For a long time I have been interested in making a family tree, and I always thought it would be fairly simple to do...until I started. It is quite a proccess and requires extreme organization and preparation. There are so many places to look for information recorded about a person, as well as different ways in which information is recorded, and ways in which it must be recorded by the researcher in order to make sense. In the beginning, when you are just realizing all the details involved in this trek, it can seem a little scary. But do not fear, there are so many resouces to guide you along the way. And more are being created every day. John Logan, co-founder of the African-American Genealogy Group of Philidelphia says "Genealogy is the second fastest-growing hobby in the U.S."(Black Enterprise, vol. 30, p231). So with the rate that people are turning their interest toward this field , it is becoming easier and easier to make a family tree.
The first thing you will want to do in preparation is decide what you want to learn, what your goal is. Are you wanting to find out about a specific person? Do you want to start with a certain ancestor and work forward to yourself? Are you looking to find what kind of life styles your family has lived throughout time? How much detail are you looking for? Once you have made goals for your search, decide on a method for recording information. You should stick to the method you chose. You will be much more organized if you can keep all your notes and findings in the same spot. There are several ways to record information; you can use calendars and log sheets, you can use data bases, or files on your computer, you can even use notebooks or note cards. The important thing is to be consistant with what you use.
Enough preparation...next you should write down everything you know about your family, starting with yourself. Then go to people in your family and find out all they know. You will definately want to know dates and places of birth, marriage and death, and as many other details as possible. You can set up interviews with family, or make up questionairs and send them to family. Be creative and be thorough. David A.G. Johnson Jr. who teaches genealogy workshops says "You should speak with any family member who had a relationship with deceased relatives. I grew up with my grandmother, who passed history down to me. I may know more than the oldest living person in my family." (Black Enterprise, vol. 30, p231) One thing that I have heard from everyone I have spoken to, who has made a family tree, is that after being somewhat stuck at a point in their search, a relative who just happened to be around knew the exact tip needed to carry on. So tell everyone about your project. Jounals, family bibles, scrap books, letters and house hold effects may also bring discoveries.
Once you have gathered all the information possible from your family, you will take your search out into the world. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sponsors a huge underground storehouse in Salt Lake City filled with records of 2.5 billion of our ancestors on 2 million microfilm rolls, gathered from 126 countries. This is the largest collection of genealogical material in the world. You can contact the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on line at Familysearch.org. They also have family history centers across the nation, the locations of which you can also find on their website. There are countless websites on genealogy. A few more that I found to be helpful sources are Rootsweb.com This is an excellent site because it is free, Ancestry.com This is one of the oldest genealogy sites. Cyndislist.com has an extensive selection of resources. African Americans may find Afrigeneas.com usefull, and for military records try Nara.govare No matter which method you chose to record information, you will want to have a pedigree chart of some kind. These charts are set up to show relationships between members of your family, and can be found online, as well as at Family History Centers across the nation. There are many details to know about a person, and then you may find that there are two people with the same name, who lived in the same county and you must be very carefull to follow the right person. ou will run into great bits of information by chance -one woman found out how her ancestor made a living, and even got a picture of the man, from a front page article in an old newspaper she found on microfilm. This gave her some very good leads on where to go next in her search. Events like that are what makes it so exciting and intriguing, and are what enables you to begin understanding your ancestry. For example, a name you are looking for might show up in census records, family bibles, or even through the locals of a town. It is very exciting when you make such a great find, but in the beginning you begin researching, all the different angles from which you can start a genealogy but once you get set up it becomes a very exciting exploration.
Home Page
My Family Tree
Works Cited
Getting Started
