Use The Library to Dig into Your Family Tree Roots
Starting a genealogy project can be intimidating, especially for those who have no experience in gathering family information. The task of getting photographs, certificates of birth and death, adoption records, bills of sale, deed titles, all can be extremely difficult at times.
There are a number of advantages to using the local library as the staging ground to a family genealogy project. First off, the local librarian is trained and educated in the task of hunting down and finding information. A lot of times, librarians are used to find information for any number of reasons, and there's a good chance that the self same librarian has already crossed over some bit of information someone is looking for. With genealogy fast becoming a popular hobby, there is also a good chance the local librarian has been asked to find things like deeds and census information from certain dates or time periods and can readily help people who are looking for the same information.
Another benefit to starting research at the local library is that libraries have become the repositories for volumes of material and information over the past century; things like newspapers, pamphlets and event information. Some libraries even have special genealogy sections dedicated to help people find exactly the kind of information they're looking for. Also, many libraries contain directories dating back to the local area's founding. Or, if the library is in a city next to a port, there is the distinct possibility that ship manifests from immigrant crossings will be available. Libraries can also house military records and an index of veterans for the local area.
If the local library doesn't have an abundance of accumulated data, or someone's family history does not begin in the area, libraries often have online databases that can cross reference database information on a closed network with other libraries that are not available to other normal online resources. Check with the local library for any rules and regulations concerning their local area network.
When doing research for a family genealogy project, keep in mind that there are two different types of sources: primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources are any types that contain first hand information; such as census information, or books, memoires or other accounts written first hand. Primary sources are the most preferable, but always available. That is where secondary sources come into usefulness. Secondary sources are just that, information written or observed from a second hand view, such as someone writing a book about spear fishermen, even though the writer is not one. There is no true way to determine if a secondary source is factual or not, but cross referencing and secondary information with primary information is good way to weed out fact from fiction. There are also professional genealogists who can help people if they run across information that leads to a dead end and there doesn't seem to be a way around.
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