Let me start by telling you this: no matter how long you work on your family history, you will never, ever type genealogy correctly the first time. Also, you’re never “done.”
There are a ton of different “Getting Started” guides and books out there. They may suit you better than what I’ve written. Here are a few:
- Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach by Drew Smith (of the Genealogy Guys)
- Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide by Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer
Now, with that out of the way, here’s my contribution to the “how to start with genealogy” pile.
Target audience
This guide is written for someone who has the vague idea, “I want to start researching my family” or “I know some things about my family, but would love to start getting it down in a more structured fashion.” And it’s written from the mindset of telling how I would start if I started everything over right now. I made a lot of mistakes when I was getting started and while that’s to be expected, there are some mistakes I wish I had avoided in order to save myself time and headaches later on.
Why I got started
Growing up, I remember one member of my family (hi, Aunt Jeanette!) who was known as the person in the family taking care of researching family history. She worked on my father’s maternal line for many years and got some outstanding information. I always thought it was great that she was doing it, and an interest in genealogy started to spring. I put a simple tree together with my dad, presumably for a class project.
Though my interest waxed and waned, I never really did much aside from buy a piece of family tree software, install it, and then forget about it. But when my daughter was born, the interest came back with a passion. I wanted to put together a family tree with her as the root and research not only both sides of my family, but my wife’s family as well.
This post outlines the approach I took and what I found useful, then develops a set of steps around it for others that might just be at the cusp of getting started with their own family tree.
Choose a platform
Before you do anything, give some consideration to how you want to keep track of all the information you’re going to gather. While there quite a few choices, the good news is GEDCOM. GEDCOM is a simple file format developed back in 1984 that (almost) every piece of genealogy software that exists can export to and import from. So, if you choose a tool that you end up not liking, you’ll be able to transition to another tool with a minimum of fuss.
While it might be tempting to use an online service as the primary location to store your tree, I’d highly recommend instead choosing a piece of desktop software that syncs with online storage. But let me be up front with you: it is mighty difficult to find a desktop genealogy program that has a clean, modern, well thought-out UI. There are some really good tools with lots of features, but it’s rare to see one with an interface that doesn’t feel 10-15 years outdated. Nevertheless, it’s the way to go.
The three major choices here are MyHeritage Family Tree Builder (which syncs with the MyHeritage service), Family Tree Maker (which syncs with Ancestry), and Rootsmagic (which syncs with both). It’s quite a crowded field, of course, so set aside some time to try out a few.
When I started, I chose MyHeritage’s Family Tree Builder because I liked the interface enough and the price was right (free). If I were to start over today, though, Rootsmagic is probably the way I’d go. It’s a really good choice in terms of interoperability and feature set at this point. And Rootsmagic is inexpensive and is well supported and actively developed.
Desktop genealogy software is a subject I am continually thinking about.
Just get started
With software in hand, jump in. Pick the root of your tree and start entering everything and everyone you know off the top of your head. If you know a name, but not a birthdate, that’s OK: add them and what you know you about them. I promise you that you’ll be circling back around to every person in your tree multiple times over the years adding more and more information. And if you’re not, you’re doing it wrong.
One thing I would do differently if I were to start over is I would be obsessive about citing my sources as I went.
Ask family
At this point, you’ve done your initial brain dump. Some basics are in place, as best as you can remember, going back a couple of generations (maybe).
Now’s the time to start reaching out to family members for additional names, details, and stories. Ask for paperwork, photos, family bibles, death announcements, newspaper clippings, and anything else you can think of. Interview everyone you can (here are a couple hundred questions to get you started).
I found that family started getting very interested in the project once I started asking questions. I think genealogy is one of those things that everyone gives a passing thought to, but few end up making the leap into heavy research. If you can give someone a chance to tell some stories, they’ll be more than happy to help knowing that someone else is taking on the responsibility of organizing it and putting it all together.
Sign up for a service (or more than one)…
There are a few major paid genealogy services, and each have their pros and cons. Ancestry, to me, is the most user friendly of the bunch and has an extremely wide variety of records. In addition, their DNA database is by far the largest, if DNA testing is part of your plan.
