Genealogist Q&A
Whether you're a seasoned genealogy enthusiast or just starting, our Q&A section addresses the most frequently asked questions in family history research.
Got a Question About GenealogyBank.com?
Genealogy Product Director Tom Kemp has spent over fifty years as a genealogist, writer, librarian, and archivist. His experience has helped countless others craft a search for family records, historical documentation, and ancestral combinations.
This Q&A session covers the most frequently asked questions about genealogy: tips for locating lost records and verifying historical details. Don't forget to download our free guide, Getting Started Climbing Your Family Tree, for more tips and resources. Click on the genealogy questions below to see answers or download our free Search Tips Guide for further assistance.
I am looking for my family tree. I thought when I signed up I would find it already prepared. What do I do now?
A: GenealogyBank - is an online library of resources - millions of them. Like a library it has an index - in our case an index on every word making it easy to find references in each of the issues of the newspapers, books etc. It has over 1 billion names.
(Illustration: Wikipedia Commons)Documenting your family tree is a lot like putting up the family Christmas tree. You have the bare tree and now you need to look in the boxes of Christmas decorations and put up each one. It takes time to pick out and put the items in just the right place on the tree - but when you're done - wow - it always looks great.
So - let's get started on putting together your "family tree".What do you know about the family?Who are you looking for?For example - what are your grandparents or great-grandparent's names?When and where were the born? When, where were they married?
So - you'll see who you are looking for and with the when/where of their birth, marriage and death - you can decide where in GenealogyBank will I be likely to find that information.
If they died in say, 1982 - then look in the Social Security Death Index and in the America's Obituaries section.If they served in the Revolutionary War - then we'll look in the early newspapers for articles and in the Revolutionary War Grave Index in the "Historical Documents" section.
Tell me more about your family and we'll start researching in GenealogyBank to discover the original sources that document their lives. Taking the time to gather together the facts to document your family tree is worth it - just like it is to take the time to put together the family Christmas tree each year.
We can do this.Tell me more.
Tom