Getting Started with Family History - Ancestry.com

How long does it take?Your answer, of course, depends on what you already know, what you wantto know and other particulars about your family. That said, here are somehelpful guidelines:5-10 minute activitiesBegin your family tree.Invite family to contribute.Upload a few photos.Follow an Ancestry Hint to a record.Ask a relative a question using the Ancestry Storytelling Service.1-2 hour activities• Complete a three-generation family tree.• Create an Ancestry Press book using your online family tree.• Find additional historical records through advanced search.• Print and frame a set of family photos and records.• Create a meaningful gift for a holiday, reunion, birthday or event.Weekend activities• Complete a four-generation family tree.• Scan and upload an entire photo album.• Thoroughly interview and record relatives’ stories.• Create a full memorial for a loved one.1-3 month activities• Create a family history scrapbook.• Scan and upload all your family photos, documents, letters, passports,military medals and other heirlooms to preserve them. Have yourrelatives do the same.• Delve deeply into historic maps and newspaper articles, biographies,histories and novels about a particular time, person, event or placeimportant to your family’s history.Longer-term activities• Work towards the elusive 10-generation family tree.• Break through dead ends by searching for obscure records, huntingfor clues and watching as millions of new records are added eachweek on Ancestry.com.• Make family history an ongoing part of your life, discovering thepast and preserving the present for the future.14 | Getting Started with Family History| 15