Where to begin
There are places that expert genealogists can be paid to research a person’s family history with their expertise, resources, and experience. However, almost anyone can try his or her shot at genealogy. Professionals would recommend to anyone seeking information on their family lineage to begin by reading books. You could start by buying a book or borrowing one from your local library. Basic Sources by Andrew Todd and Beginning Your Family History by George Pelling are ideal for beginners. The Society of Genealogists has an excellent bookshop and their book list can be downloaded off their website. The New Practical Family History magazine is also aimed at beginners, as well as the monthly Family Tree Magazine.
Questioning your relatives can be extremely helpful in performing genealogy. For elders, a tape recorder might be of use to help you remember their stories since the generation difference is so valuable. For many people, questioning a grandparent about their grandparents could supply information spanning over a century and a half. Draw up a family tree and update it after new information. This may help relatives remember details as well. Bringing along copies of any photographs or certificates may also help them remember things that would be of use in your genealogical search.
Other resources
Retrieving birth, marriage, and death certificates also provide helpful information such as maiden names, the occupations of the partner’s fathers, and addresses at the time. Copies of wills can also be retrieved. The indexes contain useful information and can be consulted free of charge. Newspapers can also be a wonderful resource because copies of almost ever newspaper ever published are available for consultation at Newspaper Libraries. Obituaries and wedding descriptions contain a wealth of detail and there are reports of all kinds of events that may contain an ancestor’s name.
The Society of Genealogists is an organization that has a vast library with large amounts of family history information. Many parish registers have been indexed and are available in transcript form. The Society arranges lectures and other events as well as sells many different family history publications. Most counties have a Family History Society that index local material (parish registers and census).
The Internet is a useful place for genealogists to find a wonderful collection of all sorts of material for the search for family history and origin. Compuserve’s Genealogy Forums are comprised of extremely helpful and friendly groups of people that are more than willing to help look up records for you, get copies from local County Record Offices, collect certificates for you, or look up names for you on their phone disks. This resource enables you to contacting living relatives. Cyndi Howell’s List of Genealogy Sites is also incredible because it includes links to over twenty-eight thousand genealogy-related pages. Overall, if you are curious about your family lineage then there are more than enough successful and useful tools for you in order to gain insight into where you came from. The only real downside, I suppose, is that the practice of genealogy can get to be highly addictive, so be careful!
By Kristin Lockwood