1. Family Group Sheet Begin with yourself. Start by filling out a family group sheet on yourself, your spouse, and your children. Fill out a family group sheet on each of your children, who have children. If their children have children, also fill out family group sheets them. It's easier to start now and go forward.
2. Family Group Sheet Next fill out family group sheets on your siblings and your spouses siblings, and do the same as above. You goal is to go back as many generations as you can, and bringing each family current with all of their offsprings. This is how you will have each generation branch out in you family tree. Give them to the families to complete personally or contact them by mail or telephone, and let them know about your project. Always tell them you will update them as the research progresses. There is no need to pass on information that may be gory, harmful or that which may cause embarassment to family members. If they think you are only searching to find "dirt" on the family, they will not be willing to share with you.
3. Ancestral Chart As you locate each generation, add your ancestors to an "Ancestral Chart." This is a chart with just the direct lineage of you, your parents, their parents, and so on. It is also called a Pedigree Chart. As it grows, you will be amazed at how the numbers of people you will learn about increase. You will hit a point where you will have to hands on research. This is where the fun begins. You will learn about the history of your family, the history of the times when they lived and the history of the countries from where your ancestors came. It's like starting school all over. The difference now, is that you will find it very rewarding because you will begin to understand what life was back in their time on earth.
4. Research Log...A research log is used to record all the diffent places you have searched for your ancestors, aunts, uncles and cousins. It will save you time as you will not forget where you have done your research previously, such as particular years of census records. There have been times when I have forgotten which census I searched for relatives, only to discover, I am reading a census I have previously researched. Get a notebook that has divided sections. Set one section up for census records, and another for family members to contact, ship records searched, citizenship microfilm, etc. It’s important to be organized. Keep notes on where you have been and where you want to go. It will take time to feel like you are making progress. Make sure you make notes on things you need to find. Say, you have not found a ship manifest for someone. Make note of it, or if it's a particular census record, make not of it ... you may find it later that way. Many times I have learned that there was more family, who came to the US, becasue they were living with other family members. I have a granduncle, who was listed aa a boarder, when he was living with his aunt and uncle, per the 1910 census. I did not know my uncle and my grandfather had an aunt and uncle in the US, until I found them in a census record.
If you are ordering microfilm on census records at a Family History Center, it may behoove you to pay the extra few dollars to keep them on file at the library. Many times you will need to go back to them for more information on other family members that you may have missed in a census. Sometimes you will find records of baptisms with family members sponsoring the babies. They may be relatives that will lead to other pertinent information. There are three pay sites you can get membership for to view census records online. They are Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com and Heritage Quest. I do not know the cost of each of them. I have found that sometimes, depending on how a transcriber sees something, you will get different transcriptions in census records with these three companies. If I had the money, I would have memberships to all three.
5. Many researchers do not feel tracking the children of their ancestors is important. I have found that they can be very vital. Many times you will link with a cousin that is working on a sibling or child of one of your ancestors. That cousin may have known that individual by a nickname or a middle name, whereas you are running the line on the full legal name or just the first name. If you find that there are many variations of the spelling of the surname, this is where knowing the children of your ancestors will help you more. It's best not to discard all the children and just work on the ancestral line. Trees need branches, not just a trunk. The more you know about your family, the more luck you will have. It pays to be thorough. This is how you will find cousins, who are researching also. It's nice to have cousins, who are interested in researching. You can compare notes and help each other.
6. Nearest Family History Center When you get to the point where there are no people to tell you who their parents were, that's when you start searching government, church and other records. The Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, have copies of all the census records for the US and some marriage, death, birth and christening records from all over the world. The link we have here is where you can locate the closed LDS Family History Center to where you are located. You can order microfilm and microfiche through your local library from Salt Lake City. The charge is not very much. Currently they allow you to rent the film for 5 weeks.
7. Please refer to the column to the left on records you can use to research your ancestors. There will be links for online data for some of the areas of research. The rest will have to be hands on research if you don't find what you need on the Internet. Your goal is to locate the names of the parents of the American Immigrants that were left in the old country, and the village or town where they resided in Eastern Europe. Once you establish that by searching American records, you will be ready to start your research in Europe. It's very important to know the religion your ancestors practiced in Europe. You will need to rely on church records to gather more information. Many parts of Europe have suffered many wars with the destruction of records. Many of the churches were able to preserve their records to some degree. You will learn that some of the countries your family came from in Europe did not exist in certain historical periods. It will get confusing, but this means you may need to go to your local library, and learn these time frames. If someone's records show they were Russian, it may only mean that Russia was the ruling government at the time your family was born. They may have always told you they were Polish or Lithuanian, but records will indicate otherwise. They were the nationality they held dearest to their heart through patriotism.
8. Join a mail list for the area where your family members lived. In the US, they have them for counties, some cities, the states and territories. For Poland, you can find them on the old and new provinces and the country itself. They have them through http://www.rootsweb.com. Find the lists of mail lists to see which would be most helpful to you. There are also message boards at http://www.ancestry.com and http://www.genforum.com. If your family lived in part of Poland, which is now in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Lithania or another country, join one of those lists. Eventually you will get a feel for which list is the most helpful in your research.
9. If you live in or close to a metropolitan area, which has an ethnic genelogical society, i. e. Polish, Lithuanian, etc., join one. They have resources, which can help you in your research. Many of them offer classes for beginners. If you do not speak the language of your ancestors, they will give you resources for assistance. If there is not an ethnic, check out other ones in your area. I visited the one in San Diego, and found lots of material on research for the state of Virginia. You just never know what one will have. Historical Societies are a good resource. Family History Centers, which have been active for years, have a lot of material. Most of them have computers now, and a membership to Ancestry.com. They have the full membership for every imaginable type of record. If you can't afford memberships to the online databases, going to a Family History Center will give you that access. If you will go to http://maxpages.com/poland/societies, you can find ethnic and other genealogical societies listed. To locate a family history center near you go to the site listed above. |
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