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Try going to a local library, historical society or LDS center. These are great places to make a start with researching your family history. You can meet other genealogist who are actively researching and can give you tips and advice. You may also locate ancestors in regional history books or resource files. There are thousands of detailed family history and genealogy books to help to guide you through the hobby of family history.
There is a group of printable forms on this website to help you organize your research and keep track of your information sources. This is important; after hours of research, it will be difficult to remember where you have already looked. Always write down the sources you checked, even if you didn't find anything. Keep all of your charts and forms together in a binder along with your collected research material. Fill out the forms using pencil, the information you enter early in your course of inquiry may change considerably as you conduct further research. Initially, put any information that you can on the forms; this will give you an idea of areas you need to explore. Keep track of your questions; it's a good idea to keep scratch paper handy to jot ideas down as they come to you, so you can follow up on them later. As you begin your research, remember the basic rules of genealogy. Start with yourself and work backwards through each generation. Work from the known to the unknown. Write down what you find and where you found it: which institution, collection of records, volume and page number.
Family history interviews are a key skill for the amateur family historians. A good place to start is with your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in your close family. Another opportunity exists with friends of the family. Letting know that you are researching your family history can help you make rapid progress . Find out what they know about birth and death dates and places, marriage dates and places and the circumstances surrounding these events. It’s usually more productive to begin with the current year and work backwards. When you run into a family history dead-end move on to the next line or investigate the brothers or sisters of your ancestor. A lot of useful information can be found by researching the brother or sister of my direct line of ancestry. It’s a good idea to ask them if they mind checking their homes for information they might have on ancestors, family member, family history or family heirloom.
Missouri has a useful free, searchable database which gives abstracts of the birth and death records captured in Missouri prior to 1909. These family history records are also available to see on microfiche at the state of Missouri Archives.
