Skip to content
5 Steps to Start Your Family History
Gather what you have
Before searching for anything new, look at what you already have.
Family photographs, certificates, letters, diaries, funeral notices, newspaper clippings and other items around your home may contain names, dates, places and stories that give you a starting point.
Try this: Bring everything you already have about your family together. Don't worry about organising it perfectly yet.
Record what you know
Start with yourself and work backwards, one generation at a time.
Record the names, dates, places and relationships you already know. Don't worry about empty spaces. Those gaps will help you see what you need to find next.
Start with a free Ancestry Chart
Download and print my Ancestry Chart to begin recording what you know about your family.
Want to record more than names and dates?
The Family History Notebook gives you space to record family details, relationships and sources as your family history grows.
Talk to your family
Before you disappear into websites and databases, talk to your family.
Ask about the people they remember, where family members lived, what they did, family traditions and the stories that have been passed down. One answer often leads to another question, so make notes or record the conversation with permission.
Remember: Family stories are clues, not necessarily facts. Record what you've been told, including who told you, and look for records that can help you investigate the story later.
What do you want to know?
It's easy to get distracted and go down rabbit holes when you start researching.
Instead of searching for everything about everyone, choose one thing you'd like to discover.
Perhaps you don't know when your great-grandparents married, where someone was born, or who a particular person's parents were.
Write down:
- what you want to know;
- what you already know;
- where you might find the answer.
By the end of this step, you should have one clear research question to take with you into Step 5.
Now you're ready to research
Your research is going to take you to many places both physically and via your computer.
Begin with the question you identified in Step 4. Look for records that could answer that particular question rather than simply searching a name and following whatever appears.
As you find information, record where it came from. That will help you return to the source, assess conflicting information and build family history that is supported by evidence.
Have fun and don't forget to share what you have discovered with your family.
Ready to learn how to research your family?
The Start Your Family History Kit takes you beyond these five steps and shows you how to put them into practice, with guidance on family trees, research planning, records, useful websites and more.