Your First 30 Days of Family History Research

A week-by-week plan for starting your family tree the right way, from interviewing relatives to finding your first census record.

3 min read

Most people start their family tree by typing a surname into a search box and clicking on whatever comes up. That's how trees end up full of the wrong people. The first month is where you build habits that decide whether your research holds up years from now. Here is a plan that works.

Week 1: Start with yourself and work backward

Genealogy moves from the known to the unknown. Write down what you know about yourself, your parents and your grandparents: full names, dates and places of birth, marriage and death. Use a standard format so your notes stay consistent:

• Names: record women by their maiden name (Mary Ellen Hayes, not Mrs. John Carter).
• Dates: write day, month, year as 14 Mar 1921. It avoids the 3/4 vs. 4/3 confusion.
• Places: go from smallest to largest: Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, USA. The county matters most, because that is where most records were kept.

Leave blanks blank. A guess written as fact is the most common source of errors in family trees.

Week 2: Talk to your relatives, and do it now

Your oldest living relatives are your most valuable and most time-limited source. Ask open questions: Where did you grow up? Who lived with you? What did your grandparents do for work? Where are they buried? Record the conversation if they agree. Ask to photograph family Bibles, letters, funeral cards, military discharge papers and photographs, including the backs of the photos.

Family stories usually hold some truth, but details drift. Write "Grandma said..." instead of treating the story as proven.

Week 3: Set up your tree and find your first records

Create a free account at FamilySearch, and pick one place to keep your own tree: a desktop program, an online tree, or both. Then go looking for the 1950 and 1940 censuses. Your grandparents or great-grandparents are likely in them, and these censuses connect living memory to the historical record.

When you find a record, save a copy of the image and write down exactly where you found it. That is the start of a source citation, and you'll be grateful for it later.

Week 4: Work back one generation at a time

Use each census to find the one before it. A family in 1940 should appear in 1930, 1920 and 1910, so track them back. Note changes in ages, birthplaces and household members. Children who appear and disappear between censuses are clues to births and deaths you will want to research.

What to avoid in your first month

• Copying other people's online trees. Use them as hints, not as sources.
• Jumping to a famous ancestor. Build the connection one documented generation at a time.
• Researching every branch at once. Pick one couple and one question.
• Paying for everything right away. Free resources will carry you a long way. Many public libraries offer free in-library access to paid sites.

Next steps

Once you've worked through these four weeks, read How to Read the U.S. Federal Census, then look up your ancestors' home state in our state-by-state research guides.