First Step - Where to start

The adventure which is genealogy starts with a bit of work.

Their are a plethora of tools and technologies out their to help you build a family tree. But before you can use them, you are going to have to do a little work.

Before you begin your research it is vital that you document everything you know about your family. Get a hold of siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, and everyone else and lay out a simple personal profile for each relative as far back as you can.

It is not vital that you know everything. Some of the most obscure facts can give you a huge advantage. Also keep in mind that what you and your family "know" may not be the truth so make sure you keep an open mind as much as possible.

So what personal information do you need to collect? Start with the basics. Name, birth date, place born, places lived, death date, death place, spouse, siblings, parents and children.

Make a simple document using a page for each individual. If you don't know exact data, that is fine, but at least write down any guesses.

For Dates:

If Grandma thinks her mother was born around 1905 don't ignore it because you only have a year and no month or day. Write down:

Birth Date: ~1905

That little "~" symbol means "around". And almost every search tool out there has the ability to handle ranges of dates so make sure you write it down.

Try to keep your dates in a consistent format. The one most commonly used is day 3 character month and full year. 23 mar 1905 for instance.

Places:

If all you know is a relative was from Georgia for instance, write it down. You can find counties and cities later if needed.

Try to keep your places in a consistant format. The one most commonly used is City, County, State, Country.

Birth Place: Jacksonville, Duval, Florida, USA

Why worry about counties if you know the city? Lots of records you will be researching are stored/collected at the county level.

Names:

Although it sounds wierd, always remember what you "know" and what you "think" are two entirely different things. I had a client who was researching a relative named "Charley Brown". It was on his tombstone, every living relative swore that was his name. Even his children. His real name was Ivy. It is impossible to know when your data is reliable so make sure you take everything with a grain of salt and document your sources.