The First Four

To the beginner. Your job is a Treasure Hunt. You are out to build your family tree. With FamilySearch Family Tree you get help. Many of your long lost cousins are likely to join in the hunt for your family and connect them to the tree.

When you connect in to  FamilySearch Family Tree there may be some errors. That is why you have the features of editing, discussions, and sources: so you can work together to get it right.

You are likely to be like me, finding it to be exciting and fun.

The first thing to do is get a Family Search account. Then login and start building you tree with those who are alive. Only you see live people you put in your tree for privacy reasons.

Keep building your pedigree until you connect to ancestors that are deceased. The deceased are visible to all. As thousands are already using FamilySearch Family Tree your deceased ancestors are possible already in there and you will see your pedigree chart populate. Don't be alarmed if there are  errors. Fixing them, proving what is correct, and attaching the source to the tree as proof is the fun part.

We suggest you make public at least your email, so your common relatives can contact you to work with you in getting them all and getting it right.

The second part of the hunt, is the hunt. There are hundreds, even thousands, of websites to help in the hunt because there are so many involved in this fascinating work.

However I want to refer you to the Fantastic Four: http://familysearch.org/ http://ancestry.com/ http://Google.com/ (using the work genealogy in your search) and http://findagrave.com/ These four sites will help you get the cream of the crop, the records most easily found.

By the way, Ancestry.com is free at a local FamilySearch Family History Center. The others are always free.

This will get you a huge start. Start with those families closest to you. Then work  out. Find the correct records and attach them to the tree.

To learn family tree and each of it's components you can go to the website http://familysearchtraining.com/ It is really intuitive and easy to learn. The training site videos should be all you need, but there are practice exercises there for additional help.

Enjoy, or should I say, catch the spirit. Larry

By the way - Family Search has a Wiki and a Training Center. I will post about those next. Much is already here as I have been writing for over a year on this subject, I vainly suggest you study this site. :)