SHOW NOTES: Ever wondered about your family history? Delving into your ancestry can be both exciting and overwhelming. I’m going to break down the basics of genealogy research, offering beginner-friendly tips and tricks to help you get started on your own family tree journey. These tips are also great for getting back to genealogy after taking a break, or if you’ve been at it a while, just making sure that you’ve covered all of the most essential bases.
Listen to the Podcast Episode
To Listen click the media player below (AUDIO ONLY):
Start with yourself and work backwards. This provides a foundation for your research.
Compile all the information you already have about your family, including:
names, dates, places of life events.
Scour your house for records, photo albums, family bibles.
Write down stories or anecdotes you’ve heard.
2. Get a genealogy software program
You need a place to put the information. Yes, you can build a family tree online, but it’s critical to have the main tree that you work on be the one on your computer. That way you own the files forever and you’re not reliant on an ongoing subscription or a group tree where others can change it.
There are a wide variety of genealogy software options, but the good news is you only need one.
It’s not a big investment. For less than $40 or $50 you can get a powerful program that can track everything you find, keep it organized, make it easily searchable, and even run reports and connect you to hints on your favorite genealogy websites.
Rootsmagic, Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Maker and Reunion are some of the most popular and have been around the longest. I use RootsMagic https://rootsmagic.com/store/rootsmagic/
It’s really important to take the time to talk with family members. You’ll want to gather information, uncover stories, and gain insights into your family history. Encourage them to share their memories, photos, and documents. And let’s be practical, it’s best to start with your oldest living relatives first. Prepare your questions ahead of time and record whenever possible.
5. Get familiar with AI tools
Embrace AI-powered tools. Even if you don’t use them for anything else, there’s no denying that AI can dramatically speed up your research and do a ton of the heavy lifting.
Get comfortable with at least one of the leading AI Chatbots. You can start out with the free version, and if you want more horsepower, subscribe for a low monthly fee.
Leading options: ChatGPT, Grok, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.
Pick one, bookmark it on your web browser, and use it.
Once you’ve laid this foundation, you’re ready to make your first new discoveries. At first it will be easy to know what to work on because you’re still working backwards. Most of us can fill in most of the blanks on our grandparents. But then it’s time to move to your great grandparents and so on.
You’re going to focus first on finding ancestors. These are the people you are directly descended from: grandparents, great grandparents, and so on.
You’ll also be filling in the tree with your relatives. These are your aunts and uncles, cousins and so on. For each ancestral couple, take the time to find all their children. These people may feel more secondary, but the record of a great aunt might be the key to unlocking information about her parents that you couldn’t find by only researching her brother your grandfather. When it comes to all your relatives, that’s totally up to you. You can invest time on finding them now, or wait until you make more progress on your tree and then come back to them later when you have time.
7. Gather Foundational Records
You’re going to focus on essential milestones for each ancestor in your tree. Think of this information as the backbone of your family tree. You can add flesh to the bones later.
Start with the most recent event for that ancestor, which was probably their death if you’re working on a great grandparent, and then move back to their marriage, and then their birth.
From there, you’ll want to fill in some of the most important items such as:
Their children (records: census, obituaries in newspapers, etc.)
Where they lived throughout their life (records: census, city directories, voter registrations, etc.)
Military service (records: draft cards, service records, pension records, etc.)
8. Leverage the power of search engines
While not everything is online by any stretch of the imagination, here are some of the best online sources to search for the records we just mentioned:
FamilySearch – https://www.familysearch.org
All kinds of historical records, digitized books, and family tree info.
You’ll also need to up your game with Google so that you can find things beyond just the most popular genealogy websites. And these skills will come in really handy with Google Books.
Use search operators to target specific resources.
Quotes around a word or phrase for exact matches.
Use a minus sign in front of words you want to exclude from the results.
Place an asterisk between two words within quotes to include a few words or initials between the exact phrase.
There are many more search operators and strategies. These are covered in the wide range of Genealogy Gems videos. Visit https://lisalouisecooke.com/videos/ and click the “Google” category.
It’s time to put some flesh on the bones so to speak. In other words, creating a more comprehensive timeline for your ancestor. Your genealogy software probably has a timeline report feature. Pull it up or print it out and start filling in the gaps.
