Useful tips to start your research

Getting started

The easiest way to start your family history research is to start at the present and work backwards.
Decide which branch of your family tree you want to start searching first. If you search too many branches at once, it can get confusing and you can end up in a muddle.
Start with yourself, then move to your parents, grandparents, etc. Note down dates of birth, marriage dates, when they had children, and death dates. The most important thing is to write everything down as you move back through the generations.

Talk to your family members, particularly any older relatives, to find out stories, names, information about children, and any other information that may help with your research.
Look for any documents family members may have, such as birth, marriage or death certificates, family photos, family bibles, diaries, letters and so on that may assist your search.

Never assume relationships with families of the same name and spelling. Base your research on firm known descendants.
Always be mindful that when earlier generations were documenting births, marriages and deaths, it was not uncommon for there to be spelling mistakes. Many people were not literate and this resulted in spelling mistakes, and names often changed over time as records showed different spellings.
A person could be registered under a nickname rather than their real name. Quite often a person is known their whole life by one name, and it turns out they have been using one of their middle names as their first name.
Mistakes are common in digitised transcriptions of old handwritten records, resulting from human and mechanical error, and illegible handwriting.
Not all children were baptised, therefore the registration record may not be correct. If it was a rural area, the clergy may not have had the registration book on hand so notes were jotted down somewhere to be recorded later.
Some people may not have been married, even though they lived together and had children.
See our online search tips (including truncation and wild card symbols) to account for variations in spelling and so on to help you get more effective search results.

You should always use certificates to verify your research. You may need to purchase these from an official source.
When researching people or events, note down any registration numbers where possible - it makes purchasing certificates so much easier.
Record everything you find in your research, even if it wasn’t helpful. Noting dead ends can save you a lot of time down the track!

Here are some useful online genealogical databases you can use to start your research (access is free at the Kiama Library history centre):