Quote Originally Posted by The Wizard of BC View Post
The goal to Genealogical research is an unbroken paper trail.

You start with your parents. Find their marriage license. This will give you information like full names, dates and places of birth, etc.

Then you go back, one piece of paper at a time. You find your mother and fathers birth certificates which give you your four grandparents names.

Back another generation. You look for birth, death, marriage certificates, Census records, draft registrations, Parish or church records.

It is a long and exhausting process to even work your family back just four or five generations. But what fun. It's like the ultimate treasure hunt or mystery story. One clue leads to another, and another.

One good source is Ancestry.com which is a subscription site. They publish things like census records for N. America, Draft Registration and voter registration records. They are beginning to post ship passenger logs too.

Family records like old bibles are a good starting point, but please if Grandma has a memory, that's great, but without a piece of paper to back it up it didn't happen.
And don't forget the genealogy department of your local public library or historical society! Many offer free classes and assistance with research.

T.