Written by Generation Archives. The steps here work in any family tree, paper or digital. We make one tool you can use for it.
How to start a family tree when you only know your grandparents
Most family trees do not begin with a stack of birth certificates. They begin with a person who can name their grandparents and is not sure of much else. That is a fine place to start. Four grandparents already give you eight great-grandparents to look for, and the blank spaces are useful. A blank means you have not learned it yet. A guess written down as fact is much harder to undo later.
Write yourself down first
Put yourself on the page, then your parents, then each of their parents. Use the names people were known by in the family, and add a legal name when you know it is different. Maiden names belong on the page even when a grandmother used a married name for fifty years. If you are unsure of a spelling, write the spelling you heard and note that it came from memory.
Dates can be partial. A year is enough. "Born about 1924" is better than a blank if someone is confident of the decade, and it is better than a made-up day. Places can be partial too. A town, a county, or a country is worth recording. "Somewhere in Saskatchewan" is a real clue. "Unknown" is also a real answer.
Ask one person, then ask another
The fastest progress usually comes from a conversation, not from a website. Pick one relative who likes to talk about the family and ask about a specific person, not "tell me everything." Good questions are small:
- What did your mother call her parents?
- Who were her brothers and sisters, in birth order if you remember it?
- Where did the family live when you were a child?
- Who has the photo albums, the Bible, or the box of letters?
Write the answers the same day. Memory edits itself overnight. Note who told you and when. A second relative will contradict the first on something. Keep both versions until a record sorts it out. Sisters often disagree about a birth year by one, and both can be recalling the same birthday cake.
What to collect before you hunt records
You do not need a subscription to a records site to do this part. Gather what the family already has:
- Names, even nicknames
- Approximate years and places
- The names of siblings, spouses, and children
- Photos with anything written on the back
- Funeral cards, wedding programs, and newspaper clippings
- The name of a church, a regiment, a farm, or an employer
Those details tell you where a record might exist later. A regiment and a war narrows a service file. A church and a town narrows a baptism. A farm name can be enough for a local history book.
Leave the unknown unknown
It is tempting to fill a father's name because two cousins on the internet used it. Do not copy a name into your tree until you know why you believe it. If you do keep a lead, label it as a lead. "A public tree says John Hale, not checked" is honest. "John Hale" with a full birth date you did not verify is how mistakes spread.
Work one generation at a time. When you can name a couple and roughly where they lived, you have enough to look for a marriage or a census later. You do not need their parents before you write them down.
Keep a copy you can move
Write the tree somewhere you can take a copy out. Paper is fine if you also photograph the pages. A file you can export, usually GEDCOM, means you are not stuck if you change tools. Photos often do not travel inside that file, so keep the scans in a folder with names that match the people.
Start with the four grandparents you can say out loud. The blanks are the research list.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need birth certificates to start?
No. Names and rough dates from the family are enough to begin. Records come later, and they are easier to find once you know who lived where.
What if I do not know a maiden name?
Leave it blank and ask. A married name alone is still worth recording. Note that the birth name is unknown so you do not invent one.
Should I start with myself or with the oldest person I know?
Start with yourself and walk backward. You already know how you connect to the people you add. Starting from a famous or distant ancestor makes it easy to attach the wrong line.
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