How To Throughly Research Your Family's History

There are certain steps you need to take when researching your family history. It will help you if you make lists of different things you need to do, so that you can keep everything straight. You will need to interview family members, review family, church and courthouse records, network with other people and keep detailed notes of the information you find.

The first step is interviewing family members. You don’t want to limit this just to the older people in your family, but to everyone you can think of. The reason for this is that you might have someone that is your age or younger who have talked to their parents or grandparents and received stories that other people in the family didn’t have access or knowledge of. Make a list of the people you can interview, remember that it works best to go visit the people in your family to interview them. If you are sitting in front of them talking you are more likely to find out more information that if you do it over the phone or through email, because they are interacting with you and it will help them remember more information. Make a list of the questions you want to ask before you go visit them and it might help if you take a tape recorder so that you can play back the information and make sure you didn’t miss anything. You will want to talk to the person before you go visit them, to make sure they want to talk to you and that they have time. It will also help you to find out if they have pictures of people that you can make a copy of because then you have a pictorial history of your family, even if the relative is still alive and there are quite a few pictures of this individual, that might not always be the case.

After you have interviewed all of the family members you can think of, the next step is to take the information you have gathered and organize it. This is when it is helpful to have a genealogy software program but if you don’t, you can use family group sheets to keep everything straight. Next make a list of the people you need more information on and go to the courthouse and review the information they have on births, deaths and marriages. Some of the information might be found in the church records and some might be found in old family bibles. The family bibles can be found out about when you interview your family members. They will either have the bible themselves or know you is the keeper of the family bible. Researching the courthouse and church records is not a quick task. It could take you years to research all of the information you have received, but perseverance is crucial when you are researching your family history. Some courthouses won’t have any records because of different reasons, whether there was a fire or flood or information was just lost. The same is true with churches, not all of the churches that existed 100 years ago are still in existence today and their records have been lost. Thankfully, much information has become accessible online and it will make your research easier, but you will still hit roadblocks.

The next step for researching your family history is through networking. Many people do not know what this means. This is when you access different newsgroups, forums and websites for information on your family. You can post information on all of these venues to find out if someone else has information you are looking for, but it is important to remember that the information you receive from them is not always accurate. That is why it is important to take the information you receive from other people and verify it through other avenues, i.e. courthouse records, church records, marriage certificates and birth and death certificates. If you follow these steps it will help you make sure your information is as accurate as you can make it.

The most important part of family history research is to keep detailed notes of what you have done, where you have found the information and who you have received information from. This will help you keep the information as accurate as possible without worrying about looking for the wrong individual in your family history. A word of warning, you will receive quite a bit of information and if you don’t keep it organized you could very easily become lost and discouraged. You will also hit bumps in the road where you feel like you aren’t making any progress, but work through these times or set it aside for a little while and eventually you will find the information you are looking for. Researching your family history is a rewarding and fun endeavor that you can pass on to future generations. You will meet family you never knew you had and find interesting twist and turns along the way. So have fun and enjoy the journey into your own personal history.

Defining Family

While doing research into your family history you will run across lines that are confusing. There will be families who raise children who aren't theirs, but they didn't adopt them either. It is up to you as the research what you should do with this information. Should you include it into your genealogy or should you ignore, after all the person isn't related. It is up to your discretion.

Personally I normally include these people into my history because they are part of that family. They are part of the dynamic that help create the characteristics of how that family works, what they stand for and the opinions they had. When you introduce people into your family whether they are related or not they become part of the whole. They will influence decisions by offering their opinions or by their actions. If you add them into your history then you are helping to create the whole picture of the research. They will normally also help you to find additional information. They had to be brought into the family somehow and if you follow their link you might find the missing piece of information you were looking for.

How you handle your history is completely up to you. You can add people even if they aren't related, but if they aren't make sure you flag that in the history so future generations don't get confused. You can leave people out, do you have that one family member that hurt you completely, you have wipe them out of your family, you don't talk to them and no one mentions them to you. Then you have to decide if you are going to provide an actual account of your history or if you are going to swing it to your discretion, if you want to wipe that person completely out of the history books. It is up to you.

