I have often said, “Start with your stories,” when asked where to begin preserving your past whether that means starting with your parents, your grandparents, your great grandparents, or your own stories. That's what I usually focus on - preserving what you know.

But there is also another layer to digging deeper that comes from researching our ancestors, and in that vein, this blog post is in honor of October, which is Family History Month.

Happy Family History Month!

In this post I share some resources that I recommend to get you started or help you become more proficient and organized while researching your past. A very big piece of who we are is rooted in the stories and life experiences of those who came before us, and looking further at our family history helps us to learn more about ourselves.

I speak often about the idea of preserving the past and the future, and I even wrote a book to help you to do that, because I truly believe in not only preserving the past, but also sharing it as a way to build deeper relationships with our people that are in our present and in our future.

Here are some resources that I recommend if Family History is something you're interested in wanting to know more about. Here are four resources that I believe will be very helpful with the family history research piece. Again, there are many places you can go to, but today we're going to be focusing on four.

The first one is the National Genealogical Society or NGS.

According to their website, “The NGS is more than a century old. The National Genealogical Society was organized in Washington DC in 1903. NGS has a long history of leading the way in genealogy and produced some remarkable achievements. It was the first National Genealogical Organization. The Society published the first National Genealogical Journal, the NGSQ, and co-created the Board for Certification. They have established themselves over the years “as a leader in genealogical education.

Resources offered:

Conferences, seminars and workshops,

Research books, magazines and journal.

The NGS home study course in American Genealogy

Cloud-based online courses in American Genealogy and special subject matter courses developed by leading experts in the field.

Gentech, a division of NGS, also”helped to facilitate a bridge between genealogy and technology and is known for the GenTech genealogical data model, which is of use in software developers who write genealogy software.

And the NGS book loan collection is the largest free lending library of its kind. Among the 20,000 books available for research, many in the collection may be borrowed by lending through ILL, including a wide range of family histories, state, country and local histories, abstracts of records of cemeteries, churches, courts, deeds, marriages, wills and other probate records.

Mission Statement:

“Our mission is to inspire, connect and lead the family history community. We foster collaboration and best practices in advocacy, education, preservation and research. We enable people, cultures and organizations to discover the past and create a lasting legacy.”

Links to their resources:

https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/

https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/family-history-month/

https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/getting-started/

The next resource I’d like to share is Family Search. Family Search is a free resource. They are a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, providing Family Search free of charge to everyone, regardless of your tradition, culture or religious affiliation. So, while they are associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they provide resources to millions of people around the world, regardless of whether you're associated with the church.

Mission:

To help people to discover their family history through the website, mobile apps and in-person help. There are over 5,000 local history centers. And one of my favorite tool of theirs is a family tree resource that is free. It's the world's largest online family tree resource, and links you to other family trees. As you're doing your research, you're able to link into other information that's already been added by your family or ancestor information.

So, while there are other resources that do this and some of those tools are excellent tools, this is a free option that lets you use a free family tree template to be able to see your chart views, a timeline, and some other tools with hints and research help.

Resources Offered:

Family Tree
Genealogy Records
Family Photo Sharing
Family Activities
Learning Resources
Research Guidance
DNA Testing Options
Surname Meanings

Links:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/overview

https://www.familysearch.org/discovery/activities/

Third is the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh - GRIP.

The GRIP Institute is now affiliated with the National Genealogical Society, which is actually going to be really great for both organizations, as GRIP has been a really strong trailblazer in training and education for helping people learn about doing their research, and will be a big piece of the education for NGS.

Their training ranges from beginner topics to some more advanced topics. These are usually scheduled as summer institutes that are week long. Some are virtual, some are in person, and the topics are really kind of cool and exciting such as “Advanced DNA evidence, digging deeper the records, tools and skills” and “Genealogical Organization: increase your productivity.

These topics, you can see, would be a great way to build on your knowledge of collecting information about your ancestry, writing your stories, and increase your skills of genealogical documentation.

All of this could only help your stories, which is why I recommend them.

There is a cost for the classes, but they do offer scholarships.

Finally, the fourth resource that I would recommend you become involved in if you are going to be celebrating your Family History Month is your local and state genealogical associations. These are dependent on your location.

In Massachusetts we have the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, MSOG. There are other local chapters branch off from the state society. This is an organization that I have become involved with. You'll see me doing some speaking at some of these organizations.

Mission:

To promote and encourage Massachusetts genealogical research at all levels beginner, amateur and professional. They have a lot of resources and education that is actually open to the public, whether or not you are a member.

The paid membership does offer more education and resources like webinars, live events and book clubs.

One of the main reasons I love the idea of using a local or a state genealogical association is the opportunity to come together with a community of like-minded people.

I was able to go to my New England genealogical conference in May and meet lots of different like-minded people that were just as enthusiastic about family stories as I was. Now some of them have very different experiences with what they do in the genealogical realm, but I love that I have these people now as my go-to community and we can come together and nerd out about family history.

It is also about the resources and research support that you can get when you belong to your local association.

Cost:

$25 for individual $39 for a couple.

Links:

https://msoginc.org/

https://msoginc.org/cpage.php?pt=84 (Helpful checklist to organize your research)

There are many more resources out there, but here are a few good ones to begin with to learn more in honor of Family History Month. I shared about the National Genealogical Society, Family Search, GRIP, and then your local and state genealogical society.

I hope that you take advantage of some of these free resources and dive deeper into exploring more of the parts of genealogy and ancestry that excite you.