Your Step By Step Guide To Getting Started
With billions of records online at findmypast, researching your family tree may at first seem a little daunting. Follow these easy steps to help you get started.
1. Where To Start
2. Build Your Family Tree
Start building a family tree at findmypast. It’s free to use and totally secure.
Put the initial information you have acquired into your tree and begin to grow from there.
Add any extra information that you find along the way to each family member’s profile.
3. Birth / Marriage / Death Records
Understand why they're so important and how they can help, with all the jargon explained by our experts.
When you’ve found an ancestor, use the information to order their birth, marriage or death certificate.
Certificates provide lots of extra detail, such as parents’ names, occupations and address.
4. Census Substitutes
Discover your family in our census substitutes including the exclusive Landed Estate Court Rentals, and the indispensible Griffths' Valuation.
5. Newspaper Reports
Findmypast have scanned millions of pages of historical local newspapers, dating from 1710 to 1963.
Search for your ancestors within their pages to discover what life was like and add more detail to what you know about your family history.
Newspapers reported both local and national news, inquests, obituaries, scandals and criminal trials.
6. Broaden Your Search
Explore findmypast’s other collections - there are over 1.5 billion records to search!
You could learn about your ancestor’s time in the army, at sea or even in prison.
Find living relatives, research your Irish roots and discover other overseas relatives with millions of records available from all round the world.