Finding Your Ancestors, Basic Genealogy Tips

Basic Easy Genealogy Tips I Wish I Had Known Thirty Years Ago

This is an exciting time for doing genealogy. More and more records are going on-line and more and more people are getting involved and helping each other.

Genealogy is a fascinating hobby, however it's easy to jump in and get information overload. Start slowly using basic genealogy methods, obtain accurate documents and cite sources of those documents.

Start with your local courthouse or archives or churches to find your basic certificates and those of your family. You can then, branch out to use the internet to find ancestors on-line. To save time and money you will want to use the best genealogy web sites.

You will meet friendly people all over the world while you search ancestors and help others find their family. You will also find cousins and other family members you never heard of and that is so exciting.

What an opportunity to travel! You will want to visit your family's native lands and their original homes in the USA. Join a group doing research in Salt Lake City at the Mormon Church Family History Center.

Start out with a method of organization that is easy for you. A pain, I know, but you will be glad after you have found many records, documents and people that you had filed them in logical order. You could use different colors for different families.

Many excellent genealogists have written genealogy books. Use caution however, as you want to buy the ones that really pertain to your family. Many records, as for a certain state on a CD will not have all the counties included.

Many family genealogists have web sites. Be careful you have the right family and there are many errors in such sites. More blogs are being written daily by amateur genealogists.

Real genealogy is verifying all your information with proof. Send to the right churches, courthouses, societies for the original baptism, birth and marriage and death records.

Use proven research techniques and avoid the pitfalls of the inept and inexperienced who think any old person is in their family.

Cemetery research, taking photos, using scanners and computers will help with your research.

There are many useful tools to help with your search and lots of tips are included on this lens to help you narrow your search.

I Love Genealogy

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Use The Best Genealogy Web Sites

The internet has opened up the world to genealogists and many, many websites are wonderful. The best websites for genealogy are . Rootsweb www.rootsweb.ancestry.comis a good beginning web site for research. Rootsweb lists www.lists.rootsweb.ancestr...

Find your family at free genealogy websites

Genealogy can be an expensive hobby, however with the free genealogy websites and resources on this lens you will save money! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with its Mormon Family Research Center is usually the first thing that com...

Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

Tips To Get Started

There is no one formula for doing genealogy. Adam and Eve were our original, but there have been many branches off that tree. You are unique and your family has its own characteristics, nationality, history, religion, habits and language. Organization and preservation of records is necessary for a good family tree.

Gather your birth certificates, baptism certificates, diplomas, marriage records and pictures, funeral cards, dance programs, military records, letters, and those of your parents, their parents and offspring and save them in acid-free envelopes.
Get your records organized in family group charts (free) before you attempt sites such as Ancestry.com
There is much information available at no cost and that is the way to go when you are just starting to search for your family members.
Cite your sources. You hear this but many don't take heed until too late. Say for a funeral, state the name of the funeral home, the pastor, the town, the street address, phone number, anything that will allow a member of the succeeding generation to recognize the source.
Visit your library, courthouse, genealogical society, archives or churches to find the necessary certificates.
The internet has thousands of genealogy web sites, many of which are useless. Although, you may get lucky and find your family on a named web page.
Your family name may have changed over the centuries. Start with your name now and search for documents that prove your existence and then work backwards.
Many religious institutions are allowing their records to be computerized, really a Godsend for genealogists.
Cemeteries are fun to explore and they may give necessary data for you.
Use caution on some websites. Some are fraudulent and some a waste of time.
You must choose your method of creating your family tree. Hand-written pages and charts may suffice, but computers utilize good programs to simplify the creation. Visit my other featured lenses.

Spotlight on Emily Anne Croom

One of my favorite authors

Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy

by: Emily Croom

Amazon Price: $12.91 (as of 07/09/2009)

There are many books written on genealogy. Some are too complicated and way too expensive for beginners. Emily Anne Croom is an excellent teacher and a lovely, generous woman.

Genealogy Workbooks

Find your favorite here

CAUTION! Tips You Must Read

There are fraudulent genealogy sites and bad people out there

There are sites with nothing more than a series of web pages with links to other services and are clearly fraudulent. Please take heed and read what I have discovered in my research.

Great information on Myths, Hoaxes & Scams on Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet!

