New to Genealogy - Beginners First Step: Difference between revisions

New to genealogy? Take care of the two '''time sensitive <font color="red">critical</font> steps''' immediately and then you can take your time to learn how to set attainable goals as your experience grows.&nbsp; Get started at any age, see if this is something your kids would be interested in, do some storytelling about your ancestors or yourself, start a project to share your family history with others.

[[Image:2New to Gen Image.JPG|left|200px|First, preserve as many memories as you can]]<br>  

[[Image:FirstStep.jpg|right|300px|A balancing act (first step)]]The very first step when getting involved with a genealogy project can be the hardest.&nbsp; As depicted in the diagram it can be a balancing act where you could either end up flat on your face or be off to a good start.&nbsp; This first baby-step is to actually&nbsp; decide if you are willing to expend the time, energy, and resources needed to achieve your goals. &nbsp; The time spent and the costs involved could potentially get out of hand but by setting your goals correctly they are much easier to keep under control. &nbsp; To get ready for that first step start out slowly by doing a little crawling first.&nbsp;&nbsp; Since you are the one that sets those goals you first need to know what some of the objectives are that you could create for yourself. &nbsp; Do not set yourself up to fail.&nbsp; It is better to start off with smaller goals which you can change over time rather than to be going at full speed when you hit your first brick wall (it happens to everyone). &nbsp; The resulting decisions after your first setback could be that this was a stupid idea and may lead to you quiting altogether or you could end up overwhelmed by tons of data and end up burning out prematurely. &nbsp; To survive long term, you just have to keep everything in the correct&nbsp; perspective.&nbsp; There are only two critical items (which are described below) that you should address as soon as possible, after that you can take all the time in the world to set your objectives and readjust your goals as necessary.<br>  

[[Image:Wooden hourglass 3.jpg|right|60px|Act before time runs out]]Just ask questions before it’s too late (before the information is forgotten or your ancestors are no longer accessible).&nbsp; Who are all those people in the old photographs?&nbsp; What was it like when you were a kid? How did you meet your spouse?&nbsp; Did you have a dog when you were little?&nbsp; Always remember that there are no stupid questions if there are answers to those [[Creating A Personal History|'''questions''']] but you have to ask those questions before time runs out.<br>  

*Find out more than just the dry facts of where and when they lived. Find out how they lived, their lifestyle growing up, and their motivations.&nbsp; Make it interesting for yourself as well as for others who may eventually read your information (your storytelling).&nbsp; Someday one of them may be a collaborator or may pick up the torch where you left off.<br>

As mentioned earlier this first step or goal is the most important because it is defined by a finite time limit.&nbsp; Access to much of the information and memories of the previous generation will be lost forever if action is not taken immediately.&nbsp; So if you do nothing else, at least find and record as many of these answers as possible and collect copies of all the old photos and documents.&nbsp; You will regret it later if you put it off too long.<br>  

If you are a member of the senior generation and you are “new to genealogy” this first step is important for you too. Simply ask yourself the questions from some of these question lists and record the information for future generations. In fact, no matter what your age, everyone should take a look at these question lists just to record your answers for posterity as those answers may leave valuable clues for future family historians.<br>  

<div style="position:absolute; left:10px; top:120px; z-index:3">[[Image:Ellis island 1902.jpg|100px|Restore damaged photos]]</div>  

For those with the most life experience who are “new to genealogy", the task of preserving your family documents and photos may be a bigger job than you feel you want tackle by yourself. The solution is to simply ask if there is someone in your family from a younger generation that would be interested in helping you to get organized by entering the information and photos into the computer. This interaction could potentially spark an interest in your helper(s) and they may want to pursue some of the following steps that you have no interest in. Make it a win-win situation where the family comes out ahead in the end.&nbsp; Over time, you could ask your helpers if they would like to be promoted to the status of “partners” so you could continue the research and the adventure together.<br>  

The time has now come that you have to interpret the data you collected in order to get the story right.&nbsp; No matter how good your sources are you should still be aware of some [[Rookie Mistakes|'''rookie mistakes''']] that can be made.&nbsp; Once you are confident in your facts, you can start the storytelling.&nbsp;&nbsp; Pick a single person (your favorite person) and tell a story about their life.&nbsp; You don't have to write a biography, just remember that this is about storytelling.&nbsp; The following are some suggestions.<br>  

*Give some background about where they were born and raised, especially if it was in a foreign country and that type of information may be new to the people reading your story.&nbsp; Also remember that overcoming hardships in their life can become an important part of your storyline.<br>

*Build a family tree display for your ancestor and include it as a part of your story.&nbsp; Several types of displays are currently available which include the standard pedigree chart, fan charts, portrait charts, descendants charts, and so on.&nbsp; If using a descendancy chart be more cautious about the information you include about living people.<br>

*Add a "Credits" page for attribution when using [http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp '''free'''] photographs taken from the Internet. This is also a good place to acknowledge the assistance of others (for their time, resources such as photos and documents, and any financial assistance) that helped you achieve this goal.<br>

*Write a final chapter called "Research Summary: Chronology" describing your own adventures involved with the discovery of the information on which you based your story.&nbsp; It could be useful for others if they take an interest in genealogy and would also serve as a useful means of recording your source information.<br>

*Use some of the down time to do some long term planning about where you want this to go next.&nbsp; As mentioned earlier there are several levels that you could direct your goals toward ( a hobby, a passion, a vocation, a career, or a legacy). Find your level of interest and pick some objectives but like any of the goals you set for yourself, there is no harm in readjusting them up, down, or changing direction at anytime.<br>

Always remember that you are [[Resources for individual help|'''never really alone''']] in this endeavor as there are forums which may do volunteer work to help you get over a hurdle or there may be local historians who could help for little or no cost to you. You can always rely on the expertise and experience of others who have faced the same issues and who were willing to document their knowledge in a Research Wiki like this one.<br>  

[[Image:Thumb DetectiveSilhoette.png|left|100px|Keep searching]]You can utilize this Research Wiki for finding additional information to assist you in the learning process but its primary function is to identify the location of records and to provide the knowledge base on how to access and use those records. State and county information is available for the United States as well as many other countries.&nbsp; Please note that It is not required to have an active account with FamilySearch to browse this wiki but you must be signed in inorder to create or edit any of the articles.<br>  

While the Research Wiki's objective is to provide location information for resources, the Family Tree software is designed for searching and recording information about the people in your ancestry.&nbsp; [https://familysearch.org/register/ A '''free''' account] can be easily established which will give you access to both the Family Tree features and the Research Wiki editing options.<br>  

A comprehensive listing of several Research Wiki articles can also be found in the article titled [[Principles of Family History Research|Principles of Family History Research]]&nbsp; (see box below).<br>