Beginning Your Tree

Don't know where to start on your own family tree?  Here are some tips:

1.  Where to put your tree
Personally, I've uploaded all my information up on Ancestry.com.  Other sites such as Geni.com offer similar services, although I find Ancestry easier to navigate.  I've been told that you should have a backup in hard copy in case, heaven forbid, something happens to it and all your hard earned information gets wiped.  You can also download and print out charts from Family History Products or other charts by searching "blank pedigree charts" on Google.  You can buy larger charts with 14 or so generations too, although I haven't gotten my hands on one of those yet.  Once you have a location for your tree, fill in what you know.

2.  Ask your family members
Get in touch with your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, siblings, whoever.  Ask for information about names, birth dates, death dates, and places.  Ask family members for any records, such as birth, marriage, death, or anything from the military.  Even the smallest facts can help you to expand your tree.

3.  Condense your search
Start with a specific lineage you want to begin with.  Trying to uncover all your ancestors at once can be overwhelming, so pick a surname and stick to it.

4.  Online resources
Most of the information I have found has been online.  Although I don't have a membership on Ancestry (memberships run over $30 a month), I can still utilize many of the free databases they offer.  Other sites such as FamilySearch.org and a sister site of Ancestry, RootsWeb.com, provide free information, and besides Ancestry, I use these sites most frequently.

5.  Libraries and courthouses
Search your local genealogy library or, if applicable, search your local courthouse for possible information.  If your family lived somewhere other than your current residence, travel there (if possible) and search their local courthouses, libraries, or other places that hold important records.

6.  Record
Throughout your searching and hunting, take detailed notes and print information that you can refer to later.

First Encounters With Genealogy: Maternal Lineage

So you've taken a peak into my father's line, and not it's time for a look at my mom's.  It's a bit less complicated, and I had a smoother start than the other side.  While I was asking my mom about her parents, she mentioned that my grandma, who lives in the same city as us, has kept rather detailed information about her ancestors.  My mom also said that my grandfather and my uncle previously traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, and that my granddad was bound to have more information.

I began with the simplest source of information:  my grandma.  She comes to dinner every weekend, so asking her about her ancestors was easy.  She was ecstatic that someone else in the family was interested in our lineage, and that same night I drover her home, and she extracted three binders full of information.  Names appeared that I had never heard of before.  I began to peruse the contents excitedly and found a booklet called The Huse Family In America circa 1901, dating our ancestors back to Abel Huse of England in the 1600's.  My fingers raced through delicate pages that hadn't seen the light of day in decades.  I also uncovered information from our Sabin line that we thought to be French, but alas, English.  This new information gave me the boost I needed to further study my mom's side.

Two big mysteries on my mom's side include whether or not one of the lines on my grandfather's side, Bruce, is in fact related to Robert the Bruce, King of Scots.  Another question is if we're Irish as my grandmother claims we are in relation to one of her lines, Collins.  For the sake of my grandparents, I had to get to the bottom of this dilemma.

I will never forget how excited and elevated I felt that night.  I still have those binders in my closet along with all the other bits I've collected over the years.  Each time I find new information on my family, I still get a rush of excitement as if my ancestors were cheering me on to keep digging and to get one step closer to competing my family tree.  Some day I want to create separate bound books of all my predominant surnames on both my mom and dad's sides that would include pictures, stories, and pedigrees, so I can hand them down to my children or grandchildren, and they can experience the thrill that I've felt from this adventure.

Curiosity Killed The Kat

Stole this here cute picture from the interweb.  I wish I could draw that!

I'm curious as to how much research (if any) other people have done.  Do you have any stories of reunited families, tales of kings and queens, or long emigrations?

Let me know, I'd love to hear any and all stories!

Family

Me and mommy from a few weeks ago.  More on her line later :)

(I swear her head isn't that small, or I guess that my head isn't that big...)

First Encounters With Genealogy: Paternal Lineage

Although I've only been seriously researching my ancestors for less than a year now, I've always had a passion for uncovering my roots.  After watching a program on celebrities researching their genealogy, I started asking my parents about any and all information they knew about our family.  When I first started researching my ancestors, a total of 5 people populated my tree:  myself, my brother and sister, and my mom and dad.  As of today, 485 ancestors have moved in.

I started by simply asking who my dad's parents were.  Both died before I was born, so I never had the opportunity to meet them, but my dad remembered their birth and death dates as well as where they lived.  My dad and his parents were born and raised in Iowa, a common region for many Dutch and German immigrants such as my family.  He also recalled spending time with "Grandma Maul" (his mother's mom) as well as numerous cousins from his father's line.  Besides that information, my dad knew nothing.  Unlike my mom's side, whose mother keeps more detailed records about her lineage, my dad had no documents, no photographs, nothing.

Feeling stuck, we went out on a limb and made an attempt to search for my dad's cousins on an online person search engine.  I will never forget that summer afternoon when my dad first called his cousin from Iowa who he hadn't spoken with in 20 years.  Before that phone call, my entire family consisted of 18 people, but suddenly a whole troop of my first cousins once removed appeared in my life.  Miraculously, this newfound family had information on my grandfather's lineage.  Within a week the new family sent me pedigrees, photographs and stories about their lives.  For almost 20 years the only information I had known about my paternal line was that my middle name came from my dad's grandmother, but now I had a sturdy foothold to continue my journey.

If you take anything from this article, understand that even though a meek family tree can be daunting at first, there's always a starting point.  Ask your parents about any, and I mean any, information they may have or remember.  Who knows, you may acquire an entirely new side of your family from it.