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Guide for Beginner
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If you are just starting on this journey into the past you will open doors that you never knew existed-It is my hope that the following outline might make that a rewarding experience. I have tought genealogy for over 60 years and hope that you will benifit by this. I also have a blog site were you can find more free Ancetral help:
Rlord333@Embarqmail.com\bloger
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Talk to Older Family Members
Develop A Way of being Organized
Locating Primary Documents
The Internet
Genealogy Books
Genealogy Problems-Dead Ends
Talk to Older Family Members
Talk to your relatives your aunts and uncles have the same family line, they may know somthing about the family that your parents are not aware of. After you visit them in a week or so go back again they might have remembered somthing.Ask about old photos,or documents. They may be the only source you will ever find.You will not be able to look at public records from now to 1930 so any information about reletives in this period has to come from them.
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Develop A Way of being Organized
If you start out with organization it is much easier long before the computer I used spiral wire bound note book-I still have the from the 1940's.
You should record the information that you have found as complete as possible with source and dates. You need a place for any documents and photos that you come upon, Some Archivist will disagree but I mark on the back of the photo's a number as a control and refer to this in my notes.
The computer is great I have used them since the 80's but I still write the important information in the old note book-they have never crashed.
Today we have dozens of computer programs to do the work for you, I have several of them but I always go back to the PAF program put out by the Morman Church. Genealogy plays a big part in there religion, they spend millions of dollars on Genealogy record preservation, they developed this PAF program, most of the other programs are copies. Also this PAF program is free, and has all the charts and reports you need. www.Familysearch.org
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Locating Primary Documents
You should be familiare with the records available in the public Government Offices were you can view the actual Documents of phot copies. Your library is a good source for manuscripts,newspapers and inter library loan of micro film and microfiche. Locate the Morman church Family History Center, here you have access to millions of rolls of micro film from all over the world. prior to early 1900's your only source of vital records will be church records, most of these are in the church or been sent to a central office of the church. There is a publication by the WPA that list every church record and exactly were it was in 1936-1939.
Since a great majority of our ancestors were illiterate and with a accent the spelling has a wide range often influenced by nationality of the record keeper,so you have to speak the name and try to spell it as it sounds.
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The Internet
This very new source of information is a blessing and a very big problem.By nature of the World Wide web, millions of people are uploading there genealogy on dozens of sites. No one is monetoring this. Ten years ago I made a mistake and typed a one for a E in a name now there are 27 listing of this name with the error-people are copying things and not even correcting the spelling.
Most experienced genealogist agree you can not complie a good genealogy by just copying from things on the internet. It is a great place to get a outline but then you should revisit all the referrences.
One of the better sites is the Morman FamilySearch.Org. its a free site but even here the same problem exist the data is fed in by members, if there memory is good the information can be reliable but there are many errors.
Do not think the paid sites are any better, Family Search a part of Ancestry .Com has same problem, there raw data is being submitted and no one is proveing it. Use all these sites as a help but take the time to examine the source.
Mailing list are great, you never know who might find your ancestor's old bible or letters. Subscribe to several of them but then keep active and resubmit your problems if you do not get a answer.
Both Yahoo and Google search engines will come up with a lot of information just be careful, try to find the same information from different sources to be sure it is correct.
Every day there are new web sites and some of them are County and state offices giving you access to there holdings. You will find these with the search engines. You should also look at the libraries if you are planning a trip, often they publish a list of there holdings, this way you know what you will find.
At some point you may want to have your own web site or Blog, Ancestry Help will be glad to assist you in this, many hosting sites are free, and the blog sites area lot of fun-when you are ready drop us a note.
Do not over look the on line maps and atlases these will help you find the exact place you ancestor lived and werre he might have gone to church or who lived near him.
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Genealogy Books
There are a lot of how to books on genealogy, most of them that I have are not any better than you will find on the internet. Your public library will have a lot of them. If you have a Morman church in your area go to the Family Research center and they have a staff that will help you, at least 4 times a year they teach a class in genealogy, you do not have to be a member to attend the class, they have excellent forms to use for pedegree's and most teaches are good at genealogy.
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Genealogy Problems-Dead Ends
Eventually we all end up with a "brick wall" the PAF softwear program has a form for "dead ends" but please do not give up.If you feel your problem is to great to solve. Perhaps you realize just how time consuming genealogy research can be, and you do not have the time to do all of it yourself,Let us at Ancestralhelp, take over and extend what you have started.
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