More and more people are curious about their family history.

However, finding out all the intimate details of your genealogy isn’t always cut and dry or easy. For example, people who have adoptees in their family line will often get derailed at that juncture because of privacy laws and closed records.

Or, perhaps the town hall where family or household records were house burned down – now what? Step one is always start simply with what you know. Write that down. Next, go to each living person in your family and talk to them. Ask them what they can recall including towns in which forebears lived, friends of whom they spoke, where they went to church etc.

Keep separate notes on each individual otherwise you’ll quickly discover that things get very complicated to sort out. Don’t forget to check what you’ve already documented against the new information you’re receiving. You’ll quickly discover associations and side stories that will help you uncover more data later on down the line. At this juncture seriously consider starting a chart.

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One approach that works well is using sticky notes on a large, blank wall. The person whose birth date is the earliest chronologically will be at the top/middle of the tree along with his or her partner. Now later on you may get more information that’s even older, so leave some space at the top of the wall. Under each person comes their children, and those children’s children with any other information you have (death dates, marriage dates, cities lived in, etc.). After exhausting your in-house leads including scrap books, diaries, letters, family Bibles, and boxes long forgotten in the attic – that’s where the fun begins.

Step two is going to local records at town or city halls, in the public library, and don’t forget your local phone book! Also review court records (wills, probate, criminal activity, etc), coroner’s reports, and swing by your family’s church or temple to see what details they can add to your puzzle picture (things like baptism, christening, confirmation, marriage, bar mitzvah, etc). It may not hurt to take a walk through the cemetery in your area too, especially if your family has been in the area for a long time. There you’ll find both written records, and of course the rock-solid documentation offered on tombstones.

On the local level you can also check voter registration documentation, or go to theVital records office where births, deaths, marriages and divorces are recorded. Whew… tired yet? If you haven’t already guessed, gathering solid information for your geaneology isn’t a quick task. ) and you haven’t even moved past the local level yet.

There are still things like state and federal tax records and the census to consider. For many of us, searching foreign records also comes into play. It may take years and several family members working on different parts of the “tree” for you to be successful (splitting up the workload isn’t a bad idea). In the end, however, the time and effort is well worth it.

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