Beginner's Guide to Family History Research Ellis Ebenezer Ellis & wife Eliza Zaring, early pioneers to the Oregon Territory and Washington State. Johan August Blomgren & Charlotta Jonasdotter, Madesjö Parish, Kalmar County, Sweden. April 1857 Daniel and Cyrene Moore Clayton Family 1.   Begin with yourself and your closest relatives. Work backwards from there. Write down what you know: when and where you were born; your parents’ names, birth dates & places, date and place of marriage; death date, place of death, and cause of death if your parents are no longer living.  If your parents know the same facts about their parents, write that down, too. Make notes about the source of this information so you will remember where certain information came from (and can later decide how reliable the information is). 2.     Start a family tree file and document your findings. In the “olden days,” family history researchers kept handwritten family group sheets and handwritten pedigree charts. With the advent of computers, genealogy software, and online databases, the process of finding and recording information has gotten infinitely easier.  When  you find information, make sure to write down the source as well as the facts.  Did your grandmother provide her parents' vital information? Then she's your source --- list her name, her address, the date she provided the information, and the form in which you received the information (oral, by letter, through email, etc.).  Did you find an ancestor in the census?  Record the census year; the series and microfilm roll number; the census page number; the state, county and township the family is found in;  and any other pertinent data in addition to what you learned about the family composition.  Do the same with land records, probate information, and anything else you find.  3.     Ancestry’s FREE Online Family Tree Services. One easy way to get started with your family tree free, without purchasing complicated software, is to go to www.ancestry.com. Near the top of the home page, you’ll see a box that says “Start your family tree. We’ll start searching.”  Enter your first name and last name. Click on your gender. Then click “Get Started.” You can register (free) and begin to enter your parents’ names and vital information. You can choose whether to keep the information totally private, share by invitation, or make certain data available to a more general audience (withholding sensitive information on living individuals, of course). You can record facts, write down stories, store photos, even add audio clips to your file! M F  If you choose to purchase software and store your data on your computer's hard drive, consider  regularly backing up your data on an external drive,  a writable CD or DVD, or to an online server. That way, if your computer fails or your program data becomes corrupted,  you won't lose months or years of research.  One program offering online backup services is Family Tree Maker 2009. 4.     Work from the known to the unknown, from the most recent events to earlier events. Your research will be more solid if you methodically use what you know to uncover new information. It’s useless to try to find the mythological Native American great-great-grandmother when you don’t know your grandmother’s maiden name.   5.     Keep an open mind & don’t jump to conclusions prematurely. Family history research is a lot like detective work. You need to methodically research connections between yourself and earlier generations. Keep in mind that two or more people living in the same locality as your ancestor may share his or her name, but be from a different family altogether. Just because the name is the same, don’t assume it’s your ancestor. Analyze information carefully and keep asking yourself whether things make sense. You’ll save a lot of time and effort in the long run. 6.     Spelling means nothing without a liberal dose of creativity.   The spelling of your family name may not be consistent in various records. Remember: just because the spelling of a surname doesn’t exactly match the way your family spells its last name now, don’t rule out a family connection if the surname spelling is close. Clerks or census takers sometimes made mistakes, had poor handwriting, or spelled words phonetically. For this reason, you sometimes have to get creative when trying to find an ancestor in the census index. When I’m searching for my Lile ancestors, for example, I’ve learned to check Lile, Lyle, Lisle, and Lyall. I’ve found records for members of the same family under all those spellings. I’ve even found my great-great grandfather listed as Isaac Syle in a census index --- a misreading of the census taker’s handwriting by the compiler of the index! Get creative.... if you don't find the family under the expected spelling, figure out all the other ways the name could have been recorded.  7.    Record information on whole family groups, rather than just focusing on your specific direct-line ancestor.  Until the 20th century,  it was quite common to find multiple generations and branches of the same family living in an area.  Adult children  lived near their parents and households frequently were comprised of a married couple; their minor or unmarried children; and the elderly parent(s) of either the husband or wife.  