land records help too. They are the documents that fill in the missing information that answers: who, what, when, and where information that can help complete your family history.
5.There are unlimited places to find sources. Some options are: on the internet, national archives, local libraries, local genealogical society, or find local genealogy workshop. If you happen to live in Utah or are taking a trip through Utah visit the largest genealogy research center also known as Family Search, or you can visit your local family history center to get started. Take the steps to discover your family history genealogy. You might be surprised at what you can find. Take the first step, and get started.