SearchYourGenealogy.com is downright creepy. It shows that women 65 and older use it the most and it shows the income of the age groups.
There has been a case of a woman who used the social security numbers of recently deceased people. She allegedly used Rootsweb.com to find the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of people.
There are many complaints about crooks on the message boards who promise you research, take your money and don't deliver.
Ancestry-search.com just shows a page with a lot of unusable links. The links that are active just send you to another similar page. It stresses searching for missing persons.
Look at the fine print on web sites before you publish your tree to the web.
Be cautious when you enter sites that promise to find someone using civil records or court cases. You can just sense they are using sleazy methods.
Many people complain that the good sites such as Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com promise more than they deliver, which is true for some names. They are not perfect but they seem to be the best available at this time.
What bothers me about some of the sites, you put in a time-line which is completely ignored and you get hundreds of hits for your name, and they don't tell you how many there will be. That's when you're happy to have an unusual name.
Don't fall for scams such as the "get your family crest". If you had a family crest, you would know it as it would be a cherished heirloom.

Genealogy and The Digital Age

Making your scrapbook online

Digital cameras and computers have simplified compiling pictures and records for the family history. You may choose to make a digital scrapbook. Here are some links to FREE places online to mange your digital photos.

Flickr - Is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.

Photobucket - Upload your photos, host your videos, and share them with friends and family.

Picasa - Manage your photos in one place, and find photos you forgot you had.

PictureTrail - A leading photo sharing social network and widget destination.

SmugMug - Easily create online photo albums. Share, store, organize and print.

Helpful Books on Genealogy

Resources for digging deeper

There are books written about German, Polish, Jewish, Italian, Irish,-- whatever you need, genealogy. Passenger Records, books about Ellis Island, Census records, Courthouse Records, and more are available. You probably ask, "Can't you just go on-line and find everyone?" Not yet. Thousands of volunteers are right now putting records from the Mormon Church in a form that will be on-line in the future.

You still have to search archives, family history centers and other records. It's also very satisfying if you find a gem among dusty courthouse books. I have wasted a lot of time on passenger records. Ellis Island is great for people arriving after 1900. Before then Castle Garden took in immigrants and those records are not as complete. Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Baltimore and Philadelphia processed many immigrants, also. Since passage to Canada was often cheaper than to U S ports, many of our folks went there first.

Getting Involved In Genealogy Groups

Join societies and genealogical groups

Look in your phone books and see if there is a local genealogy society or a state society. Join and you will have fun, meet new friends and further your basic genealogy research.

Be sure to share this information with your genealogy cuzzies and friends.

Yahoo Groups: Join a fun group at Yahoo...search Genealogy.
Irish Genealogy Seminar & Cruise - January 2009: Genealogists agree that the best and more reasonable conferences are at sea. Legacy Genealogy Cruise 2009 - Mediterranean/Greece - Sep 5-Sep 17. The Norwegian Jade will leave Barcelona and will sail to Rome, Naples/Pompeii/Capri Italy, Dubrovnik Croatia, Venice Italy, Katakolon Greece, Piraeus/Athens Greece, Ephesus Izmir Turkey, and Istanbul Turkey. Visit www.legacyfamilytree.net/Secure/OrderCruise2009med.htm to securely book your cruise online. For more information www.legacyfamilytree.com/CruiseInfo_2009med.asp hurry
Federation of Genealogical Societies: Calendar of Events all about genealogy.

Spotlight on Alex Haley

The book that started basic genealogy

DNA and genealogy appears an easy answer to those questions, however it is quite complicated to trace your roots with DNA.

Tips on collecting and preserving Black family history. Recently huge advances in obtaining Black roots have encouraged folks to work on and preserve their history.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family

by: Alex Haley

Amazon Price: (as of 07/09/2009)

"Roots", the engrossing story of slavery by Alex Haley had America glued to their television sets in the late seventies.Watchers started asking themselves questions about their history and heritage.

The Best Genealogy Websites

Check out my choices.

Please see additional recommendations in my guest-book at the end of this lens!

Finding Your Ancestors, Basic Genealogy Tips

Basic Easy Genealogy Tips I Wish I Had Known Thirty Years Ago

I Love Genealogy

See my other lenses on this topic

Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

Tips To Get Started

Spotlight on Emily Anne Croom

One of my favorite authors

Genealogy Workbooks

Find your favorite here

CAUTION! Tips You Must Read

There are fraudulent genealogy sites and bad people out there

Genealogy and The Digital Age

Making your scrapbook online

Helpful Books on Genealogy

Resources for digging deeper

Getting Involved In Genealogy Groups

Join societies and genealogical groups

Spotlight on Alex Haley

The book that started basic genealogy

The Best Genealogy Websites

Check out my choices.

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Using Maps For Genealogy

Look into your grandparents' neighborhood

Find a Piece of Your Heritage on e-Bay

Surprising and rare finds

Fun Stuff For Family Tree Makers

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