Thanks everyone and happy hunting
Patti

Census Records

I have found that census records are a great tool in the quest for your family history. The information provided on the newer census records are a great font of information. It is important to remember that census records are only released every tens years and only 70 years back. We currently have available the 1930's census and in 2010 the 1940's census will be released. The farther back you travel the less information you will receive. Eventually it will only list the head of the household.

When I use census records, I print out a copy of a blank census record and input the information into it for the specific person I am looking at. I do this because I am able to see and understand the information provided easier. Once I have input the information, I then input it into the computer program I use to keep track of my family history. When I have accomplished that, then I file the census record under the family that it belongs to.

It is important to verify the information on the census records, with land records, birth and death records, family bibles, church records, etc., because the older records were written by individuals and the ink has faded or been damaged and they didn't always write neatly. They also didn't always know how to spell the person's name and would write down what they thought.

Census records are a great tool for you. They will supplement the information you already have and possibly give you the lead you need to find the information you are looking for.

As always, Happy Hunting
Patti

Family Dynamics

I went and visited my parents this weekend and was able to find out some new information about my elusive grandparents, well actually my grandmother. According to my father she was from the area surrounding Prague, which is interesting because the information that I had before, placed her near the border of Austria in the same village as my grandfather.

Interviewing family members is a constant avenue to explore. You don't have to have a formal session about family, just general chit chat will reveal information you didn't expect. I now have a new avenue to explore for my grandmother. Hopefully I will get farther this time than I did last time.

You never know when you will receive new information or from whom. It is up to you what you do with it. I could have discounted the information I had received, because I had records stating where she was from. But remember not all records are 100% accurate, it all depended on who was writing down the information when your ancestor came into the country.

So remember to always keep all possibilities open in your mind, because you never know when one of them will pan out for you.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Patti

GenForum

When I am working on my genealogy research, one of the main sites I use is www.genforum.com. It is sponsored by Genealogy.com and is a place where people can go and look up the surname they are researching and search to see if anyone is looking for the same people they are or to post a message to find out if anyone is looking for the same information or already has the information.

You can look up information through surnames, regions, countries or just general genealogy research questions. Now one of the things to remember is that names can be missed spelled or the spelling changed on names especially in the United States. When the people immigrated to the US the agents who worked the ship manifests and logs weren't always able to spell the people's names so they guessed which caused the person's surname to change. That is why there are so many different spellings for the same last name.

Another thing to remember is that just because you find information that you links to your information does not mean it is factual. It is always important to go and verify the information that you have with the court houses, churches and cemeteries so that you have paperwork to backup your information.

It is also important that if you see information on this site that meshes with your, don't just think about how it will benefit you, think about how the information you have will benefit the other person. What I mean by this is, don't just download their information, send them an email letting them know that you found a possible link so that you can possibly help them also. By doing this you might also be helping yourself because the person might have found more information by then.

I hope the review helped and happy hunting!
Patti

Genealogy and the Web

You now have all of your information updated from interviewing your family members and writing down everything you could remember. You also might want to revisit some of the family members that you talked to first as you might have received different information from other family members and it might help them to remember something else.

So you ask yourself, what do I do next? I have all of this information but what do I do with it? How do I continue it on to find out more information? There are a few different websites that you could go to and start your research. Some of the websites I like are www.familysearch.org, www.ancestry.com, www.genforum.com, and www.rootsweb.com. I would recommend you start with one family, take your family group sheets with your information that family. You can start with the oldest family member in your list, but you also want to look at the children. This is because you might find someone who has different information that you do on the Internet, sometimes they will have listed another marriage and different children or they might have found the information you are already looking for.

If someone does have your line back farther than you do, remember it is always smart to verify any information that someone has. If someone has put information into the computer, it doesn't mean it is accurate. So take there information and visit the courthouses and cemeteries to verify it is correct.

This is an in depth process and the part that can take you years to compile. I would recommend that you take lots of notes and keep everything organized. The next topic I am going to focus on is the different websites that I use and what I use them for. I hope this information has been beneficial for you and happy hunting.

Thanks
Patti

Interactive Genealogy

So you think you have written down everything you can think of, and you probably have for now. But as you start talking to people you will remember little tidbits of things you have overheard as you have grown up. So the next step in the research into your own personal history is interviewing.

Now you need to make a list of all the people you think should be interviewed to find out information, then make another list of people you think shouldn't be interviewed...and interview both. Now before you start interviewing your family members take something into consideration. There might be information in your history that people don't want you to know, so the more people you are able to talk to the more robust your history is going to be.

After you have made your list of people to interview, you need to figure out what you want to ask them. If you go over to talk to your great Aunt Mildred, she will talk your ear off and you will walk away without any information. But if you have specific questions you would like to know, like the names and ages of all of her brother's and sisters (even if you know the answer ask anyways, because she might have different or more information). Continue this until you have interviewed everyone you can think of and when you are talking to your family, remember to ask them if they recommend anyone you could talk to, you never know who might have information on your family.

As I have stated I have been researching since I was 16, and a few years ago I got a funny letter from my Uncle. My cousin had decided to do some family history research and started looking on the Internet. He called my Uncle really excited, he said, "Uncle, I found someone on the Internet who has a lot of information on our family. She has a lot of the information you do."
My Uncle asked the name of the person and when my cousin told him, my Uncle laughed. The person my cousin had found was me and because he hadn't looked closely at the family history he didn't know my married name, so he didn't know it was me.

So remember, think of as many people to interview as possible, decide on your questions, interview, ask for recommendations and then the most important piece of any research...organize your notes. After each interview update the information in your spreadsheets. If the information is varied, you might need to create alternate group sheets for one individual, but it is extremely important to stay organized.

Have a fantastic day and Happy Interviewing!
Patti

Genealogy - The First Step

I will tell you right away, genealogy research is addictive. It gets into your blood and it is hard to stop. You keep thinking that the clue you need is right around the corner, in the next book you read or court document you look at. Keep this in mind before you start your research.

With that said, I believe the first step in genealogy is to write down as much information as you can think of. Write down place names, people, how you think they connect, as many dates as you can remember, and as many places you can remember. Think of any stories you heard growing up from your parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. This is an important first step, if you don't have the basic information it makes it more difficult to find any further information.

Once you have written it all down, then organize it. Put the people together with the places that you think they are from. If it helps draw the family tree out so you can see it. It might also help to break the information down by family. You could start with putting the paternal side in one folder and the maternal side in another folder. This way you can keep track of what information you have where and it won't get mixed together.

You can even invest in a computer program that will help you stay organized. There are some good programs out there, I personally use Family Tree Maker. But there might be a better one out there for you. It just depends on your preferences. If you do input the information into a computer program, print out the family group sheets and review them to make sure the information is correct and fix any errors.

Next we will go over what the next step in this long process is. I hope this was beneficial to you.

Thanks and Happy Hunting
Patti

The Web and Genealogy

Hi, I have been researching my family history for 20 years. I have hit roadblocks and I have make great breakthroughs. One of my favorite accomplishments was when I was able to locate a family history back to the 1500's and it wasn't even a line I was actively researching. I was working on the ladies husband and trying to find some information on his and decided to try and find her information and see if it gave anything new for him, instead I was able to take her family back to Germany and our family didn't even know we were German. I think my most difficult one to research is my father's, the last name is Mynarcik and it is very difficult to find information on them. My grandparents came to the US in the early 1900's and because of the World Wars and communism I haven't been able to find much information. I will keep trying through because that is what makes a person a genealogist. The wanting to persevere even in the light that you might never succeed.
I remember talking to my Uncle about doing research on the Internet. He had started the family history and I am continuing it. He thought that I wouldn't find anything of value by using the Internet, that you needed to go to the courthouses and cemeteries and interview family members. All of this is true, you need to do that, but the resources the Internet offers you now are tremendous. When I started the only thing available to use was RootsWeb and newsgroups, (mind you this was before there was a World Wide Web). But I stuck with it and found some great leads and have been able to link with some fantastic information. Now remember you won't always succeed, you will always have that one line that will drive you crazy. But with perseverance you should be able to find some information and will help pad your history if nothing else.
I plan on using this blog to create a how to on how to use the different websites, which ones work and which ones just want you to spend money. I plan on keeping you up to date on my family information as I hopefully find out more. Until my next post, enjoy hunting!
Patti