Genealogical research for beginners

Most people do a bit of genealogical research without even realizing it. Standing at a family reunion and talking to a relative to find out which of your grandmother's sisters she's the granddaughter of or figuring out whether cousin George is a first or second cousin.

In this report, I'll give you a few reasons to start researching in-depth, ideas for places to get started, sources that are good as well as a few to stay away from, and introduce you to some common problems and their possible solutions.

Why bother? There are as many answers to that question as there are people researching their family histories. Some people are just curious about who their ancestors were, where they "come from", and what type of lives those who are responsible in their own way for our being alive themselves, lived. Others want to know whether they should watch out for certain inherited diseases. There are those who are historians in their family who want to be able to teach their grandchildren about their past so that they can add to it and teach their grandchildren. Some just want to make a connection with their past, whether it's who was responsible for bringing big ears that stick out into the family gene pool, or maybe to explain why the last five generations of the family have a certain profession deeply embedded in it. Whatever the reason, there are thousands of us spending a few minutes or even a few days a month doing research on our ancestors.

Doing genealogical research requires tools. Those tools can be as inexpensive or as sophisticated as you choose. You can spend a few dollars and make up a form and copy it to fill out for each family, or you can buy a software program for quite a bit more and feed it the information to process and keep track of for you. Both ways have drawbacks, papers are easily lost, get coffee spilled on them and can only hold so much information per sheet, while computers crash, and unless you can afford a laptop, aren't really handy for taking on interviews or to a courthouse to look up information and record it. A healthy combination of the two usually results. Especially if you have access to a computer with software that can be used for genealogical purposes (spreadsheets and databases will work to some extent) and a scanner so you can scan records and photographs in to save on disk as well. Information you should include would be things like full name (always use a maiden name for women), date of birth, birthplace, parents names, spouse name, marriage date and place, children's names and dates of birth, as well as places they were born, a notes section for anything else significant about the person's life, and then a death date, place, and burial location. It's very unusual to get all of the information listed above on every person. If you have access to stories about the person, or other information that you find interesting, make note of it as well, because a list of names can be somewhat boring, while stories give the ancestors in question some life and make them more real.

Many genealogical forms are available online in printable form so a person can photocopy them to use over and over again. There are fan trees, which list only names, birth, and death dates and spouse names starting with a specific person and listing his or her ancestors, each of their ancestors, and theirs, so that if it's completed, it resembles a fan. There are pedigree charts, which work in much the same way, but usually have a bit more information. There are trees, which can work from an ancestor forward, branching outward from his or her children, as well as many other styles. Using a combination of these can be useful, especially if you plan on doing your actual report strictly on paper. Many family tree software programs have the ability to make up such charts with the names already filled in.

After choosing your method of keeping records, it's time to actually start researching! Where you go from here really depends on you.

First of all, getting information from living relatives is vital. If you can, visit older relatives and gather all the information you can from them. Ask to see old photographs, ask for details about ancestors that they mention. Take copious amounts of notes, or if the person is comfortable with the thought, use a tape recorder to record the interviews. Don't be pushy for answers if they seem reluctant. Sometimes memories fail, or things are painful to recall, and can even be something they are ashamed of, or sometimes they're afraid to say they simply don't know who Uncle Fred's father was. Remember, things were much different even a generation or two back, and a divorce or child born out of wedlock may have been a scandalous thing that was taboo to talk about and the person you're interviewing may have been taught from childhood never to speak of it. In my own experience, my great-grandmother's parents divorced when she was a baby, she was raised by her brother's sister, and when she got older she asked that no one ever try and research her mother. I believe the reasoning behind that request was that her mother had other children with a second husband and never told them about my great-grandmother and she didn't want anyone to get hurt. Always be gentle when interviewing older family members, ask pertinent questions, and make certain you note everything carefully, because elderly minds slip, and loved ones die before we're ready for them to, taking all of their knowledge of the past with them.

Now that you've talked on the phone or in person to Aunt Bessie for three hours, gotten all of the information she could give you on your ancestors and showed you the family Bible, which you copied every listing from, you're ready to begin. Aunt Bessie's information should be verified in some manner or another, especially if it's admittedly hearsay. There are many options available for this sort of research, many more than were available even ten or fifteen years ago. If the people you're researching are locals, then you may want to check the local courthouse, cemeteries, or old church records of marriages, baptisms, or deaths to locate information to verify her information. While visiting the courthouse, be sure that the ancestor you're researching would be listed in that particular courthouse. Many counties or parishes split up to make smaller ones or combined segments of two to make a third, and information from before that time would be in the courthouse of the county it originally was in. Many local libraries have special sections for information that would be of interest to genealogists of all skill levels, including some family histories from local families.

