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Genealogy^[1] is one of the world’s most popular hobbies. Hundreds of millions of people around the globe are actively engaged in some form of family research. It seems as if everyone, in some part of their lives, wonders where they came from. Maybe it's the red hair that your mom says has been passed down from your Irish great-grandfather. Or perhaps a curiosity as to why Grandma never spoke about her family. Some people have become intrigued after visiting a battlefield and wondering if one of their ancestors fought or even died there. For others it is the box of old photos or clothing which has been left to them by a relative. What starts as a simple curiosity, however, quickly grows into an obsession. Forget shopping or gambling - climbing your family tree is much more addictive, so never say I didn't warn you!

Here are some reasons to research your family's history: To satisfy your curiosity about yourself and your roots; To provide your children with a sense of who their ancestors were, where they came from and how they lived their lives; To preserve family cultural and ethnic traditions for future generations; To compile a medical family history to give family members an advantage in the battle against inherited diseases or defects; To qualify for a lineage or heritage society; To assemble and publish a family history book, whether for family members or for profit; To discover facts that others have overlooked and solve the puzzle of a lifetime.

Making a family tree can be a terrific learning experience, and is always a good way to find out more about your ancestry and family history. Family trees can be simple or very involved, depending on how much time you want to spend on it and how readily available the information is. Digging around for missing links in your family tree will uncover all kinds of neat and interesting facts about your ancestors.

Researching your family’s history

Start by asking your parents, grandparents, and older family members what names they can remember. It's most important to know surnames and, if possible, where these people lived. If you have an idea of where your ancestors called home, you can go online and research to get some more names. Try birth and death registries, searchable library databases, local newspapers, and social security banks. If you hit a dead end in your search, there are a number of services online and at local historical organizations that can help you out. Many of these services charge a fee for their assistance, so do some research to find out which one will best suit your needs and budget. Once you have your tree sketched out as far back as you want to go, you can draw it out on good quality paper and frame it to display as a proud reminder of your family history. Making a family tree together with your kids can be a rewarding experience too. Get them involved as much as you can, especially when talking to older relatives about your family and its history. Children love to learn about how life was in the 'olden days', and talking about long lost relatives will be satisfying for everyone involved.

A good way to start your research is to write down details about your immediate family: Document their full names and dates of birth. Other details such as place of birth and your mothers’ maiden name may also be useful. Find birth, death and marriage certificates for your immediate family. Certificates will not only give details on the person the certificate belongs to, but may also provide information on their parents or partners. If you do not have copies of the appropriate certificates, they can be ordered from places such as the Family Records Centre or the General Register Office. Speak to old relatives, such as your grandparents, and ask them about their lives, memories and names of their parents and grandparents. Ask your relatives if they have previously completed any genealogical research. This could save you a lot of time and effort if research has already been done. Search your belongings for old photographs or diaries; ask your relatives if they have any items that might be useful in your research. You can gain a lot of information from relatives, so make sure you ask around and document anything useful that you find out.

You should organize your findings and documentations well; this will help when it comes to analysis of your research later on. Store certificates, photographs, letters, etc. in labeled folders. You may find it useful to photocopy some of your documentation to keep as a back up in case the original documents are lost. You should start charting your family tree; genealogy software for the computer may be useful for this. If you have a scanner, you could scan any documents and store them on your computer. Genealogy software is available to help you organizing your documents as well as create your family tree. There are many different types of records available that will help you learn more about your family history. There are a number of principles to remember regarding official records that may help you in your research. Don’t be worried about the number of records available. There are many different places around to help you in your research. Different types of official records available: Birth, death, marriage certificates; Immigration and emigration records; Adoption certificates; Wills; Census ; Military records; Religious records; Maps. Don’t be scared of visiting places such as record offices, libraries and family history centers. There are also places on the web where records and family history advice is available.

