If you're just starting out, welcome to the world of genealogy! :) Searching for elusive ancestors can seem a bit daunting at first, but once you get started and get the hang of it, you'll be adding branches to your tree in no time! There are so many different directions you can take, all of them yielding different information and it's very easy to become overwhelmed with both the possibilities and the information you receive. The best advice I can give any newbie is to take one step at a time and listen to the helpful advice that will be offered to you along the way by others who have been researching for many years.

The list of steps below is the result of such "helpful advice" that has been given to me along my own paths. I'm not an experienced genealogist, I am constantly learning, so hopefully this list will help us both! ;)

Listen and Learn ...

The first thing you should do is talk to your family, preferably the older members first. Keep a note of any tidbit of information, no matter how insignificant it may seem ... one day when you come up against a brick wall, you may be glad you did! Obtaining copies of all birth, death and marriage registrations is essential to proving any information you find, so where possible see if you can copy originals that any living relatives may have. Keep a note of where you obtain all information so that if a discrepancy appears later on, you can check all sources.

Libraries and the Like ...

Find out where your local Family History Centre (FHC) is located. You'll need to ascertain what records they keep there and their hours of operation. If you need any help searching records, there will be someone willing to help you. Check out your local library. As well as microfiche, microfilm and newspaper archives, they will also have a lot of historical information relating to the time period you're researching. This can help to paint a better picture of how your ancestors lived and worked.

Subscribe and Share ...

Subscribe to a mailing list where you'll find both experienced and new genealogists, all willing to help you in your quest. If you have a "common" area where many of your ancestors were born and lived, start with that area first. I've listed some general lists on my "Mailing Lists" page although if you go to Rootsweb or YahooGroups, you'll usually find what you want. Subscribe, watch and learn. When you're ready to announce yourself, post your own interests, especially your brick walls. Remember when including surnames to type them in capitals so they're easily spotted. Hopefully you'll be lucky and have some replies in no time.

Asking for Help with Lookups ...

At some point you'll most likely need the help of a volunteer who offers to do lookups. While a lot of people are willing to do this for you on a mailing list from the relevant area, there may be times when no one can help you out. In that case you should scan through the sites available online which list volunteers who are willing to do lookups and send you information, usually only for the cost of photocopying, postage, gas/petrol etc. These people receive a lot of requests so it's very important that you be brief but to the point, providing any and all information you have to assist them. Don't waste their time by asking them to do a widespread search, chances are they won't do it! If you only have a name and a place you're better off joining a mailing list for that area. Volunteer lookups should be used when you can give the volunteer enough information for them to access the information within a reasonable period of time. There are many sites online, plenty of them listed here on HHoG amongst the Links pages.

That's Old News ...

Information can also be found in local newspaper archives. If you're lucky enough to live in the area your family are from, take a trip to your newspaper office and ask them if you can search their archives. If you have a year for someone's birth, death or marriage, and you have the time, you can search through the newspaper classifieds and find information that will help you to locate BDM information. If you can't personally spare the time, ask another family member if they can help out, or email or call the newspaper and ask them if they provide this service. If those two avenues fail, some mailing list members will also do this work for you, try sending a request to the list. You never know if you don't ask! ;)

Visiting the Dead ...

Cemeteries hold lots of useful information. Not only will you get to "visit" with your dead rellies but you can find tidbits of information both on headstones and in cemetery records. If they have the name of the funeral home used you can find out if a copy of the death certificate is still held by them. If so, you may be lucky enough to find spousal or parental information contained therein. If no questions are asked, no answers are found!! ;)

Sifting through the Census ...

Census records hold a lot of valuable information like age, place of birth, occupation, monetary status, education, spouse, children, hired hands, and immigration information. Check the internet for sites which have this information available and searchable online. There are a few "pay for" sites where you can join and obtain access, or you can request lookups through mailing lists, like Genealogy4Dummies. Some censuses are also available on CD, microfiche and microfilm to use in your own home. Once you have census information, you can also contact the local authorities and find information on property holdings, any Court appearances and other tidbits of information that will help you to paint a better picture of your ancestors' lives.

Information on the IGI ...

The International Genealogical Index (IGI) database contains approximately 600 million individual names. An addendum to the International Genealogical Index contains an additional 125 million names. You can search the IGI at FamilySearch.org or at one of the LDS Family History Centres. As with a lot of searchable online sites, you can do a "wild" search, with just a surname, and come up with a lot of entries. Some of those entries may or may not be yours, but if possible print them out so you can refer to them later or copy/paste them into a Word or similar document, making sure you type in the source!

If, after trying all the above, you're still hitting your head against a brick wall, the best thing you can do is keep posting to mailing lists for the area in which your interests lie. Also subscribe to self help groups, like Genealogy4Dummies, which I give more information about in the next paragraph. Never give up, because one day you'll find another genealogist researching the same lines, or their tree will intertwine with yours in some small but very informative way. While you may not have John Doe's wife's name, another genealogist may be a descendant of the wife's sister and have not only her information, but more on John Doe than YOU did! If this happen, this is where you must remember what I consider is the number one rule of genealogy ... SHARE YOUR INFORMATION!!!! What's the use of finding out all this information if you're not going to share? Who's going to help YOU if you won't help others?!? Share! Share! Share! Put the information up onto the internet for the world to see. You'll be surprised how many contacts you get from people who have an interest, and those people just may have information that you need!! :)

Last but not Least ...

Once you start receiving information about your ancestors, the next question is "What do I do with it?" ... well, you can jot it all down on scraps of paper and throw it in a drawer, you can print it out and put it in a ring binder for later reference, or you can do the sensible thing and start creating a family tree! There are many software packages to do this. For a list of free software available online, click the "Software" page link in the drop-down menu at the top of this page.

With all this incoming information and your family tree growing, you will want to fill in any gaps. This is where mailing lists help the most. The best mailing list I've come across so far for help in ALL areas of genealogy is Genealogy4Dummies. The members of this list have lots of information from all around the world, and will keep you entertained at the same time! It's a fun list to join and Anna (listowner) is a character you can only benefit from meeting! ;) They have all been a terrific help to me and a lot of the links I have provided here on HHoG originated from there ... thanks guys!! :)

Having begun your family tree and wishing to share it with family and friends, you have a few options. You can print a hard copy, place it in a binder and show it to visitors ... boring! What did you do all this work for? ;) You can upload your GEDCOM file to a site like MyFamily.com and invite family members to visit ... that's a better idea, but they have to remember usernames and passwords! Or you can go one step further and create your own web page so others can access it ... a GREAT idea if you still have lots of gaps to fill and it's not as hard as it sounds. Hey, I did it! ;)

So now you have commenced your journey into genealogy, what are you waiting for? Click on another button, and good luck! :-)