Where Do I Start with Family History?

Getting Started with Family History

I frequently encounter individuals who remark to me, "I want to get involved in family history, but I don't know where to start," or "I know I should be doing something about it, but I don't know how."

My advice?

Start with the family you currently have. Do you still have any grandparents alive? Parents? What about extended family? Do you have children? Siblings? Nieces or nephews?

The most important aspect of family history is appreciating that family history is constantly in the making.

Not everyone is a researcher. And that's okay. Family history is more than that. Everyone has something to contribute with their unique talents and abilities.

Here are my suggestions on how to get involved in family history, with the understanding that every family has different circumstances.


1. Spend Quality Time with your Family

The most important family history is the family history you're creating here and now.

It is essential to strengthen families in a time when frantic schedules and other things threaten to divide them. Depending on your situation, here are some ideas:

• Eat dinner together each day as a family.
• Plan a weekly date night with your spouse.
• Devote at least one evening each week to family time.
• Participate in wholesome recreational and service activities together.
• Make time for the special events in your family member's lives.
• Hold weekly/periodic dinners with local family members.
• Visit other family members often.
• Keep in touch with phone calls, texts, etc.
• Plan and attend family reunions.

2. Document your Life Story

Another way to get involved in family history is to write a life sketch of the key points about your life. This may be an invaluable resource for your descendants and other relatives to learn some important things about you. Many descendants or other relatives wish they had something like this from those who came before them.

I was fortunate to come across this book in the Church History Library, which was started by my great-great grandfather in 1898. He includes a few biographical details about his life that I didn't have from any other source, as well as numerous pedigrees of his family and entire extended family:

Additionally, you can also keep a journal. Here are some ideas on different types of journals:

• Traditional journal to record your experiences, thoughts, and feelings.
• Gratitude journal to write down each day what you're grateful for.
• Miracle journal to write down the miracles you see in your life each day.
• Study journal to document things that are important to you from your studies.

You can also record your story. Some Family History Centers have recording booths that can be reserved to record your stories. These can be found at:
https://www.familysearch.org/help/fhcenters/locations/

Salt Lake City and Seattle also have Family Discovery Centers:
https://www.familysearch.org/discovery/schedule/?center

The "FamilySearch Memories" app is a helpful resource that includes the ability to record audio stories and link them to FamilySearch.org. Note that memories attached to living persons in the family tree will be private, while the memories attached to deceased persons are publicly accessible.


3. Document your Relative's Life Stories

Ask family members for permission to do an audio interview with them. These can be recorded at home or using the resources listed above.

Bring prepared questions and be ready to ask follow-up questions throughout the interview. For ideas on questions to ask, here's a link to an article that may be helfpul:
https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/20-questions/

Also, make sure the audio recording is working and you can play it back before you proceed!

Another approach is to purchase a family history book such as:
Grandma, Tell me Your Memories Heirloom Edition  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1563834138

These kinds of books give questions to ask a grandparent and a place to write down the answers for each.

One gem I came across at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City is a 1958 audio recording of an interview with a relative who recounts one of the earliest experiences from her mother's life about my great-great grandfather regarding the early days of Payson, Utah, that occurred circa 1860.

It's really special to have a personal link with those who came before. As a boy and teenager I remember visiting my great-grandmother whenever we visited Utah. She was born in 1896 and lived in the same small town her entire life. When she was born, horses and buggies were the normal mode of transportation, and before she passed away in 2001 at the age of 105, she had been learning to use the Internet in her home. When we visited I remember her telling us about what life was like when WWI broke out, during the 1918 flu pandemic, and when her own sons left to serve in WWII.

4. Meet with Relatives

Another way to contribute is to go outside your comfort zone and meet relatives - some of whom you may have never talked with or met before. This is important to connect as well as to gather information about your family. They may also know of other helpful contacts or resources.

Last summer, while visiting my uncle in another state, he showed me photos of a visit he and my Dad had made to the house where the family used to hold family reunions - the Greasewood Farm House. I was astounded because I had been trying to locate that house for some time. This was exactly what I had been looking for!

Now that I knew where it was, I looked up the contact information of my relative who runs the farm, and I cold-called him. I explained who I was and told him about my research. I asked him if I could meet with him to show him my research and to see if there was anything he had to contribute. He agreed and I met him at his house. I expected to be there no more than 30 minutes, but we spent the next 2 hours swapping family stories and sharing with each other what we had about our family. I saw that he had some original photos from 100 years ago or older, and asked him for permission to borrow the family history records and photos so I could scan them, to which he agreed.

