Genealogy Blog

The interest in genealogy and family history research has exploded over the last 15 years or so. People are discovering that it can be an interesting and fun activity or hobby. The availability of information on the internet continues to rise at an amazing rate. More and more information previously stored in the archives is being made available for the hungry public. Some of this information is free, but a lot of it attracts a fee, so it is becoming a huge business, and is likely to continue to grow in the coming years.

Often the decision to get involved in finding your ancestors and documenting your family history comes when we lose a parent or grandparent or both! Let me tell you it is better to make a start while they are alive and able to assist you. Once they are gone, it is a real tragedy if you have not recorded the valuable family history that they have stored in their memories. You will also find that elderly relatives will be delighted to offer their assistance as it gives them the great opportunity to reminisce on a bygone era.

Step 1 – Interview Family and Friends and Record it

I guess I have already began to mention this above in my introduction, but it is to get a hold of your elderly parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties and friends and interview them in great detail about your ancestors and how things were when they were young. It may even be a good idea to use audio or video equipment to make a proper recording of this interview. Get out old photos, documents or letters to help jolt their memories, and find out if they have any such items that may also assist. If they have birth, death and marriage certificates, find out if you can get copies!

I highly recommend that you use a tool called a “Family Group Sheet” to record actual details of a particular family group (father, mother and children, with provision for dates like birth, death & marriage). You can fill these out yourself or you may even email or mail them to relatives and get them to do it for you.

Step 2 – Get Genealogy Software

Genealogy software is an absolute must have tool, which will make it easy for you to record and document the information that you have. You can get free software like Personal Ancestral File to get you started, or you may not mind paying a few dollars, in which case software like Family Tree Maker is very good. Next you will need to install your software, and make a start on entering all the information you have collected from the Family Group Sheets. It is a good idea to record the source of your information, I know that Family Tree Maker has provision for this.

Step 3 – Visit a cemetery!

If you know that many of your ancestors are buried in the local cemetery, take a walk through it, to see if you can find some familiar names. You often find that families did not travel very far in the old days and that is why you may find a lot of interesting information just by visiting a few cemeteries.

If you do not like visiting cemeteries, you may find information online, as more and more information is becoming available on who is buried where on the internet. Some even includes headstone transcriptions!

Anyway, I hope that I have provided a useful guide for you to make a great start to your family history and genealogy search. This is a wonderful pastime and once you get your teeth into searching for your ancestors, you will not want to stop!

I will look at the Online search options, in a future article.

If you want further information please go to my link at the bottom of this page.

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