The best way to go back as far as you can is to research everyone in your family. That is every line or branch of your tree.
You may find that a few generations back that cousins married and your research is reduced if you research every line. This is especially important in the U.S. if your ancestors moved west and all passed through the same states as they moved west. You may find some of them in the same places at roughly the same time. There is a chance that they met or knew each other before their decedents that resulted in you were born.
Also if you research all of your family lines as you go back you avoid doing the research until the oldest person in that line is gone and you can’t interview them.
You will also find cousins who are researching that line, and if they do good work, you can easily graft their research onto your tree after verifying it and not have to do all the legwork on that line yourself.
Hello, visiting from the A to Z challenge! What a great blog you have, it’s so intimidating knowing where to start with family history, this will help so many people. 😉
Thank you! As with anything, start with what you know and add a bit at a time. You can be amazed at how much you have accomplished when you look back. Experts did not start out as experts.
I imagine it isn’t easy tracking everyone down, especially if they moved around. Keeping accurate records, or for that matter, developing and creating them, must be quite an intense project.
MJ, A to Z Challenge Co-Host
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