OCTOBER IS FAMILY HISTORY MONTH–What do you know about your ancestors?

                                                                   

What a great month to begin or continue your own family history.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR ANCESTORS?

• Who were they?
• Where did they come from?
• What did they do for a living?
• How many children did each family have?
• How many times did they move?
• Did they come from another country?
• What were the historical events that shaped their lives?
• What were some of the happy moments?
• What were the saddest moments?
• Did any of them go to college?
• Did any of them leave you photos or letters or other heirlooms?

Have you asked yourself these questions?
Do you know where to look to find the answers?
Do you know where to begin?

Learning about your family can be exciting, heart warming, sometimes frustrating or sad, many times revealing.
There are SO many resources out there for family researchers that I couldn’t possibly list them all here.

TIP: My suggestion to new genealogists (and a reminder to those more experienced researchers) is to interview your living family members NOW.  We really cannot wait on this because we know that age isn’t the determining factor as to whether we lose a family member now or in the coming years.  They are all important and they all have memories to share.

Here are some steps to take to begin your research
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1.  Google “How to begin genealogy research.”  I did this and had 881,000 results!  WOW!  Some of those ought to give you a good start.

2.  Talk to other family members who are either currently or have in the past, done research on your family.  Find out what they already know, what they’ve already done.  TIP:  Don’t take their word for anything unless they have well documented sources for the information (and I’m not talking about other online trees).  Use their information as a lead for your own research.

3.  Read some of the incredibly well written blogs that you can find online.  Many of the bloggers (and there are over 3,000 of us) offer tips and research strategies on a regular basis.  Most bloggers will give you a list of other bloggers they follow.  One blog will lead to another.  PLEASE SEE THE TAB AT THE TOP OF MY PAGE FOR THE BLOGS I FOLLOW.

4.  Join a local genealogical society and start attending meetings.  Whether it’s a very small group or a large one, you will find other like minded people who love nothing better than to talk about family research.  You’ll hear lots of ideas.  Take the best ones or the ones that fit you best and work from those.
 
Here’s are two posts I wrote about societies and why they will assist you in your research - SEMINARS, WEBINARS, SOCIETIES - Will they help your research?

HISTORICAL & FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES - Great Resources for Your Research

5.  Read some books.  I learned an incredible amount from the books I bought and read when I began this journey over 12 years ago.  You can either buy paper copies, download books to your e-reader, check them out from your local library or borrow them from other genealogists.  NOTE:  Our local society the San Diego Genealogical Society, has monthly meetings.  At each of those meetings there are used books for sale.
 
Please see the tab at the top of my blog for Books I Own.  Maybe some of them would be helpful to you?

6.  Join Facebook Groups.  There are a LOT of Facebook groups devoted to genealogy.  Whether it’s research tips, organizing tips, technology tips, location specific groups or whatever you might be looking for, you can probably find it on Facebook.  Here is a list (Click here) with over 5,500 links to Facebook groups from all over the world.  Thanks to Katherine R. Willson who created and updates this list.  
Here’s a post I wrote about how useful Facebook can be FACEBOOK - How it can be very useful in your research

I hope some of these suggestions have given you an idea where to begin your research.  Or maybe given you some new ideas to think about and explore.

I know I haven’t even begun to cover everything.

I’d love to hear about your successes and any other ideas you may have.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HISTORICAL & FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES–GREAT RESOURCES FOR YOUR RESEARCH

DO YOU USE HISTORICAL OR FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES IN YOUR RESEARCH?

Let’s talk about some of the benefits you can derive from these societies.

• Knowledgeable people who work or volunteer at the society.  These people may have lived their whole lives in the area.  They may even have ancestors that knew your ancestors.
• Perhaps they know others with the same surnames you are researching, who still live in the area.  This, of course, is more common in a smaller community.   However, don’t discount the societies in the larger communities.
• They may know where all the cemeteries are in the area.  Even the smaller, hard to find cemeteries on private property.
• Perhaps they can provide maps of specific areas with indications of who owned what property and when?
• They can, in many cases, show you which books or publications they offer that would help you in your particular research.
• They can put you in touch with local historians or other researchers who may know details that they don’t.
• Most historical societies have books or publications right on site.  Take advantage of this.

When I visited Keene, New Hampshire where my husband’s family is from, we visited the Historical Society of Cheshire County.  I found all sorts of information in books and in probate records they had copies of.  The volunteer there was incredibly helpful.

One of the largest historical societies I can think of is the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  This society has been around since 1845 and has a wealth of information at their physical site and on their website.  

Simply use your search engine and type in whatever town, city or county you may be interested in, add the words “historical society” OR “family history society” and see what you can find.  

Here is a link to a site I found by typing this into Google "historical societies in the United States"
http://www.preservationdirectory.com/preservationorganizationsresources/organizationcategories.aspx
 


I selected A and the following screen came up.  When I typed MICHIGAN into the state box I got a list of over 80 societies all over the state. 



I have to admit that I did not know about this website until just now.  It’s very interesting that while I am sharing with you, I am also learning.  

Let’s continue our discovery and type into Google “historical societies in Europe.”  This brought up 13,800,00 results.  Here is a screenshot of a portion of the first page.
(Apologies for the blurry screenshots)



I selected the very first entry which took me to a Wikipedia site.  As I scrolled through the site and selected various items, some were relevant and some were not.  However, when I got to the very bottom of the screen I noticed this:



Doesn’t that first entry look interesting?  I selected it and up came a list of various genealogical & family history societies.  The list is not complete as wikipedia is always a work in progress.  However, what I did was to keep on selecting various links, which then led me to other links.  In doing that I have now learned of many organizations that are new to me. 

You get the general idea.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get tunnel vision in my research.  I use the same sites day in and day out.  I mean after all, I have a huge list of bookmarked sites that I’ve saved over the years. Those sites are very useful, but sometimes we need to step back, stop and THINK.   

Where else might I look for information?

Writing this post has given me new ideas and I’m anxious to see what else I can find today.

OTHER POSTS THAT YOU MAY FIND HELPFUL
SEMINARS, WEBINARS, SOCIETIES - WILL THEY HELP YOUR RESEARCH?
FACEBOOK - HOW IT CAN BE VERY USEFUL IN YOUR RESEARCH

Happy hunting,

Copyright ©  2014   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION