5 tips for starting your family tree

It may be daunting and overwhelming to start putting together your family tree, but genealogists and archivists say there are some crucial steps that you can take to help you get going. 

1. Start with yourself

Experts say starting with you and working back is the easiest way to gather the most amount of information, much of which you may already know. 

Start with jotting down all you know about each person you're connected to — parents, siblings, grandparents — recording information like dates of birth. 

"The real goal there is to try and get a better idea of what gaps in your family tree you're trying to fill," said John Boylan, public services archivist with the P.E.I. Archives and Records Office.

"So that if you come to a place like the public Archives and Records Office ... you've got sort of a list of questions that you're trying to answer. And that way the staff will have better idea of what you're looking for and what types of resources are going to be most useful in trying to answer those questions."

2. Take it 1 line at a time

Filling in a family tree is like solving a mystery, it can be full of twists and turns and unexpected surprises, but the key to finishing the project is staying focused. 

"It's very important to do one family line at a time, so try not to get distracted and try and stay focused on the one family line that you are researching," said Louise Morris, president of the Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society.

"It's so easy to get pulled off in different directions when you find an interesting tidbit about another line of the family. So for example, if you wanted to look at perhaps your paternal line and then your maternal line after that."

3. Get to know your resources 

Morris and Boylan said there are many resources available on P.E.I. and beyond, but both agreed a good place to start is the public archives, where you will find both government records and donated material.

"What you might find on the government side of things are things like death certificates, marriage records that sort of thing," Boylan said. He also said historic land records and estate documents, like a will, can be found.

Boylan said the private donations at the archives may contain church records like baptisms and marriages, as well as historic newspapers.

Record every single place you find a piece of information and the date that you found it.— Louise Morris, P.E.I. Genealogical Society

However, Morris pointed out that in her experience some churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, have sealed some records so they may be more difficult to access. 

Boylan said sometimes you can just walk in with a name and staff can help you to find the right resource.

There are also many smaller museums across the Island such as the McNaught History Centre in Summerside and the Acadian Museum in Miscouche that can also help, including the genealogical society. And if those fail, you can go online.

"There's a lot of free websites that will help you, so Automated Genealogy for example has the 1901 and the 1911 census records for all of Canada. The 1921 census is available through the Canadian archives site," Morris said.

She also mentioned most provinces have public archives and certain institutions across the country like churches, universities and genealogical societies will have resources to help with your search. 

If your ancestors happen to be a part of a minority on P.E.I., finding information may be a bit trickier. 

"Sometimes searching for information about particular groups whether they be First Nations, Chinese Islanders, Lebanese Islanders, black Islanders, is sort of panning for gold exercise and you find yourself looking through a lot of general sources like census records looking for those little references to ethnic association," said Boylan.

"Sources that are a little bit more specific include things like the records of individual churches that had a large number of First Nations people associated, like St. Anne's Roman Catholic up on Lennox Island."

He also said searching documents from federal government departments that were concerned with First Nation groups, especially around the time of P.E.I.'s entry into Confederation, could be helpful. 

4. Going abroad

Eventually your search will take you off-Island, depending on where your ancestors are from. 

"In terms of the U.S. they have census records available up to 1940 and you can get out their vital statistics for most of the states," Morris said. 

"But again you would need paid software to do that. Although Family Search does have some information across North America, so that is a free website." 

When going to Europe or elsewhere, Boylan said to start with a simple internet search for the national archives of other countries — many will have research guides already prepared by staff.

"So if you're interested in military history records, if you're interested in vital statistics records, land records you're probably going to find that somebody has put together a bit of a guide," he said.

Boylan said access could be trickier with some institutions, though some have digitized sections you can get online. 

"Sometimes it comes back to something as old fashioned as ordering a paper copy and having it sent out to you in the mail."

5. Organize your finds 

While searching, it's important to keep things neat and organized — that way you won't lose track of information. 

"Making sure that you record every single place you find a piece of information and the date that you found it, because if you ever have to go back and look ... you won't remember after years and years of research," said Morris. 

In terms of the best way to organize yourself, Morris and Boylan said the jury is out on that. You can go old fashioned with a pen and some paper, binders, or buy specific genealogical computer programs. There are also many online sites that can provide a digital template to input and organize information. 

And finally if you hit a road block, Boylan said, the most important thing is to talk to others with a similar interest, even internet forums and chat rooms can help. 

"Where you can leave notes and hopefully run across somebody who's working on the same problem and might have some clues," he said.

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