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website (http://www.cs.williams.edu/~b ailey/genealogy/) are just two websites containing several charts and forms that can be downloaded.

Organizing the information reveals what information you have and what is needed. Armed with this, the next step is to ask family members if they can fill in the missing information. Some may not be willing to share, but surprisingly, most are very interested in learning about their family tree and gladly help.

The next step in building a family tree can take you in several directions. You might want to visit a cemetery where relatives were buried to see if other family members that you didn't know were buried there, too. If you have a camera, take pictures of the family headstones for your records. Record on the back of each picture the name of the cemetery, location and the date the photograph was taken.

If you have never been to the archives before, now is a good time to go. The archives contain a huge amount of information on all the families who lived in the area where the archives is located and then some. Whether it is an obituary from a newspaper published 80 years ago or a church record where your great-grandparents were married, helpful staff can direct you to the information you seek.

One might ask, "why wouldn't I begin my family tree research at the archives?" The simple answer is that you wouldn't know where to start. The archives contains so much information that without the basic information on the family, there is no starting point. At least if you have some basic information for your grandparents (names and some dates and locations), some progress can be made.

When visiting the archives, it is important to go with certain questions in mind: What was my grandmother's maiden name? When did my grandfather die? Is there an obituary for him? Who were my great-grandfather's parents?

If you visit the archives and begin searching for everything on a particular surname, then you may waste a lot of time and energy on finding people who are not related to you. However, if you have an unusual surname, then there is a good chance that everyone by that name is related.

I've waited til now to mention researching your family tree on the Internet simply because everything you see on the Internet is not fact. Anyone can post to mailing lists, groups and websites and sometimes what they post is wrong. They don't do it intentionally (or at least most don't), but some researchers find a piece of information, take it as fact and then share it with the world. Anything found on the Internet should be verified by actual records before it is taken as fact.

Don't get me wrong; the Internet is a great tool, particularly with family tree research. Information found on the Internet can lead to the actual records that you have been looking for for years. It can also connect you with long lost cousins that you may have otherwise never met.

One of the best places to find information in the location where your family lived and to connect with other researchers is through RootsWeb (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry. com/). This organization not only contains thousands of websites, but hundreds of mailing lists where others may be researching the same surname.

To find a specific location, visit the Registry of Websites at RootsWeb (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry. com/~websites/) section. Here, you can choose a country and then choose a smaller geographic areas within the country.

For many, creating a family tree takes a life time. Along the way, there are many highs and lows, but the satisfaction of creating a detailed family history to leave behind for your children and future generations is worth the long hours of research.

Learn more about this author, Diana Tibert.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

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