FamilySearch.org

It's time to get serious about Internet researching. I would suggest after trying a SEARCH ENGINE APPROACH to look at www.familysearch.org. This site is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or the Mormons) who place great doctrinal emphasis on family history. The results of decades of genealogical research are available FREE to everyone on this website. They also have a FREE download of PAF Personal Ancestral File 5.2, a software database for recording and sharing the results of your searching.

To start on this site, select one ancestor you are researching-someone deceased and type in as much as info as you know about them. Then click SEARCH and check out any hits you get for a match with your ancestor. (Record any results on your Research Log and print the new info out and attach to your log.) This website has a quite a collection of options for searching, lots of tutorials, research guidance, videos and links to help the beginning to advanced genealogists. Check it out. It's also a great place to find INTERNET COUSINS when you check for SUBMITTERS of the information here. Remember as always any information is only as accurate as the submitter who donated it. Check for documentation of the facts that are supplied. Have fun!

The goal of this website is to digitize and index ALL family history records in the WHOLE WORLD and make them available FREE online for anyone doing research. What an ambitious goal! Check out the results of this project as they are available to search at pilot.familysearch.org. Also see wiki.familysearch.org for free research advice. Exciting developments are in process. You can help, volunteers are needed at familysearch indexing.org.

Finding Internet Cousins

What is an INTERNET COUSIN? Someone somewhere in the world that you discover while surfing on the Internet that shares the same ancestor that you do. Usually it's not on your direct line but a descendent of a sibling of one of your great grandparents or further back. You may find a new cousin while using a SEARCH ENGINE to find info. on an ancestor or at other family history sites we'll discuss soon. Hopefully, the new cousin will have a current email address so you can contact him or her and start exchanging information about your common ancestor. I've had great success with AOL email addresses-people keep them forever.

Internet cousins have sent me photos, information and histories of shared ancestors that I didn't have. In turn, I've been able to send them via email or snail mail materials they wanted. In the year 2000, I was able to travel to Nauvoo, Illinois and meet an Internet cousin who was an experienced researcher through AOL's genealogy groups. (My real cousin Marion who is on AOL got me interested in this activity and gave me an email address of someone to contact named Luella.) Turns out Luella and I both worked in a family history center for our church, except she lived in Virginia and I lived in Utah. We decided to meet in Kansas City, Mo. and toured historic Mormon sites together in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa where our common ancestors lived. What a thrill that was! She is a dear friend now, only one of many Internet cousins I have discovered online. You may have unmet family members out there waiting to contact you.

Research Tips

After you're exhausted HOME SOURCES and not before, it's time to actually do RESEARCH. In the old days before the Internet, that meant traveling to the closest family history library or courthouse to search for VITAL RECORDS-birth, death and marriage records. Now with the Internet available all over the world, research is as close as your finger tips. You can search for your roots in your pjs and robe at 3 am on your home computer if you want to.

First of all, you need to decide WHICH line or surnames you are going to search. If you're looking for information in a certain LOCALITY, I would include all family maiden and married names of the siblings who lived in that same area. So if I were looking for my great grandpa Stevens family in Oakley, Utah, I would also check at the same time for his wife my great grandma Clara Wilkins' family plus the married surnames and maiden names of their children and their spouses-if you want their information also.

If you haven't gotten ORGANIZED before, now is the time. Remember those manila FOLDERS with surnames on them. Get out the approriate ones. In the main folder for the surnames Stevens/Wilkins I would put a RESEARCH LOG which is just a list of what you've searched for and the results in a folder to keep track of your discoveries. It's important to document where you found the information if you need to check it again. Soon it's time to try to fit the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle called genealogy together to form a complete picture of your family history.

After HOME SOURCES, I would start researching on the INTERNET before heading to a family history library or courthouse because some of those family records might just be online. Genealogy is getting easier by the day because of the Internet. All you need is a few facts like your grand parents' or other older relatives' names, birthdates and places then you can do a GOOGLE search-to be explained in more detail tomorrow.

HAPPY birthday today to my oldest son Frank and my friend Susi Q born on the same day!

Organizing your data

Get some manila file folders and label them with your family surnames. Organize materials: photos, notes, research, audio or video tape interviews as they come into this folders. Keep a list of those you contacted and who to contact next for more info. It's helpful to keep some kind of master log for each surname or group of family surnames that you are researching so you know what you've done. I call it a RESEARCH LOG and it goes in your manila folder with the materials you are gathering. There are many research logs online for free that can be used or you can make your own.

