Begin by deciding what your goal is. Think about which family lines you want to research. Everyone has two parents, four grandparents, and eight great-grandparents. You may not know who all of them are, but you will need to develop a plan to track down information about them.
Work backwards from known information. Then try finding your ancestors by using marriage, birth, and death records. Talk with your family and relatives; ask questions; see if they have documents, letters, or certificates (maybe a family bible or photographs) that you can borrow and copy.
Establish, as completely as possible, the basic genealogical facts – date and place of birth (baptism), marriage (date and place), and death (date and place/burial) – of as many of your relatives as you can.
SEARCHING RECORDS
Vital records include births, deaths, and marriages. There are many places to find these records. NEHGS offers the Social Security Death Index. This database can provide the date of birth and death along with a Social Security Number (SSN). Once you have an SSN, you can ask the Social Security Administration for a photocopy of your ancestor’s Social Security card application. On this card you can find information about the parents’ names and their SSN, if available. For a list of where to get vital records, visit the National Center for Health Statistics.
Once you have gathered some information – and at this point we hope you have more than you know what to do with – it’s time to start organizing your information.
CHARTS
Pedigree charts provide an overview of the family and enable you to track your progress. This is a great way to identify the direct ancestors of one person and offers the flexibility to include a great deal of information.
Family group sheets are used to gather information on couples and their children; this makes it easier to summarize a family and everything known about them.
To learn more about getting started in your genealogical research and using the NEHGS website and library resources, please use the links below to view our online seminars.
NEHGS Online Seminar Series
We are excited to announce our new online seminar series. Lectures will be presented by our staff of genealogists. We will be offering new seminars on a regular basis so please check back frequently for updates.
Please click on one of the links to the right. You will need the Macromedia Flash Player to run the lectures. When you click on the link you may be prompted to install and run Macromedia Flash Player. If prompted click yes to allow it to run. If you are not prompted to install flash player and you are still unable to see the lecture you can also download the player from the Macromedia Website.
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