My husband has decided that he wants to research his ancestry. We’re not exactly sure how to get started. We’ve decided that the first thing to do will be chart the people we know as far back as he can remember but not sure where to go after that.
Google searching turns up millions of hits for internet firms offering to do the research for a fee but we’re not sure how helpful (or how accurate) that information will be.
His family has not been in this country for many generations so much of the research will need to be done outside the US (his father was born in Puerto Rico and his mother’s parents were both born in Italy).
If anyone’s got any advice on how they did it, who they used, how to get started…we’d appreciate it.
I don’t know much about modern genealogy methods, but thisis supposed to be a pretty good place to start. Note the handy “get started” link on the right!
I should explain that that is the LDS Church’s genealogy website, but it’s for general purposes. AFAIK anyone who does genealogy works with the LDS folks at some point. I don’t think they do proselytization at the same time as they do family research. You can also look up the local chapels–one of them will have a family history library attached which has open hours during the week, and it’s free for anyone and comes with people to help you figure it out.
I recommend using the family tree maker feature at Ancestry.com, with some caveats. Ancestry has census records, military records, some immigration records, and lots of other people’s family trees. These are all linked in such a way that as you enter people you know about, Ancestry will suggest links to those records or family trees that might match yours. I learned a great deal about my wife’s family in a very short amount of time on Ancestry.
You can then take the information generated by Ancestry and do much more targeted Google searches, make requests for service records and/or pension records (if you have a soldier in the family) and you can also email people who are working on other lines of your family. I’ve met some really neat cousins that way. You can also use names and locations to look up the US Gen Web sites for the counties where your ancestors lived. In many cases you can link to interested volunteers who will look up birth, marriage, death, and other records in the courthouses where your ancestors lived.
The caveats: not all Ancestry hints are accurate - - use caution before accepting them. Not everyone who is building a family tree on Ancestry has accurate information. As such, treat certain things (like links to Mayflower passengers, royalty, and other famous folks) as very suspect and do some fact checking before incorporating new people into your tree.
Ancestry is a fee site, but you can sign up for three months, find out enough to get you really started, and then print/download what you find before your membership expires.
I’d start at rootsweb.com, it’s free and you will learn a lot. Then you’ll be better prepared for the pay sites and lessen the chance of spending too much on things that may be available elswhere.
I think the biggest problem I’m going to run into is getting records from Puerto Rico and Italy. My father in law moved here from PR when he was 4 years old. My mother in law was born here but her mother and father were both immigrants from Italy.
We’re going to get with the oldest surviving members of both sides of his family and see who remembers what. That’ll be a good place to start along with the suggested Family Tree Maker.
Nobody suggested the local library? For shame - here, you can use the full pay version of Ancestry for free with your library card. In addition your local library may have done a lot of local work on its own, although I notice you mention that your family isn’t from here - but for example we’ve done obituary indexes in house, which are a phenomenal tool.
I don’t mind paying a little bit to be able to use Ancestry in my boxers at 2:00 am when I can’t sleep. I do like free things though, so I’ll be tempted to give it a try.
You’ll also want to visit USGenWeb, a free site broken down by state and county. A good site for research links is Cindy’s List. For immigration, there is the Ellis Island site and the Ships List Transcribers Guild, among many others.
First and foremost, however, is to interview all living blood relatives to get names, middle names, maiden names, relationships, places of birth, death, military service, migrations, etc. Most people don’t realize they have all this info in their heads until you ask them.
That’s what people don’t get - with most library databases you can do that! You have already paid for it! (Unfortunately, with our library Ancestry is one database that’s in-the-library only. I believe because it’s so expensive. Heritage Quest has home access, though.)