I spend days on end researching my family history.  My DH and I have also spent thousands of dollars over the last 30 years on this project.  We, by far, are not the experts in this field, but we do have a ton of hands on knowledge and have learned from our mistakes over the course of time.  If you have been thinking about starting this project in your family – I will be writing a series of posts about how to get started.Keep in mind, that with any hobby, this takes time, patience and money.

My recommendation is:

• you promise yourself that you will not take the easy way out and “adopt a relative” – prove your work
• you share your hard earned facts with others who are researching
• you will not hold me responsible when the “genealogy bug bites” and you can’t stop researching!

FREE STUFF:

There are plenty of ways to spend money in this venture.  But hold the horses and start with the free stuff.  There are a number of great sites out that that are free and may just have what you need.  I recommend the following free resources:

• FamilySearch.org: This is the LDS genealogy site and you can sign up for a free account.  Genealogy is a serious component of their faith, therefore, the work they do AND share with the world is competent, reliable and greatly appreciated
• Findagrave.com: This website depends on volunteers to visit local cemetaries and document and/or photograph gravestones. The information on a gravestone can tell you a lot
• USGenweb.org:  This is a site that “organizes” many other free sites by state and county
• cyndislist.com: Another, well respected, site that organizes resources and helps you jump into your research

GETTING ORGANIZED:

You are going to find TONS of information.  Some of it is good – some of it is not.  More on that later.  You will need a way to organize all that you find.  Again, there are items to be purchased in this category, but try to restrain yourself until you know how you like to work and if you will continue the process beyond a couple of generations.  There are all kinds of free downloadable forms on the web if you like to work on paper. Simply search for family tree forms.  Choose images to see the wide variety.  Family Search (the LDS site) will allow you to electronically record your generations and pertinent information by person, directly on  their site.There are a variety of tree forms to use.  Select one that makes the most sense to you.  The cool thing here is that no matter what form you chose, you can switch at anytime to see what it will look like in any of the other formats.  Do your best to keep from jotting things down on “little pieces of paper”.  Trust me, they get lost, misfiled, and you spend an eternity looking for that “one thing I wrote down”.