If you can't find anything in any of those places, then perhaps online time would be in order. Some genealogy software programs, come with the ability to search compact discs that you can purchase with information about other people's family trees on it, which may or may not link in with yours, and can sometimes be a wealth of information. If you don't have access to a program like that, or have no luck with them, then going online to a website to search for more information may be the best step for you to take. If you don't have a computer, or aren't online, don't worry. Most local libraries have computers with Internet access available for public use, and most librarians are familiar with genealogy research to some extent.

There are many websites that have other people's genealogical research published on them, some that are in a searchable format; others that aren't as easy to find the information you want. Some websites will search thousands of other sites' records to see if there are any matches to your exact specifications, while others will only give you "hits" on parts of what you listed. One of the most comprehensive websites for this type of information is rootsweb.com. It searches dozens of databases, and offers you access to many more. There are other sites like Rootsweb, but many charge a fee to access them.

Once you locate a name in the computer, yet again, things aren't set in stone. Most databases have contact information that you can use to contact the person who published the information online, and with a little luck, they can provide you with their sources they used to find the information they have. Sometimes you will run into people who have large databases that can't provide verification on the information they offer, some will have kept a record of where they found the information, while others just take the information "as is" and go on about their business. Using these sites and people's information can be risky, but also can be rewarding if you happen to run across another researcher who submitted their information to the person you've contacted. With luck, this person has everyone in your family's information for the past five generations, along with their sources of information, which makes it all very easy to tie together into a nice, neat package. Don't expect that to happen very often, though! Census records, LDS (Latter Day Saints) records, and all of the other sources used aren't as daunting when you know exactly where to look.

Sometimes you'll run across things that just can't possibly be true. Some will set off warning bells immediately, while others won't be caught for months.

For example, anyone who was looking up information on my great-grandfather would have accepted the record that was listed online without a problem, even knowing the birth dates of my great-aunts and great-uncles. According to the file I found online, Arthur, my Arthur was born in 1888, married the sister of the lady who was his first wife and then died in 1937. The problem was that there were two Arthurs, only distantly related, but having the same name and birth year, who lived in the same county in Kentucky. Strangely enough, they married sisters, and that's where the similarity stops. The other Arthur Creech stayed in Kentucky, while my great-grandfather moved to Indiana after his first wife died, had four more daughters with a second wife, and died in 1978, during the blizzard and wasn't buried for several days because they couldn't get into the cemetery for the snowdrifts. If I hadn't had the personal experience of knowing him myself and recalling attending that very cold funeral, then there is a chance I'd have accepted the information this lady was providing without any proof other than Census records, which were correct, but only correct for the wrong person. Always keep in mind that many rural settings had extended families with the same last names, and many with the same first name.

Sometimes you'll get your hands on a death certificate and a birth record for the same individual. The death certificate says that the person you're researching was 45 years old at the time of their death in 1890, and gives their birth year as 1845. The birth certificate gives their birth date as July 22, 1842. Which record should be the one you use to determine the actual birth date? As a rule of thumb for genealogists, always use the one that is closest to the date you are looking for. A birth certificate is more likely to have a date correct than a marriage license, and a marriage license is more likely to have a birth date correct than a death certificate.

In some cases, there may not be much information about an individual. Sometimes the records were lost, or just weren't ever properly filed. One example of this sort of thing is the case of my grandparents, who were married by a minister that was traveling through the area, from one revival site to another. I've spoken with several members of my father's family who remember the wedding, including a great-aunt who recalls throwing apples at my granny during the ceremony because she was "stealing her big brother". They had the marriage certificate the minister left with them, but there was never anything filed with the courthouse. A few years later, my grandfather saw the minister again and asked him about it. He said that there had been a storm that week and his saddle bags had been soaked through, and the ink had run on many marriage certificates he'd been planning on filing, apparently theirs was one of those certificates.

Sometimes people just drop off the face of the earth and there's no hope of ever finding them. Someone moved out of the area, never returned and never contacted the family again after the move. Sometimes the person in question changed their name, or even in some cases misspelled it accidentally because they weren't very literate, and the name stuck with them. It's hard to ever locate those people, and usually it's more sheer luck than anything that does it.

When doing genealogical research, always be aware that some people are going to be dishonest just to claim a family tie to someone famous. Others are going to make honest mistakes that can completely make a mess of your research if you don't verify again and again the information you get. Be careful when checking dates to be sure that a person could really be the relative you're seeking. Could Millie, born in 1849, be the mother of Agnes, born in 1855? Just because the family Bible says so, is Charles, born in April of 1823, the son of Albert, who died in August of 1821?

Genealogy can be a rewarding hobby, filled with fun and frustration. It can bring families together, bond children to people they barely remember, and make our own lives seem less of a struggle at times when we see what our ancestors had to do. Choosing to do genealogical research is a gift to the generations yet to be.