Tips for Researching Your Ancestors

The following are some good tips when researching your family tree:

• Talk to everyone in your family about what they know about the ancestors, keeping in mind that memories can fade and that some of their information is inaccurate. ("Great Grandma was a full-blooded Indian" or "We came over on the Mayflower" are two examples of information that is said over and over, that is usually not true.) Write down what you've found out.

• Buy or download a free genealogy program to organize your information. Brother's Keeper is shareware and can be downloaded for free. This way all of your information is organized and can be emailed to someone easily.

• Use ALL types of spellings when you look for records. Many times the spelling changed (Hawley to Holley) or the person writing down the information had trouble deciphering the script. Sometimes names are spelled so "screwy" that your best bet is just to go through the pages. The "s" looks like "f" in some old script, so Smith could look like Fith to a beginning transcriber. When searching online databases, use an asterisk ("*") in place of a letter or group of letters to include all variations.

• Use the search engine on this website and others to locate surnames. 

• Post a query on the query board. There are a number of different query boards including Surname Boards on Genealogy.com.

• Check census records in the county and in surrounding counties. This is especially true for Colorado, where county boundaries may have shifted more recently than in older states. The 1850 census records begin listing all of the family members and where each was born.

• Check cemetery records. There are quite a few on Weld County, and there are links to other pages that also have records. 

• Check funeral home listings. Many times people did not have money to buy a tombstone, but their remains were handled by an undertaker.

• Check Weld County libraries and/or the city library in Denver to see if they have any biographical information on the family you are searching for.

• Check the birth, death and marriage records. Those may list parents names, etc. Get copies of these records by ordering them from the appropriate source.

• Check the court records index. If you find something of interest, try to order the record from the County Clerk. They charge a fee per page to copy or scan it. Also know that they are short-staffed and may not be able to fill your request. You may have to make a trip to Weld County or hire a researcher to get the information for you.

• Check old newspapers. You may need to write one of the libraries to see if your family member's name is listed in the index. We have some of those newspapers online, but not all of them!

• If the ancestor was in the Civil War, order the records! They have a great deal of information in them.

Don't take every piece of information someone sends you as gospel! Ask for sources! Verify information!

Have an open mind! YOU could be mistaken!

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