Starting Family History Research
Starting Family History Research
You should always start with yourself and your parents and then work back to grandparents, great-grandparents etc. Never pick someone of the right name and try to prove a link - it's almost always impossible.
Start by writing down what you know - there's a blank birth brief form for you to print to get you started so that it's easy to keep track of your direct ancestors.
You should start off by asking around the family for any information and for copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.
Once you have all the information you can find from family members, decide which branch of the family you're going to start with and what you need to find out. It's important to be very organised and focused with your research. You may end up with hundreds of names in your family tree and it's very easy to become confused about who's who!
Most people start off by obtaining copies of birth, marriage and death certificates.
Solihull Heritage & Local Studies Service has a number of major sources for family history.
If your ancestors are from elsewhere in the UK or overseas, then you may find the LDS Family History Centres of use in obtaining copies of records for you to look at locally.
As your family tree grows, you will end up with information on hundreds of family members. You may wish to consider recording this information on computer. There are a number of different software packages available that will enable you to record your family history. Personal Ancestral File is free of charge and is available on library computers at Solihull Central Library, Hobs Moat and Castle Bromwich. Whichever computer program you use, you should make sure that it supports GEDCOM so that you can easily move your family tree should you decide to change the computer program you use.
Heritage & Local Studies, Central Library, Homer Road, Solihull B91 3RG
Telephone: 0121 704 6934
Email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk