Being able to get a new clue or a link in your family research gives new signs of hope of finally tracing your family history. Its a common reaction that gives you thrills of excitement but sometimes you have to control your emotion for the possibilities of let downs. You might not handle desperation and will discourage you to go on with your family research. Things like these happen probably more times than you expect. Before leaping with joy you better keep your cool and follow up your new evidence with more proofs.

Below are some theories that most people commonly use and end up quitting because they lack the ideas of finding possibilities and investigating further more. Do not rely on the data that you have gathered easily. If you have easily acquired some useful resources of your family history, its advisable to make independent studies about the data you have in hand. By doing this, you are unlocking mysteries and making your family research more accurate.

Always check the number of marriage

Never conclude that the children have a common mother or father. If you are basing your research from the man’s point of view, the children could be off springs from other women. They could come from this present wife, or his wife previously or even a wife after the one you have found. Remember that parentage is one of the hardest things to document, unless you know for sure. Women died in childbirth all the time. It was not uncommon for a man to have 2 or more wives.

If you can’t find a marriage record to support your family research its maybe because of these reasons:

- A lot of early marriages were not documented at the time of the marriage. It could have taken 5 years or so before the marriage could be written down in a courthouse.
- There might have not been a courthouse around or even a church; lots of early marriages took place in homes.
- Hundreds of records were burned during the Civil War.

Extend your family history research and consider every possible turn of events in the past

Don’t always assume that your ancestors came from the same state that their neighbors came from. Family genealogy includes possibilities of migration. In this case migration routes were basically the same but not every person follow the same route. You have to research further.

If you don’t find your ancestor in the next census record and you assume it’s because they were old and died, don’t just assume. Yes, most people did live the normal life span but people did live to a much older age also.

You have to research further, look at the closeness of their homes, how each of them named their children, and court records to see if they witnessed each other’s documents.

Don’t assume that your Jr. you found has the exact same name as Sr. Years ago the words aunt, uncle, Jr., Sr., and cousin were also used when the individual was no relation; in other words they were used very loosely. For example, you may have found land records that have Jr. and Sr. listed but these 2 men just happen to have the same name so to distinguish between the two, Jr. and Sr. were used.

Do not always assume that the name of an individual is a boy or girl’s name. Parents sometimes just liked a name and to us it sounds like a girl but back then it was a boy. Some names years ago were originally boys name but now they are girls. Parents also named their children after a famous person or a long ago relative.

Don’t always assume that a female that has the same last name as her father isn’t married. Women did marry men that had the same last name as they did. This happened a lot back when household were scattered far apart and relation lived fairly close to one another; cousins married distant cousins and cousin’s married distant uncles or aunts.

Keep in mind that divorced women did sometimes take back their original name and widows sometimes did the same.

Don’t assume that your ancestor died in the same place he or she was born and never moved around. It wasn’t uncommon for individuals to move their families many time but as they did get older, most moved back to live closer to their family. The best way of working on this is to create a time line and research many of the areas that they lived.

If your ancestor lived in one town or county and then you loose them, don’t just assume that they picked up and moved. There are other reasons you may have lost them. The county that your ancestor lived could have been broken up into several counties or they could of lived on the line dividing 2 counties. You have to research the surrounding counties.

Being a genealogist or family historian, assumptions is what keeps the research going but you have to recognize the trick as an assumption and prove or disprove them with further evidence.

More great guides and tips at Genealogy Simple and Fun

Death Certificates

The United States began authorizing in the early part of the 20th century. Deathindexes.com – a directory of online death indexes listed by state and county. Included are death records, death certificates indexes, death notices and registers, obituaries, probate indexes and cemetery and burial records. You can also find information here about searching the Social Security Death Index Online. You can also utilize its digitized copies of death certificates are available for online downloading for five states. These are: Arizona (1878-1956), Kentucky (1911-1953), Missouri (1910-1937 & 1945-1956 with more being added), Utah (1904-1954), and West Virginia (1917-1956). For links to those and links to online death certificate indexes for many other states (and some counties).

Newspaper Obituaries, Death Notices and Burial Permits

Obituaries are vital for family research as they give date and place of death and burial. Obituaries usually provides the following information:

- death or burial notice
- names of surviving and deceased relatives

A good source of finding copies of obituaries for your family research can be found at local public libraries and more recent listings can also be found online. Be adviced that you will not always find these kinds of newspaper listings for everyone who died. For some additional tips on how to make an extensive family research refer to this guide – Obituaries Research Guide

Cemeteries and Burial Indexes

If you don’t know where someone is buried, death certificates often list place of burial. Some cemeteries have placed their burial indexes online, while others have been transcribed by volunteers.

