http://www.costcoconnection.ca/connectioncaeng/20091112?pg=35#pg35
The main outline of the article described how to get started and offered a few suggested sites.
I really liked Paul Lima's get-started list:
1. List all of your known relatives.
2. Interview your relatives, beginning with the eldest, and collect the names of all of their known relatives and place of birth and death.
3. Conduct research into family names on the internet.
4. Use Internet genealogy message boards to connect with others tracing similar family names.
5. If family information is not online, review records in church parishes located where relatives were born, married and/or died.
6. Document and organize what you find.
I've always been interested in wanting to complete a family genealogy project - and do realize that this isn't something that can get completed over a weekend... hence why I've probably been putting it off. But time isn't sometime I can just retract and so making this a priority in my life (while I still have important key people around) probably needs to be brought forward.
I've also just recently embarked on a new business adventure - which kind-of fits in perfectly with this type of project. I'm a new consultant for Heritage Makers (www.kreativescraps.ca). HM is an online digital scrapbooking website (tool) that would allow me to meet all of my Family Tree needs; by allowing me to Tell My Story in my very own Heritage Story Book.
Coming back to The Costco Connection (dated Nov/Dec 2009) titled: Discover Your Roots - Going Online to Trace Your Family Tree, by Paul Lima - I'd like to provide a listing of some of his suggested genealogy website of choices:
Your Life is A Story, why Not Bring It To Life?!
www.1930census.com General reference for US Federal Census
www.ancestry.ca Canadian family history records online
www.archives.gov The National Archives and Record Administration (US)
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html Library and Archives Canada, with excellent advice for beginners
www.ellisisland.org American Family Immigration History Center @ Ellis Island; site includes genealogy and passenger search tabs
www.familysearch.org Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints genealogy records and resources
www.freebmd.org.uk British ancestry site with parish birth, marriage and death certificates from 1837 on
www.immigrantships.net Volunteers focused on transcribing passenger arrival records and publishing work online
www.genuki.org.uk Census figures from ever country of England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and other resources
www.loc.gov Online home of the Library of Congress
www.myfamilyinc.com Includes Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com, with more than 7 billion names and 26,000 searchable databases
www.ourroots.ca History books about pioneer towns and profiles of citizens
www.pier21.ca Canada's equivant to Ellis Island
www.rootweb.com Part of Ancestry.com
www.shipslist.com US
www.usgenweb.com US
Preview some our Heritage Templates:
http://www.heritagemakers.com/templateGallery.cfm?page=2&sort=communityShareDate&series=0&category=heritage&membershipType=all&searchQuery=
Here's a specific Heritage Book example:
http://www.heritagemakers.com/projectBrowserStandAlone.cfm?projectID=974682&productId=1&sponsorID=585234
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