If you are interested in researching your family history, you have probably already spoken to living relatives about what they know. If you haven’t then this is the obvious starting point. Make notes of as many names and dates as they can remember. Use the information you have gathered to sketch out a rough family tree. This is a great way of identifying what you know and also the gaps in your knowledge.
I recommend downloading a set of charts and filling in as much information as you can. The US based National Genealogical Society offers two versions of a Pedigree Chart (sometimes called an Ancestor Chart) and one version of the Family Group Sheet. All of their free charts here are “fillable.” That means you can
- download the PDF,
- type your family information right into the chart,
- save it to your computer, and
- update it at any time.
Free Charts and Templates
Pretty soon you will want to jump online and see what family records are out there to extend your family history knowledge. Where you go will depend on which country you want to start with.
If you are starting in Australia, these sites are great starting points:
Family History Sites
The Family History Guide is a free website that contains guides to four major family history websites. There are separate Projects for FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast. In each of the guides there are instructions to help you start with setting up a (usually free trial) account. Many of the steps have YouTube videos that demonstrate the steps you need to take. The guide for each project will take you through some initial searches, and teach you how to interpret the records you find.
If you just want to “feel the water” I would recommend starting with FamilySearch as their accounts are free. It is important to note that if you create a tree on FamilySearch, the tree will be available for everyone else to view and even make changes. Perhaps best to just search for some records to start with.
Check What Has Already Been Done
It is very likely that you are not the first person in your family to research your family history. There are many places on the internet to share a family tree online. Here are a few that are worth looking at. Of course, you should always do your own research and verify the information that you find on someone else’s shared tree.
As soon as you want to get into things a bit deeper, you will want to also use another site like Ancestry, My Heritage or FindMyPast, or perhaps invest in a software package to use. You will have to pay a monthly or annual fee to view and save records on most sites, but many have a free trial for the first month.
Even if you do decide to use Ancestry, FindMyPast, or another tool, you should still check back in at FamilySearch from time to time, and use their searching resources. Don’t feel you have to be restricted to just one source of information. In fact the more resources you have at your disposal, the better!
Free Resources
Online Genealogy Records Wiki pages at FamilySearch contain links to online records including birth records, marriage records, death records, biographies, cemeteries, censuses, church records, histories, immigration records, land records, maps, military records, native races, naturalisations, newspapers, obituaries, or probate records.
The FamilySearch website also has a great set of tutorials for beginners in Family History research.
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Family_History_for_Beginners
Other excellent free resources that you may find useful to get started with are:
I recommend doing a little exploring first, jump in and do some searches and see what’s there, but if you are going to tackle a family history project for yourself, get organised right from the start.