How to Start Researching Your Family History

Understanding What Family History Research Involves

Family history research, also called genealogy, is the process of tracing your ancestors and building a record of your family tree. This involves gathering names, dates, places, and relationships that connect your relatives across generations. Unlike what television shows sometimes portray, genealogy is not a quick treasure hunt. It requires patience, organization, and a willingness to follow documentary evidence wherever it leads.

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The scope of family history research varies widely depending on your goals. Some people trace their ancestry back two or three generations to learn about grandparents or great-grandparents. Others pursue research spanning many centuries or multiple continents. According to the Family History Library, which maintains one of the world's largest collections of genealogical records, the average person researching their family can find meaningful information about ancestors from the past 200 to 300 years with reasonable effort.

Your research may reveal surprising information. Perhaps an ancestor immigrated from a country you didn't know about. Maybe a relative had an occupation that shaped your family's path. You might discover cousins you never knew existed. Genealogical research can also uncover family stories that have been passed down but contain inaccuracies, and it can help confirm stories that seemed too unlikely to be true.

It's important to understand that genealogy relies on documents rather than memory. A family story about an ancestor might be partially true or contain details that have changed over time. Documents—birth certificates, marriage records, census data, and other official papers—provide a more reliable foundation for your research. This doesn't mean family stories are worthless; they often point researchers toward documents that verify or clarify what happened.

Practical Takeaway: Before you begin, decide what you want to learn. Are you interested in one particular ancestor, your father's side of the family, or your entire family tree? Write down what you already know—names, dates, and places—and note any family stories you've heard. This starting point will guide your research direction and help you recognize when you find relevant documents.

Gathering Information from Family Sources

Your first research step should always be gathering what you already know from family members and family documents. This foundational work is free and often reveals details that no public records contain. Start by talking to the oldest relatives in your family who remember previous generations. Record what they tell you, preferably in writing or via notes on your phone so you don't forget details later.

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Search your home for family documents. These might include birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, death certificates, military service records, naturalization papers, old letters, diaries, photographs with dates or names written on the back, funeral programs, newspaper clippings, family bibles with handwritten genealogical information, or baby books. Many families have accumulated these documents without realizing their genealogical value. Creating a list of what you find helps you organize your early research.

Photographs are particularly valuable. Old family photos often have clues written on the back—names, dates, or locations. If a photograph shows a studio name, that information can help you determine when and where it was taken. Family portraits might show clothing styles that suggest a time period. Some families have kept photograph albums with captions. Even undated, unidentified photos can sometimes be placed in a timeline by comparing them with family stories.

Family bibles deserve special mention because they were commonly used as genealogical records. People would write births, marriages, and deaths directly into the family pages of large family bibles. If your family has retained a bible, even a damaged one, the handwritten entries can contain valuable information that might not appear anywhere else. Courts have recognized handwritten genealogical information in family bibles as admissible evidence in inheritance cases, which speaks to their significance.

Create an organized system for what you collect. A simple approach is to use a notebook or computer document where you write down names, dates, places, and the source of each piece of information. Note who told you something versus what you found in a document, because these distinctions matter when evaluating reliability later. As your collection grows, you'll refer back to these notes repeatedly.

Practical Takeaway: Contact three older relatives this week and ask them to share what they remember about your family. Specifically ask about names, birth years, where people lived, occupations, and any stories about immigration or major family events. Write down their responses word-for-word if possible, and note which relative provided each piece of information.

Using Census Records as a Foundation

Census records are among the most valuable tools in genealogical research because they provide snapshots of your family at specific points in time. The United States has conducted a decennial census (every ten years) since 1790. These records list the names of people living in a household, their relationship to the head of household, ages, occupations, birthplaces, and other information depending on the census year. Census records are publicly available and searchable through various websites.

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The 1950 Census is the most recent U.S. census available to the public, released in 2022. This 72-year restriction exists to protect privacy. Researchers can access censuses from 1790 through 1950. Each census year asked slightly different questions, so the information varies. The 1900 Census, for example, listed whether parents were foreign-born, which helps identify immigration patterns. The 1910 Census indicated naturalization status. This variation means that examining multiple census years for your family provides a more complete picture.

To use census records effectively, start with what you know about your grandparents or great-grandparents. If you know someone was living in a particular city around 1950, you can search the 1950 Census for that location and find a complete household listing. Once you locate someone in a later census, you can work backward, searching earlier censuses for the same person and watching how their household composition and location changed over decades.

Census records sometimes contain errors or inconsistencies. A person's age might vary by a year or two from census to census. Birthplaces might be listed differently (a specific town in 1900 but only the country in 1910). Names might be spelled differently or shortened. These variations are normal and don't indicate that the records are unreliable; they simply reflect how information was recorded and remembered during different time periods. Researchers expect these minor discrepancies.

Free census search platforms include FamilySearch, which is maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and offers census records at no cost. Ancestry.com offers census records through a subscription, as does MyHeritage. Library websites sometimes provide free access to Ancestry.com through your library card. Many public libraries offer free classes on how to search census records, making this an excellent starting point for learning research skills.

Practical Takeaway: Visit FamilySearch.org or your library's genealogy resources and search the 1930 Census for someone in your family whose location you know. Look at both the search results and the actual census page images. Note what information appears and which details surprised you or didn't match family stories.

Locating and Using Vital Records

Vital records are official government documents that record major life events: births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. These records are among the most reliable documents in genealogical research because they were created at or near the time an event occurred, often by an official who witnessed it. A birth certificate created days after a child was born contains more accurate information than a census record created 10 years later based on the parents' memory.

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In the United States, vital records are maintained by individual states, counties, or municipalities, and each jurisdiction has different rules about access and fees. Some states made births and deaths more uniform only in the 1900s. Some areas did not register births legally until the 1920s or later. This fragmentation means that finding a vital record requires knowing which location issued it and then contacting the appropriate agency. Before pursuing official copies, however, many vital records have been digitized and are searchable through genealogy websites.

A birth certificate provides the child's name, date of birth, place of birth, parents' names, and parents' occupations or birthplaces. This information can lead you to locate parents in census records or help you search for their marriage record. A marriage record lists both spouses' names, the marriage date, the location, and sometimes the parents' names and occupations. These details help you trace both sides of your family. Death records provide a person's death date, place, cause of death, age, and sometimes burial location, allowing you to estimate birth dates and understand historical contexts (epidemics