Newbie to geneology....?

Question

Where is a good place to get started? I have no idea where to start. I already asked my father for as many names and birth places as he can remember of his family. I don't mind paying a site, but I want it to be worth the money. I've also heard the Mormons are really good at this stuff. Should I contact them?

Answer 1

With your family. Get as much information as possible from them, particularly senior members. Tape them if they will let you. Some of the information might be confused but what might seem to be insignifcant ramblings and story telling might turn out to be very significant. People who do this say after doing research for a few years they go back and listen to the tape and hear things they didn't hear the first time around.

Yes, you should call your nearest Mormon church and find out if they have a Family History Center and if so the hours they are open for the general public. They have records on people all over the world. They are very nice and helpful. They won't be sending their missionaires by to ring your doorbell.

Check out the genealogy section of your public library. Find out what all the have.
They might have a subscription to Ancestry.Com which has a lot of records and is obtaining more all the time. They have all the censuses through 1930. The 1940 is not available for the public yet.

Now, information in family trees on any website must be taken as clues, not as fact.
Most is not documented. Even if you see the same information over and over by different submitters, a lot of copying is being done. That is poor family history. What the copiers are doing most often is copying errors over and over. They will give you clues as to where to look for the documentation. Also you will have the name and email address of the submitter.
Some might not know anything on your relative as it might be someone that just happen to marry into their family.

Death certificate and applications for social security number have both parents names and place of birth. I feel the application for social security number is more trustworthy since the person applying for a number most likely knew where their parents were born while the death certificate depends on the widow or widower remembering where their inlaws were born.

Ancestry.Com, Rootsweb and FamilySearch.org has the Social Security Death Index. You don't have to have a person's number in order to find them. The number will be there. On Ancestry.Com if you find a person, you can just click on a link while you have them up and a letter will be pulled up and all you have to do is put your address on it, attach a check and sign and mail.

Courthouse records, Wills, Deeds, tax records.

Before the 20th century not very many vital records were being recorded by a governing body. Most of the records will be found in churches.

One thing once you go to your library and the Family History Center, you will most likely be talking to people who can give you a lot of advice and help.

Answer 2

The best place to start is with yourself. Write down everything you know about your family. Then go talk to older relatives (other than your father) and ask them all kinds of questions. It is possible they might have all this written down already.

These are some internet sites to also get you started.

These are a couple of free sites. The second one is the Mormon website and they can also help you locate a Family History Center closest to you.
http://www.rootsweb.com/
http://www.familysearch.org/
http://www.usgenweb.com/

These 2 sites have some free areas, but they are mostly pay sites.
http://ancestry.com/
http://genealogy.com/index_r.html

These are a couple of websites for some of the magazines that are out there.
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/#
http://www.familychronicle.com/index.html

This a website for books about genealogy and other things to help in your search.
http://www.genealogical.com/

This should get you started. Once you figure out how where parts of your family came from, you can find family associations and historical and genealogy societies can help in your search. Be sure you find ways of organizing too. This project will get big over time and it can get confusing and overwhelming. There are books and plenty of advise on the internet that can help. HAVE FUN!

Answer 3

You have some excellent answers. I'd add one suggestion - look up the Mormons in your yellow pages (under "Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints") and see if any have a "Family History Center". Spend at least an evening at one, if you can. FHC's are staffed by volunteers. They don't try to convert you. The ones in my county don't even mention religion unless you ask them a question. They charge you a nominal fee for printing or copying, and if you want to borrow a microfilm from Salt Lake it costs $3.50 or so. Everything else is free, including advice and guidance. They have census images and much more, some on-line and some on CD. They will get you started in the right direction.

Answer 4

You have already done the first aspect by talking to your father. Try talking to your grandparents, assuming they are still alive. The I would look up the local Genealogy organisation and look at their web site. From there you will find other sites that are useful.
If you are in Australia, Britain or New Zealand I would suggest looking up the following site:

This site also has Americans in it. There are millions of names with them and it is easy to locate other people with similar names in their trees and therefore you can locate family connection that you never knew about.
Another thing is to download the "GenoPro" family tree program and subscribe to their service. Most family tree programs use a genopro program, but using the origonal program is better.

Answer 5

Well welcome to the wonderful world of Genealogy First start by getting Birth Certificate, Death Certificates, Marriage Certificates, Land Records, Obituaries, Church records, Funeral Records, Military Records, Cemetery listings. On line sites that are useful are.
http://www.familysearch.org/
http://www.genealogy.com/index_r.html
http://www.cyndislist.com/
http://www.usgenweb.com/
http://www.rootsweb.com/
These sites are good also try your local city Library they usually have Genealogy Dept or Rooms
Your Local Historical Socities
Your Local Family History Center
Your Local Genealogy Society.
Hope this helps and good luck with your research.

Answer 6

www.ancestry.co.uk subscription
www.ancestry.com. subscription
www.familysearch.org. 100% FREE, the Mormons site it's excellent, and yahoo answers genealogy forum, is probably the best place to get some help, there are some incredible genealogists registered and they're always on the forum answering questions, good luck and don't forget if you need any help just ask.

Answer 7

First and foremost, start with the people who are living. Find out what they know. Talk with aunts and uncles, cousins, and so on - anybody who is part of your family. Get dates, locations, names, memories, stories - it's ALL important. Find out what they remember about people who are no longer living, too. Put all your information into a database that will help you organize it. The Mormon church offers a free one, "Personal Ancestral File," that you can download from their web site (they won't bug you in terms of their religion). Once you have included as much as you can from people who are living, start to search online sites, records, etc., for matching people and events. Computers have revolutionized genealogy in the last two decades, and there are ENORMOUS amounts of data available, as well as innumerable personal genealogical web sites.

Good luck in your search!

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http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin...
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default....
http://www.ancestry.com

Answer 8

Hi there welcome to the world of genealogy !!! That's great you have some info already.. You can go to Ancestry.com Genealogy.com Rootsweb and numerous other sites but those seem to be the best.. You can go to the Latter Day Saints site and research... I am sure you will find this interesting and addictive.. Good luck in your research...

Answer 9

Theres loads of helpful people on here, and some really good genealogists, r u in the UK.

Answer 10

Buy FamilyTreeMaker and register at ancestry.com
My family uses it, it works great and we have found lots.