Home Sources of Family Information

Look through whatever "archives" you can find in your home, then ask grandparents or other relatives if they can help you. Take notes or, even better, make photocopies or scans of documents for your own collection.

• Birth certificates
• Baby books
• Christening records
• Church records
• Death certificates
• Deeds
• Diaries (with permission only)
• Diplomas
• Family Bibles (do they contain a family tree?)
• Funeral notices
• Genealogies collected by others
• Heirlooms. What is their history?
• Immigration records.
• Journals (if not private)
• Keepsakes. What is their history?
• Letters (if not private)
• Maps of places associated with family members or history
• Marriage certificates
• Medical records
• Naturalization certificates
• Newspaper articles
• Obituaries
• Old photographs, slide shows, family videos or films
• Old recipe books
• Printed family histories
• School records (report cards, etc.)
• Scrap books
• Sunday School records
• Trunks and old boxes
• Vital records (passports, etc.)
• Written histories of places associated with your family
• Wills

Keep a list of what you find for your family history notebook. You may also want to include your copies of these things in the notebook.

Source: www.SusanCAnthony.com, ©Susan C. Anthony