Find tips, techniques, worksheets, and downloads to help you get started with your family projects.
Use the tabs on the left to navigate through the research steps to begin your genealogy project. These steps represent the foundational techniques necessary to gather information and documentation that will provide evidentiary support for your findings. Some of the steps feature helpful worksheets for you to download to document the information you'll be gathering and to help you stay organized in the process.
The first step to researching your family history is to think about yourself and what you already know. You know your birth date and where you were born. You probably have a copy of your birth certificate. If you have been married, then you know when and where you were married, and likely have your marriage certificate. You already have the first pieces to your pedigree puzzle.
The reason you begin with yourself is because you are the individual from whom the tree traces back. You are the tip of the upside-down pyramid that you are about to build, and each generation adds twice as many people to the pyramid. There are:
1 of you;
2 of your parents;
4 of your grandparents;
8 of your great-grandparents;
16 of your great-great-grandparents; and so on!
As you identify the family members above, you immediately have two new questions to answer: Who is that person’s mother? Who is their father?
Download our full booklet and guide: Jump Start Your Genealogy Research for more information on pedigree charts, family group sheets, interview questions, forms, and more!
Our Member Manual is almost 200 pages and covers everything to help new researchers get started on their family journeys, while also providing helpful research spanning a myriad of related genealogy topics from land records to advanced research tips, lists of genealogy resources, links to religious databases, genealogy forms and so much more.