If you are just getting into family history and are feeling overwhelmed with the amount of information that needs to be gathered, these genealogy tips for beginners can help you stay organized. It is important to remember that building a family tree, finding lost family members, or compiling important dates does not all have to happen in one day. Taking your time to truly learn about your family is one of the tips for beginners to keep in mind.
Heritage Consulting wants to help you make connections to your ancestors without feeling overwhelmed by information. If you are still drowning in family history, hire our genealogists to help. We offer genealogy help, probate research, and estate research.
1- Start By Writing Down What You Know
The best place to start in genealogy and family history is by recording what you already know. Recording and writing down information about yourself, your spouse, and your children will get a good baseline started. Starting with the known will help you make connections to the unknown and provide vital information to your grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the future.
2- Ask Your Elders For Help
Your grandparents may be able to help you fill in the gaps in your knowledge about ancestors you never met. This can limit the research you need to do and the documents you may need to dig for. If your parents and grandparents have photos, dates, or even birth certificates, this will make filling in your family tree much easier.
Many people have multiple family members and friends that knew them. Asking around for extra help can make the pieces fall into place more quickly.
3- Begin With Yourself And Your Home
Inside your home, you may have helpful information that you may not think could be helpful at first. Looking at your records, scrapbooks, or letters may help you determine ages, death dates, children’s names, and more. These can be helpful and are much easier to access than federal records.
4- Check Federal And State Records
Finding information about some family members may seem like a dead end. Our genealogy tips for beginners include asking more experienced people for help. The next best place to look is federal and state records that you can access. These officials can help you track down individuals or pull records from certain years that you may not be able to find otherwise. There is no shame in asking for help when you first start out in genealogy.
5- Download Free Pedigree Charts
Building an extended family tree can become complicated and interwoven quickly. Downloading free pedigree charts or using an online forum that spreads it out for you and connects each one with clear lines could be helpful for seeing visually where you have gaps.
These charts can also help you clearly see full names and use them as a reference point while you are researching other family stories or traditions. It can also be a great resource to teach your children about their family.
6- Join A Local Genealogy Or Historical Society
Lots of people start getting into genealogy daily and many people like to help others who are interested in learning more about their family history. Joining a local group or society can help you learn quickly. Genealogy tips for beginners don’t have to be just about doing the work on your own. With many developments in genealogy and many people learning more each day, in-person help is available for beginners to gain more confidence.
Genealogy Tips For Beginners With Heritage Consulting
Our company is here to serve families nationwide to make connections with their ancestors. Our experience can help you fill the gaps in your family tree and give you knowledge that you may have never found on your own.
Our staff knows how to research and compile information. We help you to understand legal documents and read them in more normal language. All of our genealogists are professional and many of them are accredited genealogists that are open and willing to serve you. Our team loves to provide genealogy tips for beginners.
Contact us to help fill in the gaps in your extended family and get estimates on how much our specific services will cost.