As we all know, when we first start our family tree, it can seem very confusing, intimidating, and you may feel lost, and not know where to start!

Trust me when I say. We ALL have to start there. DO NOT get discouraged!!! There are many resources available, and so many available in the genealogy community that are willing to give advice and point in the right direction and help! And, as many know, if you are doing source indexing and don’t have access to records it can feel like a complete dead end. I’ve been there! If you don’t know what source indexing is, it is getting into archives, and looking for birth certificates, death certificates, immigration records, military records, census records, and more! It’s uncovering the paper trail and putting the puzzle together, as many of these documents have parents names, siblings and can help tell your ancestors story. It goes wonderfully with a DNA test that shows Ancient Origins, DNA dig sites, and migration routes too, as I’ve been able to see where my family started, why the migrated, how they lived and traveled, and so much more!!! It’s amazing, and this hope this blog can help inspire you in your own journey.

I’ve been working on mostly source indexing lately, because I’ve been not just working on 2 fixed trees, but, I’m also working on a living tree. And I will explain the differences if you are unaware. There are positives in both and some cons in there too. The main 3 sites in working on is Family Search, its a living tree, and as I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog, is that it’s FREE!!! POSITIVES: Family Search is NOT only free, but gives you access to records there, and can connect your tree even further back, to ancestors you never knew about, and a plus that some have already done the work, making it easier to connect with extended relatives and immediate family that you may have not known existed!

NEGATIVES: The downside to that is that not everyone source indexes, and not everyone makes sure your great great grandfather that is displaying is NOT really your uncle and your grannies second husband or something,😀 so I can’t stress how important it is finding where all these documents are and attaching them to the correct people 😉 think of it as a treasure hunt, with the treasure being the correct ancestors on your tree 🌳.

I’m far from perfect, I have some ancestors placed on my tree that I haven’t gotten around to yet, there is always work to be done and it’s a goal to source index every single name on there personally! As it’s a living tree and what I did source index and was correct even got merged and deleted, which can be a headache. And this is where the next step comes in.

Roots Magic. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a somewhat free program you can connect to your family search engine to make what is called a Gedcom file. It’s free to use some parts of it, and the rest is paid for.

Gedcom files is your living tree pulled from the database to transfer to a fixed tree like for Ancestry. Which is exactly what I did. I took classes and learned how to use Roots Magic, made my Gedcom file and pulled some of it onto Ancestry. It took what seemed forever, 😕 it’s slow, BUT the POSITIVE of this is no one can delete my ancestors from me that have been indexed. Even though I stopped making my file after it pulled them for a full 24 HOURS, I do have over 3 thousands family members on there to work with and build.

So that gets me to the next site I’m working on now, Ancestry. With Ancestry, it’s not free, but I’m on it. And a positive with Ancestry is it will let you know when new sources and hints are available. I’ve found a ton of photos I didn’t know existed and also found new family members. It’s easy to build and I can easily find sources and records, though I have to say you still have to check the record because sometimes they are labeled incorrectly. The DOWNSIDE to this is you have to manually input each ancestor and your not always automatically connected to other trees.

Last but not least, the 3rd database I’ve started working on and with, helping others in my family build our tree is on wikitree.

For me im gonna say the DOWNSIDE first because wikitree has been the most difficult to maneuver around for me and build on. You have to sign a code of ethics, and not all the information is there and not all the information is correct. It wouldn’t let me connect my father and when it did I had to reach out for help. So I am very pokey on that sight, even though I see so much work that needs done. Maybe that’s why. I’ve already done the work and don’t feel like adding it right now. Let’s be honest. Lol. Though I know I’ll get to it at some point.

The POSITIVES on that one is that its true, so many dedicated individuals are working to get the right information, and I absolutely love that part about it! I found a distant cousin working on my dad’s side of the tree, and he had even reached back out to me when I sent in a need for a correction. Awesomeness. So brownie points there, that people are really working on indexing there. So I will definitely return.

So, in all, I have found positives in all of the genealogy sites I’ve worked on so far to be honest. I haven’t tried other sites yet, which I may in time for resources, and possibly more, and now, like when I first started, I am all hands on getting physical records too, when possible.

I hope this blog can help a little too, to get you started, or even expand your journey more.

Another site I recently learned about that will help you find a ton of sources is called Cyndi’s List, it has literally thousands of genealogy links, and so much more!!! Click on the photo below and explore today!

Happy Hunting!

Best Regards,

Dawn Piercy, PhD