Getting Started

• Start with yourself and your immediate family and work backwards to your grandparents, making a note of all the names, dates and facts you are certain of.

• Talk to the members of your family and ask for their recollections. Keep a separate record of what each person tells you so that you can compare notes.

• Try and find as many family documents as you can – birth/marriage/death certificates, correspondence, receipts, photographs. Search your cupboards and the attic.  Ask other family members to do the same.

• Show what you find to older members of the family – it may jog their memories.

• Always record where you find your information so that you can find it again. You think you will remember, but you never do!

• Using the information you have found, start making up a family tree – this will help you to identify any gaps.

• Make a list of questions arising from your researches so far. This will be the starting point for the  of your research.

TIP:

Make a tree to your grandparents with dates of birth/marriage/death if known, refer this back to family members to see if information is correct.