How many of us know where our ancestors came from? I have always been curious, so I have for the most part figured it out. While working on a client’s family tree document scanning, I thought about how I go about researching someone’s family. It is investigative work for sure. You want to gather front what you already know. What family members do you know? What are their birthdates, dates they died, when and where they were married? Once you start writing these things down it becomes obvious how much you do know and don’t. That is where you start, and it goes on from there.
- Write down every family member you know and as much information you can find about them. Birth, death, marriage, where these things took place.
- Start asking the oldest living relatives what information they can add to your list.
- Start gathering photos and any documents verifying the information you gathered. Wedding photos, baby photos that are dated, birth/death/marriage certificates.
- Once you have a bit of information gathered you can work online. Family search is the LDS site that is free. Ancestry is a paid online site. The benefit of moving to online is you have the benefit of other family members (sometimes distant) that can help fill in blanks, and there are countless databases of things like census’, SS data banks, immigration, war registration…
While our focus at Pixologie Digital Solutions isn’t genealogy, we can help you start on your own path of family curiosity!