Genealogy – Where to Start

Today the Internet has opened many portals for the search into one’s family history. Genealogy has been a favorite past time for many centuries. It was always such a time consuming ordeal to trace one’s history that laymen often could not become involved. However, many genealogists have built databases of family histories and have started putting them on the Internet.

It has only been within the last couple of years that some of these resources have truly become user friendly. Theses websites have databases which cover many of the government’s records from many countries. These include death, birth, marriage, census, and even now military service records. Whenever one wishes to initiate the search for family history, it is important to start in the right place. There is nothing worse than starting a genealogy search only to find that it is too difficult and the information is too sparse to really gather any data at all.

The first website I want to guide you to is Ancestry.com. It is free to be a member, but there is a pay version also. The free version however, is great to start with. As a member you have the ability to start building an online family tree. You can start off easily enough by entering the data of the relatives you know. As you add new information to your family tree, the websites database will automatically search for possible matches with other members trees, and the public records.

This can be very helpful if you hit a dead end and can find no more information. When the database finds another match to a person in your family tree, it will let you preview it. If it is a good match, then you can add that persons data into your own tree. One really great feature is that this database includes many public records. As a free member you may see enough of the data to know that it is a match, however, if you are a paid member you can see all of the data, including a scan of the original document.

There are other features which make this site a valuable resource for the professional, as well as layman. The website offers the ability to use actual photos of your ancestors in their profile. You are also able to submit audio recordings, such as family stories which refer to that particular ancestor. Another really cool feature is a tool which will search through your family history to see if you are related to any famous people.

Of course, when you depend upon other’s family trees for your data, you must be diligent not to accept erroneous information. If you do accept data and it turns out to be incorrect, you will lose a lot of the work that you have done. I do have another website that you can use to validate, and yes even find information on your ancestors.

The website is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is 100% free and allows you to search their large genealogical index, including vital records. You do not have to become a member to use their search tool. LDS has been collecting extensive genealogical data for a long time and they work daily adding new data to the database as it becomes available. The trick to this site is that if you do not find the information you are looking for. Check the website daily because that is how quickly it changes.

With the use of these two websites it is possible to find your family ancestry much further in history than you could have ever believed. Your family will be pleased and amazed that you were able to gather so much information in such a short amount of time. It only takes a little at a time to build a wealth of information on your family’s past. I hope this has been helpful to you in your pursuit of your family origins.

CitationsWebsite: Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/

Website: LDS
http://www.familysearch.org/