The Complete Beginner

Beginning your genealogy research can sometimes seem daunting with so much information and so many resources to consider.

Our 10 Point Project Plan will enable you to make a start and then go on to discover more and more about your Family's History.

1. Decide on your target for your initial research. 

• Whilst it would be very satisfying to be able to go back 38 generations to start with a more realistic start is to aim to go back three or four generations from yourself to your great grandparents. Make a list of all the people that involves.  In that way you will not feel too daunted by the task ahead of you and you are more likely to gain a sense of satisfaction which will spur you on to greater things!

2. Create some individual record sheets and start filling in all the details you can about each family member you have listed. 

• With membership of the Amateur Genealogists Association you have free access to some forms to help you.

3. Now you have documented all the information that you know for your immediate family you need to organise and archive the information in a manageable way. 

• Get yourself some folders or document wallets and other office supplies specifically for your genealogy research.

4.  Make some research materials. 

• The best one to start with is a questionnaire and again With membership of the Amateur Genealogists Association you have free access to some useful forms and information. The questionnaires you create will enable you to request information from family members and also to validate the information you already have.

5. Document all the answers you gain and the information you validate on your index cards and cross reference them using a simple numbering or alphabetical system.

6. Create a handwritten family tree following the bloodline of each of the main people who precede you as far back as your great grandparents. 

• This will start to give you a sense of what your family looks like when put into a family tree.

7.  Having drawn your first family tree with all the  information in it start to collect supporting documentation, images and even sound recordings of your family members. 

• Add these to your files again making sure that you reference them using the system you decided upon earlier.

8.  Start to use the internet to find missing documents and information and to apply for copies of documents which will substantiate the information you have collected so far.

9.  Now you can start to enter all the information you have collected, together with copies of documents, images and sounds into your genealogy computer programme. 

10.  Congratulations you have started your Family History Research!  Are you hooked on genealogy now? 

• Well now you can begin to research earlier generations of your family.  Some useful websites are located here.

Good luck!