Gathering From Home and Organization

Gather all your family history stuff together into one place.

This will include all of the following that you can find:

• Pedigree charts, book of remembrance, ancestral tablets, and family group sheets.
• Birth records, Marriage records, Death records.
• Bibles, journals, biographies, letters.
• School records and military records. 
• Obituaries, wills, newspaper articles, etc.
• Old photos and Books about your family.
• Research notes.
• Household registers and tribal registration papers.
• Letters about your ancestors (or that are family history related).
• Emails that are family history related (print them and add them to the pile).

"Get a cardboard box. Any kind of a box will do. Put it someplace where it is in the way, perhaps on the couch or on the counter in the kitchen—anywhere where it cannot go unnoticed. Then, over a period of a few weeks, collect and put into the box every record of your life, such as your birth certificate, your certificate of blessing, your certificate of baptism, your certificate of ordination, and your certificate of graduation. Collect diplomas, all of the photographs, honors, or awards, a diary if you have kept one, everything that you can find pertaining to your life; anything that is written, or registered, or recorded that testifies that you are alive and what you have done." (Your Family History: Getting Started," Ensign, Aug. 2003, 15.)

Another great way to gather information about your family is to INTERVIEW your living family members. Chapter  5 in the Membership Guide is all about interviewing family, the Appendix of the Guide also has example interview questions.

The simple steps are to:
1. Contact the Family Member
2. Prepare for the Interview
3. Conduct the Interview
4. Use the Information

Now to organize all the information. You may choose to continue with the box system, you will want to set up a file folder system. Organize all the folders with information within each family group. For each individual, you can organize by year/decade or chronologically through their life. It is also suggested to create digital files of all the information. However you want to get organized, do it! Just make sure the information is safe and accessible to help you get the names and information onto New Family Search.