It is an interesting pastime, an exciting hobby and for some, a very rewarding career choice. Imagine getting to research family trees and uncover the roots of families further back than might have been accomplished by one person alone. Thanks to the computer, the ability to research family trees is faster and easier than ever before. If you know what you are doing, that is.

Getting Ready to Research Family Trees

If you want to start a new career in genealogy, your first step is to research family trees of those you know best, such as your own family. Just as you would with a potential client, you start that search by filling in your own information and then going back generation to generation. Pick up the phone and start calling those long lost relatives to fill in as many holes as you can and go back as far as you can.

Once you start meeting brick walls or relatives that have all died off in one branch of the tree, you can start doing the research on the computer based on what you already have. For instance, if you know that your Aunt Julia was born in a certain area of “the old country” you can search whatever records are available there for more family member of Aunt Julia and beyond. Keep in mind however that in the older countries, war, natural disasters and abject poverty may have destroyed the records for entire families and you may never get back any further than what you already have.

Getting Help to Research Family Trees

After giving it a try, you have decided this is not the career choice for you, but you really would like to complete what you started with your own family. In fact, you want to research family trees for both sides of the family and give them to the parents for anniversary gifts. But, to get that done, you have to ask for professional help. There are sites which will allow you to enter your basic information and then allow the professional to complete the family tree themselves. The advantage of having the professional research family trees for you is that they can do things much more quickly than you could on your own. They also know the various tricks that it takes to find records that you might have never known even existed.

Using Computer Sites to Research Family Trees

In addition, there are sites that let you research family trees technically on your own. You enter the information that you already know and if there are any links or matches to other trees by other members, you are notified. Together then, you can fill in the blanks to that side of the tree, maybe going back to generations. You might have even found family secrets that are astounding in the process. For most of these sites, it is free to create your profile but you have to pay a membership fee to research family trees, but you are given access to literally thousands of records and other members.

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