Have you ever wondered whether or not you are related to the family across town that has the same name or if your family is from another country?
Wondering where you come from and who you are related to is natural. With the help of technology, now there is an easy way to start figuring it out.
If you have ever thought about researching your family history but didn’t know how to do it, here are 3 helpful tips for getting started.
- Interview your family. While it is important to interview as many people as you can, be sure to get some time with the older generations. The stories they can share are likely not written down anywhere. The mere mention of a name or a street can give you clues to your family’s whereabouts and proclivities. Be sure to videotape the session so you can reference it later date.
- Review your own documents. Before you settle into long nights of poring over government-issued documents, take a look at what you have on hand. Most families keep the birth, death, and marriage certificates of their immediate family. Those documents can give you vital information, such as who your great-grandparents were. Look in old Bibles – birth and death dates were often recorded in those as well. If you’re up for it, visit a family member’s grave and take a look at the headstones around it. Often relatives are buried together. Record the names and dates you see and use them in the next phase of your research.
- Do your research. When you say the word research some people throw up their hands. Images of catalog cards and stuffy libraries come to mind, don’t they? Well, now there is an easier way to research your family’s history, and you can do it from the comfort of your own home. Ancestry gives you access to many of the tools you need to trace your family’s footsteps, such as census reports, military records, international records, old newspapers, and even DNA tools. They also offer online genealogy courses to hone your skills. There is a lot of information out there. Make it easy on yourself and access it all in one place.
Family tree research can be a rewarding undertaking, and these three steps make it easy to get started. And there’s no easier place to start looking than Ancestry. Ancestry will even give you a 14-day free trial so you can check them out for yourself. Happy hunting!