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Timeless Tips
A lot's changed in genealogy, but this essential family-finding advice—first published in our premier issue—holds truer
than ever. Learn the basics of Unpuzzling Your Past from the author of the classic research guide.
Have you ever considered that a tree's root system is much more extensive than its combined trunk, branches and leaves? The same is
true of your family tree: You have more ancestors than you have parents, siblings and children. Discovering your family roots means
digging into the past and uncovering those ancestors—solving the puzzles of genealogy.
Maybe you like working puzzles and out-guessing detectives in myster stories—genealogy is another kind of puzzle. Or maybe you
enjoy reading historical novels—genealogy is a family-made adventure in history, sometimes even better than a novel. If you wonder
about your family history, and you want to combine your curiosity with the challenge of finding solutions plus an adventure through history,
then you'll love "doing genealogy." That involves:
"Doing genealogy" means starting with yourself and working backward, on generation at a time, toward the unknown. Sometimes, the
identification process is as simple as looking in a family Bible, interviewing older relatives and reading newspaper obituaries.
Other times, discovering the names of a previous generation of ancestors isn't so straighforward. That's when you need to probe
deeper for clues, ask more questions and look "sideways" for more cousins. You have to study everything you can find and try to draw
logical, reasonable and documented conclusions. Eventually, all genealogists hit the proverbial brick wall—that's a given. With
enough curiosity and determination, however, it's often possible to get around those obstacles. Every sucess, large or small, keeps you in
the hunt for that next ancestor. A dedicated genealogist will go to great lengths to prove a great-grandmother's maiden name or a
great-grandfather's real birthplace.
Why? We want to know, and we want the best possible answer to the puzzle. It does us little good to accept the wrong ancestor. You won't
get far if you're working a jigsaw puzzle with pieces that almost fit: In a jigsaw puzzle, it's a funny-looking cat that ends up with a
church spire where it's tail should be, just because the colors are the same. In genealogy, it's a funny-looking family if the mother is 30,
the father is 8 and the son is 22.
No Place Like Home Interviewing relatives is another way to discover information on several generations. Ask Grandma about her parents and
grandparents. Uncle Henry might supply the names of children who died young, whom no one else thought to mention. Cousin Clara may
fill in gaps on Aunt Sally's family, with whom everyone else has lost contact. The more different the contributions, the more
thorough the picture you'll see. You also may get discrepancies, such as two different marriage dates for Uncle Albert and Aunt
Jane. Keep both dates—that's something to resolve as you research.
You have eight great-grandparents who make up four couples. Each couple probably created records of the kind stored in
courthouses or archives and, if you're lucky, in online databases. These records may contain your missing information. They also
may lead you to the parents, grandparents and other forebears of your focus couple.
Try to focus on one family at a time. Otherwise, too many names dilute the search and you don't really study each family.
It's in-depth study that leads to breakthroughs. The pedigree chart is a basic genealogy form. This multigeneration chart reads backward in time to show the ancestors of one
person. It's a good reference, something like a road map of ancestor names, dates and places. Most pedigree charts show four or
five generations, although some are designed to keep track of many more.
Another useful chart is the family group sheet, a record of three generations. Broader in scope than the pedigree chart, it
details one nuclear family—parents and their children, with spaces for names of grandparents. You should start one of these
charts for every family you study—yourself as both child and parent, your siblings and their families, and so forth.
These two charts don't take the place of research notes, and aren't meant to be filled out as you research. Instead they're
products of research: vital statistics, names and relationships that are established facts you've shown to be correct. Some people work best with file folders stored in boxes or cabinets. Other work best with three-ring binders kept in bookcases.
Many use a combination of these. Some find index cards useful for master lists. Most genealgosts agree, however, that spiral
notebooks aren't a good choice (you can't insert pages), and the dining room table isn't the best option for holding stuff. Almost
everyone has tried the table and learned that Thanksgiving dinner or Mother's Day brunch creates a real kink in the filing system.
Whether using folders or binders, most genealogists keep all papers pertaining to a given ancestor or couple in one folder or
binder. Even those who store notes and documents in file folders at home may use binders for research.
Many genealogists sort research notes first by surname or individual, then by location, then by topic or type of source where
information is found. For example, let's say your focus ancestor is named Polk, so you have a binder dedicated to Polk family
research. When you find this ancestor in North Carolina and then, earlier in life, in Delaware, you divide the binder in to a
section for each state. If the ancestor lived in more than one county in North Carolina, you'll probably subdivide the North Carolina
section by county. Behind the county dividers are subdivisions for land, marriage, cemetery and other kinds of records. As notes
accumulate, you may need a separate binder for each state. The same method can apply to file folders.
Another important but easily overlooked aspect of organizing is consistency in the size of paper you use. Standard 8.5x11-inch
paper works best. If you avoid using notepads and backs of envelopes, you'll have better luck keeping up with your notes.
Some researchers prefer taking notes on laptop or handheld computers instead of paper. Others transcribe all their notes into
the computer when they return home from researching. Whether paper or electronic, your notes need to be filed by name, location
and source for later study.
You might want to try several filing systems to see which works best. Whatever you choose needs to be easy for you to maintain
and use—after all, unpuzzling your past is an adventure that may span many years.
Emily Anne Croom is the author of Unpuzzling Your Past as well as other great genealogy how-to books from Betterway Books.
For more expert advice, see the February 2005 Family Tree Magazine.
By Emily Anne Croom
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