If you just write your data or information on little slips of paper and put them haphazardly in your pocket or purse, they will get lost or go through the laundry. I know I've done that. It helps to condense all your notes in one place and add a TO DO list when you stop working on a surname so next time you'll know where to pick up what you were doing last. Whether you're doing family history research on the Internet or just gathering materials for a biography, it helps to be organized as materials will pile up in stacks on your desk very quickly.

Of course having a computer software database program to keep track of all the names, dates, places and sources or documentation is very helpful. You can just do it with a pen and paper forms but the advantages of having it on a computer are amazing as your data multiplies and you trace your ancestors further back. There are many software choices available the easiest and cheapest (it's free) is PAF 5.2 or Personal Ancestral File available to download from www.familysearch.org.

Or if you are interested in other commercial programs, there are many available to purchase. Some that are highly recommended by others are: Legacy, Family Treemaker, and Roots Magic. I use Reunion because it is one of the only ones available for Macintosh computers. There are many sites online available to teach you how to use these programs plus LDS family history centers available all over the world with volunteers available to help you with these programs and assist you in your research.

To start out just download the simplest forms: a pedigree chart to start your family tree, and a family group sheet which shows the parents of a family and all their children's information. Time to get organized and write down the information you are finding or input it in your computer.

How to interview family members

After you've exhausted your home sources within your own abode, it's time to visit or contact your parents, grandparents or older relatives- to interview them and ask questions about your family. Hopefully you'll run across your family historian--every family hopefully has one. When preparing for your visits, gather a list of questions you'd like answered and some means of recording that information- either writing down what they say or asking their permission to record their voice on a tape recorder or video. Sometimes older relatives are more comfortable with you just taking notes, but you'll loose their exact words which you might want to quote in sharing this history with others.

At the beginning of the visit, take time to just converse and catch up with what is happening with their lives before you launch into 20 questions. Show genuine interest and love for them and their opinions. Tell them of your desire to write or at least gather some history and background of your family to share with the young'uns. Find some topic that interests them to start with...maybe their favorite hobby or time in their life. For men, military service experiences can get them going. One question will lead to another.

Ask open ended questions like...How did you feel about that? What happened next or how did that change your life? Don't try to ask all your questions in one setting. It can also be done through emails or letters or phone conversations that can be taped with their permission if you live a long ways away. The main thing is keep it fun and not tiring. Visiting and talking is a skill most of us could develop. Taking time from our busy schedules to visit and listen shows others we care, and that their life's experiences are important to us.

Home Sources

Start to gather tidbits of information about your family that you have floating around your house. I call them HOME SOURCES. Look for certificates, news articles, obituaries, letters or post cards, old photo albums, programs, invitations, etc. Put them in a box, folder or large envelope by family surnames to sort later. (Hint-Include scrapbook stuff about yourself in case you decide to write your life story later. )

Old family bibles if you have one or can locate one from your older relatives have wonderful information including names and dates of important occasions such as family births, deaths and marriage. (Sample on the right is from my Dad's bible-shown above. His mother had written in the vital record information on his parents, and grand parents plus his marriage to my mom and my birth. It was published in 1926 when he was only 10 years old. Don't know when she gave it to my dad, but he read it clear through before his death in 1945.)

Now would be a good time to visit or contact your parents, grandparents (if they are living) or any elderly aunts, uncles and cousins who might have this kind of information around their homes before they die and it gets lost. Remember it's never too late to start as long as YOU are still living. Write what you remember about your family members-parents or grand parents who may be deceased. Later we'll talk about Internet cousins who are distant relatives that you can find while doing family history research online. I've received wonderful old photos and histories that way.

How to get started

1. Plant the desire/commitment to want to share memories of your life story with your descendants by doing something, then ACT!

2. Write down your earliest memories of your parents. What were they like? Where did you live, etc.? How did they influence who you are today? Include good or bad examples, trials, triumphs, siblings, etc.

3. Share fun or unique experiences you had with your grandparents. How were they part of your life, etc.? Where did they live? What occupations or hobbies did they have? Do you have any photos of them? Did they serve in the military? What political views did they have? Personalities?

4. Any tidbits of information or stories about your great grandparents? Where were they from, any ethnic celebrations or traditions that were a part of family celebrations? What was happening in the world when they were raising their family?

5. Type on the computer or write down a little bit each day as memories come, to edit and organize later. Write freely, you are making a rough draft that you can go back to and refine later. If you don't know the name of your grandparents or great grands––hold the fort, in a later blog, we'll talk about researching but do check with your oldest living relatives for what they know. More on interviewing relatives later.

6. ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE, you've started writing your family history!