Let's Get Started

Researching your family's history is an exciting and worthwhile endeavor. If you have been interested in family history and genealogy, but haven?t started, now is the time! You may find that your genealogical history includes royalty or other famous people. Are you related to anyone famous? You might find that your colonial ancestors have connections to kings and queens of Europe. There are resources waiting for you to use and with the popularity of the internet, much of it is online. Libraries are one of the best sources to uncover new information. There are numerous genealogy- based search engines and web pages to help you find family data on the Web. The United States Census has a wealth of data for the genealogy researcher. You can view online census images from the comfort of your home, without traveling to hundreds of county courthouses across the nation. Where do I start? Before going online you need to talk to family members and relatives to get a list of names and information to search. You will need to know as much about your family as you can get. Gather and write down information such as full names, dates and places where ancestors and living relatives lived using a standard genealogical chart. You can Download free forms at many of the genealogy websites on the intenet. Then show the family data you have gathered to relatives. They may be able to add to your family history, adding names, dates, and possibly even a few stories. You are now ready to start a family tree. Now is the time to try an online genealogy course for a step by step guide to successful genealogy research. It is time to start the online search The Internet is a fantastic means of communicating with others who may be researching the same surnames as you. The Internet makes resources available to connect with distant relatives involved in a family history search. For instance, there are a variety of message boards on the web. One of the most popular is the GenForum Message Boards @ Genealogy.com. Browse several kinds of boards to see if someone else already wrote an interesting query or post one of your own. By posting messages on these message boards, your request for information may be answered or you may find a distant "cousin" that you did not know. Is genealogy research expensive ? There are many commercial genealogy sites on the Internet. Most subscriptions rates are affordable and are well worth the investment. Also, there are an increasing number of sites that offer free genealogy information such as GenCircle.com. My website, The Genealogy Connection, offers both fee and free genealogy resources. Many sites offer a variety of subscription options. You can also read articles and books written by professional genealogists on a variety of topics. One well known source is Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors (Houghton Mifflin 1999). Many sources are inexpensive and provide the genealogy researcher with useful and practical information to improve the effectiveness of family history research. To visit The Genealogy Connection Bookstore, built in association with Amazon.com, go to www.dccook.net/bookconnection2.html Searching the Internet for information is just part of the process. Successful research is best accomplished by checking a variety of sources such as State Genealogy Records,City Directories and Census Records. Marriage Records, Baptism and Christening Records, or other online and local sources can be productive. Remember to record where you found the data so that you can find it again! Download FREE Forms from the internet genealogy sites and be sure to have a plan for storing your records. Family history is fun and the Internet makes it so easy to get started. There are many computer programs on the market to store the realms of family data that you uncover during your genealogy research. The Family Tree Maker genealogy program is one of the most popular programs used today. There are others, including the one used by the Church of Latter Day Saints. You can go to www.familysearch.org and download free family tree software.