Probate Records and Wills

Wills and Probate Records are also vital resources for tracing one’s family history. They can provide information about a person’s heirs, their family, spouse, children, siblings, relatives and other personal information. Some counties now have recent probate indexes online. The LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City is a treasure box for old probate records and wills. You can also try the death index directory I gave earlier or do a Google search. Microfilms can be ordered and viewed for a fee at local Family History Centers. You might also be able to find probate records in the courthouse where the will was probated or a local or state archive or other repository if the records were moved there.

Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

Deaths reported to the Social Security Administration are listed in this useful index. It’s available online at several websites and some of them update it each month. For a list of four online SSDIs (three of them are free to use) – The Social Security Death Index – Online Searching

The family has always been considered as the strongest force in the society. Known as the most fundamental civilization in the world, it defines the rise and fall of every community and group. In whatever culture, the family has always played a major role in unifying the people of its race. Even in today’s modern era when the limits of socialization are starting to get shattered and the boundaries of communication are slowly disappearing, the family remains basic in every human life. Nobody is so independent and free as to be able to exist without a family.

Today’s world is one which is highly characterized by individualism and eccentricity. Many people are concerned with moving on into the future and the majority is actually living for tomorrow. You may think it just usual for today’s generation to bother less about their origin, about who they really are, where they come from, and issues concerning the past. Ironically, however, there is a growing interest about the search for people’s ancestors. Family history genealogy is gaining more and more attention from those who are after their past life and relatives.

Genealogy can be considered as the science of relationships, simply because this field deals with the tracing of a particular person’s family and relatives, both in the past and in the present, alive or dead. People venture out in the search for their families because of various reasons. Some may want to find a kin who has been lost due to circumstances beyond their control. Concrete examples were those involved in the World War who were forced to leave their homes for safety and spent the rest of their life wandering in foreign lands. Others, on the other hand, engage in this endeavor because of the desire for material possessions and power. Believing that they may be perhaps connected to someone of great influence, they risk the chance for the hope of something good in return.

Genealogy and the search for one’s history may vary in depth. This can be as simple as tracing the names of people related to you, forming a family tree, and indicating to which specific family in your clan a particular person belongs. Or, this can also be as deep as researching and finding out the personal life of each family member that you are able to find.

Modern technology has made family history genealogy more interesting and has opened a wider door for those people who are serious about their family search. The science of heredity and the study about DNA have made it even more possible for two persons to determine if they belong to the same line of ancestry. Various online sites are also available now to aid people find practically anybody with just the entry of simple facts. There are even computer programs which have been specifically designed for this purpose.

The search for one’s family, history, and past can be a whole lot of fun. Starting one is easy, and this can be done using different means. The experience is like a treasure hunt that will lead you to unknown and exciting places, and you will never know what you will discover and what treasures await you at the end of your adventure.

To begin the quest of exploring your own family history, visit www.familyorigin.net to start on your journey.  The resources and information available through this website are invaluable in starting or continuing this process.

Its always encouraging to reminisce your past generation. Looking at your family tree gives you the inspiration you need to live your life and add another page to your family history. Try to discover new ideas that could preserve and honor your family genealogy. One way to make certain they are remembered is to preserve their burial data. This could be useful for future generations to know their family history especially when tombstones become difficult to read.

The idea was first practiced by genealogists and historians in the town of Westport, Massachusetts. They gathered all the data from town folks, filed them and stored the documents in an online database which was later known as the Westport Historic Private Cemeteries. The project took years to be fully operational and brought together a number of loyal volunteers to make the project a success.

The database contains information on 102 cemeteries comprising 1,497 burials, and can be searched by name, cemetery, and other options. It also features a special section for veterans, who’re listed by the conflicts in which they served, from the Revolutionary War to the Korean War.

As the site interests more people doing investigations about their family history, the data was placed on hard copy and DVD at the Westport Historical Commission, Westport Public Library, and the Westport Historical Society. This was done to give fast and easy access for family research and genealogy look up. The data elements include the cemetery name, location, square footage, assessor’s map and lot number, number of gravestones engraved and number of unmarked field stones, most recent and latest dates of death, and other information. A digital photograph, GPS readings, a burial ground sketch map, and historical narratives are also included.

You can also start doing the same thing by encouraging your local community to organize their family generation burial data. Then start an online database for your town. You may not know the usefulness of this process but I’m quite sure that the right time will come that these records will come in handy.

