Any genealogists here on Domebo?

I am hoping someone might be able to lead me with baby-steps through the process of developing a family tree.

I have registered with Ancestry.com, but have not subscribed and I was wondering if a months basic subscription would be sufficient for my needs?

I'll be honest and admit that I am not massively interested in my family history( Currently. This may change depending on what I discover!), but my mam is, and she has asked me to research her mam and dad's side.

So, any help anyone can offer will be much appreciated.

There are a variety of software programs that will help you enter family tree information. Start with that. Then enter all the information that you already have. Interview relatives, if possible, for names (first, middle, last), dates of birth, places of birth, names of brothers, sisters, uncles, etc. Try to verify the information through birth certificates, census records, etc. Ancestry has a huge database and census records are a very good source for finding people. A large portion of your family tree may already be posted online by a distant cousin, so search for it. Rootsweb.org has a good database and it's free. USGenWeb is an excellent source for state and county searches, with message boards and people who will look up information for you. It's also free.

Your local library may already be paying for databases like Ancestry and HeritageQuest - you might have to go in, or they might be available to you online with authentication.

A word of caution: a lot of genealogies posted online are wildly inaccurate, as people tend not to authenticate their information, and will accept whatever half-assed information somebody else has posted. Your database will only be as good as the amount of effort you're willing to put into it.

My mother is actually very big into genealogy and I managed to pick up a few things from the many trips taken to cemeteries and records halls when I was a kid.

Your best software option is to go with one that's actually titled Family Tree Maker (owned by those of ancestry.com). I don't think that a subscription online is necessary at this time.

The first thing you need to do is to talk to any family members still living and ask them about their parents, siblings, aunts uncles, etc. This will give you a broad base to start your search. Also makes it easier to cross reference your sources for accuracy.

After that, your greatest source of ancestral information will be available at your local Mormon church. I'm not a Mormon so I'm not trying to sway you in religion. They have records of the US census for many many years open and available to the public for viewing on site.

I hope this helps you get your searching off to a good start.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Gumby

My mother is actually very big into genealogy and I managed to pick up a few things from the many trips taken to cemeteries and records halls when I was a kid.

Your best software option is to go with one that's actually titled Family Tree Maker (owned by those of ancestry.com). I don't think that a subscription online is necessary at this time.

The first thing you need to do is to talk to any family members still living and ask them about their parents, siblings, aunts uncles, etc. This will give you a broad base to start your search. Also makes it easier to cross reference your sources for accuracy.

After that, your greatest source of ancestral information will be available at your local Mormon church. I'm not a Mormon so I'm not trying to sway you in religion. They have records of the US census for many many years open and available to the public for viewing on site.

I hope this helps you get your searching off to a good start.

---

I've been using Family Tree Maker for about 10 years and like it, but there are cheaper options (and maybe even freeware) out there that work just as well.

Forgive the redundancies, but I'll try to give a thorough run-through here. (If your location is indeed the UK some of the details may not be of much use - my experience is with American records.)

Certainly the first step is to pick the brains of your relatives. This will give you plenty of (usually good) data on the first few generations. Take notes! First, memory is not to be trusted, of course, but more importantly you never know when isolated, even stray comments may later prove useful. I worked up a pedigree for a friend a few years back. She gave me the name of a town where she thought some kin had lived. She was right, and knowing exactly where to look speeded up my work considerably.

You'll also need some way to organize your data. There are several commercial genealogy programs out there, and I think there is some freeware out there.

I do not think it is a terribly good idea to throw money at premium services like Ancestry until you have a good feel for what you are doing and are to the point where you have to use something like that to get at some specific data that you can't get otherwise.

Check your area for local genealogical societies. They often have decent collections. Your local public library may have a genealogical section. The Morman church (for whom genealogy is a matter of dogma) maintains local research centers all over the place, and will even order up microfilm from their hugh collection in Salt Lake City.

There are free online resources available. Cyndi's List is a huge (and hugely famous) collection of links to genie info. Though it's utility as a source for raw data seems to be ebbing (they were bought up by Ancestry and I sometimes think they are deliberately supressing data which they can sell you through Ancestry), I still find Rootsweb somewhat useful. You can also find some tutorial info there. Search engines are, of course, useful, but a mixed bag. You'll often find yourself wasting lots of time wading through "indexing sites" looking at the same old crap, but occasionally you'll stumble across a real gem. I've recently discovered that Google Books has some old books available. Rather hit-or-miss now, but this should be an increasingly-useful resource.

Family trees you find online should be approached with a pillar of salt. Nearly all are the work of "amateurs", and it often shows. My attitude is that such things are useful for generating clues, but any information gleaned from such sources must be verified against real data. You may have a bit more confidence in those few who actually provide source citations. (And just because you may find fifty online trees claiming so-and-so was the father of so-and-so, that doesn't necessarily make the claim more likely - all too often the situation is that one person has posted something online and forty-nine sheep have blindly followed the first.)

Enough for now. Have fun!