How to Start My Family History Research-
Find Out What Information Already Exists!
Family History Research – Find Out What Information Already Exists
Depending on your circumstances, when you start to find out what information already exists you may find it a very rewarding and enjoyable one for you. If you are lucky, it can raise or bring back very special and important memories that you may not have had for years.
Start to think about the kind of documents that you and your family are likely to have hidden away in a memory box or simply placed for security in an out-of-way location such as the back or bottom of a closet. I would suggest you look for those types of documents that can give you a person’s vital information to start with. This would be items such as Birth, Baptism, Death and Marriage certificates.
Don’t worry about filling in “colour” or “body” as yet, this will come later.
As briefly mentioned above these documents can include, but not be restricted to:
- Birth Certificates,
- Marriage Certificates,
- Death Certificates,
- Baptism Certificates,
- Family Bibles,
- School records,
- Military Records, and
- Previous Research that was possibly undertaken by other members of your family (as long as they have sources for everything they have).
These, of course, may not be the only verifiable information you may obtain, with the more you can lay your hands on the better.
Once you have these gathered we can move on to the next tutorial : Get yourself Organised
Need Family History Forms and Charts?