EXPLORING PERSONAL DOCUMENTS
The first task of the family historian is to establish the family tree through parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, back as far as possible. This task is usually greatly assisted in the early stages by personal knowledge and by the ability to communicate with family members, close and extended. Beyond the limits of personal knowledge and living memory, the existence of official records, particularly birth, marriage and death certificates along with census returns, can help us back into the first half of the 19th century.