Genealogy, like many other hobbies, has a bit of a learning curve to it. The first thing that new genealogists discover is that there is so much more for them to learn about genealogy. Before you get completely overwhelmed, you should check out the “New to Genealogy” website.
You have to start somewhere. Even people who currently are professional genealogists were once beginners with genealogy. There is no reason why you cannot try your hand at genealogy. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that you are new to this hobby. All genealogists made some mistakes when they were new to genealogy, and so will you, and this is perfectly acceptable.
People who are just starting out with genealogy should check out a website called New To Genealogy. As the name implies, you can find plenty of helpful hints and useful tips there. This is a great starting point, and you may want to bookmark it, so you can easily refer back to it when you have more questions later on.
One of the most useful pieces of information found on that website is a long list of abbreviations. Genealogy is one of the studies that involves a multitude of abbreviations. You are very likely to come across some of these abbreviations when you look at birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates, and other important documents. Understanding that “b.” means “born”, and not “baptized”, or “boy”, or anything else you might reasonably assume, can make a huge difference in your genealogy research.
You should also click on the link called “Where to Start”. This gives you some tips about what kinds of questions you should be asking your family members when you first start doing genealogy. This is a good way to make sure that you don’t forget to ask them something that you later realize would have been really helpful, and important, to know about.
For example, it notes that you should ask your relatives for all birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage certificates that they have, so you can make copies of them. This will save you a great deal of time later on. You won’t end up searching for things that you already had easy access to, (but didn’t know to ask about).
Another helpful resource on the “New to Genealogy” website is their list of relationship terms. The difference between a cousin and a second cousin isn’t something everyone would immediately understand. Third, fourth, and fifth cousins can be even more confusing to identify. What to know what “removed” means in genealogy? There is a good definition to be found in that list.
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