Online genealogy..... Don't Wait

Don't wait another day to start researching your family tree.

I started my genealogy search way too late to ask my parents or grandparents for their help and recollections. To anyone who may be reading this and may be just beginning your quest of family research, my most important advice would be to start by asking your parents for any information that they can remember. Write it down. Write every small piece of information that they can remember. I waited too late. It was not until Mother was gone that I begin to be curious about her family.

I remembered her words about her parents. About how grandmother was raised as a foster child but never adopted. All that I could remember was my maternal grandparents and greatgrandparents names. I was fortunate to have great success in finding information about her genealogy lines but it could have been so much easier if I had paid attention and wrote her memories down. Of course, how wonderful it would have been if I could have started earlier and had been able to share some of my discoveries with her. She was not just the daughter of a foster child with no family. She was a descendent of a long line of early American pioneers with English, Scottish and Irish lines.

I begin my original searches in County Courthouses. Copying onto legal pads and into notebooks. Handdrawing my charts and genealogy forms. But now, WOW!! we have the internet. The World Wide Web!! There will always be the need to root out original documents and searching obscure sources but the resources available to genealogist today are awesome. Whether you have researched for years or are just beginning, there is a great variety of information and resources available to you.

I think that one of the most important decisions that you will make about your family history research could be the genealogy software that you select for your internet journey. If you pick a program just because of a low price or ease of use, you might give up some important features. If you chose one that proves to be difficult to master, you may become discouraged. One of my favorites is LEGACY FAMILY TREE by Millennia. LEGACY'S producers have packed this program with truly enjoyable features. The program has been picked as the Gold Award Winner by TopTenReviews.

Most genealogist admit that organizing their research is a daunting task. With LEGACY organizing and entering your data is very easy. LEGACY'S help section is great and it has wonderful tutorial lessons and step-by-step instructions. You will be doing customized reports, adding photos and importing and sharing data very quickly. LEGACY has geographic-based search option that was of particular help my researach.

And of course, when you are ready, LEGACY helps you to compile your work into gorgeous web pages to share with all of your new found cousins. LEGACY has all of the features that you will need in your family history research. Research and actually finding facts is the fun part of genealogy, LEGACY is the software that makes the less fun parts of recording and organizing data much more manageable. You will be proud of your work. You can find full download details for LEGACY FAMILY TREE here.