Genealogical Research

Researching my family tree has been a long process. I first got interested around 1975 while living in Baltimore, Maryland. There was a lecture being given at the Maryland Historical Society on genealogy and, since I had some question on my maternal ancestors, I decided to see what I could learn. The course included reading The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood - a great book loaded with all kinds of helpful information.

At that time most research was done in person at court houses, libraries, the National Archives in Washington, D.C., visiting cemeteries, etc. and involved going through heavy ledger books and reading lots of books or microfilm. Tedious, time consuming work. But if you found some information it made the work all worth while. I even considered it fun (silly me). Today the computer provides many databases and indexes online allowing much of the work to be done at home. There are times, however, when you still need to get out there and visit those court houses, libraries, archives, and cemeteries. I actually like this part the best.

Don't forget to check out web sites for the various states, counties, and genealogical societies in your areas of interest. And leave queries on their message boards, if they have them.

A word of advice when using other people's genealogical research information - check out the sources. While I use primary and secondary sources for my information, many people put information on line that they have picked up from other people with no idea where that information came from. Since there are many common given and surnames, it is a BIG mistake to just accept any information found without checking it out yourself. I suggest you do this with any information you find on my blogs as well, as I could have made a mis-step somewhere along the line.