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  • Looking for some advice?

    Hello,

    I have been researching family tree for about ten years now, the problem all I ever did was do random research with no rhyme nor reason for things at times. My final goal for all of this was to do my mother's side, my fathers side and my wife's entire side for our future children, but I am "spinning my wheels" per say in getting an organized system as well as a good program to actually get started in making a tree instead of a very disorganized mess. I am begging for some experience to come out of the woodwork and please help me some advice on anything I mentioned?

    Thanks for any help given!

    Brett

  • #2
    Originally posted by bglaird617 View Post
    Hello,

    I have been researching family tree for about ten years now, the problem all I ever did was do random research with no rhyme nor reason for things at times. My final goal for all of this was to do my mother's side, my fathers side and my wife's entire side for our future children, but I am "spinning my wheels" per say in getting an organized system as well as a good program to actually get started in making a tree instead of a very disorganized mess. I am begging for some experience to come out of the woodwork and please help me some advice on anything I mentioned?

    Thanks for any help given!

    Brett
    It is very difficult to give advice when we know little about you. I don’t mean personal details but things such as where you live (country). Where your ancestors are from and related time periods. You mention ten years research, but we don't know what has been achieved in that ten years if anything.

    However working from what we know your first task before doing any more research is to download a family tree program to enable you to organise your research.
    There are many available and what you download will be determined in part by the type of computer you use (Windows, Mac, Other).

    Many people will suggest you download Family Tree Maker which is a popular choice as it can be found with the bonus of 6months subscription to Ancestry.
    I would suggest there are far better programs than FTM but it is a personal choice I use Brothers Keeper others use Family Historian or one of the many other similar programs.

    Once you have a program you have the task of adding the results of your existing research. I would suggest you start with yourself and your wife and work back from there, checking you existing research as you go.
    Always work from what you known one generation at a time as missing a generation could result in you chasing the wrong family.

    The specifics of where to research, what is available, records that will provide the most information depend very much on the country and even what part of some countries you are concerned with.

    Cheers
    Guy
    Last edited by Guy; 08-03-16, 06:34.
    Guy passed away October 2022

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    • #3
      Even after 10 years, it may be well worth looking at our Getting Started page: http://www.familytreeforum.com/conte...etting-Started, as something there may catch your eye.

      Then have a browse of the links we have for the various counties/countries.

      Caroline
      Caroline's Family History Pages
      Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

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      • #4
        Choosing a program for your computer would be better, in my opinion, than using an online system because you are completely in control of your own stuff. Beginning to use a program will give you the chance to 'start again' and get organised.

        It is so easy to get sidetracked by interesting relatives! That's fine but distracts from your initial aim of getting organised. I would suggest concentrating on entering one family line at a time. Work gradually and carefully back along one surname, parents, grandparents, great grandparents .... and so on. When you get stuck (and you will!) you can move to another branch for a while. Later, when you go back to look at your first family you'll maybe get new ideas, or branch out looking for clues in the wider family.

        Good luck, and there's no hurry ..... our ancestors are not going anywhere, just waiting to be found!
        Anne

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        • #5
          Sorry for the lack of information, I am 25 years old I started tinkering around the age of 15 a year before my last grandmother passed away. I am from Centre County, PA around the State College area. Most of my family has lived in Centre County and the surrounding counties, Huntingdon, Blair, Mifflin, Franklin, etc. Mt wife's family is from New Jersey and New York on her father's side and New Jersey and Pennsylvania on her mother's side. In my ten years I have a ton of research done back a lot of generations but from "spinning my wheels" I kept trying to start research trees and kept quitting them and restarting them (because of lack of a good organizational system) and refinding the same information so I have multiple copies of files on my external hard drive but I am hesitant to delete them because what if I make a mistake and delete something I need, you know what I mean. So I'd say as for research and finding the actually item I am pretty good at that. It is more record retention and organization that has me stuck in a rut. I hope that help you better understand and sorry if it sounds like rambling.

          Thank for your help!

          Brett

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          • #6
            Given that you're in the US and that's where you're researching I would suggest looking at a free trial with Ancestry that has the US census's as well as some records depending on the state. Don't forget to cancel so it doesn't automatically renew at the current ancestry subscription rate. The free trial might be enough for you or you can wait for a discount offer.

            Another way to access ancestry is via the Mormons Family History Centre (free) but if you purchase a Family Tree Maker programme depending on the edition you can get 1 - 6 months free ancestry subscription. Download to your computer and register it and you can opt to sycronise your online tree and your computer based tree. (at least until December when things are going to change). After your subscription ceases you can still amend your tree online but you cannot look at new records etc.

            With family tree maker on your computer you can print off charts, reports etc which will make things a lot easier to understand.

            An initial free site is www.tribalpages.com where you can set up your own web-page and even allow family to view it by password or have it public. You download a gedcom if you have one or enter everything manually. You can upgrade to a paid version which allows more features charts, reports etc.

            If you put info on line you have to decide whether you want it a public tree or a private one - some companies say that they can do what they like with the info you put on their site even if you eventually delete it so be careful. Also living people - some automatically block details unless there's a death date.
            Last edited by JBee; 08-03-16, 14:08.



            Researching Irish families: FARMER, McBRIDE McQUADE, McQUAID, KIRK, SANDS/SANAHAN (Cork), BARR,

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