5 Golden Rules for Beginning Family Research
Family History research is a passion of mine and so The Nosey Genealogist blog was born to give me a platform to go on and on about it. This is because I am painfully aware that not everyone shares with me a desire to populate their family tree with ancestors and so I try not to bore the pants off all my friends with it. I was, however, talking to a friend the other day about the subject and they asked me where on earth do they begin?
I’ve posted about this before on this blog, but it is worth mentioning that when ever I get asked about where to start I always tell them to begin with the five Golden Rules.
In my recent request from my friend I told them the following:
“Start at the beginning, that is…your beginning.
“Note down your parent’s names, their dates and places of birth, when they married and where. Ask them about their youth and any organisations or religious denominations that they belonged to. Did they stay in the locality of their birth or did they move? What is, or was, their occupations?”
After that I suggested they collated the same information on both sets of grandparents. If they are still with us, I told my friend to go and talk to them about their younger lives; as family historians we are often amazed at what rich background to family history research we can gain from talking to the older generations.
If my friend’s parents and or grandparents have died, then I would have suggested they find out where they are buried, or their ashes scattered and write down the cemetery or place for those generations that follow ours will thank us for this saving on their time spent researching their family. So the 5 rules, that I have distilled from the BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are magazine published back in 2007 are as follows…
- Start with whatever facts are known and work backwards, trying to make sure that each new piece of information is checked against original records to make sure of its validity.
- At every stage, document the evidence noting down your sources. Tip: These can be people or paperwork.
- Keep records of what you find, even the wrong avenues you have gone down. Doing this will help you not make the same mistake at a later stage in your research.
- Be wary of information supplied by others as it may not be correct and always do your own research to back up what you have been told. Be particularly wary of information posted online.
- When you are up a dead end seek help from family history societies, professional organisations, forums and specialist magazines.
Good luck if, just like my friend, you are starting out. Before you go any further should I mention just how addictive Family History can become?
Nick Thorne - The Nosey Genealogist