Starting a genealogical search, questions immediately arise, how to start it, which point to choose as the starting point for your search. Often this issue becomes important and slows down the start of the study.
In order to understand at what time the information about your ancestors becomes unknown to you, you need to answer three questions.
- Where the ancestor was and lived.
If you take the line of his life and most of you know where he was and lived, as well as where he was born, married and where he died.
- What he did.
If most of the time you can answer this question then you can close it.
- Surname, name, patronymic of parents.
You need to know the surname, first name, middle name, for further advancement on the genealogical branch, as well as the maiden name, this is also important.
Moving forward in your research, constantly apply these questions to each ancestor, each line. And if there is no answer to any of these questions, you will know the starting point for your research.
Suppose you know everything about your grandfather, but don’t know his mother’s maiden name, in this case, the point at which the study begins will be the moment your great-grandfather and your great-grandmother married.
You do not know the patronymic of your great-grandfather in this case, the point of investigation will also be the marriage of your great-grandfather with your great-grandmother.
You also need to distinguish if you do not know for example where your ancestor was sitting, and then there is information. no need to go in cycles, this is a type of spot research, come back to it later, but for now, continue with the full comprehensive genealogical research.
The article is based on a lecture by Vitaly Semenov, a genealogy historian.
Good luck in finding.
