Building The Family Tree

Start at the most logical point, your own self. Get a three ring binder and fill it with paper. This will be your logbook of information gathered about your family. Start a page entitled "The Children of _your father's name_ and of _your mother's maiden name_. List yourself and your brothers and sisters by the oldest birth date to the most recent birth date. Each name should be a separate column heading under which the gender, birth date and death date is remarked. You could record the dates that they married, that they divorced, the places such events happened at; and other information. You will need to start some interviews of your family members to gather basic information and so that, if you care to, you can profile each family member's story. The basic information is the most important part since you will eventually need to advance your research further. Without basic information a record search could not be done.

The most basic information is always the name(s), how they fit into the family, when they w
ere born, married and died along with the location of each event. I always take down the stories when they are available because eventually I scrapbook my information. I am a fan of scrap-booking genealogy because it adds interest to the family charts. In between the pages I insert copies of photos being sure to identify each family member exactly. I also recommend a photo of war medals, copies of birth announcements, and so forth. But for now, give yourself and your siblings a number. The purpose of the numbering is to stop confusion over names that are used again and again within a family. Joan (#1) will then be an entirely different entity from Joan (#14). Each individual should have a page entitled "The Children of _____ and _____ " created for them and their new family core as they marry or have offspring. Getting records from your own time may be the easiest part of a genealogy project. Often, you all ready have the information in your possession. If not, be sure to interview the elderly first.

Photography may be marked with names and places. Check the family burial plots for the dates and names on the stones. You might try the cemetery office or funeral homes for plot purchase information and obituaries. Obituary filings of newspapers often give the names of the surviving kinfolk of a person. The state health departments and individual state county court houses are primary sources of documentation for genealogy. Military records can be sent away for. National Personnel Records Center Military Personnel Records 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. ( http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel )

The original social security application for your ancestor predating the 1960 time frame may be obtainable via a freedom of information request using form ss-5. There is a fee for this, but if you know the ancestor's social security number you can save money as that the fee is cheaper in such case. The address is: Social Security Administration OEO FOIA Workgroup 300 N. Greene Street P.O. Box 33022 Baltimore, Maryland 21290-3022. A web-site from RootsWeb has a free social security death index search at the time of this writing. (http://ssdi.rootsweb.com) Going back further in time to find the details of a birth, marriage or death can be a bit tricky. Different states have different laws, policies or attitudes about who may acquire information from their offices. In general, the first level relative (their-own-self, wife, son or daughter) can get access to documents. You may want to invite other family members to assist in your project for that reason. A state's health department keeps the birth and death records and they all want a request to be made in writing on a form that they use. The fee for the record will be different from state to state. The United States Census may be checked if you have an idea of where your relatives lived in the United States during a census year. If an index is made, seek it out. Indexes can save a lot of time and effort. Genealogical societies and libraries can be a great help here.

The most recent census taken will not be available, so expect only to be able to see the early 20th century and late 19th century census. But yet, there are many, many types of documents that can be researched from many, many sources. Some of the rolls that I have peered into before are tax payer rolls for counties and states, inmate lists of prisoners, death index records, church directories, military muster, American indian rolls, and so forth. What you can get is influenced by the history of the area that your are searching in. Some records get lost, destroyed or never were created. The majority of the 1890 US census burned in a warehouse fire. Time frames are important. Your state's law requiring it to issue and keep death or birth records was created at a certain point in time. A state's county lines and number of counties change as you go back in the time frame. When a trail gets weak you often have to go to what I like to call "alternative records" and those are those church directories, WPA records and so forth.

Occasionally a little town in the middle of no-where will celebrate it's history and have a pamphlet created with the town elders and contributors listed. The celebration pamphlets may recount the stories and names from the history of the town. You have to be creative and diligent to get the information. Sometimes the local dry-goods store ledger has survived. You never know where that hard to find relative might have left a clue. A marriage license is different from a marriage certificate. I've noticed that when two crazy kids decide to get married, the bride or the groom may be underage; thus requiring permission from the mother or father in writing or such permission witnessed. Such information is sometimes remarked upon the marriage license. If the parent is identified properly then you've got a nice tid-bit of family lore and a lead. I remember one county court house that could not provide me with the lower priced scans of marriage licenses, but when I ordered certified (and more expensive) scans of those same licenses, they got the lead out. In the end, the extra charge was worth it, but it was a very time consuming ordeal to ask by mail and then be rejected by mail- until I got the right train of thought. Again, use that imagination. Information is often bought, look into buying subscriptions to genealogical databases or buying indexes on cd-rom. There are also professional genealogical researchers or private detectives that you could hire, if need be. Happy hunting!