Where do you start to search for your family history and its roots?
Starting to search for your roots and document your genealogy trees can be a very daunting task. However, once you have a plan and some questionnaire templates to use to systematically research your tree, you will find that many of the tasks are very easy. The whole experience of uncovering your family trees can be very satisfying, especially when you have uncovered lost ancestry and history that you didn't know existed.
To develop your genealogy tree, start with your own information. Use one of the templates, which you can find on this website, to record down all of the important information about yourself: Full name
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- Nickname
- Title
- Date of death
- Place of death
Spouse's full Name (use her maiden name as her surname)
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- Date of marriage
- Place of marriage
- Spouse's nickname
- Spouse's title
- Date of death
- Place of death
First child's full name
- First child's date of birth
- First child's place of birth
- Date of death
- Place of death
Second child's full name
- Second child's date of birth
- Second child's place of birth
- Date of death
- Place of death
- ...continue on with as many children as you have
Now decide where are you going to record the history that you have collected. There are many possibilities. Some prefer just to type this information onto a piece of paper and store it in a binder. Others, document this ancestry information in a computer in a word processing document (so they can update it easily). Still others prefer to buy computer software like Family Tree Maker. or "Legacy Family Tree"®, which are both well respected programs, to help you record and display your history and tree information. In the past few years a number of internet based genealogy websites have sprung up that will allow you to input your ancestry trees directly on the web. This means that anyone in your family (that you authorize) can go and look at it anytime, anywhere. It also means that the data that you record is backed up regularly and can be recovered easily in the event of a disaster. Decide on the most appropriate method for you to store your genealogy information.
Once you have made the decision about how to store your tree and have completed this genealogy information for yourself, search and record the same information for your immediate family. Next, complete the same information for your spouse's family trees. Continue on with your parents (for both you and your spouse). Now you have the beginnings of an ancestry tree.
Now the objective is to complete this same search for information for as many members of your family trees as possible. Once you have completed the information for all your living relatives the fun begins. Now you get to search for your ancestry throughout history.
