People who decide to trace their family histories seem to fall into of two groups: A) they know next to nothing about their family, and need to begin researching from scratch, or B) they already have a wealth of knowledge about their family, but need to document it properly and fill in some blanks. In both situations, the records review will be the same, albeit it more intense for people in situation A.

Researchers rely on numerous public and private resources and records to confirm family connections. I fit these into a couple of categories as well: Primary and Secondary, or Supplementary resources. Both categories of resources are important and fulfill their own purposes in developing the family history. In fact, they share a mutually complimentary effect with one another that should not be overlooked by the diligent researcher, and will be explained hereafter.

Primary sources are the biggies, such as civil and church records describing births, baptisms, confirmations, marriage, and deaths, census data, naturalization records, newspaper articles, family bibles, and grave markers. All of these records contain hard facts, with names, dates and family relationship landmarks, and serve as the foundation and structure for the family members you are researching.

The Secondary or Supplementary resources provide filler information. You may think of these resources as the ones that add details to bind and hold the structure and foundation together. In other words, they round out the histories of the family members you are discovering. These resources include city directories, tax rolls, voter registrations, property indentures, letters, local history books, photographs, and oral history. Don