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A practical approach is required when researching your ancestors

If you're new to family history and you want to get a great start to researching your ancestors then these principles will help you get the most from your time.

Step 1. Work Backwards

However you go about it, if you start with yourself and work backwards it will prove to be the easiest passage to discovery. This will ensure you have verified your sources at each stage.

Step 2. Be Honest and Organised

A systematic approach will work well with ancestry searching. Being methodical will save time and avoid duplicating records which could lead to frustration. There are some great charts to download such as the pedigree chart on our ancestry tools page.

Step 3. Interview your living relatives

We have several articles on this but it really is important to do this properly. When you talk to living relatives to gain a source of useful information, you will be miles ahead. You may want to start with the oldest first!

Step 4. Stick to one Tree at a time

Sometimes you will find you suddenly head away from the main ancestry line. Don't get sidetracked. Keep all the information for a further research at a later date. Do keep focused on what goal you want to achieve. Concentrate on that step before moving on.

Step 5. Understand the meaning of your surnames

Your Surname may well be a clue in itself. So find out where it came from, which part of the country and whether it meant more than you may think. If its a rare surname your searches will prove a lot easier. You may find our article on researching surnames helpful.

Step 6. Join a community

On-line forums and communities will have a lot of experience to offer. They will provide some great resources and tips and may even know a further way to help discover your missing links.. whether at an early stage for beginners or an expert in the filed of discovering ancestors you will need to keep coming back to this step.

Step 7. Use all media available

With Television shows such as the BBC "Who do you think you are? Masses of on-line search tools and databases such as www.ancestry.com and www.ancestry.co.uk and with some really great tree building software there are many good reasons to help you keep researching for many years to come.

I found that these principles have really helped when i've lost my way. Print this list of seven steps off and refer back to each step from time to time, especially when you get stuck.