Part 2 will feature online guides, with an emphasis on genealogy and family history research in Australia and the UK.
Queensland Genealogist Judy Webster gives some good general advice for beginners on her web site: Genealogy Basics.
Graham Jaunay's Adelaide Proformat web site includes a guide to Getting started in family history research.
Barry Leadbeater's Family History South Australia web site includes a guide to Starting your family tree.
The web site for the monthly Australian family history magazine Australia Family Tree Connections includes a Getting Started page which gives the useful 'Golden Rules of Genealogy' as well as references to beginners articles in previous issues of the magazine.
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| Unlock The Past - How Do I Start Tracing My Family? |
Shauna suggests visiting the web sites for state archives, state libraries and genealogical societies to see what ‘how to’ guides they offer. The following are links to family history guides available on the web sites of the various Australian State Libraries and Archives.
State Libraries
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| National Library of Australia - For Family Historians |
For Family Historians: Starting your research and Subject Guides
State Library of New South Wales:
Family History Research Guides and Family History Service
State Library of Victoria:
Research Guides - Family History and Family History Resources
Queensland State Library:
Information for family historians and Family History info guides (including Info Guide 3.1 How to Trace Your Family Tree)
State Library of Western Australia:
Guides to Family History
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| State Library of Tasmania - Family History |
Family History and Beginners Guide
State Library of South Australia:
LibGuides - Family History
Northern Territory Library:
Getting Started in Family History and Family History/Genealogy
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| National Archives of Australia - Family History |
National Archives of Australia
For Family Historians and Researching your family
State Records New South Wales:
Family/Local History and How to start your family history
Public Record Office Victoria (PROV)
Family and Local History and PROVguide 51: Family History - Family History research at PROV
For more information about the PROV, see my earlier post.
Queensland State Archives:
Family History - Where to Start and Brief Guide 10 - Archives for Genealogists
State Records of South Australia:
Family History and Guides for Family History
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| State Records Office of Western Australia - Family History |
Family History
Archives Office of Tasmania:
Records Useful for Genealogical Research and Guides to Records and their use
Northern Territory Archive Service
The Archives Collection
Genealogical Societies
The Society of Australian Genealogists have a good collection of research guides.
Cora Num's Web Sites for Genealogists has links to many family history and historical societies from across Australia.
Other Beginners Guides
As I have stated in earlier posts, I am making a new start with my research and hope this time around to follow a detailed research process. The following are various descriptions of the genealogy research process which I have found useful.
The Genealogy Research Process Map at Mark Tucker's ThinkGenealogy Blog.
FamilySearch Wiki contains other useful articles for beginners including: Organizing your files and Rookie Mistakes. Various other articles are tagged under the category Beginners.
Several of the commercial family history online services have beginners guides including:
Ancestry.com.au - Beginners Questions for Australian Research by Jeremy Palmer.
Ancestry.co.uk - Help and Advice Centre - Plan The Attack
Ancestry.co.uk - Help and Advice Centre - Ten Common Research Mistakes
FindMyPast.co.uk - Getting Started
FindMyPast.co.uk - Knowledge Base
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| BBC Family History - Get Started |
The GENUKI web site has a guide to Getting Started in Genealogy and Family History.
There are also many Beginners links available on Cyndi's List.
Here are a few posts on other genealogy blogs with advice for beginners:
- Jeanne Bunting's top 10 tips for newbies on the FindMyPast.co.uk blog
- If I Was Starting All Over Again - My Best Advice for Beginner Genealogists on The Armchair Genealogist blog.
- The Armchair Genealogist on Advice for Beginners on Greta's Genealogy blog.
Do you know of any other good online beginners guides to genealogy and family history? If you do, please share them in a comment. Thanks.
Thanks for this useful article - and for mentioning my 'Genealogy Basics' page. I really must add a link to one of my favourite reference sites: FindMyPast's Knowledge Base, http://www.findmypast.co.uk/helpadvice/knowledge-base/index.jsp.
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