Interviewing relatives or family members could be one of the most difficult part of your family research. Especially if you have done enough digging in the internet and end up with just several clues about your family history. The interview process may not only be difficult for genealogists but could be twice as difficult on the side of the subjects as well. Most amateur researchers quit the interview and simply resolve to easier tasks. An actual interview is a very useful way to trace your history. A few set of practical and simple question may unlock your past generation. You can try the steps below or you can develop your own strategy. Whatever you feel suitable for your family research is fine as long as you stick with the steps.

Ask yourself what is the purpose of your interview before arranging an appointment with your subject/subjects. What kind of information do you want to know and plan a strategy on how to control the conversation. You must also make a list of information you must get before the interview ends. You have to know if you are only gathering family history information for the sake of making your family tree or because you really want to know details about your past generation. If you are just planning to make a family tree, then all you need are facts. However, if you are trying to document a family research, then you need a more in-depth interview.

Preparing your questions in advance is also a good strategy. Having a prepared bunch of questions can help you verify genuine information essential for your genealogy research. You can also keep the subject on track in case they get carried away telling invalid stories during the interview process. You can easily steer them back from where you left without getting caught in his stories. However, you might be prepared to leave your list if your subjects offering you information on another topic you hadn’t considered.

You must be aware on the kinds of questions you are about to ask in your interviews. Experienced historians start off with questions involving “who, when, where, how and why”. You must also put some spice in your questions, ignore the boring ones like “when is your birthday?” People will probably grew tired answering those kinds of  questions since they are pretty dull. Ask questions like “what was your most valuable gift on your birthday?” or “what was your wedding like?” These kinds of questions will make your subjects more responsive and can help them remember important details for your family research. Description questions will help your interview subjects open up their lives and tell you everything you need to know about their family history. All these questions will require a thoughtful response that will be tons of information for your family tree project.

Make an easygoing approach and keep an upbeat phase. Once you and your subject get the hang of each other, you can loosen up a bit and turn the interview into a natural conversation. The more nervous the two of you are with the process as a whole, the less valuable information you are likely to get. Start by letting them know that these are their memories, and you do not or never will own them. Remind that they will have the right to look at any information you compile, and that they will have the right to make changes to their part of information as deem necessary. Tell your subject that they are free to choose whether they will answer the question or not. If the question is too personal for them to make a response then rephrase and or skip to the next question. Not everyone will want to discuss every single detail of their lives.

Take note of the duration of the interview as well as the venue. Any good interview has a strict limit and should be done in a place comfortable for you both. A limit of one to two hours is the best for most people. If your subject is an old person, you may want to further limit your time. The time limit may also have to be adjusted for those with medical problems. Talking for an extensive amount of time about personal background and history can be a bit taxing to the brain, and it is important to give your subjects time to think and recuperate before you start again.

Lastly, try not to interrupt when your subject is in the middle of a discussion. Listen with all ears and maintain eye contact with your subject. Oral information gathering is important for genealogy research to know your past generation. As some may have disregard this process from their genealogy research but if you know how to run a good interview, it can be the best source of raw information.

The era of hard bound family genealogy research became obsolete and the internet has changed the face of family research forever. The commitment to thought provoking library work, obituary digging and traveling to far places are now done just to verify the details that were gathered from the internet. The instant access aspect brought up by the internet was the greatest milestone for historians and genealogists to complete their full assed work that was done God knows when. Electronic resources for starting your family tree is a widespread keyword for people tracing their ancestors and unlocking the mysteries of their past. Before, the concept of family research was very limited since people lack the tools they need and other sort of feasible information they can use. The use of portable equipments like laptop and other related electronic devices are also a relief. Imagine yourself using a pen and paper or a camera to document your findings, hard isn’t it? Yes, indeed!

As years pass the process of family tree research has drastically improved. There are even sites that offers family research services for people who doesn’t have the time to do it on their own. Interactive tutorials, live chat with expert historians are also possible now. Once you find the right resources and tools, rekindling your family generations takes a only a few days to be finished. But to some countries that have developed their civil registration rights a bit late, family history research may seem to be hard. You might go back to the old digging the craps process but things like that happens one way or another. I have my own piece of experience here in the Philippines. The amount of family information from past generations are very limited and the quality of data filing and family history database are not so good. So, I was looking for hard copied information here and there like nuts.

