Recently I had a post about census records and some of the commentors expressed an interest in searching their own families but said they do not know where to start. I am, by no means, an expert on deep research (yet), but I can give you all a few tips, some starting places at least (for the USA only so far). So here goes.

The very first thing you should do when starting to research your family?

Talk to your family.

Ask your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles, your cousins, and any other family members and close family friends about your history. They will (hopefully) be able to give you some great starting places. Write down and grab anything you can get your hands on:

Names

First, middle, last, nicknames, anything anyone can remember.

Be sure and write them down as they’re told you and keep in mind that you can’t always rely on grandma’s memory. Especially when you get a bit further back in history, sometimes names changed or weren’t recorded properly in all places.
For instance, my dad’s mother’s maiden name had an “ea” in it. However, her brother’s descendants spell the name with an “ee.” Her father, at some point in life, started spelling his name “ee” and it was passed on that way to his only son, even though he himself had signed the name at his marriage (for one) as “ea.” Grandma told me that he claimed everyone else spelled it that way, so why shouldn’t he?

Also, on my mom’s side, I was always told that my great-great-great-grandfather’s name was Henry Charles. Come to find out, it’s not, it’s not even close, it was Jules Benjamin. His father was named Charles. But no Henry there that I know of. However, because my great-grandmother always said that that was her grandfather’s name, everyone believed her. I also came to find out that her father’s birth name is not what is on his tombstone. Somewhere along the line, he took his second middle name as his first name and a shortened version of his first name as his middle name.

Yup, it can get quite confusing.

Don’t forget those nicknames, either. If they’re not at least interesting, you may later find your ancestor documented by his/her nickname.

Dates

Grab any dates that your mom and grandma, or whoever, can remember. But again, always keep in mind that what you get may not be all that accurate, this is just your starting place. Of course, the most important dates are birthdates, deathdates, and dates of marriages. However, if you really get into this, you will find other dates to, at least, be interesting, if not to help you solve some other mystery, like christenings, confirmations, baptisms, bruials, etc. You may also eventually find it interesting to think about where your ancestors lived and what they did throughout time. Census records will help you with that, showing you where they lived every ten years (if you can find them, haha).

Locations

Location, location, location! Right? Locations are obviously quite important. Knowing your ancestors were in the United States isn’t much help, but if you can narrow that down to a state and then a county, you’re on the right track.

A new concept to some of you out there will be the township. In the United States (as far as I’m aware, all states do this, though they may not all call them “townships”), we have states then counties (or parishes in Louisiana) then townships then census districts (not all years) then cities and towns, etc. Of course, this will be slightly different if you’re looking at an independent city like St. Louis, but for the most part, this will be quite helpful. If nothing else, you may find that your ancestors stayed in one specific township for their birth, life, death, and narrowing it down to a township may help you find them quicker on census records and maybe even in cemeteries.

Record Your Info

Of course, you’re going to need a way to record all this information. You can get yourself a book, program, or even a website. The image at the left is the book that we have. I bought it many years ago, it was something like $7 at Walmart. Amazon doesn’t have it readily available and this one appears to be another version of the same book. This book is simple enough, a great place to get started and to compile some basic information. It has pages for your immediate family (if you’re married), the husband’s immediate family, the wife’s immediate family, your children, grandchildren, etc. It then moves on to ancestry in a pedigree format. The further you go, the deeper it gets, and you can record up to six generations in the pedigrees (your great-great-great-grandparents). There are then pages to discuss siblings to you, your parents, your grandparents, etc. This is for the first half of the book, the second half has pages to record various information such as immigration, weddings, occupations, religious activities, addresses, schools, organizations, military service, friends, pets, automobiles, heirlooms, sports, hobbies, illnesses, vacations, reunions, traditions, stories, and so much more. Just remember one thing, you might want to record in pencil until you’re sure you’ve got all the right info. ;-)

Desktop programs are wonderful. They help you to interlink much information and people and can even usually generate reports for you. I have been using Family Tree Maker 2006, although I’m not sure why, I wasn’t that happy with version 2005. I guess I figured I would give it a second try. The program I really liked… well, they don’t make it anymore and the version I have doesn’t like my large database and often crashes. There are many free programs out there, too, look into Personal Ancestral File 5 or Legacy 6. I’ve also heard that Brother’s Keeper is a good program, but I’ve never used it myself. ($45) Cyndi’s List also has a very large database of genealogy software.

I maintain both a desktop database and an online one. My old software used to generate static html pages, one for each family, and while it worked for a while, it was quite hard to edit and add new individuals. So my search for a good script began. I looked everywhere and tried everything. I was finally happy with phpMyFamily, in fact, very happy, and I have been using it since late 2003 or very early 2004, somewhere in there. Having a website displaying your genealogy can be especially helpful if you’d like to meet online with people who share your genealogy who may be able to help you with information you don’t have. I’ve met more than one family member in this way, even some that are relatively close. These family members have sent me information, photos, documents, etc. Also, I don’t know about other scripts, but with phpMyFamily you can create other users and allow them to add information to your site as well. You can also specify a specific date after which all individuals born thereafter will have their information protected. Here are some examples:

– Holifield/Doria Genealogy
– Reed & Lurk Families
– Naeger-Vargo Families

Here ends part one, is there anything you’d like to see in part two?