Genealogy 101, How and where did you start?

Ok I am wanting to start my search for my family ancestery search ans have no idea where to start. any ideas.
Darlene

Hi Darlene! Well these are the sites that I started out with and got some information on. Hope that helps.

www.rootsweb.com
www.ancestry.com
www.gencircles.com
www.cousinconnect.com
www.genealogy.com

and the LDS church www.familysearch.org

I Found a couple of programs that I use to for my searching for ancestors, beside the Web. One is called http://learn.arc.nasa.gov/worldwind/. It is a virtual map program that will allow you to find locations all around the Earth.
The other is genepro. It allows you to downlaod ged files.

First of all, start with your own family and relatives. Put together a list of information that you are interested in and ask everyone. Some may not have anything to add. Some may talk for hours. Then follow up on any family story that has historical leads. Ask for old pictures, scrapbooks, any physical evidence.

I found a lot, cleaning out my in-laws house. I went through every pile of paper, drawer and closet, looking for documentation. Your mileage may vary.

This can give you leads for your search. Family names and places are invaluable.

As well as the ancestry web sites, Google can help you find others that are doing the same thing as you.

There are lots of sources.

Good luck and have fun.

Thanks CR for this info. I just happened to be messing around tonight and stumbled upon this thread. ancestory .com has a free 3 day trial. Well, after having tons of trouble finding any information, I just traced them back to the 1500"s. Not only that but I have a good amount of scottish and irish blood in me which makes me feel right at home!

I tried the infokey.com site that was mentioned, but it told me it couldn't be found.

I am going to concentrate now on finding my ancestors who came from Ireland, but it will be difficult!

Here is a link that might be helpful for Irish research:

http://www.pharostutors.com/index.php

Sherry Irvine is one of the instructors. I took a course with her a few years ago. It was very good and I am hoping to take the new course she is offering. The first one I took was when my dad was very ill, so I was not able to give it my full attention.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Haynes, I bookmarked the site and will take a look at it in a bit. I did come across some information, but the name o"brien seems to be a common name from Ireland, which will make it even harder since I only have estimated dates from that time. Plus their fathers first name is extremely common, Michael, but the mother is Hanorah,(which isn't as common but are still several in that time period) so maybe that will narrow it down.

Boy I'm so gald I stopped here tonight, been trying all kinds of web sites. Going to take alot of what I've learned.
All I know about my fathers side is that I'm scottish ,Irish and oh yes English (not sure how that happened).
Going to take all this and work on it tomorrow. Can't wait

Harlot

I'm Scots-Irish, Welsh and English along with a lot of other things. How the English happened is easy to figure out if you know a bit of history. England basically decided they were better and conquered everyone else. The king of England took over everything and it became the United Kingdom.
RebeccaAnn

What I met by not knowing how that happened, the way the Scots and irish get along with the English I told my dad couldn't figure out how we came to be ,joking my father says "well one nite they did" and thats how it came to be LOL. My dad had a humor about him. But then I was about 13 years old at the time.

Gotta love him

Harlot

Boy, have I been busy, I've found great and grandfather's names on alot of the sites I learned about here.I know where they lived in the 1900's,who they married, but I've hit a wall as to when and where my great grandfather came here and from where in England. I also can't find great grandmother's surname, I know what state she was born in and what month,and year,so I'm stuck not sure where to look next.Anyone have any ideas? But I've been having so much fun doing this. I work on it for about 4 hours a night while listening to to the music.

Problem is your grandmother is English. The English have this strange habit of when a girl marries she takes her husband's name and her name is forgotten forever. Her family name appears on their marriage record but never appears again. Often a child will carry the mother's maiden name as a first name or a middle name. In my family the name Bryson has been carried down through several generations. Bryson is a family name I was able to trace and found great grandmother Edwards was born Elizabeth Bryson. I have done this with several of my family. Look at the children's names and they will often give you clues to the mother's name. This is the only way English maiden names have survived, by them giving it to one or more of their children. Hope this is of help to you. If I can be of any service please let me know. I work in the family history library and am called as a family history consultant by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Jim and I were first called to work in the family history center nearly 25 years ago and are still working there. We also do our own family history and teach others and help them with theirs.
RebeccaAnn