Where they worked (records: census, city directories, industry catalogs, etc.)
Land they owned (records: land records, tax records, probate records, etc.)
If they immigrated from another country (records: passenger lists, citizenship papers, etc.)
Photos (sources: family members, Google search, old photo databases, genealogy websites like Ancestry, MyHeritage, Findmypast and FamilySearch, etc.)
Any other interesting life events (records: Newspapers, books, etc.)
10. Mastering the art of record interpretation
It’s not enough to find records. You’ve got to really understand what they are and are not telling you.
Take the time to familiarize yourself with the record collection.
Why was it created?
Who created it?
What timeframe does it cover?
What doesn’t it include?
Use AI tools to help you transcribe or translate records but always check for accuracy!
Find out what the abbreviations used in the documents mean. (ex. Census instructions)
Use multiple credible sources to verify the information you find.
Sign up today here and get Lisa’s free ebook as a bonus. The Genealogy Gems email newsletter is the best way to stay informed about what’s available with your Premium eLearning Membership.
SHOW NOTES: Episode 294 of the Genealogy Gems podcast shines a spotlight on 15 under-the-radar websites that serious genealogists should know about. Lisa Louise Cooke reveals powerful resources like AI tools capable of deciphering old handwriting in unindexed records, clever ways to hunt for unique family artifacts and ephemera online, specialized digital libraries perfect for finding memoirs, how obscure fashion archives can help date your mystery photos, and cutting-edge map sites that let you search text within the historical maps themselves. Plus, stick around until the very end for a special bonus tech tip to make your research even smoother!
Listen to the Podcast Episode
To Listen click the media player below (AUDIO ONLY):
You know how OCR technology lets computers read typed text on old documents? For years, which didn’t work well for handwritten records. But FamilySearch is changing the game! Their Full-text Search project, available through FamilySearch Labs, is training AI to decipher historical handwriting. The exciting part? More and more handwritten records that once required tedious page-by-page Browse are becoming keyword searchable. Dive in and explore the collections currently using Full-text search.
2. Calculating Cousins with FamilySearch
Ever get tangled trying to figure out if someone’s your second cousin once removed, or… something else entirely? Take the guesswork out of cousin relationships with the fantastic Cousin Chart blog post on FamilySearch. It pulls together some of the best tools – a handy visualization chart, a ‘Cousin Calculator’ tool, and even a math-based method. Bookmark this one – it’s a lifesaver!
3. Ancestry.com – Just How Far Back Can They Go?
We know Ancestry.com lets you filter searches way back, even to the 1600s. But is that the limit? Not even close! According to Ancestry themselves, their oldest documents are the Mühldorf Deeds from Germany, dating back to the 1300s! And thanks to modern tech, even these incredibly old documents can be surprisingly legible and searchable. Visit Ancestry.com’s Card Catalog.
4. Get Organized with Family Tree Magazine
Feeling buried under piles of papers or drowning in digital files? Getting your genealogy organized is a common goal, and Family Tree Magazine has a fantastic resource page to help you finally conquer the chaos. Their Organize Your Genealogy page gathers their best guides on everything from taming paper clutter and digital files to organizing photos and your workspace.
5. Newspapers – Veridian Collections
Many of us were sad to see the newspaper site Elephind.com go. But the good news is, the company behind it, DL Consulting, is still helping libraries digitize their collections using their Veridian software. Why does this matter to you? Because you can browse the fascinating, digitized content from their clients – including many unique and free newspaper collections – directly through the Veridian website.
6. In Search of Memoirs at FamilySearch Digital Library
Imagine discovering a detailed, personal memoir written by an ancestor born over 170 years ago! That actually happened to me. For decades, I knew my husband’s great-grandmother, Minna Boettcher, born in 1853, had written about her pioneer life, but the book was lost. Then, just recently, my sister-in-law found it while downsizing! It’s filled with incredible details. This experience is a reminder to talk to your relatives – you never know what family history treasures might be hiding in their homes! But while you wait (hopefully not 40 years like me!), try searching for memoirs in the FamilySearch Digital Library. I recommend using the Advanced Search, putting ‘Memoirs’ in the Title field and a surname in the Keyword field.
