Aside from the internet, what is the best and easiest way to do a family tree?

Question

An in depth background search for deceased relatives and living as well.

Answer 1

Hey MC's butterfly,

The easiest way is to use some Genealogy software or charts, and plan which family branches you want to go after. Start at the root, you. Then down the branches of your parents, then their parents. The better the vital records, the better and more sure you will be about your family the further out you go. The Mayflower society, for example, requires 2 solid records for each person, to tie them to their parents (or the branch of their parents you want to research).

You can get vital records at the municipality where people were born, married or died. Also, the libraries are fantastic, full of Obits and Genealogy data today.

You can visit an LDS Family Search site at the church, they will help you with your research and finding records. No computer needed.

For each person, you will need to write or go to the location where the records are kept, pay for the records and then use the information.

You are looking at the hard core Genealogist approach. I recommend you also use the internet where possible, but it can be done without.

Answer 2

A lot of vital records are kept at the county level - sometimes at the court house and sometimes at the county historical society. For more recent people, the state will have them, as well. Some states have gaps.
Obtain the birth certificates of your parents. It will tell where your grandparents were born (county) and your grandmothers maiden name. Obtain THEIR birth certificates from the counties, and do the same thing again to get great grandparents. You usually can't go much further, since older birth certificates are scarce, but you might be able to get another generation this way. If you don't get a birth certificate, try to get a death certificate - same info about parents and maiden name is on it. It's expensive, but if you can get a social security number from the social security death index, you can order the original social security application of someone who is deceased - and it has parent info too.

Search old newspapers in the county libraries where the people you are researching lived, during the times of their marriages and deaths. You may get some biographical info.

County libraries are repositories of genealogy collections. You may get tips from your local county library.

Answer 3

The easiest would be to make it up; spend an evening with your old friend, Jack Daniels, and create some great names; Robin Banks, Emanual Transmission, Pete Moss, Bob Wire and his brother, Guy, Paige Turner, Don Breaks and so forth. Make them colonels in the Oklahoma Paratroops during the Civil War, and make sure they marry Cherokee Princesses. Make one an accountant who first cooks the books then poaches the King's game - the Royal Scrabble set, perhaps. In a couple of hours you can have all 64 of your 4th great grandparents.

If cost is no object, hire a professional, sail the South Pacific for 6 months in a 60-foot schooner with an all-girl crew, come back and have the research printed up and bound in leather for your cousins.

If you want to do it yourself, and you want it to be accurate, and cost is an object, your local genealogical society may offer classes. The Genealogy section of the main branch of your county library may have resources. The Family History Center of your local LDS church is a gold mine, and you don't have to be a Mormon (or even a Christian) to make use of it.

Court houses, newspapers on microfilm at your library, cemetery records all help.

The best sources are your old relatives; records on paper will always be there, but if Great Aunt Edna dies before you can interview her, you'll never know abou the time during the depression when the family made Christmas ornaments out of tinfoil.

Answer 4

It is different for everyone - each step is a quest of its own. Public records can be very helpful. County courthouses will have marriage & death records. If you have a social security # for a deceased person, you can order (for a fee), a copy of the application, which lists parents, date of birth, etc. Local historical societies can be helpful, as can libraries that have copies of census records. Cemeteries can be very helpful... you can get exact dates, as well as see who is buried next to, or close to, the ones you know. Church/religious records can also be helpful. Once in a while you can get lucky, and find publications for a particular family. County land records can also prove useful. There is no main file sitting somewhere with all of the info, unless someone has already done work on your family, or a part of it, and donated it to a historical society or library.

Answer 5

I think the next best thing would be your local libraries. They probably have information on how and where to search. You can also search old census information.

Also check the book stores for a good informational book. They will have books to save your information in.
Good luck. ~-~