Very briefly, genealogy is the study of family trees, that is, ancestors and relatives (I did say briefly *grin*). If you want to know more about the subject, check out some of the links listed below.

If you want to start your own family tree investigation, then I suggest the following approach:

1. Hound all your relatives for any information they may have, especially the older ones. Look for any family records, such as family bibles, baptism etc certificates, old family photo's, diaries and any other records. Note that such information is not very reliable (even family bibles can be wrong), but it's a good place to start. Also check to see if any relatives have done their own investigations - you may be able to obtain their results, or swap information with them.

2. Check your local library. At least here in Australia most local libraries have microfilch indexes to the birth, marriage and death records. This should get you well on the way. By this time you should be able to start constructing your family tree.

3. Then find a local Family History Centre, be they a LDS one or other. This is where you really get going. Their archives vary, but they typically have the birth/marriage/death indexes for all states, immigration records, military records, convict records, the Mormon birth's database and much more (the information held will vary from country to country - most of my research has been with Australian records).

4. By this time you should hopefully have gone back several hundred years (or even more if you are lucky) and your expenses will have been minimal (photocopying, petrol, entrance fees etc). The next step is to go searching on the internet - check out surname interest lists, regional interest lists and web sites, Rootsweb, Genuki and so forth. It can also be rewarding to do a web search using a search programme like Alta Vista (although if you are searching for Smith or Brown, don't bother). Contact as many people as you can, offer to exchange information. Who knows, you may stumble across a distant relative who has the information you lack and, who in turn, has been trying fruitlessly for years to track down a sibling of their ancestor who "vanished off the map" - your ancestor. That's happened to me quite a few times.

5. Finally, you get to the expensive stage. After you have done all you can do, you get in contact with a genealogist (either in your own country or the country where your ancestors came from) and enlist their help. However, such help does not come cheap and complete family histories (going back as far as records allow) can cost many thousands of dollars and take many years of work. Lists of genealogists can be found at your local Family History Centre, family history magazines or in the internet links below.

OK, for the stuff you've all been looking for .. the results of my family tree researches and my collection of links. Just a brief explaination here, I have split up my links into those related to a particular surname I'm researching and general links. Surname links can be found by going to my tree and selecting the appropiate surname. If I have any links for that name, they'll be listed there. Non-surname links can be found via the appropiate link below.

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