If you’re the first person in your family interested in genealogy, it may seem challenging to know where to start. With so much information about your family available, you might not know how to keep it all straight.
If you’re interested in discovering your family’s history, creating a family tree is an excellent place to start. But how do you start your family tree? Our experts at Heritage Consulting have a few tips for anyone interested in beginning the journey.
1. Start With Your Immediate Family
The easiest way to begin creating your family tree is by starting with your immediate family, including any parents, siblings, children, and grandparents. When starting a family tree, you should start small. Trying to add too many people at the beginning of this journey can make the process overwhelming. By beginning with the family members you know, you’ll have a good base for the tree and won’t feel overwhelmed with all the information you have to add. The easiest person to start with is yourself. From there, you can branch out.
2. Decide What You’ll Include
When creating your family tree, knowing what information you’ll want to include is essential. Many people will include their family members’ full names and birth dates. You may also want to include death dates, marriage dates, or divorce records. You should also consider whether you’ll include their hometowns. If you can access it, including your relative’s signature and photo might be fun. You shouldn’t include any information you can’t verify. If it’s unverifiable, it isn’t worth adding when there is plenty of verifiable information you can choose to add.
3. Go Through Old Family Photos
Old family photo albums may hold a wealth of information you hadn’t expected. If you’re trying to remember family members to include in your family tree, you might want to look through some of these old family photos and letters. Looking through old pictures and letters can help jog your memory and remind you of people you’ve forgotten. Old family letters may include important dates that you don’t already have at your disposal.
4. Talk To Extended Family Members
Your best resource during any genealogical research is your family. Speaking to extended family members will help you find more names and dates that you might not know of. They may even have more personal information about these family members that you couldn’t get from your immediate family. Talking to your extended family will also help your family tree reach beyond just the people in your inner circle.
5. Check County, City, State, Or Federal Records
If you’re trying to find family members, checking your county, city, or state records can help you find relations you didn’t know about. Through census records, you may be able to find family members you didn’t know of. The city your family lives in may also have archives of information or documents for you to look through. Through these records, you can find connections between people in your family.
6. Speak With A Local Librarian
If you want to start your family tree, you may want to head to your local library. The librarians may have access to digital archives or genealogy databases. Your local library may also allow you access to computers, which will aid in your search for family members and may be able to assist you through the process. Librarians could be the perfect resource for starting this genealogical journey.
7. Hire A Genealogist
If you have a lot of information to go through, hiring a genealogist may be the best step forward. A genealogist may have connections you hadn’t thought of. They may also know how to sort through the information you have in a way you hadn’t thought of. The help of a genealogist can make the entire process easier. They dedicate their time to researching your family, meaning your family tree may even be finished more quickly than if you’d tried to do it yourself.
Starting Your Family Tree With Heritage Consulting
If the prospect of starting your family tree seems overwhelming, our team of experts at Heritage Consulting can help you get started. With so much information to gather, we can help you sort through it all.
Everyone’s family history is important, and reaching out to an expert team, like our Heritage Consulting team, can help preserve your history. If you would like to speak with one of our experts at Heritage Consulting about starting your genealogical journey, contact us today.
