• Cemeteries provide information about ancestors.Grabsteine image by Konstanze Gruber from Fotolia.com
  
  Documenting a family history is quite a feat, especially when searching for information about dead family members. Start small and talk to living family members and friends. Record all meetings using video or audio equipment, as well as through written notes.
  
  Create family trees and structured outlines to organize all your information. Resources that may seem irrelevant might be the missing link as the search evolves, so document every fact, name and date you discover. Ask to read baby books, family Bibles and to look in memory boxes to find information. Join Internet forums and seek out sources.
  
  

Where to Begin

• Start with family members, extended family and family friends, particularly those who are more established within the community. Ask for personal stories, anecdotes, pictures, videos or artwork. Share your own memories or theories to establish rapport and open the lines of communication. Sometimes the information itself may lead you down the wrong path, but every story often has a hint of truth.
  
  Think of items such as paintings, holiday greeting cards, birthday cards or wedding books that record relationships and names. Search every name, date and relationship you find, and then document the information.
  
  Fill out a chart with your information including dates and places of birth, marriage and death, as well as education level, home address, occupation and children. As you complete charts, make copies or record your information through a computer in case your original documents are lost or damaged.
  
  

Visit the Dead

• Do the footwork. Travel to local cemeteries and make rubbings of tombstones. Use the rubbings to document dates of births and deaths, as well as finding names of children and spouses. Military records are often included on tombstones and these list maiden names of women as well as middle names for those buried.
  
  Maiden, middle and last names provide clues about family connections. The shape and material of tombstones provide clues about the inhabitants, which is helpful when names are unreadable. Civil War tombstones include a badge. Log-shaped stones belong to members of the Woodmen of the World organization.
  
  Contact the church or caretaker of the cemetery to see if they have additional information or records about the deceased and their families. Often churches record their congregation members' important events, such as baptisms, weddings, births or deaths of other relatives who may not be found in the cemetery.
  
  

Examine Census Records

• U.S. Census records include personal information not documented anywhere else, such as people in households who are unmarried, children born out of wedlock or names of unrelated people living at an address. Visit the U.S. Census National Archives once you have established your genealogy search in earnest and are searching for ancestors from centuries past.
  
  The U.S. Census has been recorded every 10 years since 1790. With the exception of 1890, thanks to a fire in the building, all records through 1930 are accessible. You must visit the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. to access the census records. Plan your visit in order to make the best of your search, as there are millions of records on file.
  
  Write down all names, dates, locations and questions you expect to find out during your trip. The National Archives provides microfilm catalogs online that list details so you can find out which roll will include the names, dates and locations for your research.