If you’re just starting your genealogy research, the best approach is to begin with yourself and work backwards.
Starting with yourself – parents – grandparents creates a clear, verifiable path rather then trying to connect to a distant ancestor directly.
Genealogy errors often happen when people jump straight to older generations and attach the wrong ancestor.
To assist with the start of your genealogy journey, I’ve attached a Family Group Sheet for you to download and complete. It can be a useful tool for organising family details and identifiying gaps in your future research.
Make a note of all your details, birth date and place, schools, addresses and major life events.
Interview relatives
Useful printouts to help you obtain and record your findings.
Chat with your older relatives as they can be an invaluable source of information.
The older generations often hold information that exists nowhere else. They know things that were never written down. Official records can tell you when someone was born, married, moved or died, but they usually don’t tell you –
- Why a family moved
- What relative were like
- Family nicknames
- Stories behind photographs
- Relationships, feuds, traditions and occupations
Ask about old photographs, they may be just unfamiliar faces to you, but an older relative may be able to tell you who it is, when and where the photo was taken and if they are related. This information can become crucial research clues later.
They may also offer leads to records by providing
- Full names (including maiden names)
- Approximate birth dates
- Previous addresses
- Military service
- Immigration stories
- Cemeteries and family plots
Memories fade, and opportunities to ask questions don’t last forever. Many genealogists say their biggest regret is not asking more questions while older relatives were still alive.
Unfortunately, once a person dies, much of that knowledge can disappear permanently.
Remember, genealogy isn’t just about names and dates, it’s about personalities, the challenges they faced and what made them laugh or cry.
These details turn your family tree into your family history.
At this stage you may have collected a substantial amount of information, lots of names, dates, places and even photographs.
The next stage is to start building your family tree and bringing all the information together, but how are you going to do that?