Genealogical Research Can Be Overwhelming—Simple Ways to Get Started
We all have a great story that’s been passed down through the generations, putting our earliest American ancestor on a boat from Dublin during the Potato Famine, on the Mayflower, or in Runnymede Meadows with King John when the Magna Carta was signed. Often, though, the truth is far more pedestrian…and difficult to determine with any great degree of accuracy. But it’s nonetheless fascinating and often exhilarating, thinking about how the actions of a person a couple of centuries ago informed who we are and where we live.
If you’re interested in your family’s history, beware! Once you get started, you can easily get lost down a rabbit hole, looking at census reports, death certificates and other documents, many with conflicting accounts, dates or other facts. Here are some tips to help you start the process and stayed focused as you move forward:
- If you have older relatives, spend time with them—Ask questions about their lives before their memories really fade. In most instances, they’ll love to talk about it, and their memories of their childhood experiences will often be better than their memories of what happened yesterday. They can also give you names, places and other information that may not be available anywhere else. Most of all, though, they can tell you the stories of your family.
- Start with your most recent ancestor and get as much information as you can—There’s good news here—there will likely be more documents and physical records to review. You’ll have a lot more successes because of the available data, and it will keep you motivated. While it can be cool to trace your lineage back a thousand years, you won’t generally find much information about those distant ancestors. You’ll likely have nothing more than a name, a date of birth/death and a place where they lived. With your more recent ancestors, you can learn about who they were, what they valued, and even what they were thinking.
- Put together a timeline—This is a great way to organize your research and will help you commit it to memory. It can also help you determine the accuracy of some information. If the data doesn’t fit in the timeline, chances are good it’s inaccurate.
- Look for real evidence—Far too often, in genealogical research, conclusions are made based on someone else’s unsupported assertions. Just about any record can be inaccurate. Census takers were human beings who often heard or spelled names wrong. Death certificates are commonly prepared based on information from a third party who knew nothing about when or where the deceased was born or who his parents were. In most instances, you’ll need a number of sources to provide conclusive evidence of a single fact.
- Document where you found everything—In the excitement of the moment, you can make a copy of a document, stick it in a file and move on to the next question. If you lose the file and want to find the document again, you need to know where you found it.
