For someone whoвЂ™s starting from scratch, a good goal is to fill out the family group sheets (more on these in a bit) for your family, going back to all eight of your great-grandparents. Your goals depend on howВ much informationВ youВ have and whatВ genealogical research has been done already. To overcome this genealogical inertia, establish some very specific and very modest goals for yourself. It can be so daunting that itвЂ™s tempting to give up before you even begin. There are so many directionsВ toВ follow with your research. When you first start out, genealogy canВ seem intimidating. If youвЂ™re short on time, consider outsourcing the job to a service that specializes in digitizing family history photos and documents.В Sites like Memories Renewed and DigMyPics can do that.

You can do the digitizing of perishable information yourself, but thatвЂ™s a laborious process. That may mean asking an older relative for help. Regarding photos, make sure you can identify everyone in them. Collect and scan such recordsВ for digital storage. That stuff will deteriorate with time and can be lost. Other sources of perishable family history information include photographs, diaries, letters, and other documents. Make interviewing older relatives a top priority in your genealogical research itвЂ™s something you always swear youвЂ™ll get toвЂ¦until itвЂ™s too late. Ask him to tell those tales while you record himВ with a digital recorder. Your grandpa will likely have stories about his grandpa. Interview older relatives and record their personal stories and what they remember about your ancestors. Extract that family information from them before they depart mortality. Living people die, but living people often have the most useful and meaningful family history info stashed away in the treasury of their still extant craniums. What are perishable sources of genealogical information? So when you first start out, spend your time gathering information that will help you put together the narrative of your family, particularly information thatвЂ™s perishable. Remember, weвЂ™re trying to prevent the вЂњsecond deathвЂќ of our ancestors by recording and remembering their stories. Genealogy is more than just a family tree. Collect Perishable Information and Digitize It In short, use the genealogical research thatвЂ™s already been done to guide the direction of your own research. Or maybe your family history buff relative has information like dates of births and marriage for your great-great-great-grandparents, but not much biographical information about them, suchВ as what they did for a living.

Perhaps thereвЂ™s a family line that suddenly stops because thereвЂ™s a missing piece of vital information.

Then start looking for places where you can add to the story. So, as you begin doing your genealogy, first browse through the research thatвЂ™s already been done and enjoy the feeling of learning more about your familyвЂ™s history. But when I signed into FamilySearch a few months ago, I discovered that my sister had been quietly entering in history for my dadвЂ™s half of our family tree, and making connections to research that had been done by others on the site. If you sign up for a family history service like Ancestry or FamilySearch, you may find that a lot of your family tree has already been filled out by your relatives, both close and distant.ДЇor example, when I recently started doing my own genealogy, I knew a good amount of my family history had been done on my momвЂ™s side, but thought it was pretty much non-existent for my dadвЂ™s side. Connect with themВ and ask if they can share what theyвЂ™ve collected thus far. Chances are you have that one aunt or cousin whoвЂ™s really into family history and already has a great deal of it gathered and recorded. See WhatвЂ™s Already Been DoneД«efore you start looking up names in census records, see what genealogicalВ research has already been done in your family. Here are a few things to do before you throw yourself headlong down the genealogy rabbit hole. And like any journey, you want to do a bit of planning before you set out. Pre-Gaming Your Genealogical ResearchДЇamily research is a journey. Today, we present the how of genealogy вЂ“ a comprehensive guide to the basics of getting started with researching your family history and keeping the memory of your forebearers alive. Filling out your family tree both enriches your personal sense of identity and honors the ancestors who bequeathed the gift of life to you. Last week we discussed why every man should delve into his genealogy, arguing that doing this kind of family history research is not only fascinating, but constitutes a moral obligation.

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