The first thing you should do to get started is interview as many of your living relatives as possible. Once you gather all available information you will be able to begin your online search.

Good Interview Questions: When interviewing relatives, don't just ask for names and birthdates, etc. Ask questions about where they lived, what they did for a living, and what they did for fun. Things like "when did they learn to drive a car?" and "how many years did they attend school?" give you a much more insightful look into your heritage.

After you've gathered all your facts from your living relatives, make sure you take the time to get it all organized. This is important- organize all the information the best you can before you go further. When you start researching online you're going to get swamped with clues (some helpful, others not). So, the best thing you can do in getting started, is to take some time to organize your research.

Family History Library Building:

Address:
35 North West Temple Street, Room 344, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84150-3440

*Dedicated October 23, 1985
*142,000 square feet on five floors
*Humidity, temperature, and lighting designed to protect the collection from deterioration

Contact Information

Public phone number: 801-240-2584
Website: www.familysearch.org

Records Collection:

*The collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 742,000 microfiche; 310,000 books, serials, and other formats; 4,500 periodicals; 700 electronic resources.

*The Ancestral File database contains more than 36 million names that are linked into families.

*The International Genealogical Index database contains approximately 600 million names of deceased individuals. An addendum to the International Genealogical Index contains an additional 125 million names. These names have been patron submitted or extracted from thousands of original birth, christening and marriage records.

*The Pedigree Resource File database contains over 80 million names that are linked into families.

*Records available are from the United States, Canada, the British Isles, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

The three best resources for getting your family research off to a good start is looking in census records, obituaries and a special death index. Each of these is available at Family History Libraries, Family History Centers, and many online websites.

When you're getting started the resources that help the most are those that include source information for people living in the 20th century. In the past, census research involved countless hours of sitting in front of a microfilm reader. Today, many companies sell indexes that allow you to locate your relatives in a matter of minutes.

Obituaries is another valuable resource in family research. While not a primary source document, they can provide a bunch of clues to help locate other possible living relatives. Many people don't realize that there are thousands of newspapers out there, many without a web site, and even those that do have a web site, not all post their obituaries or maintain an archive.

One site which addressed this problem is called Obituary Depot. They encourage genealogists and family researchers around the world to transcribe the obituaries from their local paper. As a result, there is a huge bank of obitituaries to search from.

Social Security which is designed to help citizens when they retire, has become a great resource in tracking family members. This program can assist family researchers because the SSA tracks when citizens die so they know to stop the benefits, and they publish a Social Security Death Index. Many genealogy sites make this index available online for searching. For a small fee, you can actually write away for a copy of the actual application of one of your relatives.

1.Interviewing family members:This includes not only mom and dad, but aunts, uncles, distant cousins.

2.Family bibles: In the past, families always kept their bibles and passed them down to each generation. The family bibles is where they often keep records of family members, births, marriages, and deaths on pages within the bible.

3.Old family letters: Older generations usually preserved letters especially those of great importance. These letters may contain important dates, facts, and places that will be of help.

4.Legal documents: These include deeds (property addresses), wills (names of kin you may not have known about), marriage licenses (note the witnesses), birth certificates, voter registration, adoption records, and even judgments. Your search for these documents should begin with state and county records.

5. Associations and Club RecordsThis includes churches, clubs, veterans groups and lodges, all of which may be able to provide background information for your search.

6.Census data: After 1840 the Census collected age, place of birth, occupation, personal wealth, education, spouse, children, hired hands, and even immigration information.

7.Naturalizations records: Contact the State Archives for the state where the naturalization occurred to request a search of state, county, and local courts records.

8.Gravesites: Headstones will give dates and possible family names.

9.Libraries: Here you'll find newspaper articles (look for obituaries, and birth and marriage announcements) and books on local history (what was taking place during their life). Many libraries can be accessed online.

10.Genealogy message boards