Genealogy...where to start?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

You can also write to:

The Genealogical Office
National Library of Ireland
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
Ireland

Good Luck!

[gilmore]

...
While the online sites are easy and available, I wouldn't become to dependent on them. Verify your sources and document, document, document. Genealogists are generally very friendly people, but do not suffer fools. (not meaning that towards you, but in general) As MacFarkus mentioned, talk to relatives -- they may already have information you might not know about. Always start with yourself and work back.

[/b]ALWAYS, ALWAYS [/b] start with the present and go backwards in time. It may be inviting to skip over a generation or two or 10 to some one you "just know" had to be an ancestor, but you could be building a genealogical edifice on sand and end up watching decades of research crumble when the truth emerges. Working from the past forward almost always leads to disappointments and ultimately a waste of time.

As has been said, the best way to start is talking to the oldest people in your family, tape recorder in hand. Interviewing the elderly is an art in itself. Sometimes you just have to let them ramble on until the synapses click in their own good time.

There are probably several good introductory books to how to start genealogical research at your local library, bookstore, Amazon.com, etc.

I would hold off on subscription websites until I had a better idea of where exactly you will be looking and what you will be looking for; however, ancestry.com has more public records than others. Rootsweb is free.

I would used www.familysearch.org with exteme caution. They don't do much---or any that I know of---quality control, and archive whatever research is given them, sometimes by professionals, sometimes by bored amateur teenage LDS members fullfilling their religious obligations when they would rather be doing soemthing else. I have come across valuable informatino there, but relied on it ONLY after verifying it elsewhere.

Genealogical research can be fun, a shared project to do with others in your family, but also addictive, more than kilts. For every generation you go back, you add another line to research, mothers' and fathers'. There is a finite number of tartans, but we each have an infinite number of ancestral lives.

There is one other resource, DNA testing. It is in its infancy, only generally available for the last 6-7 years or so. You might take a look at the FAQ at www.familytreedna.com, which has the largest and therefore the most helpful database of DNA test results. You may find something helpful, you may find nothing, or you may match someone who has a well-researched paper trail who turns up in months or years. I think at this point Y chromosome DNA testing is more helpful for showing you areas where it might be beneficial to research, and areas where it would definitely not be helpful to research, rather than giving results that have the certainty of a well-documented paper trail.

[sirdaniel1975]

This was posted on my family's genealogical website. I'm not sure where it originated but it is pretty funny:


THE 13 COMMANDMENTS FOR NAMES:

1. Thou shalt name your male children James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, or William,
2. Thou shalt name your female children Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May,
3. Thou shalt leave NO trace of your female children,
4. Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey---making them difficult to trace,
5. Thou shalt NOT use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where necessary, you may use only initials on legal documents,
6. Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or misspelled, in various ways: Hicks, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks, Nicks,
7. Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplaced, burned in a court house fire, or buried so that NO future trace of them can be found,
8. Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendo regarding your place of origin,

A. You may have come from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales...or Iran,
B. You may have American Indian ancestory of the______tribe,
C- You may have descended from one of the three brothers that came over from ____,

9. Thou shalt leave NO cemetery records, or headstones with legible names,
10. Thou shalt leave NO family Bible with records of births marriages, or deaths,
11. Thou shalt ALWAYS flip thy name around. If James Albert, thou must make all of thy records in the names of Albert, A.J., J.A., Al, Bert, Bart, or Alfred,
12. Thou must also flip thy parents names when making reference to them, although 'Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative,
13. Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males, and dozens of their cozens with identical names, in order to totally confuse searchers.

MSYCEGWELFY = Make Sure You Confound Every Genealogist Who Ever Looks For You.


Best

AA

I don't think I could have said that better.

[sirdaniel1975]

[/b]ALWAYS, ALWAYS [/b] start with the present and go backwards in time. It may be inviting to skip over a generation or two or 10 to some one you "just know" had to be an ancestor, but you could be building a genealogical edifice on sand and end up watching decades of research crumble when the truth emerges. Working from the past forward almost always leads to disappointments and ultimately a waste of time.

As has been said, the best way to start is talking to the oldest people in your family, tape recorder in hand. Interviewing the elderly is an art in itself. Sometimes you just have to let them ramble on until the synapses click in their own good time.

There are probably several good introductory books to how to start genealogical research at your local library, bookstore, Amazon.com, etc.

I would hold off on subscription websites until I had a better idea of where exactly you will be looking and what you will be looking for; however, ancestry.com has more public records than others. Rootsweb is free.

I would used www.familysearch.org with exteme caution. They don't do much---or any that I know of---quality control, and archive whatever research is given them, sometimes by professionals, sometimes by bored amateur teenage LDS members fullfilling their religious obligations when they would rather be doing soemthing else. I have come across valuable informatino there, but relied on it ONLY after verifying it elsewhere.

Genealogical research can be fun, a shared project to do with others in your family, but also addictive, more than kilts. For every generation you go back, you add another line to research, mothers' and fathers'. There is a finite number of tartans, but we each have an infinite number of ancestral lives.

