This ten step guide will help you on your way to discovering your ancestry. There is such a wealth of information out there that you will find about your ancestors.
It can though become quite overwhelming for you to know where to start and how to find that information.
You can follow my 10 Steps to Family History to help you discover your genealogy!
These guides will keep you on your journey!
I hope that the guides that I have included here will aid you with your research.
Also, I hope that during your fact finding you will find a wealth of information on your ancestors that will enrich your family history.
Below you will find a brief outline of the 10 Steps to Family History with links to further articles that will assist you.
If you have any comments, queries or suggestions for topics to add to this page then please feel free to contact me.
The 10 Steps to Family History
Researching your family history can be quite a long journey. 
I myself spent about six years researching my own genealogy until I reached a level that I was happy with.
Although you could go on forever. The journey is endless and so your children, your children’s children may take on where you left off.
I was fortunate that my father did quite a bit of researching for a number of years beforehand.
So, I had these resources to work with before I went out and explored new information that was out there.
Genealogy takes time and money!
Genealogy though does depend on how much research you are willing to take, how much money you are willing to spend, and also how far back you are willing to go.
To help you on this journey I have broken this down for you into ten steps.
On this page I will briefly explain these ten steps for you. Links to articles I have written are also provided within each step.
This step by step genealogy guide will show you the way you need to go on your family history journey.
Following these ten steps will ensure that you get the most from your family history research.
If you have any queries then please feel free to contact me.
Step 1 – Start With Yourself
A great starting point is to begin with yourself by recording your details.
Once you have done this then you can find useful information that you have around the home.
The Guides:
What Does Your Surname Mean?
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What Sources of Information At Home Can You Find?
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Step 2 – Ask Your Relatives
Your relatives are a great resource of information and must not be overlooked. Not only do they have records of interest to you at their address.
But they may have valuable memories and stories about your ancestors that are not recorded anywhere.
The Guides:
Top 20 Family History Interview Questions
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Step 3 – Write What You Have So Far
Having so much information in front of you can be very overwhelming.
So, how can you make sense of it all?
By writing your family history you can start to make order of it. By doing so you will be able to explore where you will need to research more.
The Guides:
How To Create A Family History Book – Part 1
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How To Make A Family History Book – Part 2
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How To Write A Family History Book!
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Making A Family History Book Can Be Fun!
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Step 4 – Concentrate On An Individual
When you first begin genealogy it is too easy to want to find out all that you can about your family. It is best though to first learn all that you can about one of your ancestors.
As you find new information about your ancestor you will learn what genealogy is all about.
You will learn new things, new procedures, and new skills.
Once you have researched one individual then you can take what you have learned and apply it to the next ancestor.
The Guides:
Old Occupations Their Meanings and How To Find Them
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Step 5 – Search Online
There is so much information online these days that there is surely something out there about your ancestors.
Genealogy sites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast have so much resources available to you that it is well worth checking them out.
The Guides:
Top Genealogy Sites – Guide Books to Ancestry and FamilySearch
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What Do Genealogy Search Websites Offer?
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Step 6 – Research Where Your Ancestor Lived
Finding out about where you ancestors lived can bring a whole new level of understanding to your research.
It can give you a feel of what their life was like for them. You can do this by checking newspaper archives online.
You may even try your luck with Google which may help you find interesting insights into the hometown of your ancestor.
The Guides:
Historical Maps of North America and Europe – Essential Collection
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Where Did My Ancestors Come From – A British Guide
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Step 7 – Visit Archives and Family History Society
The local archives will have records of your ancestors which will have certificates such as birth, death and marriage.
They may also have other useful documents concerning your family.
There will probably be a local family history society that you can get in contact with. They maybe able to provide with more information for your research.
The Guides:
How To Find A Genealogy Society Both Near And Far!
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Join A Family History Society
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Plan a Visit to the Archives
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What To Do At The Archives
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Step 8 – Enter Your Collected Information
You can enter what you have so far into a genealogy software program. This tool will be able to make sense of the mass of information that you have about your family.
Genealogy software are useful as they can print out charts of your family, reports, maps and so much more.
The Guides:
Best Genealogy Software Programs – Your Top 5
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Genealogy Software Issues
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What’s New With Legacy 9?
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Step 9 – Visit Your Ancestors Area
There is nothing more than getting to know your ancestor than by physically standing where your ancestor lived and worked.
Although the scenery may have changed you will feel a strange sensation knowing that you are walking where your ancestor once walked.
The Guides:
How To Find A Cemetery Grave And What To Do When You’re There!
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Step 10 – Repeat The Steps
Now that you have researched one ancestor you can then apply what you have learned to the next ancestor, and the next, and so on.
There is no ending to this journey though as you continue going through your family tree.
Also, as new information is put online all the time you can revisit ancestors you had previously explored and fill in this new data.
Thank You and Please Leave A Comment
I hope this ten step guide will help you on your family history journey. If you think that this page will be helpful to others then please share with friends and family using the social media buttons below.
If you have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Quite an interesting ways to figure out your ancestry, even though I am not from Europe or North America but I am Chinese with some European ancestry due to my Macanese side of my mom family.
This is a very useful ten step guide that I myself have used to trace my ancestry. It can work for any background so please feel free to use it.
This is a great guide! I have a very diverse family history: my father is Puerto Rican, my great-grandmother fled Poland during WWII, and my grandfather was adopted. This guide can help me piece my family history together!
Hi Jasmine,
I am glad that you found The Genealogy Guide. I wish you all the best with your ancestry research.
Owain
Hi. Thank you for posting all this. This is timely for my family as we have been discussing our roots though other than ancestry.com we did not know where else to go or how to even begin. Very comprehensive and the ten steps is a perfect place for us to start!
The ten steps that I have laid out here are an excellent way to get started. With so much information out there and so many ancestors of ours it’s difficult to know where to start. All the best with your family history research.
Once again, a ton of interesting and useful information. Thank you.
Grace
Thank you Grace. There is plenty of information here and I intend to add more in time as well.
Hi Owain, that’s an accurate guide – I made it as far as step 6 before I ran out of steam years ago, and never picked the trail back up again. It’s unfortunate as another family member dug so deep and so well, he published it – and the passed on. I never got access to that book he put together and eventually hope to retrace his path for my own knowledge. I’m very interested in the DNA testing that wasn’t available years ago!
That’s such a shame that you couldn’t or can’t get access to that book. By checking it it could save you so much time, and money, researching what has already been traced.
Genealogy DNA testing can help me break down brick walls and also connect you to cousins as well. It really is a game changer when it comes to tracing your family tree. And the science behind keeps improving so it’s worth checking out.
It’s quite ingenious that you have developed a step program where we can get more in touch with our ancestry. I will definitely use this as a reference when I begin to unravel my genealogy. Feel free to check out my website at http://earthliberty.com
Yours Truly
Omair
Thanks Omair for your kind comment. Genealogy research can be an exciting adventure. You just don’t know who you will find and what you will find out about them.
But it does help if you follow a step by step plan. Otherwise you may get lost with where you are and then it will become all a muddle.
All the best with tracing your family tree.
I’ll be sure to check out your site. Thank you.