Here are the select set of resources you’ll need to explore your family’s history.
Start with Software
Your genealogy software is the repository for all the information you discover. It’s the main tool in your genealogy toolbox. Which one you choose will likely depend primarily on whether you use a Windows PC or a Mac.
Already Have Software?
Handy indexes of articles and videos by application are linked below for your convenience:
Still Looking for Software?
I’ve also created a couple of buyer’s guides to help you make a choice between software:
See my recommendations in the following sections.
Genealogy Software for Windows
I recommend RootsMagic 7 and Family Historian. There are many good alternatives though.
- Family Historian
- Family Tree Maker 2017
- Legacy Family Tree
- RootsMagic 7
Genealogy Software for Mac
- Family Tree Maker 2017 for Mac
- GEDitCOM II
- iFamily for Leopard
- MacFamilyTree 8 by Synium
- Reunion 12 by Leister Productions
Get Good Books
- How to Do Everything Genealogy
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy, 2nd Edition
- The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors
- You Can Write Your Family History
Setup Folders on Your Computer
You’ll need places to put archival copies of scanned documents, photos, and other files on your computer. This series of video screencasts will walk you, step-by-step, through setting up a folder system and putting files into it. They’re created on a Mac and take advantage of the powerful alias feature in Mac OS X, but most of the system will work well on Windows too.
- Part 1, My Family History Folder
- Part 2, Places
- Part 3, People
- Part 4, People with Multiple Names
- Part 5, Multiple People
- Part 6, People and Places
- Part 7, Place-Name Changes Through History
- Part 8, Finding Aliases and Originals
- Part 9, Do all your folders look alike?
Get Information About Your Ancestors
Not all of the information about your relatives is online, so you’ll need to do some sleuthing in the real world. But, there is a wealth of information available online. My advice to you is to consider everything, but only trust it after you prove it. That said, these online databases provide a great source of leads! There’s some overlap between the records on these sites and they each have treasured family history that the others won’t. You can search for free to get an idea which holds the most (and most interesting) genealogy data for your ancestors.
- Ancestry.com
- WorldVitalRecords.com
- Fold3.com (Military Records)
- Newspapers.com
- NewspaperARCHIVES.com
- Find a Grave
- Find out how you are related to the rest of humanity at OneGreatFamily
- Sign up now and get 20% off Mocavo Gold!
There are tons more sites, but I want to keep this concise so that it’s most useful for you.