There is one other resource, DNA testing. It is in its infancy, only generally available for the last 6-7 years or so. You might take a look at the FAQ at www.familytreedna.com, which has the largest and therefore the most helpful database of DNA test results. You may find something helpful, you may find nothing, or you may match someone who has a well-researched paper trail who turns up in months or years. I think at this point Y chromosome DNA testing is more helpful for showing you areas where it might be beneficial to research, and areas where it would definitely not be helpful to research, rather than giving results that have the certainty of a well-documented paper trail.

Gilmore has a point about familysearch.org , although I do suggest using it. Use it as a cross reference database, not as your sole researcher. They have included lots of dates, BMD's that are fairly close. It's good to get in the ballpark. I will say and back up Gilmore's point again. There are loads of records that are the same person, with multiple entries and slightly different dates. I suggest referencing all of it, until you can weed out the nonsense.

ancestry.com is running a 50% off the cost of DNA testing right now, so that's something to think about.

[kilted_ninja]

DNA Testing? How's that supposed to work?

[BEEDEE]

We've used ancestry.com and they seem OK for the USA but very limited once you get outside. The Mormon Church has the world's greatest collection of genealogy data. If you visit the nearest church you will find they have access to microfilm records around the world. There are still roadblocks, however. For example most Irish records were destroyed in a fire in, I believe about 1913 so getting back before that is difficult. I was able to contact the church in N Ireland where my GG Grandfather was married in 1852 and get a copy of his marriage certificate. So you have to dig and sometimes get lucky.

Brian

[gilmore]

DNA Testing? How's that supposed to work?

It isn't supposed to work, it does work, within its built-in limitations. rather than re-typing or cutting and pasting it all here, I suggest taking a look at www.familytreedna.com's FAQ. If you have further questions I will be happy to do what I can.

Testing is simple and painless, takes about 6 weeks or less. Y chromosome testing is far more useful as an adjunct to genealogical research than is mitochondrial DNA or autosomal testing.

[gilmore]

[QUOTE=BEEDEE;575729... The Mormon Church has the world's greatest collection of genealogy data. If you visit the nearest church you will find they have access to microfilm records around the world. ...
[/QUOTE]

See the above critique of www.familysearch.org, the Mormon (LDS) Church's genealogical website. Their archived civic and other records can be helpful, dunno about pedigrees, group sheets, etc.

[gilmore]

...
ancestry.com is running a 50% off the cost of DNA testing right now, so that's something to think about.

If it was me, I wouldn't use it, or maybe only use it to verify unexpected results I got from Family Tree DNA. DNA testing is only as good as the database that your results are compared to. Ancestry.com has been doing DNA testing for only a year or so, while Family Tree DNA has been doing it for several years and has by far the largest consumer-driven genealogical DNA database in the world. Therefore, you are far more likely to get matches using it than using a smaller database. But then I guess you get what you pay for.

There is another site that may be helpful, www.ysearch.org. It is sponsored by FTDNA, but you can go there and enter results from any testing company.

[macneighill]

1. Thou shalt name your male children James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, or William,

LOL . . oh so true. I think everyone in my family has been named Charles, James, John or William. Must be a family tradition . .

MSYCEGWELFY = Make Sure You Confound Every Genealogist Who Ever Looks For You.

AMEN!!!! a "distant" cousin (whom I found through my own genealogical research), his 3rd Great Grandfather was also my 3rd Great Grandfather. Anyway, he called and told me of another family member that has been researching our line for 20+ years and, he received a 600+ page "work" on our family line from a genealogist. Well, within an hour, I tore it apart. There were so many discrepancies. My cousin called me cracking up.

However, with all the research my family has done. They didn't do something that should have been done . . look for different spellings of our name. For 20+ years, those that have researched our line had never made it beyond my 3rd Great Grandfather. Well, within 2 years, I made it back to my 5th Great Grandfather. Our surname was "Neilson" but, was changed to "Nelson".

I do have to agree about the "trenches" . . you'll be surprised by how much more you'll find that way. I did.

There are some very good suggestions here. Let me warn you about something, however. Genealogy can become very addictive. Don't become the person who hides out in the darkened genealogy section of libraries on beautiful days. And don't talk about your genealogical finds to non-family members; they really won't care.

Or, spend countless days, evenings and nights . . perusing through genealogical sites or, "hanging out" on genealogical forums and message boards. Not to mention corresponding with scores of people through email and IM.

Researching your lineage is very addictive. My wife told me she wanted a divorce . . that I was having an affair with the computer :mrgreen:. Of course, she was kidding.

Oh, and as for my "non family members", I have actually sparked an interest in the majority of them to research their lineage now.

There is one other resource, DNA testing. It is in its infancy, only generally available for the last 6-7 years or so. You might take a look at the FAQ at www.familytreedna.com, which has the largest and therefore the most helpful database of DNA test results. You may find something helpful, you may find nothing, or you may match someone who has a well-researched paper trail who turns up in months or years. I think at this point Y chromosome DNA testing is more helpful for showing you areas where it might be beneficial to research, and areas where it would definitely not be helpful to research, rather than giving results that have the certainty of a well-documented paper trail.

I am awaiting my results now . If you can afford it, I would suggest the most markers you can.