Newbie Questions

Question

I need help!  I've been messing with Ancestry for several years but only recently got serious about my family tree.  As I really started digging in, I realized there is a LOT on Ancestry that is incorrect.  Some of the info is so off base I swear they just made it up out of thin air.

SO....the other realization I've made is that, I know how to Google, and I know how to look at OTHER people's research on Ancestry.....but I don't actually know how to do my own.  Where do I start?  For example, where are people getting copies of death certificates?

As far as what I have entered so far on my own, I just know things (names and birthdays, etc.) so I've been entering at least that much.  But once I get past those people, I have to actually know how to research and I don't have a clue.  Any pointers for someone just starting out?

-Stacey Keeling Barr

Answer 1

Welcome Stacey!

Have you tried searching at Familysearch.org?  They often have great marriage, death, and birth information.  And they are a free site. 

Do you use census records?  quite a bit of the best information can come from a census record from a family--list of children and dates and places of birth.

One neat trick available on WikiTree is the Roots Search feature on every profile.  The link is towards the bottom right of a profile.  Here is a link to a video created by our own Mags Gaulden on how to use it.

Also, feel free to come to G2G any time and ask for help looking up particular information for a profile.  Just be sure to reference the profile ID in the question.  The more help you get the faster you will learn how to do it for yourself :-)

 

 

Comments

Does your great suggestions! Thank you so much!

---

Sorry I am using voice to text so clearly I am not speaking well enough for it to understand me!

---

LOL, Stacey.  Isn't technology fun? I knew what you meant :-)

Answer 2

WOW, Welcome to Wikitree. I am very impressed with everything you have added to your tree already!! Especially if this has been done purely on family stories and knowledge.

There is a link around here somewhere on how to get started, but right now I just can't find it...

Also someone needs to help you cite your family knowledge as a source - but that's not me either.

Sorry. I'm sure someone else will help. Not being an American, I have no idea where you guys purchase your certificates from.

I just wanted to say welcome and how impressed I was with your beginner tree.!!!

Comments

Thank you! I should be clear and state that I was only able to fill in information back to my great-great-grandparents. I think what you might be referring to is where I started to enter in information but got a notification that somebody else already owned that grandparent's page. When I accepted it and linked to it, it filled in a ton of ancestors going back to the 1200's. So that was not all me! Haha

---

OF course not Stacey!!  Even to get back to your great grandparents with no sources other than family knowledge is impressive.

As to the connection back to the 1200s - THAT is the whole entire POINT of Wiikitree. LOL  Collaboration to make ONE big global tree!!!

You were very lucky to find that connection so quickly.

---

Oh yes, you can think my grandmother for that one. She was the original genealogist haha. She spent hours upon hours researching our families and then would tell us about her findings. She loved researching our family so I'm very lucky in that I know a lot more than a lot of people would. My aunt told me the other day after my grandmother died, she took all of her genealogy stuff and has it at her house. There are multiple boxes of hand written histories, photos, and and she even started writing a book about the Moore and Chiles families.  I am excited to see what all she has! When my grandmother was alive I was young so I didn't pay much attention to this stuff. I really wish I had.

---

Well now if you can find the time, you can go through all those boxes and see who is related to whom and maybe add them to your tree here on Wikitree.

Speaking of Chiles, this may seems weird. but back in the 1980s there was an american actress named Lois Chiles. She is on IMDB and hasnt acted for quite some time. Partly because she got married, and also partly because she was battling breast cancer. So I thought I would add her details and see if they connect up to your Chiles family.

Lois Chiles - Was the daughter of Barbara Wayne (née Kirkland) and Marion Clay Chiles, who was the brother of oil tycoon and Texas Rangers owner Eddie Chiles.

Source  -- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001042/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

Just in case that helps you.

Answer 3

Welcome Stacey,

Emma is perfectly correct with her suggestions. I always like to verify my information by linking family through newspaper articles, a good place to get new names is for example funeral notices.  It will give you family names and of course funeral dates and location. Gathering family names for a tree can be frustrating too when there is more than one person with same name and date of birth, this is where the fun begins and you become Sherlock Holmes.

 I have found everyone at WikiTree more than obliging and they have  blogs, education and other interviews to grow you in your journey. Enjoy the trip.

Answer 4

Stacey many libraries have Fold3 and local historical newspaper and church records on file as well as civil records including birth, marriage and death records.  

A lot of where you look depends on the time period and location of your family.  Some states have some records online others you have to go access them.  Often State archives are great source of info.  

If researching in Europe a lot of smaller towns have family or church books put together by local historians.  

If you can tell us the locations and time periods we might be able to give you more specific sources to check.