Searching your family tree can be a fun hobby and an interesting way to learn more about where your ancestors came from. With the advent of the Internet and access to new technologies, the hunt for details about family history can now be pursued far beyond stories told at holiday time about great-grandparents. Family researchers today can gather literally hundreds and thousands of pieces of information about distant relatives and family origins.
Step 1
Gather your starting materials. This could be a computer program or a book designed to allow you to fill out the names and details of the ancestors you'll soon be discovering. Some people simply start with sheets of paper in a binder or notebook, then transfer their data to something more formal as they gather more family information.
Step 2
Start your search at home. Before trekking off to the library or logging on to every computerized genealogy repository you can find, gather as much information as you can from family members. Try to fill in the basic information of names, dates of birth and death, marriage details and all the children each couple had. This gives you a starting point from which your family tree can grow.
Step 3
Take your research online. Using paid programs such as Ancestry.com or free sites like Rootsweb, search for the names you have gathered already, starting with your parents and working your way back in time to grandparents, great-grandparents and beyond. If you find details that contradict your own information, save both sets and research further to try and find proof of which is correct.
Step 4
Investigate archives. The local library, courthouse and state repositories often have family history materials related to local families, so contact these organizations in each place your ancestors once lived. You can obtain birth, marriage and death certificates as well as newspaper articles, court case information and other details that corroborate the dates and places you already know or give hints to names and dates that might be missing from your tree.
Step 5
Contact distant cousins. At some point in your research, you likely will stumble upon people who are researching the same family names as you. Contacting these distant cousins will allow you to share information and compare the data you each have gathered to see if they match up.
Step 6
Go deep with DNA. One of the newest technologies for genealogy research is DNA testing. Different companies offer tests to determine ethnic origins or whether groups of people with the same surname are related.
Step 7
Share with others. Don't hoard your research all to yourself. Post what you've found on online repositories and you'll likely find that distant relatives will start contacting you to share information and ask you questions about the family lines you've been researching.
Tips and Warnings
- It often helps to narrow down your research to one branch of the family at a time. Trying to research every person on all sides of the family can get overwhelming for beginners. Part of the fun of doing family research is going beyond just filling out the names and dates on your charts. Many genealogy researchers like to collect things related to their ancestors, from grave rubbings to pictures of the places their relatives were born.
Things You'll Need
- Genealogy computer program or fill-in-the-blanks family tree book
- Computer access
- Library access
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