The First Step

The easiest way to begin is to write down what you know.  You should list all the facts you know about yourself to start your family tree.  Make a list of your complete birth name, your date of birth, place of birth, spouses names, childrens' names, nicknames, schools you have attended, places and dates where you lived, military background, professional organizations, race, sex and any other data that is important in your life.  Next, expand that same data gathering to your immediate family.  Once you have your family finished work on your parents and grandparents.

BEWARE!  You will think that the information you get from your mother or grandmother is the gospel and you will depend on it as the truth.  DON"T!!!  As well intentioned as family members are to give you accurate information, they depend on memory, heresay, gossip, other forms of misinformation and you must consider everything they tell you as a starting point but confirm it with other records.

EXAMPLE:  My mother told me she was born in Georgia. Her entire life until she was 68 years old she put on every document, marriage license, census, job application, etc. that she was born in Georgia.  When she went to get a passport to travel outside the country she needed a copy of her birth certificate.  She went to the Georgia State Records Office to get it and they said that they did not have one on record.  She called her mother to ask why she had not gotten a birth certificate.  Her mom said she had. My mother said the state had no record. My grandmother asked her what state.  She said Georgia.  My grandmother told her she was born in Alabama.  Even though they never lived in Alabama she was born on a trip to visit relatives.

Gather everything as fact and then verify.

Once you have gathered about ten to fifteen people and their information it is time to organize.  At a minimum you need a notebook, a large envelope and some family group sheets.  Family group sheets are a manual way of grouping and gathering names, dates and locations.  You can find these on the internet in many locations and print them for free.

At this point the notebook is the core of all of your research.  I still keep one next to me today and I have about 4000 names in my family tree.  The envelope is for articles, notes, photos, and other stuff that won't stay in the notebook. 

Completing this first step is the core of building your family tree.

Beginning The Climb

    Genealogy is more popular today than ever.  With the availability of information on the Internet and inexpensive genealogy software, anyone can sit in their recliner and start tracking their roots.  Well, if you have thought about tracing your family or are in the process of tracing your family, I think you will find this blog helpful and informative.

    I began tracing my family genealogy more than twenty seven years ago.  A seventy year old engineer that I worked with told me that his wife was tracing their family history.  I told him that I was interested but had no idea how to start.  I met with his wife and was hooked.

    At that time everything was manual.  I started my genealogy adventure by filling out a family group sheet. On that sheet I put the information about myself, my wife and my children.  It included things like birth dates and locations and marriage date and location.  It also had a place for my parents names and my wife's parents.  The next step was to fill out a family group sheet for each of our parents.  As I got into this process I realized I did not know some of the information.  The true fun of genealogy was about to begin.

    How many of you enjoy 'CSI' or 'Murder She Wrote' ?  If you enjoy trying to figure out a mystery or solve a crime, you will love genealogy.  If you like history, genealogy will give you a inside view and personal perspective that will change your opinions of the past, forever.  To be a successful genealogist you must become part private investigator, part historian, and part data analyst.

    The purpose of this blog is to share the twenty seven years of successes and pitfalls in researching my family genealogy.  I will discuss data gathering, research, compiling data, software, and many tips that should save you hundreds of hours or research.  Currently my family tree has nearly four thousand members on it.  While collecting all those names I have met wonderful people and laughed myself into tears.  I hope you will follow my future posts and take this journey with me up the family tree.