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3 Steps to Trace Your Family Tree (Genealogy for Beginners)

Start with yourself and work backward, interview your oldest relatives, and confirm it all with free public records. Three steps to begin your family tree.

What you'll learn

Start with yourself. One. Begin with what you already know and work backward. Write down your own details, then your parents, then your grandparents. Every name and date you confirm becomes the solid ground for the next discovery.
Talk to elders. Two. Call your oldest living relatives and ask them to tell stories. Their memories of names, towns, and dates can save you months of searching. Record the call, with permission, because those details fade fast.
Find the records. Three. Look up free records to confirm what you've heard. Census forms, birth, and death certificates fill the gaps and catch mistakes. Sites like FamilySearch let you search many of these at no cost.

Full transcript

1. Begin with what you already know and work backward. Write down your own details then your parents, then your grandparents. Every name and date you confirm becomes the solid ground for the next discovery. 2. Call your oldest living relatives and ask them to tell stories. Their memories of names, towns and dates can save you months of searching. Record the call with permission because those details fade fast. 3. Look up free records to confirm what you've heard. Census forms, birth and death certificates fill the gaps and catch mistakes. Sites like family search let you search many of these at no cost.

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