The single most important function you need to constantly remember is to properly document your family history sources and explain any abbreviations or shorthand you use. We all think our perfect memory will last forever, but there’s nothing worse than when you encounter conflicting genealogy facts and forgot where you got them. If you interview a relative and get some good stories, make sure you jot down their names in your family tree along with the story.

Once you’ve started assembling your facts from your living relatives, make sure you take time to get your genealogy documents organized. We can’t say it enough but when you start researching online you’re going to get swamped with clues. So, my advice is to take time to organize your research.

The three best resources for getting your past generation details a good start involves census, records, obituaries and a special death index. Each of these is available, in some capacity, online and is easily accessible. One of the greatest myths about the internet is that everything is free. While there are many valuable resources online, some of the best resources are not. You should be prepared to invest some money in genealogy.

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When you feel like publishing your family genealogy online then you should do it now before its too late. Having a family genealogy website of your own is a fun way to share your family history with your friends and distant relatives. Even if you’re miles away or you can’t seem to find an appropriate time to bond, you can always keep yourselves connected through your online family genealogy. By frequently keeping your family tree website updated and encouraging your relatives to contribute more of their own photos and knowledge, this can be an excellent tool for other family researchers and historians looking for clues about their past generation.

How to do it?

Well I will be surprised if there’s no one in your family who doesn’t know something about handling blogs or sites or even reading or checking their emails. Making your family history websites requires only tiny technical skills. Even you guys that have never done it before can cook it in no time. You can either make blogs in different free hosting sites like wordpress or blogger or you might want to create an actual site of your own.

Decide what to put in it

Before actually starting your family tree website you must first decide what contents you might put into it in the future. Are you going to publish a linked family genealogy with everyone in your database or a written family history? with videos or photos? pages of text or files that can be downloaded? Before choosing where to host your family tree website, you need to think about the types of things you would like to include. After deciding then you proceed to these steps..

Pedigree publishing

There are tons of online pedigree database if you want to make a searchable database. Among the best sites are:

GEDCOM
RootsWeb World Connect
Ancestry World Tree
FamilySearch Pedigree Resource File
GenCircles

By submitting your family generations on these massive database, people doing family research will eventually see your family research information in the list if you are somehow connected.

Designing your family tree website

An actual site needs a web hosting service which provides you your own directory and memory space necessary for file storage. Some web hosting service is packed with inclusive web assistance for a couple of weeks for technical support. Several companies specialized in offering web site space for genealogists. Some are even free. The ones that do charge usually offer extra features including such things as private chat rooms, easy photo upload, calendars and automatically generated reports or charts.

Family research blogging

The quickest way to get an online space. Blogs easily increase hits and viewers since you can be a part of a blog community right after you sign up. You can also be featured and recommended to other communities if you like to socialize with other blog members.

Blogs are like built to use websites, easy to access and does not require complicated HTML codes. They also provide room for contents, space for uploading photos and videos and a set of useful features. You can either sign up for an account through a blog host, or run a blog publishing system on your own web server.

Learn more

If you like to create a personalized design of your website, then  you can either hire a web developer or simply learn how to make it. Web developers are the guys that make the design and controls over the look and feel of your genealogy web site. You give them the design you want and they will work it out into electronic pages which you can see in the internet. You can also learn basic and advanced web design courses and create your own family generation website from scratch.

Remembering old family members by showcasing their heirlooms and memorabilia in a heritage scrapbook then putting it in a perfect place for people to stare at is an awesome idea to recall your family history. It may seem to be a difficult task to accomplish but the end process is very rewarding. Scrap booking your family history is an excellent way to preserve your genealogy and a lasting gift for your future generation.

Starting the scrapbook gives a dense feeling especially when you work with your relatives. Having your family tree done and ready to be filed can be helpful since you can always search the internet for things your old generation might have left behind. Getting hold of even the most little thing from the past and confirming the piece of souvenirs from them is like finding a lost treasure. You may also want to do a family research using the web. The internet offers a myriad of sites and tools that are convenient for your scrap booking. If ever you don’t have a family tree yet I suggest that you start from making it first. A family tree is a great advantage to trace your family history. While it may seem a daunting task when faced with boxes of dusty old photos, making a family tree or doing a family research are actually fun and exciting!

Collect Family Memories

Gather a bunch of family photos, family mementos, heirlooms and other kinds of material than can be put all together. I suggest that you set a reunion or a family gathering inviting all your relatives. Then propose a a contest or just announce the plan of making a scrapbook of your family history. A contest is probably more attractive since you can catch their attention by giving prices. However, the authenticity of gather materials should always be verified. Set the deadline and wait. Give enough time for the contest to be productive. If you all work together, this task is like a piece of cake.

