Research on the Home Front

Becoming the family historian is a bit like becoming a private detective. You need to look for clues that will solve the mysteries of your family's history. Uncovering these bits of evidence takes perseverance and hard work, and starting your sleuthing with some poking around at home is a great way to begin. Any hardened detective will tell you to start with the eyewitnesses first, those individuals who have personal knowledge of the events, and to gather evidence from the scene of the crime, in this case, your own (or a relative's) home.

If you are just beginning your family history research, you may be very surprised at the amount of information you are able to gather from your home or the homes of relatives. The records you are able to find won't be the be-all and end-all of your research, but they will serve as a launching pad for subsequent information gathering. The following list of potential sources is not exhaustive, but does describe the most common types of records found at home.

Birth Records All that is truly required to document the birth of an individual is one record, but gathering as many as possible is best. One of the best sources of genealogical information is the birth certificate. Though it is unlikely that you will find certificates for anyone born before 1900 (and many states did not issue them until the 1920's), it is possible to find birth information in other sources as well. One additional potential source of birth information is baptismal or christening certificates. Each church or denomination may have differing information on their particular certificate, but will generally include the date and place of birth. School records, including report cards, yearbooks and diplomas, may also yield clues to an individual's date of birth. (These records may contain loads of other information pertinent to the family researcher as well. Don't overlook them in your hunt for clues!)

The further back in time you travel in your research, "official" records become less plentiful, and family records gain even greater importance. Family Bibles often contain invaluable bits of information, particularly concerning births, and other family milestones not recorded anywhere else. One piece of evidence to ferret out when looking at a family Bible is its publication date. After this date is ascertained, look at the information recorded within. If the year of publication does not precede the events recorded, or if a long series of events is recorded in the same handwriting, it is almost certain that the information was transcribed by one individual according to memory or tradition. This does not mean that the information is worthless, but it may be wise to cross-check it with other sources. If the data entered in the Bible occurs after the date of publication, and is in varied handwriting, then the information was most likely entered near to the time of the actual events, and therefore is considered more reliable.

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