Where do I begin?

Sometime when we hear the question "where do I begin?" the answer is start at the beginning. In genealogy, you're actually trying to find the beginning, so you have to start at the end.

So,seriously, how does one start working on one's family past? There are two things to do.

1. Your Memories: Write down all that you know. Your parent's names, birthdates, birth place, grandparent's, great-grandparents... as far back and as much as you know. Two forms that are helpful in this are a Family Group Sheet and Pedigree Chart.

Family Group Sheets are for recording information on each single family.

http://c.mfcreative.com/pdf/trees/charts/famgrec.pdf

Enter as much information as you can on each family. If you don't know exact dates, put about what date. If you don't know where, put probably where. The more information you can place the better. Below is an online sample of my 5th great-grandfather's family.

http://www.fgs-project.com/mississippi/groups/m/martin-francis.htm



Pedigree Charts are for documenting your direct ancestry.

http://c.mfcreative.com/pdf/trees/charts/anchart.pdf


On this chart, you start with yourself, then your parents, then grandparents, as far back as you can. You enter in as many dates and places as you possibly can.

I'm not sure if you can view this or not, but below is a link to my ancestry.com family tree. I am hoping you can view the pedigree tree starting with my grandfather.

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/79146/family?fpid=-1257456190


2. Family Memories: Ask your parents, grandparnts, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc (basically whoever) their memories from family stories. You may want to record some of these just to have. For those who live further way, have them write it down or call them. Whatever way you can, get all the stories you can. I have a video of my great-uncle doig a Yiddish prayer. Ok, so it doesn't help the genealogy but it does help the family history! With the added information, you can fill in more blanks.

Word of caustion, memories aren't always 100% correct. Take several witnesses. They say stories will usually be consistent but not exact (and sometimes not even the same!) A distant cousin of mine did a book on the Martin family. In it, she has a letter written my one of the older family members recalling one of the family lines. He was just a boy and apparently didn't know exactly how everyone was related. To him then, they were all grown ups so they must have been from the same generation. Once I worked on the family line, I found where he didn't quite get it right, but he did have the names.

You might not always get great reactions from all family members. Some are more private than others and may feel you may reveal things about the family. I initially didn't think my grandmother was too keen on me researching the family. I joked a bit that it was because we were from Sicily and she was afraid I'd find out the family secrets. Funny thing is, apparently her older sister insisted that their parents came in thru Ellis Island. Well, I found that they had come in New Orleans. Boy was she glad to share that with her sister! (I wonder if I do the research I'll find out the ship did stop off at Ellis Island and some passenger got off there but they went on to New Orleans. The records are for where the immigrants deboard. Also, Papa's sister and her family did go thru Ellis Island. They then got on a different ship to come to New Orleans. It is possible Aunt Jo confused the stories....)


So, off you go and start collecting that data. If you have any questions on how to input the information (the pedigree chart can be tricky), let me know.