Writing a Biography

Now that you have a Family Search account and are a little more familiar with the platform we can start learning and discovering our relatives and finding out more about who they were.

The best way I have found to both learn and teach family history is to try writing a biography of one of your ancestors. This helps you know what to search for and keeps you on track if needed. I've created a Family Biography Outline that you can use in both a Word Document and as a PDF. Just a quick reminder, make sure you write down your sources (I forgot to put this on my outline).

When choosing a person to write a biography about I would recommend choosing somebody who was born around 1830 or younger. The reason behind this is because you will find the records and sources start having more information in them and they will give you better leads for your research.

First, log in to Family Search and find a family member you would like to research or learn more about. To do this go to the Tree tab in the upper left-hand corner. If you look at the screenshot you'll see what it looks like. Number 1 is how you can zoom in or out. Pushing the arrow at 2 will expand your tree. I prefer looking at the Fan Chart. To do this click on 3 and select Fan Chart.

I like the fan chart because it shows you more generations at once so you can choose the ancestor you want to research a little easier. You can choose how many generations back you can see at once by clicking on one of the numbers on the right of Generations. It also shows you their birth and death dates (if there's room).

Go ahead and look through the names, click on their names and information, look to see who has sources and who doesn't. If somebody doesn't have many sources attached they might be good ones to research.

Once you've chosen somebody to write a biography on, print out the outline and start filling it out. If you can't find some of the information that's ok. We'll learn how to research and read sources later.

Becoming Familiar With Family Search

Once you've logged in to family search from your computer you'll see the Family Search homepage. This page provides you with record hints, a todo list for you to create, memories of family members that have recently been uploaded to the database, and a list of ancestors you've recently looked at.

Family Search User Homepage

Let's look at the record hints also known as the recommended tasks (much like the leaves in Ancestry). If you see a blue card next to a name, these are possible sources for you to attach to your tree. These sources could include birth records, census records, and death records. 

OK, so I'm going to go off on a little tangent. Sources are EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. They hold the key to proving certain things such as date of birth, date of death, and marriage dates. For example, one of my ancestor's names was Bertinius Bendixson. Some thought he died as a baby and others thought he lived a full life. Everybody kept changing his information or merging him if two people with the same name were created. After going through this a lot we hit a goldmine with sources. There were two children named Bertinius. One died as a baby and the other who was born a year or two later was given the same name and lived a good life. This is why attaching those sources is so important and valuable. 

Getting back on track, looking at these sources can tell you a lot about your ancestors and can lead you to new discoveries and new family. Here's my recommendation, if you're just getting started or it's been a while since you've been on Family Search, look at the recommended tasks. It will help you get a feel of what you can find and things you may want to search for when looking for those ancestors.

You can also do this from any mobile device. Once you've downloaded the FamilyTree app and after you logged in you'll see your tree. You can access the recommended tasks by clicking on the three lines at the top left of the screen then clicking on Ancestors with Tasks on an Android device or clicking on tasks at the bottom of your iDevices (iPad, iPhone...). 

Getting Started With Family Search

Creating a Family History Account

If you're interested in family history, one of the best resources to start with is familysearch.org. This is the resource I use the most when I research or when I want to find information and stories about my ancestors. This resource is completely free to everyone. You don't have to be a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints to use it.

This short video walks you through setting up an account with Family Search using the Family Tree app.

Family Tree App

5 Steps to Setting Up A Family Search Account. 

1. Download the Family Tree app or go to familysearch.org
2. Click "Create Free Account"
3. Add in your personal information: Name, birthdate, gender...
4. Create a username and password
5. Complete your registration by verifying the email address you supplied. 

Once you've signed up you can log in and start adding your family! 

For more information on family history subscribe to my YouTube channel or visit me on Facebook and Instagram!