I’ve finished tracing my family tree – said no one, ever!
WARNING! Researching your family tree can become an obsession. An addiction. A life-long quest. Whether you intend it to or not!
Even with the help of a researcher, either to get you going or to do much of it on your behalf, researching your family tree can’t possibly all be done over the course of a few weeks, months or even years . Anyone who tells you otherwise is deluded - or telling you porkies!
If you really want to get a true sense of who you are and where you came from, you’ll be gathering additional information for many years to come. It’s just the way it is.
So, whether you’re starting out, or picking up where you last left off, here are some general guidelines to consider before contacting us:
Have you taken a DNA test? If not, it’s hard to overstate what a game changer it has been to family historians in recent years. It really is the only way to ensure your research is as accurate as it can possibly be. There’s a saying in family history circles: People/documents can lie. DNA cannot. Ancestry has the biggest DNA database, so is the kit I recommend you use.
If you have already taken a test, have you downloaded your Raw Data and uploaded it to any or all of the main research platforms (FTDNA; GEDMatch; My Heritage?).
If you’re a beginner, have you put together a general outline of what you already know – who were your parents, grandparents etc and where/when were they born/died.
If you’re an adoptee: have you been able to access your adoption records? Have you taken a DNA test and followed the guidelines listed in 1&2?
If you’re a parent looking for an adopted child: have you followed the guidelines in 1& 2?
Do you want to focus on a particular person, or question?
Do you need to stick to budget?
If you have, or you’re likely to have, a particularly difficult family tree, would you be best trying to concentrate on one or a few particular areas at a time – you can always add more as time or finances permit.
In most cases, it’s probably best to focus on one side your family first. Have you decided which one?
Are you being realistic? Researching a whole family tree can be very time consuming and expensive. Who or what do you really want to know about?
Have you, or are you planning on doing some of your own research?
Have you hit a brick wall on one or more line?
The good thing about researching your family history is: it’s never really complete. If you’re really serious about finding out who you are and where you came from, there’s always something new to find. New documents and archives are coming to light all the time. Some are being digitised right now and will end up online at some point in the not too distant future. The vast majority aren’t and won’t – for at least some time to come yet. In addition, new people are DNA testing all the time, so even people who considered they’d ‘finished’ their research just a couple of years ago are suddenly finding a whole new slew of relatives they knew nothing about; and/or a whole new swathe of information about people whom they thought they knew everything there was to know!
Imagine that! Imagine you thought you knew all there was to know about boring great uncle Bob – and suddenly his newly released military record shows he was a war hero. Or what about that great great aunt who disappeared from the family and the records last time you looked? What if one of her grandchildren suddenly DNA tested and can explain what happened to her in one quick message? If you don’t keep a check on it intermittently, you’ll never know! A researcher can keep an eye on updates for you, and let you know of any changes.