7. Shopping for Family History at eBay
Time for some retail therapy – genealogy style! You might be surprised what family history treasures you can find on eBay.com. Think beyond records – I’m talking about artifacts! Over the years, I’ve snagged things like catalogs and tools from my husband’s great-grandfather’s hardware store, an old stock certificate signed by an ancestor, photos, yearbooks, postcards, even a tablecloth embroidered with family names and dates! My pro tip: Run searches for family names, ancestral businesses, or hometowns, and save those searches. eBay will then notify you when matching items pop up!
8. Giving Back: Birth Parent Finder
Navigating searches related to adoption often requires specialized help. BirthParentFinder.com is a resource dedicated to this, combining investigative expertise with DNA analysis to help reunite birth parents, siblings, and adopted children across the US. They offer a fantastic free blog with strategies and success stories, and they’ve recently launched the ‘Finding Family DNA with Chris and Jay’ podcast. Don’t miss the episode featuring Family Tree Magazine’s own Andrew Koch!
9. The New Chronicling America
Next up, a long-time favorite that just got a major upgrade: The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America newspaper site! It’s always been a go-to for free historical newspapers, but the new Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers collection website is fantastic. It boasts a completely redesigned interface built to handle its massive, growing collection. Key upgrades include better search refinement, an improved image viewer, and updated advanced search options. But one of the coolest new features, especially if you’re a visual person like me, is the ability to explore newspapers geographically. The interactive map lets you zoom into specific areas and click blue dots to see available digitized papers. Plus, there’s a time slider to filter by date. They add new content weekly, so keep checking back!
10. MyHeritage’s New OldNews.com
Broaden your newspaper horizons with MyHeritage’s dedicated newspaper site, OldNews.com. Launched recently, this site already contains hundreds of millions of pages from small-town papers to major international ones, effectively doubling the newspaper content previously on MyHeritage. And they plan to add millions more pages monthly, so it’s a rapidly growing resource!
11. Fashion History Timeline
Those old family photos hold more clues than you might think, especially in the clothes! Fashion can reveal social standing, hint at activities, and crucially, help date photos. To decipher these clues, check out the free Fashion History Timeline from the Fashion Institute of Technology. It’s an academic resource with searchable databases of publications on fashion history, perfect for pinpointing that unfamiliar style in Grandma’s portrait.
12. The American Immigrant Wall of Honor Database
Did your ancestors immigrate to the US? You might find their names – or add them yourself – to The American Immigrant Wall of Honor at Ellis Island. Originally started in 1990 for Ellis Island immigrants, it’s now open to honor any immigrant, regardless of when or where they arrived. You can search the existing database for free at the Statue of Liberty.org website and even add your own ancestor’s name to the wall through the Foundation’s heritage site.
How incredible would it be to find a lost photo of your ancestor online? Thousands of people have had that exact experience using the free photo archive, DeadFred.com! It’s a repository of user-submitted old photos, many unidentified or partially identified. Search by surname or location – you might get lucky! And if you find a photo of a direct ancestor that’s part of the DeadFred archive itself, they’ll often send you the original for free. It’s also a great place to upload your own mystery photos – maybe someone out there holds the key!
The David Rumsey Map Collection, already an amazing resource, recently launched a Machines Reading Maps tool. It has indexed 100 million words across 57,000 historical maps. Think about searching for terms relevant to your ancestors’ lives: ‘saloon,’ ‘lumberyard,’ ‘winery,’ ‘livery stable,’ or even a specific business name! The Advanced Search lets you combine text searches with map metadata. Hover over results to see the map snippet, and yes, all maps are free to download.
15. Primary Sources at JSTOR
Let’s enrich your family’s story with historical context. JSTOR is a vast digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. While you might not find your great-aunt’s birth certificate, you can find incredible materials that describe the world your ancestors lived in. For instance, I found the incredibly detailed WWII POW journal of Lt. Joseph ‘Ed’ Carter on JSTOR Daily. Reading accounts like this – journals, articles about local industries, social histories – can bring your ancestors’ experiences to life, even if they aren’t mentioned by name. Dive in and see what context you can uncover!
Bonus Tech Tips
Chrome Web Browser: Type @Gemini in the address bar, press the space bar, and then type your question. Press Enter on your keyboard for the answer!
Sign up today here. The Genealogy Gems email newsletter is the best way to stay informed about what’s available with your Premium eLearning Membership.
