What a research session looks like

You pick one question about one person, such as where a great-grandmother was born, and spend the session on that question alone.
You search record collections online, read the original page image instead of trusting the typed index, and save a copy.
You write down where each fact came from. A date without a source is a rumor, and you will not remember next year which website it came from.
You log the searches that found nothing too, so you never repeat them.
Between sessions you chase the offline half: calling relatives, writing to county clerks, visiting a library or cemetery.

Two hands holding open an old album of black and white family snapshots — A family album, open at the snapshots

An open ledger of handwritten entries on a wooden desk, an inkwell and a quill behind it

How to get started

Tick each line when it is done

What you can finish in your first month

Four-generation ancestor chart

You, your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents on one page, with the blanks showing you exactly where to dig next.

One recorded interview

Thirty minutes with an older relative, saved in two places and summarized on a page of notes.

A proven census trail

One grandparent or great-grandparent found in every census they lived through, each page saved and cited.

A family group sheet per couple

One page for each set of grandparents listing every child, with a source written beside each date.

A labeled photo binder

The loose family photos you were handed, identified in pencil on the back and sleeved in order.

The skills that make a tree trustworthy

Known to unknown

Start with yourself and prove each parent link before climbing to the next generation.

Cite as you go

Write the source beside every fact at the moment you record it, with enough detail that a stranger could find the same page.

Weigh the informant

A birth date on a death certificate came from a grieving relative decades later, so a record made near the event usually wins.

Search by place

Spellings drift (and census takers wrote what they heard), but a family stays in the same county and next to the same neighbors.

Research the whole household

Siblings, in-laws, and witnesses on a marriage record often break a wall that the direct ancestor cannot.

A weathered arched headstone in a wooded cemetery, autumn leaves in the foreground

Directions you can take it

Open one to see where to start

DNA TestingA saliva test that lists living cousins who share your DNA, useful for unknown parentage and for confirming a paper trail.

Start here

Decide which question you want answered (ethnicity curiosity, a missing grandparent, confirming a paper trail), then test the oldest living relative on that side before you test yourself. Their DNA reaches one generation further back than yours.

ISOGG Wiki

Photo ScanningDigitizing the family's photos, letters, and certificates so every cousin can have a copy and the originals can rest.

Start here

Ask one relative to lend you a single shoebox of photos for a week. Scan every item front and back, name each file with the date and the people in it, and return the box with a copy of the scans.

Cemetery VisitsFinding and photographing family graves, which often give dates and relationships no surviving paper does.

Start here

Look up one ancestor's burial on a free grave index, then visit on a clear morning or late afternoon when low sun makes worn lettering readable. Photograph the whole stone, the inscription, and the stones on either side, since neighbors are often family.

Find a Grave

Oral historyRecording the stories of living relatives, the one source that disappears for good if you wait.

Start here

Pick the oldest relative you can reach, bring ten open questions and one old photo, and record the conversation on your phone with their permission. Ask about people and places before dates.

StoryCorps Great Questions

Immigrant ancestorsFollowing a family across an ocean through passenger lists, naturalization papers, and records in the old country.

Start here

Find your immigrant ancestor in a US census first: it gives the arrival year and whether they naturalized, which tells you which passenger list and court record to look for next.

National Archives immigration records

What trips beginners up

What to expect, and the habits to drop

Expect brick walls. Every line eventually stops at a burned courthouse, a common name, or a time before records were kept, and some stay stuck for years.
Expect conflicting records. Ages shift between censuses and names change spelling, so you will often hold three dates for one birth.
Expect slow mail. Many county and state offices still answer record requests by post, in weeks.
Do not copy other people's online trees. They are full of errors that spread by copying. Treat them as clues and find the record yourself.
Do not assume a matching name is your person. Check age, place, spouse, and children before attaching a record.
Do not write on, laminate, tape, or paper-clip originals. Label photo backs lightly in soft pencil and keep everything in archival sleeves.
Do not skip the living. Records will still be there in ten years. Your great-aunt's memory may not be.

A worn wooden chest packed with old portraits and cabinet cards — Loose portraits kept in a wooden chest

Privacy, DNA surprises, and cemetery rules

Keep living people private. Do not post names, birth dates, or photos of living relatives in a public tree without asking them first.
A DNA test can reveal unknown siblings, a different biological parent, or an adoption, for you and for relatives who never agreed to test. Decide beforehand whether you want to know, and read each company's settings for cousin matching and law enforcement access.
Recent vital records are restricted in most states. Birth records are commonly closed for 75 to 100 years, and you may need to prove your relationship to order one.
Cemeteries are private or municipal property. Follow posted hours, ask the office before cleaning any stone, and never use wire brushes, bleach, household cleaners, shaving cream, or chalk on one.

A 1930s black and white snapshot of a couple and two children standing in a garden — A family snapshot from the 1930s

Read before you test

ISOGG Wiki Free volunteer-written reference on DNA test types and reading match lists

Where to learn and get help

Your public library is the best free resource most beginners overlook: many hold subscriptions to the paid record sites that you can use in the building at no charge, and a librarian in the local history room knows which county records survive. Local genealogical societies run beginner classes and answer lookups for members. Online, a free research wiki will tell you which records exist for any county or country and where they are kept, and volunteer county pages often carry transcribed cemetery lists and wills you will find nowhere else.

Archive shelves stacked with labeled document boxes — Labeled boxes on an archive shelf

Free record sites, guides and societies

Why the kit looks like this

The research itself is free, so the kit is about keeping what you find. The essentials are paper: forms to record each family and a binder to hold them in order. The recommended lines protect things that cannot be replaced, with archival sleeves and a box for originals and a drive for a second copy of your scans. Everything else follows a direction. Add the DNA test, the scanner, or the cemetery gear only when you take that path. Paid record subscriptions are deliberately left out: use the free sites and your library's access first, and subscribe for a month at a time once you know which collection you need.

A hand holding two black and white group photographs against a dark wooden door — Two group photographs, held up to the light

Fill the archive box

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there. The forms, the binder, the dividers, the guidebook, the sleeves, the photo box and the backup drive start in the kit. The DNA test, the scanning gear and the cemetery gear stay out until you switch them on in section 04 or with the chips in the cart.

Genealogy forms workbook

essential · Record keeping

Ancestor charts and family group sheets are the standard way to see a family at a glance and spot the gaps. A bound set keeps them together and gives you something to fill in while a relative is talking.

budget

Family History Record Book: An 8-generation family tree workbook to record your research

4.4(1.2K)

$9.99

Genealogy

What a research session looks like

How to get started

The skills that make a tree trustworthy

Directions you can take it

What trips beginners up

Privacy, DNA surprises, and cemetery rules

Where to learn and get help

Why the kit looks like this

Fill the archive box

Genealogy forms workbook

Three-ring binder

Binder tab dividers

Beginner genealogy guidebook

Archival sheet protectors

Archival photo storage box

Portable external hard drive

Autosomal DNA test kit

Flatbed photo scanner

Powder-free nitrile gloves

Soft natural-bristle brush

Collapsible photo light reflector

Lighted handheld magnifier