How to Start Building Your Family Tree

You went to a family reunion last weekend and had a great time with your cousins. Everybody had lipstick prints on their cheeks from all the aunts kissing them. There were some relatives there that you had heard of, but never met. You introduced yourself to a long lost cousin and spent the next hour and a half talking about relatives that had passed away or lived far away. You found out that your great grandmother was married twice. And she was pregnant before she got married the first time... and she was only fifteen. Two of your uncles married sisters. You counted up all your first cousins and there were twenty nine, counting you and your siblings. Most of them lived near the small town where your mom grew up, but you grew up five hours away and didn't know them all. Your older cousins had kids your age. You noticed that all of your aunts had beautiful silver hair and your uncles were all bald. 

Now you wish you had written down the names of some of the people your cousins reminisced about. They were your relatives, after all. You remember some of their names, but what was Aunt Rita's daughter's name? Was it Donna or Debbie? It started with a D. She was about the same age as you and you vaguely remember playing with her when you visited Aunt Hazel in Baton Rouge when you were about four years old. You think your mom might have an old picture of you and Donna/Debbie. You call your mom to find out if she knows where the picture is. She doesn't know so you go over to her house to search for it. She tells you there are two boxes of photos on the top shelf in the closet in the back bedroom. 

And now all of a sudden you are doing family research. It starts just like that! But before you look for that photo, you'd better get yourself a notebook and a pencil because you'll have lots of questions for Mom about all of the people in all of those photos. You might as well go ahead and write their names on the back if they aren't already there. 

Nevada Courtney Mitchell Humphries - my great grandmother
Bessie Mitchell Sessum - my grandmother
Effie Sessum Pennington - my great great aunt

On the first page of your notebook write the current date. In about forty years you'll be glad you did that. I think I started my research in 1976. I know it was after I got married and before I had my first son. There's a three year span there. Write down your grandparents' names on the first page, both sets. Your dad's parents are your paternal grandparents and your mom's parents are your maternal grandparents. You might as well start learning the lingo! On the next page write all of your dad's siblings and their spouses. You can also go ahead and write their children's names while you're at it. You probably know most of them. They are your first cousins. Do the same on the next page for your mom's siblings and their children. If you know their full name write it down. If you know their birth date write that down, too.

And that's how you start building your family tree! No need to rush. Start with your close family. Soon it will become a hobby and you'll want to enjoy it for a long time to come. Don't consider it a project because a project is something you'll want to finish. You can't ever finish a family tree. You can take a break from it. You can put it off. You can quit working on it. You can get sidetracked by other things. But when you're ready, there are always more family member to find. I promise!