One of my favorite finds from this interaction was coming across a photo of my great-grandfather ca. 1865 that I had never seen before - the only photo I have ever seen of him without a beard!

5. Preserve photos and documents

5.a. Organize photos and documents

When going through family photos and documents, the first priority is to organize photos and documents so they are protected and preserved, and if they are already damaged, to minimize further damage. Any photos that are loose or damaged should be put into photo albums as soon as possible. Any important documents should be put into sheet protectors to protect from wear and water damage.

Stevenson's Genealogy Center in Provo, Utah, is an excellent place to purchase binders and different sized photo protectors. Other locations may have similar resources.

Standard sheet protectors can used for most documents and can be purchased from office supply stores or retail stores.

Here is a photo of my completed work after putting old family photos, documents, and my grandfather's military records into albums to organize and protect them:

5.b. Digitize Photos and Important Documents

Once your photos and documents are preserved, it's important to digitize them to produce multiple copies of them and so they can be shared with family members. If anything happened to the original prints (a fire, water damage, etc.), they could be destroyed and lost forever if no backup copies of them were made elsewhere. I've found the best approach to digitizing them is using a scanner.

A photo of a photo or a photo of a document is better than nothing, but unfortunately it doesn't do as good of a job as a scan in preserving the integrity of the original photo or document.

I prefer to scan photos using a resolution of 600 dpi (dots per inch) in case I ever want to enlarge any of the photos. At a minimum, scans should be done using at least 300 dpi.

The best place I have found for scanning photos and documents is the FamilySearch center in Lehi, Utah. This is a free service, with trained volunteers onsite to help you along the way. To use a scanner there, you need to schedule a time slot at:
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Lehi_Utah_FamilySearch_Center/Scanners

Some of the resources available at the FamilySearch Center in Lehi include:

• Photo Batch Scanner (ideal for large numbers of photos that are in good condition 
• Flatbed Scanner (ideal for photographs that are larger, older, or damaged)
• Slide Scanner
• Negative Scanner
• Document Scanner
• Book Scanner
• Video Tape Converter
• Audio Tape Converter

You can also find other places to scan photos and documents. The Family History Centers provide this service free, but other places may charge a fee. You can also buy your own scanners if you'd like to do this at home, but make sure they are high quality and capable of a good resolution (300-600+ dpi).


5.c. Develop Photos from Negatives

If you find any undeveloped negatives, it's important to get them developed as soon as possible. Some places provide services where you can develop old film and some Family History Centers have negative scanners available for use.

While going through some family history documents, I came across several negatives. Upon holding them up to the light, I realized that some of these were of photos I had never seen before. I tried viewing some of these negatives using a negative scanner at a Family History Center, but my negatives were too large, and the resolution I was getting didn't look quite right.

I took these negatives to Allen's Camera located in Orem, Utah, and they did a fantastic job! Here are some of the digital images they developed from the negatives:

I had never seen any of these photos before and was pleased with how crisp the images turned out.


5.d. Restore Original Photos and Documents

Some photos or documents have been damaged to the point that the clarity of the photo is lost. Some may have even been developed with poor resolution or other defects. This is one reason why scanning the photos is so important, since over time, damaged photos and even well preserved photo prints will continue to deteriorate.

One example is a original photo from August 11, 1911 that a relative had in his possession. This photo is of special interest to me since it is the only photo in existence in which my great-great grandfather (1819-1911), my great-grandfather (1846-1918), my great-grandmother (1865-1946), and my grandfather (1904-1996) are all pictured together. The photo is an original that has been damaged with the passage of time. I scanned this photo to preserve a digital copy:

I then went to Allen's Camera in Orem, Utah to request their help to digitally restore the photo. After providing the digital copy, they remastered it to this version, and I was most pleased with the result:

A more extreme case of a damaged photo was an original photo from 1920 in the possession of a relative. In this case, the entire photo was broken in half. Additionally, the photo has streaks and spots of a black tar-like substance on it, to the point that some individuals and their faces are completely obscured. I put the two pieces together on the flatbed scanner and produced the following digital image:

I went again to Allen's Camera in Orem, to see if they had any ideas on what I could use to try to remove the black pitch. They suggested I try a solvent they had called PEC-12. I carefully applied some solvent on the end of a Q-tip and tried it on a spot on the tar away from the photo first to see if it would dissolve the tar. Upon seeing that it did, I tried applying the in a spot on the photo itself, away from the people on the photo. Seeing that it gradually dissolved the tar but didn't seem to damage the photo, I continued to clean the tar from the photo. The staff at Allen's Camera were most accommodating and allowed me to sit in a chair there for an hour or two while I carefully removed the tar from the photo.

