State Historical Society of Missouri

Suggestions for Tracing Your Family History

• Start with yourself: your full name, date of birth and other important dates, and the full names and dates of your parents. For each birth, death, or marriage, obtain a certificate or official record if possible.
• Write or visit relatives and gather information from them. Bible records, deeds, wills, property abstracts, marriage certificates, divorce records, letters and clippings can all offer valuable information. After copying all the family material available, identify it by indicating the name and address of the owner, and the date it was copied.
• Whether you use file cards, a looseleaf notebook, or another recording system, be consistent in noting your information so that you can find it again when you need it.
• Keep unproved records in pencil so they can be changed.
• Spellings of names vary a great deal in records. Decide on a way to indicate in your notes that you have copied the spelling correctly. Placing [sic] after a word indicates it is reproduced exactly as written in the original transcription.
• Dates of birth, death, and marriage may be found in family bibles, on tombstones, and in state, federal or local records. Approximate ages appear in the census records. Try every source.
• Federal census records since 1850 show state of birth and indicate the family migration. Newspaper obituaries, county histories, some land and probate records also give clues to residence.
• Probate records can be proof of a relationship. Even when there is no will, records of estate settlements may show heirs and relationships.
• Land transactions have been recorded with great care throughout most of our history. Records of deeds may show not only owners but heirs and relationships on both sides. Tax lists can help, too. Look at the names of neighboring landowners, they may be relatives.
• Pension papers are full of dates and places. If an ancestor served in any war, it may be on record at the state or national level; you may be able to obtain a copy.
• Some churches kept baptismal, marriage, burial records; others did not. Some who did not may have an adjacent cemetery with the data you need carved in stone.
• It may be that much of the research you need has already been done and is waiting for you in your local library. County histories, family histories, printed books or on microfilm contain many family histories.
  
• When you begin to use a newspaper, periodical, book or film, write down the author, title, publisher, or series name and volume number. Even if you fail to find anything useful in it, this will insure that you will not waste time looking in it at a later date.
• Learn to use atlases, and even road maps. These will frequently answer many questions about counties, county seats, townships, and even paths of western migration by land and by river.
• Become familiar again with basic history of our country. Frequently what was happening in a certain location at a certain time had a direct bearing on the actions your ancestors may have taken.