I'm not good at talking about myself, but I think I can write well enough about some of the things I've discovered about genealogy in my family and the process that I went through creating my family tree.
***Step one is to write down what you know***
My mom was the one who would talk to me about her family. She knew some information about three generations. She knew her father was an immigrant from Canada. She knew she had deep roots in New York. I didn't find out much about my dad's side of the family until 1985 when had to have surgery, but that's a story for another day.
***Step two is to get with your relatives and find out what they know***
I was lucky enough to have grandmothers who liked to write letters and that helped me a lot initially.
I was also lucky enough to be allowed to copy my grandmother's genealogy book when I visited my Aunt Grace in 2001. It was chock-full of information and newspaper clippings.
I also received an envelope that contained a family tree for my son's side of the family.
***Step three is to organize the information you've collected***
I collected all of these papers, letters, and more into three-ring binders organized by surname so I could find it again if I needed it. The documents I've collected were placed into plastic archival pockets and each pocket has a surname label I made with my p-touch label maker.
Once everything was organized, then I transposed all of information into my familytree maker software. Those were the days when they sold you CDs full of information because the internet was not the huge collection of databases like it is today.
Any records you've collected can be made into source records that relate to the profiles you create.
***Step four is to share what you know with others and collaborate***
Later, I had an ancestry.com account (didn't everybody at some point?) until it became too expensive to maintain and I quit that. I can still access my tree on that website, and trees shared with me by others, I just can't add any new people on ancestry without a paid account.
About 10 years ago, I joined Wikitree.com and for the (hopefully) last time transposted each family member into a Wikitree profile by uploading a GEDCOM file. My family tree had so many names by that point, that I had to upload more than once and then had to review each profile and connect each relative together. I am Stutz-25 on Wikitree.com.
I've really enjoy the time I spend on Wikitree.com and I love the fact that the profiles I've created that make up my branch helps others find connections because it's just one global tree. And we are all cousins to some degree.