CAUTION: Before using a solvent on a damaged photo seek professional guidance about which solvent to use and how to use it to ensure you don't cause additional damage to the photo.

 

After cleaning the photo with the solvent, I obtained permission from my relative who owned the photo to get the two pieces mounted together on a rigid foam board. I then re-scanned the two now-joined pieces on a flatbed scanner:

I then took the newly scanned digital image to Allen's Camera, where they remastered the photo:

This process revealed the faces of some individuals who had been partially or completely obscured, and I was happy to present my relative with the original photo, now cleaned and mounted together on a foam board, along with a digital copy of the digitally remastered photo.

5.e. Archive Photos and Documents

After you've organized, digitized and restored photos and documents, it's important to find a safe place to keep them. Photo albums and document binders can be kept on a bookshelf. Digital files should be uploaded to a repository on the cloud. My personal preference is storing digital photos on Google Drive, but other options, such as Dropbox, are also available. 

5.f. Distribute Digital Files to Relatives

Once you have the digital images archived in an online repository, you can share them with relatives. I suggest setting it up so you and 1 or 2 designated relatives can edit the files  to help reduce the risk of someone inadvertently deleting or altering files. In addition, it's important to backup these files elsewhere - on your laptop, on a thumb drive, etc. - just in case. Eventually digital files will become corrupted. The best thing to do is have both prints and digital copies, and to distribute them all as widely as you can in your family to share them and to help preserve them.

6. Type Family Stories

If you know how to type, there's a lot you can do. Many older family records are handwritten or typed on a typewriter. Transcribing these documents into Microsoft Word puts them in a format that makes them more accessible for your family. These are also useful for any family members who may be compiling histories since they can easily copy and paste text into their histories. If some words are unclear from handwritten documents, you can include a placeholder such as "????" for each unclear word in the text, which may become apparent in context or the next time you look at the documents.

7. Preserve Family Heirlooms

Family heirlooms are a real treasure. Since only one family member can own an heirloom, it's a good practice to take photos of a few special heirlooms that can be shared with family members.

8. Take a DNA Test

DNA tests can be a great way to connect with family members and to understand more about your genetic origins. The more people who take them, the better, since more data points can help identify patterns and clarify genetic data. Under DNA Matches you can find relatives and the estimated proximity of the relationship and can contact them. Ancestry DNA, FamilyTree DNA, and 23andMe are some of the leading DNA tests companies in this field. I have only used Ancestry and FamilyTree, each has its advantages.

Ancestry DNA is great for a basic level of genetic testing. This is helpful for connecting with relatives.

FamilyTree DNA is great for more detailed - and more costly - genetic testing. They have developed tests for specific genetic markers as well as for tests that can test markers on the Y chromosome for males, and that can test for mitochondrial DNA that is inherited from the mother.

If you can afford a DNA test, I strongly recommend it. Several years ago I bought the Ancestry DNA kits for my parents so now I can see how my genetic markers compare to theirs.Through FamilyTree DNA I tested for a unique genetic marker on my Y chromosome. I periodically correspond with a group of men who share this genetic marker, to share our research about our ancestors and continue to study the DNA to see where each branch of the family diverged from a common ancestor 700 years ago. In another post I'll share about how I learned from genetic testing that I'm descended from a medieval Scottish knight, from whom my surname comes.

9. Browse a Family History Site

The leading family history sites are FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com. In both you can search for ancestors by name until you find who you're looking for. I like to use both for different reasons.

FamilySearch is a great place to find images and documents that relatives have shared about ancestors in the "Memories" section. The ability to share is both a strength and a weakness of FamilySearch since anyone can put nearly anything into it, resulting in the promulgation of false pedigrees, duplicate people, and other incorrect information in what seems like an official format. Another nice feature is that you can write a life sketch for ancestors in FamilySearch.

Ancestry is a great place to find legal and other documents about ancestors. The system can notify you of "Hints" of records that may match your ancestor that you can confirm. Additionally, in Ancestry you can create your own family tree independent of anyone else's, so once you add information to it, no one can alter the information in it except you.

Browsing family history sites is NOT research. It's simply viewing whatever others have put into the system, however correct or erroneous it may be. But family history sites can be used for research.

I hope this has been a helpful resource to give you ideas on how to participate in family history work. I'll be doing another post at some point on how to research and find helpful resources.