Getting Started with your Family History
Weddings and birthdays and burials, oh my! Writing down the dates and places of these important events is the first step in your family history journey. Start with yourself and your immediate family, listing all the places and dates you remember. Don't forget important religious events like baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, and so on if you know them.
Before you begin it is important to stay organized. You can find blank forms online that will help you get organized. Ancestral or pedigree charts let you record information about yourself and your ancestors (parents, grandparents, and so on). Family group sheets give you a place to record everything you find out about a particular family. Once you have gathered information about your family you will need to make sure that the information you have is correct, and you need to work backwards to find out information about more distant relatives.
There are several different types of records that will be important to your quest. Many of theses records, which include vital, sacramental, newspapers, city directories, census, naturalization, property, and institutional, can now be found on the internet, however many of the internet genealogy databases do not have all the records.
You may want to use one of the Library's genealogy handbooks to help you map out a strategy. Try Locating your roots: discover your ancestors using land records, The American census handbook, Record and remember: tracing your roots through oral history, The researcher's guide to American genealogy or Sally Light’s House histories: a guide to tracing the genealogy of your home.
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Resources at Montana Historical Society Research Center
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