MyHeritage has many of the same basic records, but has areas of focus where it outshines other services. I’ve also found their DNA database has a greater proportion of Eastern European testers.
FindMyPast is the go-to for deep UK reserach, but they’ve also got a pretty amazing Philadelphia Catholic Record set that has helped me out a lot.
None of them are cheap, but you should never have to pay full price for any of them. They’re always running deals and multiple times a year offer half-off discounts. Additionally, your library may have access to Ancestry Library Edition which will give you access to many of the records (but not the tree-building capability).
Family History Daily has a good overview of the three main paid sites.
… but you don’t have to
There is absolutely no harm in holding off on a paid service, particularly if the price is off-putting. FamilySearch (a service of the LDS church) has billions of records available completely for free, including many that you’ll find other services and many that are unique to FamilySearch. I have two paid subscriptions, but still reference FamilySearch almost daily in my research. They’ll get you a long way. Their collaborative tree can also be a big help in finding what other research has already been done about your ancestors, though all facts should be confirmed and not taken as gospel.
Family Tree Magazine maintains a thorough list of many free sites where you can do your research, some general purpose, and some very specific.
Sharing Your Tree
Phew… there’s a lot to say here. I’ve got another piece on the site where I’m going to fully explore it, so let me just link there for now. Of course, you can share your tree on Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc. but there are so many other potential options you may want to explore.
Research, Match, Contact
Once you’re signed up for a service (or more than one), dive into your research. This is simultaneously fun, informative, time consuming, and exasperating. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent digging through records, entering data, and then looking at the clock through bleary eyes and shaky hands realizing it’s 2am and I really need to get to bed.
Beyond just researching records, though, sites like Ancestry are also excellent for their ability to match members of your tree with members of other trees stored with the same service. This is broke down a number of doors for me. My own tree went back a little over a hundred years, but there were lots of questions. Thanks to research others had done and shared, I was able to expand certain branches of the tree back as far as 1300s Germany (when I didn’t even know I had any German ancestry in me!). Granted, you’re putting a lot of faith in other people and there are plenty of garbage trees out there with questionable data (parents four years older than their children). But, if you know this and go into this stage of research with an open, but skeptical, mind, you’ll get leads that you never even imagined. The important thing to remember is that these are leads and not conclusions: verify, verify, verify.
The last part of this step involves contacting others beyond your own known relatives. You’ll start bumping into third cousins all over the place and reaching out to them can help illuminate sections of your tree you’re getting stuck on.
DNA Testing
At some point, when you’ve been at the research thing a while, you’ll want to test technology even further and try one (or more!) of the DNA matching services. The main ones are 23andme, MyHeritage’s Family Finder, and Ancestry’s AncestryDNA. Again, there are pros and cons to all of these services and you need to spend some time comparing and contrasting to decide which you want to go with. Ancestry has the largest database, 23andme tends to have more testers of Asian descent, and MyHeritage has led me to Eastern European connections I wouldn’t have found elsewhere. You may decide on none, or under certain circumstances, you may want to try all of them. If you’re going to go in, though, do so knowing all the risks that come with DNA testing (Would you be comfortable finding out you were adopted? Outing a relative as a parent of an unknown cousin? Unknowingly contributing to a relative being tracked down by police?).
Even beyond these potential implications, keep in mind that there is some real concern about privacy of your DNA and access to your information (23andme, anyone?).
The Next Level
At this point, you may need more information than can be found online. Large amounts of data have yet to be digitized and indexed, so at this point, you’ll want to check historical societies, courthouses, local archives, and genealogical libraries to find out what they have.
The time may come where you need to reach out to genealogy experts living in various parts of the world to do feet-on-the-ground research or maybe even plan a research trip yourself, visiting some of your ancestors’ homelands.
Loop
The great thing (and maybe the terrifying thing?) about working on your family tree is that you’ll never be done. There’s always more to find out, more paths to follow, more stories to archive, more mysteries to solve. Keep looping back around and enjoying the process over and over. It’s a blast.