Begin with the closest member of your family (you, your parents, your brothers and sisters) and work your way backwards in time. Records and documents, family information, stories (and the odd bit of hearsay) can give you real start.
What are records?
These are anything (a document, newspapers, lists, etc.) that, as the name suggests, record an event. For Family Historians, important records are ones that show the names of our ancestors as well as other information. Many of these are official records such as Censuses, Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) registers, immigration lists and military records. But they could also be something as every-day as a phone book. Using the names in these records along with what you’ve learned from other sources, you can uncover a treasure trove of information about you and your ancestors.
OK I’m Ready to Start. What Do I Do?
Start by writing down all the names of all the relatives you can think of.
Rough dates and a place (of birth, marriage, death or residence) are better than nothing. Make sure you keep a record of anything you’re not sure about, until you can be absolutely certain. Once you have collected all the information you can, it’s time to start recording the information you have gathered.
Start with one family name especially YOU- it’s easier to focus on one name rather trying to look for everyone. Most people start with the father line- but the easiest name to start with is the one you know the most about, and that’s YOU.
Make sure you begin the search with yourself, ensuring you have found the correct ancestor at each step. If you start searching for records for people a few generations back without having the full details about the relatives’ in-between, you risk getting confused between people of the same name.

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