All of the genealogical professionals that I know repeated state that you should START WITH YOU.

Jim & Terry Willard teach genealogy at our local college. In a recent newspaper article they say,

“With a pencil in hand and a blank sheet of paper in front of you, begin by writing down any and all information you have on your own life events. This includes recording the important pieces of informaiton:

• who was (is) the person involved,
• what was the event,
• where did the event occur,
• when did the event occur, and
• which documents show that the event actually took place.”

“After completing a sheet for yourself, you should then start a similar sheet for each person you are researching. In writing this information down, there are some guidlines you should follow.

When doing the WHO:

• Write the person’s full name, including all middle names and any titles (Rev., Capt., Dr., etc.)
• Also, spelling DOES matter. The name should be spelled exactly as it appears in the source of the information. In doing research, make note of any variations of the family name. This information may prove valuable at a later time.
• Always write a female’s name using her maiden name, as this is how you will locate most information about her. If you only know her married name, then write this in parentheses. i.e., Mary (Jones). This will serve as a visual clue that you need to research further into her identity.
• Finally, make note of any nicknames that your research may uncover and write these in quotation marks. If your Uncle Billy was really named William, you would write this information as William “Billy” Anders Jones.

When doing the WHAT:

• Identify the event as clearly as possible. For example, when listing graduation as an event in a person’s life, specify which level of graduation is being documented.
• Use standard abbreviations for events, such a b for birth or bap for baptism. Consistency in how you present your work is important.

When doing the WHERE:
Record the full name of the place where an event occurred. For a birth, write the name of the hospital, the town or city, the county, the state, and even the country if necessary. In following this procedure, you will have a trail to follow to locate related sources of information.

Remember, in most places of the world, written records (called vital records) of events might exist at any one of the levels listed above. Each record might provide a clue to a further piece of infomation.

It is important to remember that place names, like family names, might have changed over a period of time. Doing genealogical research requires that you lear as much as you can about the history of a community where an event might have occurred.”

I hope you are ready to start your journey. If you have any questions, please ask them and we will try to help you.

Hope you’ll enjoy playing along with us this month.

Here’s the posting bonus you will receive:

Country Gentleman Add-On

A little research and you might have some interesting facts to add to your family history and heritage scrapping.  Adding scanned cabinet cards to your layouts makes a wonderful period piece.

This blog is dedicated to our site’s founder and owner, Cheryl McCain, in memory of her mother who passed away December 7, 2007.   Cheryl believes it was this tragic event that drives her ambition to see everyone tell their story and leave their legacy.

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