What to look for?

Have you ever take a peep inside a scrapbook? If not, family tree scrapbooks are filled with pictures of your grandparent’s wedding, your great-grandfather at work in the fields, a family Christmas celebration and so on.. Pictures of old houses, automobiles, and towns are also great for adding historical interest to a family history scrapbook. Family mementos such as birth and marriage certificates, report cards, old letters, family recipes, clothing items, and a lock of hair can also add interest to a family history scrapbook. Smaller items can be incorporated into a heritage scrapbook by pop lacing them in clear, self-adhesive, acid-free memorabilia pockets. Larger heirlooms such as a pocket watch, wedding dress, or family quilt can also be included by photocopying or scanning them, and using the copies in your heritage album. At least gather some of the mentioned items to make your heritage scrapbook authentic plus 5/5 awesomeness..

Pile ‘em up, File, and get Organized

Protect and organize the materials you gathered by archiving them in a safe or boxes. You can also take photos of the materials or scan old pictures and put the, in an online briefcase for future use. It is very handy to have an online access of your family photos in case you might want to share or make a blog about your family genealogy. Use labeled file dividers to help you divide the photos into groups – by person, family, time-period, life-stages, or other theme. This will help make it easy to find a specific item as you work, while also protecting the items which don’t make it into the scrapbook.

Assemble Your Supplies

Since the purpose of compiling a heritage scrapbook is to preserve family memories, it is important to start with supplies that will protect your precious photographs and memorabilia. Basic scrap booking begins with just four items – an album, adhesive, scissors and a journal pen.

You can also add some more design by using different scrap booking styles you can find online.

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Over a million of genealogy resources have been published online in recent years. The internet has likely turned to be the first stop in researching family history, getting clues for family genealogy and even finding tools and software for making a family tree. The internet is a proven source of family genealogy information. Though sometimes you can’t positively tell whether the information you have is a genuine detail about your generation but you always verify that piece of information one way or another. No matter what you want to learn about your family tree, there is a pretty good chance you can dig up at least some of it on the internet.

The process of family research is very interesting and exciting at the same time. Some people find it difficult though. Especially if you don’t have a smallest clue of who you are. It’s a matter of luck I may say or simply by learning how to use the myriad of tools and database the internet provides to find facts and dates of your ancestors. The end process is very fulfilling. Going beyond the first step of weeks or even months of rigorous family research then filling up photos of your ancestors in the family tree. What’s much more interesting is if you can fill in the stories of the lives they lived.. Awesome isn’t it?

I would like to share to you guys the most useful guide I found in the internet which I suggest that you should also try. Kimberly Powell’s genealogy guide for family history research is the most detailed and comprehensive 10 step guide I’ve ever read.

Step 1: Begin with Obituaries

Since the family tree searches generally work their way back in time from the present, searching out information on recently deceased relatives is a good place to start your family tree quest. Obituaries can be a gold mine for information on family units, including siblings, parents, spouses and even cousins, as well as the date of birth and death and place of burial.

Step 2: Dig Into Death Indexes

Since death records are usually the most recent records created for deceased individual, they are often the easiest place to begin your family tree research. While monetary restrictions and privacy concerns mean that the majority of death records are not yet available online, many online death indexes are available through both official and volunteer sources.

Step 3: Check Out the Cemetery

Continuing with the search for death records, online cemetery transcriptions are another huge resources for information on your ancestors. Volunteers from around the world have traipsed through thousand of cemeteries, posting games, dates and even photo.

Step 4: Locate Clues in the Census

Once you’ve used your personal knowledge and online death records to trace your family tree back to people who lived around the beginning of the twentieth century, census records can provide a treasure trove of information on the family.

Step 5: Go On Location

By this point, you’ve probably managed to narrow down the search to particular town or country. Now’s the time to head to the source for more detailed information.

Step 6: Visit the Library
In the spirit of location, my next step in the family hunt is to visit the Web sites for [http://genealogy.about.com/od/libraries/]local libraries[/link] and historical and genealogical societies in the area in which my ancestor lived. Often you can find links to these organizations through the locality-specific genealogical sites mentioned in step 5.

You can read the entire guide here.

I hope this will help family genealogists and historians as well as to those who are planning to make their family tree.

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Two videos on how to do genealogy research by using exact keywords on search engines. If you have already tried these methods are remain empty handed, you may want to try professional family research with accurate and reliable results.

Part 1

Part 2

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