Computer: Is it current and “fast” enough to handle internet research, downloading files, scanning, and printing?
Internet access: Does it allow you speedy connections to the World Wide Web?

Flatbed scanner: You’ll want to scan full-size documents as well as photos, so a flatbed scanner is better than one that only scans photo-sized items.

Printer: You may not need this as much, especially if you choose to store images of all your documents on your hard drive instead of in a file cabinet. But sometimes it will be easiest to download a document and print out a hard copy before you begin harvesting information. And you’ll probably want to print some reports to share with family!

Genealogy Software: If you choose a software other than Legacy, you may be completely satisfied.  However, since I know nothing about other software programs, I won’t be able to help much. If you choose Legacy, I’m happy to help you learn the program. Legacy has a free version, but it doesn’t include the bells and whistles that the paid version offers.  The bells and whistles are worth it.

Source Material:  Your home is likely filled with items that will be useful source material for your family tree database.  However, please don’t try organizing those materials yet.  I have important information to share in a future post that may influence how you deal with these records and memorabilia. 

If you haven’t begun to build a family tree on your computer software, you have a grand opportunity. You can have a database that includes sources for virtually everything you enter.  And that’s no small thing.

Genealogy purists say that family history without documentation is fairy tale. I don’t subscribe to that attitude, but I do put great stock in making source notations when entering data. You just won’t have documentation for everything, but it’s great to be able to give an answer when someone says, “where did you get that information?”

The paid Legacy software program includes a wonderful feature called Source Writer that helps you write proper source notes for any bit of information you add to the database. The free version of Legacy has a rudimentary means of recording sources, which may be satisfactory for many.  However, the Source Writer makes it so easy to generate excellent source notations, so I’d definitely cough up the cash for the paid version of Legacy. It’s a one-time purchase price, not a subscription fee.

There are all types of sources.  Letters, books, newspapers, land records, wills, photographs, ship manifests, and so on.  The list is long.  The deluxe Legacy program  with Source Writer even helps you document a source as “Personal Knowledge of John Doe,” where you insert your name or that of your verbal source.  It asks questions and offers fields into which you input data.  Like magic, you end up with a properly written source notation.  Easy as pie.

And it’s so very important!  Without it, when someone asks where you found the info, all you can say is “I saw it somewhere…” And believe me.  They WILL ask!
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There are two things I wish I knew when I first started family history research:  Make source notations, and always enter women’s last names with their name at birth, not their married name.

I first learned of genealogy in my senior year of high school.  Back then, it was a paper-based system, and that took all the fun out of the idea for me.  Then, when I had small children, my Mom, Donna Stillwell, did family history books for each side of the family.  Interesting stuff! Personal computers and genealogy software were now available, so my interest in family history research took off.

If you’re wanting to do genealogy with paper and pencil, I don’t have much to offer. Good luck!

The rest of this post is for those of you who are ready to “get with the program.” Basic requirements are a fairly current computer (I prefer laptop for research portability), and reliable internet access. A flatbed scanner and a printer are somewhere between “really nice” and “indispensable.”

You’ve heard a lot about online services like Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com and other such sites.  These are not resident on your computer, but on the web.  I like using them for gathering information, but my actual database is solidly built on my computer.

There are several good software programs for genealogy, such as My Family Tree, Family Tree Maker and Legacy.  I use Legacy, love it, and know nothing about the other programs, so don’t ask!

The beauty of using the software-based programs on your computer is that they usually allow you to print out reports.

Legacy’s reports options are amazing! It will take the data you’ve entered and turn it inside out and upside down and spit out the most fabulous reports.  Ancestors! Descendants! Pie charts! Chronologies! Relationship Reports!  Ancestry.com doesn’t allow you to print reports. My Legacy program on my computer is where my family tree is planted and thriving. And I love creating PDF reports to share with family.

You can get quite a bit done with your computer, scanner, printer and your Legacy-based family tree. Later on, when you’ve harvested all the data you can from the source material at hand, you can start searching the Internet for information.

The nice thing is that Legacy has a free version you can download immediately.  Play around with it, but don’t get too far entering information until I chat with you about Sources in my next blog.

Genealogy is a hobby that takes an investment of time and effort.  Would you like your investment to be paid out into the lives of future generations who will treasure it? Or might your efforts be callously tossed in the trash by people who don’t know or don’t care? Even if you have few or no relatives to receive your work of love, historical societies are often thrilled to acquire well-done family histories.

Paper and pencil versions of family trees are worthy of appreciation, certainly. Files of documentation might be perused if it’s easy to figure out who is who. Drawers and drawers of paper records are unlikely to be maintained.
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Here’s what I call “Full Digital.”

1. You build your family tree on your computer, using a quality genealogy software program.
2. You set up folders on your hard drive for photos, documents, and reports.
3. You scan (or photograph) all hard-copy documents.
4. You use my file naming system so that you can quickly retrieve whatever item you’re seeking.
5. You fill the folders on your hard drive with images of the source material.
6. You don’t save or file hard-copy backups except for actual documents like wedding licenses that are more artifact than mere document.
7. You learn how to download source material from the Internet and label it according to the system before storing it on your hard drive.
8. You learn how to get photos moved from your camera to your hard drive. 
9. You develop and maintain a backup system and schedule so that you don’t lose all your work to fire, theft or computer gremlins.

We’re so blessed to be alive in the age of technology.  I pity predecessors who were stuck with paper and pencil. Let’s give future generations something special in a way they can easily use and enjoy it.