If an adult child's husband or wife died, it was common for the adult child to return to the parental home, often bringing his or her children along.  Sometimes, the married couple's brothers or sister, aunts or uncles, cousins, or nieces and nephews lived with them for a period of time, perhaps because of the death of a spouse or parent or a change in life circumstances in which the support of a family made all the difference.  Not only did family groups tend to live near each other, they often moved from one place to another  together. As a result, keeping track of an ancestor's brothers and sisters & aunts and uncles (lines collateral to your own) may help you locate your direct-line ancestors. 8.     Record and keep notes on neighbors of your family, particularly in the time period prior to about 1920.  Neighbors often developed strong ties with each other. They collaborated to build houses and barns,  helped each other with harvests, utilized each other's blacksmithing or carpentry skills. They witnessed each other's wills and land transactions. They socialized and reared children together.  When it came time to marry, children generally picked spouses from available choices close to home.  When neighbor-to-neighbor ties were strong because of intermarriage or shared friendship and experience, groups of neighbors often moved to new locations together.  So although you may not know whether the names of neighbors are significant to your research, it often pays big dividends to note who was living near your ancestor at census time or whose property adjoined your family's.   8.     Find good print material for guidance on research techniques and source materials when you exhaust “what you know” and head into “what you don’t know” territory.  Your local library undoubtedly has a number of basic genealogy research guides available either for check-out or study in its reference section.  Local genealogy societies may have print material or classes available to assist beginners.  LDS Family History Centers in your county generally stock informative, low cost booklets and flyers that help you familiarize yourself with research techniques and materials.  Abundant genealogy materials are available from local booksellers and chain bookstores  for those who want to browse and find something to purchase immediately. And of course, online sources like the Ancestry.com's store at  www.theancestrystore.com,  the bookseller giant www.amazon.com, or wonderful new/used booksellers like Portland, Oregon's Powell's Books (www.powells.com) can help you build a wonderful personal resource library. 9.     Familiarize yourself with genealogy terminology and basic legal terms. It’ll help you decipher source documents more easily.  I know  that legal terminology can be especially daunting to a beginner. My first year of law school, I felt like I was learning a foreign language.  If you understand some basic legal concepts and terms,  it makes it much easier to decipher handwritten documents in court records (like wills or minutes of court proceedings, for example) and to know where to look for certain kinds of specialized records.  If I can't find a good online source of information to link to this website, I'll work on compiling a basic primer of legal terms and concepts for family history researchers. For now, there's a fairly comprehensive "dictionary" of genealogy terms at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~randyj2222/gendict.html.  Although I don't think all the legal concepts presented are explained correctly, it'll at least give you the general idea.   10.   Learn to locate and use source materials, then make sure you record and credit your sources so others can verify your information: census records (digitized images are available online at www.ancestry.com); birth, marriage & death records, military service records, voting & tax lists, cemetery records, immigration records, religious records, written materials (such as family Bibles, journals, memoirs, newspaper articles, etc.) created by family members or people who knew them. 11. Start keeping notes about what sources you've examined in your search, where the source is located, and what results the search yielded.   That way you'll avoid unnecessary duplication, can retrace your search if you need to consult a source more than once, and can evaluate what additional research materials you should consult.  It takes discipline to faithfully record that you examined a specific microfilm of vital records from a certain locality and found your great-grandparents' marriage record. But you'll be happy you established the habit early when someone asks you the source of particular facts or conclusions and you can provide specifics.  It also pays off to write down where you found the source: was it in a book at your local library, from a website like Ancestry.com, in materials you accessed through the LDS Family History Centers?  If you record where you located a source, you can always find it again when you discover the need to check a similar fact. 12. Network with other researchers and share information. You’ll reap the benefits!  You'll get some great leads to check out, find people who can help you analyze information, get suggestions on where to find additional information, and meet distant cousins you didn't know existed.                   © 2007 Meri Arnett-Kremian. All rights reserved.