Stephen Szabados - Basic Genealogy and Beyond: Easy Steps to Find Your Family History and Tips to Break Down Brick Walls

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T his book was developed from my experiences over the past five years, and this is the third variation of my attempt to help other family historians get a start on their journey.

I need to thank Michael Mulholland for the opportunity to teach Beginning Genealogy classes at Arlington Heights Memorial Library. This experience helped prove the adage that the best way to learn something is to teach it. The content for this book comes from my notes and outlines for my genealogy classes on various topics over the past eight years. This edition of the book is an update and expansion of my earlier books Find Your Family History: Steps to get started and Basic Genealogy.

I am grateful to Anthony Kierna at the Schaumburg Township District Library, Joan Huff at the Arlington Height Memorial Library, Frank Kaisor at the Arlington Height Memorial Library and Jennifer Holik for their comments of the contents of my earlier books. Since then, many genealogy related discussions have added to my experiences and knowledge in genealogy. Thanks to all who have helped me through this process. They gave me the confidence and to publish my methods.

The revisions and additions I included in this new book were from my observations as I continued to do my research and my efforts to help others with their research. I also added content that I felt was missing based on the questions and comments that I heard during my genealogy presentations.

I know you will benefit from the new material.

INTRODUCTION

T his book goes beyond the great tips I covered in my earlier book, Basic Genealogy, and gives many additional methods and sources to find more information to help create a wonderful family history of your ancestors. My new book includes the basic material from Basic Genealogy and includes new material that covers search tips, organization, an outline of steps to find where your European immigrants left, and the basics of using DNA testing in genealogy.

I want to share my successes in my genealogy research with the reader to help them enjoy more successes in researching their family history. My goal for this book is to outline the steps that I should have followed to begin my genealogical research and give tips to make everyone successful. These are the steps that I now follow. I developed my current methods after some wasted efforts learning what not to do. I know my book will prove helpful to you. Following these steps should help you to be more efficient in your beginning research than I was.

The book will give you a method to get started in your research and hopefully give you a plan to find your family history. We will cover the initial portion of genealogical research so that you will become familiar with genealogical sources. We will discuss the use of documents such as census records, passenger manifests; vital records and others that will help identify your family members and will also give you information about your family's history.

I also cover methods and sources to help find where our European immigrants left. These will be basic steps. I would suggest reading my book "Finding Grandma's European Ancestors" when you are ready to start looking for your ancestors in European records.

Now turn to Chapter One and start your journey to your family's history.

CHAPTER 1: Genealogy Begins at Home

Y our first steps in your genealogical research begin with the documents you find at home and writing down facts you remember about your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Also, write down the family stories that were passed along by each generation at family gatherings. You need to find all the pictures and documents that you can.

Collect the following if possible:

• Birth, baptism, marriage, and death certificates
• Obituaries and funeral cards
• Family Bibles
• Family pictures, baby books, birth announcements, wedding books, birthday books, diaries
• Passports, naturalization and immigration papers
• Land and mortgage papers
• Military papers
• Retirement papers, probate papers
• Family letters, postcards, business papers, medical records, insurance papers, newspaper clippings, and other papers

Old documents and pictures

As you lose your older relatives, search the desk drawers, file cabinets and shoe boxes for old papers to see if your ancestors saved documents. Searching for old papers is especially important if they were immigrants. If they are still alive, you need to ask what they have or ask their permission to do look at the older documents.

Baptismal or birth certificates from the old country, naturalization documents or military papers would yield extremely valuable information if found. Old letters and postcards from relatives or friends are also significant. The messages may be from friends or relatives that still lived where your ancestor was born. These documents may also contain references to where your ancestor left or the names of other family members. Pictures are also significant because they may show other people who may be friends or relatives. Identify all other possible relatives and track down their descendants to see if they have any treasures that pertain to your ancestors.

Other critical personal documents you may find are

• Family bibles that may have lists of the births, marriages, and deaths of various family members.
• Diaries that can give insight into the thoughts and interests of family members