5 Facts To Know When Starting Your Genealogy Research
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The study and tracing of family lineage is called genealogy research. In genealogy research, you collect names of living and departed relatives, establishing what the relation is among them and you. Someone who studies genealogy is called a genealogist.
When you start genealogy research, you need some facts. It’s handy to have these five key facts at hand before you begin your research:
1. Location. Locating the place of your ancestors is an essential part in finding out your lineage. To locate the place names, you need to search into vital, land, court, probate and estate records.
Sometimes the place’s name is puzzling due to the order of location being cited. Hence, if you are starting with your own family tree, it is important to follow the standard place name writing protocol. You need to record names of places from the smallest to the largest location. For example, the town should come first before the county. After listing the county, the state will follow and country is the location last entry.
2. Employment. The type of job your ancestors have is a good tool to help you in your family lineage quest. Aside from knowing what your ancestors did for a living, the kind of occupation of your ancestors will also help you to distinguish between two similar surnames. You can find the type of employment in the birth, marriage or death certificates of your ancestor. Other sources are the city directories, obituary records, and the Social Security Administration.
Family name, location, given name, date and employment are five key factors that will serve as a great help for you as you trace you family lineage. It is important however, that as you find out facts regarding the five factors to take into account its reliability.
3. Dates. Dates in genealogical search will vary. Any date is helpful - whether it refers to the birth, baptism, marriage or the death date of either your living and deceased relatives.
The types of dates mentioned above can be found in the following records: vital, church, bible, military, and census records. Newspapers are also a tool for you to be able to find dates. Other helpful tools are Social Security Death and International Genealogical Indexes.
4. Family Name. The family name (surname or last name) serves as an important tool in genealogic research. For some genealogists, it serves as the stepping stone to start the search.
Commonly, a family name originated from the name of the father itself, the location of your ancestors, the employment of the individual, and/or the nickname of the individual itself is needed.
To locate your ancestors’ family name, you may want to look at documents of birth, marriage and death certificates. Census returns and trade directories are also helpful.
5. Given Name. Long-ago, the given name (also known as the first name) was not too important in genealogy study. However, given names are now considered as an essential tool in a genealogy study and search.
Given names are said to be a representation of deliberate choice of parents. Some of the common naming patterns are:
- First name of a son obtained from the paternal grandfather’s name
- First name of a daughter obtained from the maternal grandmother’s name
Want to find out more? Visit the free Genealogy Research Center!
