Surveying Available Sources

Relatively few people are able to link themselves to families whose genealogies have been researched, well documented, and published. While recent technology has made genealogy more accessible and attractive to a much larger segment of the population, most of us will have to do our own research. It is always wise, however, to investigate the possibility that someone may have published a genealogy or otherwise made available information on your family. But even if you are fortunate enough to find collected information on your family or about an individual in your family, the compiler's work and the sources used to compile the work should be checked for accuracy. A good starting point is to survey the published and unpublished records pertaining to the subject or family of interest.