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First, convert existing material into an electronic format. These include family scrapbooks, black and white photographs, handwritten letters stowed away in old tin boxes, newspaper cuttings of birth, marriage and death announcements. Gather additional information by speaking with older relatives in your family about what they know about your ancestors. Create a family tree branching out as far back as possible.
Free online databases like RootsWeb.com, which claims to host the largest genealogy collection on the Internet, enable users to upload and display their family trees and connect with users who have a common genealogy. (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com). GeneologyBank.com, a sister website, claims to have the largest newspaper archive in the U.S. for family history research, dating back to the 1600s. For a fee, the website allows users to look up newspaper and U.S. Census archives, and search for military records, recipients of pensions post the Revolutionary and Civil War, widow's claims and more. - You can go farther back in time and learn about your haplogroup (a large branch of the early human family tree) through genetic testing. Researchers at the National Geographic's "The Genographic Project" or the "DNA Ancestry Project" can test a sample of your DNA (a simple cheek swab sent via postal mail) for a fee. Your sample will be matched with your haplogroup, linking you with your earliest ancestors. "The Genographic Project" will also provide you with information about where your ancient relatives originated, where they migrated, and how they lived.
- Public libraries, church records and local historical societies are useful sources of information. You could also get in touch with a genealogy society in your state, such as the Central Massachusetts Genealogical Society and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. Genealogical data for a specific race and ethnicity is available at organizations such as the Irish Ancestral Research Association, the Polish Genealogical Society of CT and the Northeast, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston, and the Federation of East European Family History Societies.
- Books on specific ancestries could be valuable sources of information. Examples include A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England (four volumes) by James Savage; "Corwin Genealogy: Curwin, Curwen, Corwine, In The United States" by Edward Tanjore Corwin, 1872; and "Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources", edited by Alice Eichholz.