Family Trees Online. There are various online family tree databases where you can search for your ancestors by entering a few simple pieces of information. www.familytreesearcher.com allows you to search across all the major family tree sites for free with one quick search. The site also allows you to save your searches which are useful if you want to search several different ancestors and check back every so often to see if any new family trees are available. Many churches have kept remarkable records over the centuries: including marriage, baptisms, funerals, etc. Consider how long religious institutions have been in place. Most churches have a receptionist or secretary that knows where all of their records are kept, most likely in a library. He or she can give you the times available to visit. You should also try and make an appointment to speak with the minister. The minister may not necessarily be from the area, but likely has information on the history of the area that may give you other research ideas. These can show you possible birth and death dates, as well as spouse and children names. The older churches will likely have cemeteries. By walking through and looking for your family name and surname, you can get the birth and death dates. You can also learn other family member names by looking at surrounding plots. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for example, has a well-renowned genealogical database. It can be found online at www.familysearch.org. Their website has free software downloads and search capabilities, along with some paid software options. The Military Keeps Great Records: Military records are another tool you can use to piece together your genealogy puzzle. The military is a great source of data because of its impeccable record keeping for the servicemen and women that have served. Aside from learning when and where your relatives served, you can also learn their place in the history of the world. It is entirely possible that your relatives met and married others while serving with the military. You may also discover awards and honours bestowed upon your loved ones for their service. You may even perhaps piece together what happened to a missing in action soldier. In addition to looking for military conflicts, narrow even more detail by looking into the individual battles and conflicts. There are many historical monuments and markers are such locations that you might be able to compare with your family names. For international records, you will want to check with the country’s government for their policies on sharing such information. After you have exhausted all paper routes, there is a relatively new phenomenon related to genealogy that is becoming increasingly popular, genetic genealogy.

Who are my ancestors? A maternal ancestor is an ancestor on your mother's side of the family. A paternal ancestor is from your father's side. An ancestor is a person from whom you are descended - parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents and so on. Not counting second marriages, an individual will usually have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents and so on. From you (at the bottom of the triangle) working upward, these form the ancestral pyramid. By the time you have gone back ten generations you have an impressive 1,024 ancestors - more than enough to keep you busy researching for a lifetime! If you take this pyramid and turn it right-side-up then you are now at the point at the top. Stretching down from you are your descendants - your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on. If you trace your family tree down from a single ancestor, then it is called a descendant tree. If you trace your family tree back through the generations from a single individual, then it is know as an ancestor tree. The relationship between you and your ancestors and descendants are known as lineal relationships. Collateral relationships are relationships between individuals who descend from common ancestors but are not related to each other in a direct (or lineal) line. These relationships include your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. While it is not necessary to trace these collateral lines when researching your family tree, they can often lead you to clues about your ancestors when you have reached a brick wall.

When working on your family history, however, it's more important to understand the various types of cousin relationships: First cousins are the people in your family who have two of the same grandparents as you; Second cousins have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents; Third cousins have in common two great-great-grandparents and their ancestors. When cousins descend from common ancestors by a different number of generations they are called “removed.” Once removed means there is a difference of one generation. Your mother's first cousin would be your first cousin, once removed. She is one generation younger than your grandparents and you are two generations younger than your grandparents. Twice removed means that there is a two – generation difference. Your grandmother's first cousin would be your first cousin, twice removed because you are separated by two generations.

Half and Step Relationships: Half relationships exist between individuals who have a common ancestor but descend from different spouses of that ancestor. For example, half-brothers may have the same father but different mothers or the same mother but different fathers. The children of these half-brothers would be half-cousins, because they share only one of the grandparents. Half-relationships are still considered consanguineous (blood) relationships along the line which the two individuals share. Step relationships (including "in-law" relationships) are relationships which occur through marriage. Your relationships with your step-relatives are not consanguineous as they are only related to you through marriage, not blood. They are not considered a part of your direct or lineal lines, but they can still be an important part of your family tree.

