Thankful Me: Friday Family History: Getting Started

Family history research can seem daunting--after all, Grandma had a grandma, and she had a grandma, and so on, and so on.? The good news is that family history doesn't have to just be an endless quest for names and dates; family history comes alive with piecing together life stories, and the telling of the stories can occur bit by bit.

Of course, it is hard to write about an anonymous person, so names and dates do figure into the story. The best way to get started with family history research is to write down what you already know.? What is your name, birth date and place, etc.?? Who are your parents? Siblings? Grandparents???

A fantastic, free resource to help you gather information is http://www.familysearch.org.? You will need to register at the site, but once you do, you will be able to search the collection of records.

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Not only that, but as you research your family names, you will be able to create beautiful charts of your family tree.? Here's a screen shot of an example of a fan chart from my tree:
Zooming in, we find:
Hannah Pierpont is my g-g-g-g-g-grandmother.? She married Abel Brockett, and their children are listed at the bottom of the screen shot.? Her parents were Joseph Pierpont and Hannah Russell.? Her grandparents were James Pierpont, Mary Hooker, Noadiah Russell, and Mary Hamblin.

You can make a fan chart using yourself as the person in the middle, with your spouse and children listed under you, and your parents, grandparents, g-grandparents, and g-g-grandparents above.? It's a nice visual representation of your family tree.

How do you do your family history?? Have you used familysearch.org???

Thanks for technological advances which make family history work easier.? (And thanks for my sister--happy birthday!)

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Sew Darn Crafty Party,? Find a Friend Friday, Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop, Show Your Stuff, The Wildly Original Link Party, Wow Us Wednesdays, Down Home Blog Hop, Tuesday Archive Link Up, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, Grandparents Say It Saturday
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Source: http://www.thankfulme.net/2013/05/friday-family-history-getting-started.html

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