Getting Started - What Do We Know?
This is exciting! We're about to take your family story and build a solid foundation onto which we will add new discoveries. Gather up what you know, get it organized, and let's go.
Whether our plans include use of DNA evidence or not, the first thing to do is to create a tree that includes all that we know. Especially important information includes BMD - birth, marriage and death records including verified dates and locations. The wonderful free resource at FamilySearch.org can be a fantastic asset in getting started with confidence. You can also build your tree there, and even export it to another website or software. (Note: family trees are stored GEDCOM files and have a standard file format just like images, movies and documents - extension .ged).
Why is building a tree so important? It is extremely likely that you have lots of cousins that you've never met, and some of them may be researching a branch of their family that you have in common. You may learn a lot simply by being "discoverable" and connecting with other family historians. This becomes even more important if you have done a DNA test, for there are millions of people using this powerful tool in their family research. If you have privacy concerns, or simply want to better understand the many options available for making, building and using an online tree, check out this informative post from expert genealogist Amy Johnson Crow.
Organizing your research is really important too. If you know your grandparents with confidence, you can divide your notes and findings into four family branches for your paternal grandfather and grandmother, and maternal grandfather and grandmother. Keep a folder for each. If you know your great-grandparents names, then you can label those branches by their shared surnames; for example, my paternal grandfather's parents are my McKnight-Robinson family branch. Even if you just jot a quick summary on a piece of paper, date it, and tuck it in a folder. You'll be surprised how often you wind up gratefully finding some detail from when you were researching a certain ancestor.
If you are going to use DNA evidence to assist in your research (and you surely should!), it becomes more important to track siblings and their descendants. Your parents' siblings and their children, your first cousins (1Cs). Your grandparents and their siblings are particularly important. Their grandchildren are your 2nd cousins, and 2Cs are the gold mine of genetic genealogy research (more about that when we get into the nitty gritty of DNA testing in a post coming soon).
If you are one of the lucky ones who knows all of their great-grandparents and their children, you'll be busy with this work for a few days. No doubt you'll be making some new discoveries, perhaps courtesy of the US Census, Social Security or military records, or the immigration records at Ellis Island. Wherever it came from, RECORD YOUR SOURCE CAREFULLY! Write it down and tie it to that record somehow so you'll always have it.
HOT TIP: If you have living elderly relatives, if at all possible, film them talking about their lives and what they know of family history. Someday when they are gone you and other family members will be hugely grateful that you'll be able to see them tell their stories in their own voice. Don't forget to make backup copies!
NEXT UP: Testing, Testing - Using Your DNA to Learn Your Ancestry
Whether our plans include use of DNA evidence or not, the first thing to do is to create a tree that includes all that we know. Especially important information includes BMD - birth, marriage and death records including verified dates and locations. The wonderful free resource at FamilySearch.org can be a fantastic asset in getting started with confidence. You can also build your tree there, and even export it to another website or software. (Note: family trees are stored GEDCOM files and have a standard file format just like images, movies and documents - extension .ged).
Why is building a tree so important? It is extremely likely that you have lots of cousins that you've never met, and some of them may be researching a branch of their family that you have in common. You may learn a lot simply by being "discoverable" and connecting with other family historians. This becomes even more important if you have done a DNA test, for there are millions of people using this powerful tool in their family research. If you have privacy concerns, or simply want to better understand the many options available for making, building and using an online tree, check out this informative post from expert genealogist Amy Johnson Crow.
Organizing your research is really important too. If you know your grandparents with confidence, you can divide your notes and findings into four family branches for your paternal grandfather and grandmother, and maternal grandfather and grandmother. Keep a folder for each. If you know your great-grandparents names, then you can label those branches by their shared surnames; for example, my paternal grandfather's parents are my McKnight-Robinson family branch. Even if you just jot a quick summary on a piece of paper, date it, and tuck it in a folder. You'll be surprised how often you wind up gratefully finding some detail from when you were researching a certain ancestor.
If you are going to use DNA evidence to assist in your research (and you surely should!), it becomes more important to track siblings and their descendants. Your parents' siblings and their children, your first cousins (1Cs). Your grandparents and their siblings are particularly important. Their grandchildren are your 2nd cousins, and 2Cs are the gold mine of genetic genealogy research (more about that when we get into the nitty gritty of DNA testing in a post coming soon).
If you are one of the lucky ones who knows all of their great-grandparents and their children, you'll be busy with this work for a few days. No doubt you'll be making some new discoveries, perhaps courtesy of the US Census, Social Security or military records, or the immigration records at Ellis Island. Wherever it came from, RECORD YOUR SOURCE CAREFULLY! Write it down and tie it to that record somehow so you'll always have it.
HOT TIP: If you have living elderly relatives, if at all possible, film them talking about their lives and what they know of family history. Someday when they are gone you and other family members will be hugely grateful that you'll be able to see them tell their stories in their own voice. Don't forget to make backup copies!
NEXT UP: Testing, Testing - Using Your DNA to Learn Your Ancestry
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