Beginning Family History, tracing ancestors on the web
I love to listen to the professional family historians explaining their various techniques in genealogical research to me. The advice I have had on how to trace my ancestors and build my family tree has, I have come to realise, so often saved me time in doing my own family research.
Genealogy has captured the imagination of a good many of us and as it has the number of websites serving us with databases, or transcriptions, seems to have multiplied like topsy. Sometimes we may not know where to turn and this is especially so if we are starting out. When I first ventured on-line to research my forebears I found some ancestors easy to find on sites like ancestry.co.uk etc. while others seemed to insist on remaining hidden. I hit some brick walls and, where this happened, I put those particular ancestor lines to one side to concentrate on the easy ones to find.
This eventually began to frustrate me. The solution was to learn the tips and tricks that seasoned family history researchers used and so I enrolled on some e-courses. The trouble was that work or other pressure on time would mean that I couldn’t keep up and that I really needed to be able to learn at my own pace when I had a minute or two to do so.
Else Churchill, of the Society of Genealogists, writing in Your Family Tree Magazine, Issue 77, May 2009 says that “The best family historians are those who make an effort to learn about the resources they use and the context in which the records were created.” So I make every effort to continue to learn about this subject that so fascinates me.
Now I will not claim to be any where close to being an “expert”. I am someone who has moved along the line from being an absolute beginner, having picked up some skill sets along the way. I heard recently that some experts consider themselves to be simply “advanced beginners”. This is supposed to reflect the fact that we can all continue to learn more about our subject.
As we gain knowledge, it is also great to be able to share it with others who are just starting out. I have been planning for some time to make available my own simple guide to Beginning Family History on the Internet and to supplement it with some audio podcasts and screen capture help videos. It is now ready for publication as a download resource package. This means that it is distributed in three compressed (or .zip) files from a page within my new website at any time of the day or night. Once you have downloaded it to your computer you can read the pdf manual at your own convenience and listen to the podcasts or watch the video whenever suits you.
Take a look at this link below for what it contains:
http://www.noseygenealogist.com/familyhistorian/index.html
‘Beginning Family History Research: Tracing Your Ancestors on the Web
Tags: Beginning family history, brick walls, family historian, family research, family tree, genealogical research, genealogy, genealogy advice, how to trace ancestors