Learn the basic terms and symbols for, blood relatives that are used for family tree research. Most of the words used on family trees are ones we use every day - father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter. Common to all terms is the fact that they define people in terms of their relationships with one another, and particularly with you the researcher. The following glossary sets these out to help you to describe the relationships between family members that are related through blood (as opposed to marriage); uncle - the brother of your father or mother; aunt - the sister of your father or mother; sibling - your brother or sister; cousin - the son or daughter of your uncle or aunt; second cousin - the son or daughter of your parents' first cousin; nephew - the son of your brother or sister; niece - the daughter of your brother or sister; grandfather - the father of your father or mother; grandmother - the mother of your father or mother; grandson - your child's son; granddaughter - your child's daughter; great grandfather - the father of one of your grandparents; great grandmother - the mother of one of your grandparents; great uncle - the uncle of one of your parents; great aunt - the aunt of one of your parents.

Related by Marriage: There are also terms that describe the people that are related to you when you marry (through your spouse). Although they share no blood-ties, they become part of your family tree. There are also specialist terms to denote the relationships created by subsequent marriages: father-in-law - the father of your spouse; mother-in-law - the mother of your spouse; step-son - the son of your spouse's former marriage; step-daughter - the daughter of your spouse's former marriage; step-mother - your father's second (or subsequent) wife; step-father - your mother's second (or subsequent) husband; half-brother - the male offspring from the remarriage of one of your parents; half-sister - the female offspring from the remarriage of one of your parents.

Counting Generations. All of your siblings and cousins form one generation; your parents and their siblings form another generation; and your grandparents and their siblings make up a third. The top level of the family tree will be the first generation, followed by their children (second generation) and so on, assigning each successive generation a higher number. Each time you move back another generation, simply add another great!

Charting Your Course. The two basic forms for recording genealogical information are ascendant charts and descendant charts. An ascendant chart starts with you and moves back through the generations of your ancestors. A descendant chart starts with you or another individual in your family tree and lists all of the descendants coming down through the generations.

Ascendant Charts: The chart most people begin with is a pedigree chart, a type of ascendant chart. This chart begins with you and branches back in time, displaying the line of your direct ancestors. The standard pedigree chart always begins with you, or the individual whose ancestry you are tracing, on the first line - number 1 on the chart. Information on your father (or ancestor #1's father) is entered as number 2 on the chart, while your mother is number 3. The male line follows the upper track, while the female line follows the bottom track. After you've traced your family tree back more than 4 generations, you will need to create additional pedigree charts for each of the individuals included in the fourth generation on your first chart. Each individual will become ancestor #1 on a new chart, with a reference to their number on the original chart so you can easily follow the family through the generations. Each new chart you create will also be given its own individual number (chart #2, chart #3, etc.). For example, your father's father's father will be ancestor #8 on the original chart. As you follow his particular family line further back in history, you will need to create a new chart (chart #2), listing him in the #1 position. To make it easy to follow the family from chart to chart you record the numbers of the continuation charts next to each individual in the fourth generation on your original chart. On each new chart you will also include a note referring back to the original chart (Person #1 on this chart is the same as Person #___ on Chart #___). An ahnentafel is another type of pedigree chart in the form of a table or list. The pedigree chart is the more graphic representation of a person's ancestors, while the ahnentafel presents the information in a neat, compact manner. Ahnentafels are not used quite as often today as they were in the past. Ancestors are numbered on pedigree charts and ahnentafels using a system known as the ahnentafel numbering system. You (or the person whose ancestry is being traced) are number 1. A father is twice his child’s number (1 x 2 = 2) and a mother is twice the child’s number plus one (1 x 2 = 2 + 1 = 3). The numbers for men are always even and the numbers for women are always odd, with the exception of number 1 which can obviously be either. One thing which I think is neat is that the first number for each generation is equal to the number of people in that generation.

NOTES: 1) The word genealogy is derived from the Greek, and means the study of family history and descent. Genealogies, or the recorded histories of the descent of a person or family from their ancestors, are also often referred to as family trees or sometimes as lineages or pedigrees. The basic objectives of genealogical research are to identify ancestors and their family relationships.