Getting Started With You! (STEP 1)

to start your genealogy with yourself

Too often people start family history wanting to run down some long-forgotten obscure branch and find long-lost exotic names. Then they get lost, overwhelmed and frustrated and then quit doing the work. You will get there to the exotic and long lost places, I promise.  But looking through archives only reveals a fraction of the info and detail that can be gleaned from living people and memories, and this info often leads to the long lost and undiscovered branches!.

The first step is to start with YOU.  That's a pretty hard and fast rule of genealogy.

Without information from now, going back further is difficult if not impossible in many instances, so forget the fancy software and archives for a moment, those will come. 

SO!

You can even use a notepad or word processor for this part (or a quill pen and ink if you feel nostalgic).

Write down your  name, date of birth, place of birth,  marriage date & place, spouse, children and who you were named after.  Jot down where you've lived, grew up, went to school and worked!

NOW! Mom 'n' Dad too!
Write down your parents' names, their dates of birth, if they are deceased, write down  when and where they passed and if you know where they are buried, write that down too!  Write down their marriage info, where and when, if you have any brothers and sisters, their names, dates of birth, marriages, children, and any where's and when's related to each of these items!

Do you know your grandparents info?  If so, write it down!  If not? Who would know?  How do you get a hold of them?  Ask around your family!

Great Grandpa's Homestead Home....

Can you keep going?   Write down what you know on your great-grandparents as well.    Write down aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, step-children, adopted-children, get it all!

All done?  Not yet!  In terms of creating a historical record there is still much to do before you even need to start researching.

Do you have a photograph of where everyone lived?  How about a photograph of where they were married?  Photos of headstones?  Photos of schools?  Photos of work places?  Wedding photos?  No? Go get them or take them yourself! (Fantastic excuse for family outings!)

Newspaper clippings?  Any military records in your family in a box somewhere? Go find them!

Great Grandma's School

Are there any museums nearby with family history in them? Historical places nearby your family was involved with? High school trophies of note at the school or a college thesis on file at the college library?  Visit them! Photograph them! Grab a brochure! (Much of my family is photographed and documented in the Tillamook Pioneer Museum for example and I can see my ancestors' photos on the walls hanging up.)

Almost done!  Time to go talk to those who are still alive and ask them to tell you what REALLY happened and share additional info!

There are TONS of work you can do within your own family that are going to make future work much more successful.

So before you go running off into software and archives and then discover you needed the info you have right now anyways, start where you are!

Click this link to learn how digitize documents and organize your data.