“Start collecting and organizing your own things first—birth certificates, marriage certificates, deeds, baptismal records, military records—and do this for your children, your parents, your grandparents, as far back as you can go.”
These bits of information will usually answer the basics about family members, such as names and places, and dates of birth, marriage, and death. But Anderson points out that ultimately researchers find that the trail runs cold and names and dates are harder to find.
For this reason, experts also recommend branching off to more distant relatives. “In addition to working backward, you should also work sideways looking at the collateral lines of your family,” says Pamela K. Boyer, education and publications director for the National Genealogical Society in Arlington, Va.
“Maybe you’re not really interested in your great uncle, but if you’re looking for your great grandparents’ names and you don’t have a birth certificate for your grandfather, his sibling’s records may be a helpful alternative.”
Less obvious resources
And while vital records are the best and most common starting points, both Anderson and Boyer are just as quick to highlight less obvious source materials such as contemporary and period maps of the regions in which a person is working.
For instance, borders that have changed over the years may explain why you can’t find a relative’s death certificate in the county records. That person may have been born in Baltimore County in 1850, died in Baltimore City in 1930, but lived in the same house their entire life. Maps that illustrate these boundary changes can offer researchers clues as to where they should search for records.
Document everything
But carefully documenting and analyzing the records and information collected are perhaps the most important research techniques for genealogists. “In real estate they say location, location, location,” Anderson says. “In genealogy, we say documentation, documentation, documentation.”
There are a few reasons for this. First, documenting where you find a record and why you collected it helps save time if you need to come back to it months later. Most important, though, is documenting to validate your work or someone else’s. This includes checking the documentation of secondary sources like vital record transcriptions or published family histories.
Genealogists should also remember to carefully analyze these documents. “So often we get caught up in the thrill of the hunt that we forget to actually read through the material that we find,” Boyer says. “When you read through the documents you find, take note of the particular time period it’s from and maybe even do some outside reading to get a better sense of the world these people lived in.”
In addition to strong research techniques, genealogists rely on a host of resources that makes their work possible. State and county archives are usually repositories for valuable information ranging from deeds and court documents to birth and death certificates. Many states and counties also have historical societies with libraries well suited to researching both lineage and local history.
Internet technology allows researchers to work without leaving the house. Sites like Ancestry.com, for example, give members access to vital records and census data. Companies have even developed software programs like Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree, and Reunion that map out your family tree based on the information you provide, charting an otherwise complex web of relationships.
And while these resources make a genealogist’s work easier, there’s no substitute for plain old curiosity and a passion for family—two things that seem to drive millions around the world who are searching out their roots.