How do I correctly research my family tree?

In genealogy, we do everything with documents. If you do no document your work properly, you have no way to know if you are researching the right ancestor(s). I have seen too many budding genealogist get frustrated and quit because they copied something from someone else’s tree that was un-sourced [meaning improperly documented or not documented at all] and later learned that they were researching the wrong ancestor. There is an excellent tutorial for those who are new to family research at http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ ; I recommend it to all everyone starting out in genealogy. After you complete that the following plan is fairly basic and generally on requires the tools that you already have like your computer and Internet service provider. As you learn, you will be able to add new methods and websites to this plan but this will keep you busy for a very long time.

The person you know about is you, so, start with your birth certificate, which has your parents, and then ask your parents for copies of their birth certificates, which will have your grandparents on them. Then if you grandparents are living, continue the process. You will experience a problem depending on when you grandparents or great grandparents were born, in that; birth certificates did not exist before the early 1900s. Nevertheless, you need to get back to 1930 with personal records because those types of records are not available to the public for 58 to 100 years depending on the jurisdiction in which they are held.

By copying or ordering these documents, you have gone to relatively little expense and you have three generations plus yourself and you have it documented with primary documents. That will give you 2 parents, 4 grandparents, and 8 great grandparents names to start researching. You can now use death certificates, marriage records, census records, immigration records, church records, court records and many other sources to research your ancestry. Your public libraries will most likely have both Ancestry.com [unless you can afford to purchase a subscription and have the convenience of using it at home at you leisure] and Heritage Quest.com free for anyone to use while at the library and with a library card you should be able to use Heritage Quest at home.

Another free online resource is the LDS/Mormon site, which has many free online records at http://www.familysearch.org/ . In addition to their online records, they have the Family History Centers where you can go for help with research and look at microfilm and microfiche and they only charge if they have to order something specifically for you or you need photocopies. Find a location near you on their website and call to check hours of operation. http://www.familysearch.org/ .

Additionally, USGenWeb is another free online resource at http://www.usgenweb.org/ . This sprawling all-volunteer site is packed with how-to tips, queries and records for every state and most counties within those states. Special projects usgenweb.org/projects cover subjects such as censuses, tombstones and family group sheets. Do not miss the easy-to-overlook search of the entire site http://searches.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ht… Then, there is Rootsweb at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ a free site hosted by Ancestry.com where you can search for surnames and leave queries on the message boards.

Also, be sure to check each state that you need information from as many have their own projects, for example, the state of Missouri has a great website that has many free source documents online at http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/ and South Carolina has many free wills and other court documents at http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinear…

And, do not forget to check Cyndi’s List at http://www.cyndislist.com/ and ProGenealogist top 100 genealogist websites at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/articl…
both of these sites have many links for both free and fee based sites but most of the fee based sites are marked with a $.

I could list more websites but this list is comprehensive while being easy on the wallet—something everyone can appreciate these days.

You can always come back here for answers.

Washer Woman – Jamaica Genealogy Research Family History Family Tree

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