What may have started out as simple curiosity about an ancestor, or a story about some family member in the past, often leads many people to begin researching their family history.  Nearly everyone is naturally curious about where he or she came from, and nothing matches the excitement of discovering people in your family tree who were involved in historical events. But how do you begin? 
 
The most important thing is just to start somewhere.  For instance, you can take a family member’s name and enter it into the search engines and see what comes up.  Or you can get out an old family Bible and begin looking at the names and dates entered in the front for births, marriages, deaths and other events.  Or you can talk with (especially elder) family members, listen to their stories about the family and take notes. But wherever you choose to start, the information begins to come and then go off in all directions, like the branches of a tree.  It won’t be long until you have several threads started, each leading you down a different road.  Then each of these roads will branch off into several forks in the road until confusion starts to set in.
 
The best way to keep focused and avoid frustration is to decide before you start what you are going to look for.  If you write down your goal, and keep it with you throughout your research, it will help you to keep moving in the right direction.  Some people use a notebook, others use 3” X 5” index cards, and still others use a loose-leaf binder to organize their goal and the information that they discover along the way.  Refer to your basic goals every time before you begin doing any research so that you remain clear and focused and avoid becoming distracted or scattered.
 
Keep an open mind and allow yourself to pursue research about a single person through several different avenues.  Sometimes you will lose track of an individual in one town and pick them up at a later point when you are doing research on a different family member or town.  Other times you will find an unfamiliar name listed as part of a family in a particular Census report, only to find that researching that name will lead you back to further information about the original people you were focusing on. 
 
Try to develop a detective’s mindset.  If you discover a thread in your family that seems to end, try looking in a different state, searching for clues in the way of surnames, occupations and first names that seem to appear often in your family’s history.  Use your instincts and make educated guesses to pick up new threads, and then verify them to see if they are right.  If you can’t find information about one family member, search deeper among the ones you can find information about.  Sometimes that will lead to back to the original person you are seeking.  As you proceed deeper into your family research, you will develop hunches and feelings that will help you choose which people you discover are likely to be related to you.
 
Whenever you have the opportunity to discuss your findings with a member of your family who may be able to add information or stories, always do so.  Many time this can not only enrich the information you have discovered, but it can help you to clear up some of the mysterious dead ends you run into.
 
Genealogical research is a challenging and rewarding hobby that will help you develop your instincts for study, evaluation, and judgment, while blessing you with a deepened sense of who you are and where you have come from.  
 
PackRat Lady has been doing genealogical research for herself, her own family members and others for decades.