1. Start with the person you know the most about: you! Then, work backwards by conducting individual or group family interviews. Begin with living relatives and work back in time. Contact your family members via personal visits, phone calls, letters, or email. Ask relatives if they know about or have any family Bibles, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, obituaries, letters, family records (birth, death, and marriage certificates, wills, land deeds, property titles, war records, ship passenger lists, etc…). Use genealogical/family interview questions to get started and if possible, record the interview with the person’s permission.
2. Complete a Family Group Sheet (http://www.ancestry.com/trees/charts/familysheet.aspx) and Pedigree Chart (http://www.ancestry.com/charts/ancchart.aspx) starting with you. It is helpful, but not necessary, to use a software program such as Family Tree Maker (www.familytreemaker.com). Always document your sources including the name and contact information for people who gave you the information and the name of any publication used along with the publication information. Use the standard genealogical format for recording information and use a workbook to keep everything organized.
Standard recording format:
- Last names in Capital Letters, (example: Ditte OLSEN).
- Maiden names are always used for women.
- Date format: day, abbreviated month, year (ex: 13 Jan 1925).
- Place format: city/township, county, state/province, country.
- Publication documentation: author, title, publisher, copyright date, edition, page number.
Organize your workbook by using a large 3-ring binder. Put the Pedigree Chart in the front of the workbook. Behind the Pedigree Chart, use a color coded divider tab for each generation. The first tab will be for your generation and your immediate family’s information, and you would be considered the last generation. The last tab in your workbook will be the oldest ancestor you’ve found and they would be considered the first generation. For example: Ditte OLSEN is the daughter of Frederik OLSEN, who is the son of Johanne OLSEN (nee Andersen). Ditte would be in the first tab, as the 3rd generation. Ditte’s father (Far), Frederik, would be in the 2nd tab as the 2nd generation, and Ditte’s grandmother (Farmor), Johanne, would be in the 3rd tab, as the 1st generation. In each tab section, complete information for their entire immediate family they were born into should be listed, including siblings. So, using our example, Frederik’s three siblings would be listed on the Family Group Sheet with their parents, Johanne ANDERSEN (don’t use her married name of Olsen, she was born as Andersen), and Kristian OLSEN in the 2nd tab.
