How to Get Started Building Your Family Tree
“Getting Started in Genealogy ” put out by the North Carolina State Library is meant for those researching in NC, but has basic advice helpful for anyone just getting started exploring family history resources.
Your friendly local reference librarian. (Sorry, I don’t have a link.) If you’re truly just beginning, they are the best ones to point you to their getting started resources, both online and in print.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Centers: Find the one closest to you.
Learning More about Family History
Eastman’s Genealogy Newsletter is full of info about genealogy and research tools. You can subscribe to the free newsletter or use the online archives to search for information.
Cyndi’s List is a “comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list” of over 300,000 Internet links to online genealogical research sites.
Looking for Photos of Ancestors
If you share the same ancestors, most researchers are willing to share what photos they have. One of the best way to find others that are researching the same family lines is through Genforum (free), where you can post queries by surname or county. Ancestry.com, though a subscription service, also makes it easy to find people sharing the same family tree.
Tips on Archiving, Protecting, and Converting Family History Records
New York Times’ Ask an Expert relates tips from Bertram Lyons of the Library of Congress in Washington: Tips on Archiving Family History, Part 1
Social Media and Family History
Ellen Bahr gives us tons of ideas on how family historians can use social media in Hashtags, Tweets, and Blogs: the New Language of Family History
