Helpful Tips and Hints from our members:

• Get a DNA test.  Test everyone you can afford!
• Have a relative who is an eager searcher accompany you on your trips to the library or court house.
• Use a mirror to assist in reading hard to read tombstones.
• Never throw anything away.
• Use flour to fill in worn lettering on  tombstones.  Please note that although flour is biodegradable it is our responsibility to clean the  stone of all flour and to take as much of it as possible from the grave site before leaving.
• Read and reread all documents – many little clues are overlooked on previous readings.
• When stuck on your main research take a break and research a side line.
• The internet is your friend. If you are not techno-friendly, take a class through a local university or college.
• Read newspaper obituaries as a follow up on genealogy research.
• Record your children’s and grand children’s oral history as well as your own. They may not be interested in genealogy now yet the recording will be a great research source when they are interested.
• When you are researching in a library take a couple of interested family members with you who can “browse” and are not focused on one or two items as we probably will be. You’ll be surprised at what they will find on those genealogy shelves that you might overlook.
• Ask at the court house where you are researching if they have a genealogist either volunteer or employed. They are extremely helpful.
• Frequently back up or print copies of computer files. Computers do crash!
• Talk to everybody for their tips: locals, visitor centers, etc. If they don’t know about your line they might give you a lead.
• Document even the most trivial bit of information.
• Keep the story alive. Tell your children and grandchildren (whether they want to hear or not) maybe someone down the line will remember something and pick up the ball.
• Put yourself in the picture at gravesites (for future generations.)
• Become a map reader. State maps – early, historical, county plat books. Don’t forget to visit the map rooms of the Library of Congress.
• Document the Document. Write down the source be it a book, a person etc, the page number, the date, the place found such as Crawford County Library city and state.

Got a suggestion?  We welcome any helpful tips and hints you have found to be useful in your own family searches!