Genealogy supplies:
Supplies for genealogy are rather different from the types of supplies that you need for most hobbies. To manage all the information you need the right data management tools.
Genealogy is, at the core, based upon word of mouth. Just by talking with your relatives, you can gather a lot of basic information. Having certain supplies on hand can be helpful during this phase.
You will need to keep accurate notes of what you learn. A “must have” would be a good notebook. Look for one with sections in it so you can separate the book into families or generations. This will make your work easier in the long run!
When interviewing family members, you might also collect old pictures or documents, or copies of them. A good, expanding file folder is great for this. Then you are able to keep all of your documents separate and organized, by category.
You will need to keep track of the people in the photos and which documents apply to whom. Stock up on small notepaper, paperclips, binder clips, and Post it notes so you’ll be ready! All of these supplies are available at a small cost from office supply stores.
You will want to make copies of the information you collect, so a portable scanner for your computer is a very useful tool. Then you can keep the document on your computer, edit it, and you can also print it, as you need. Scanned, re-printed documents in scrapbooks allow for protection of the original document.
These are the basics. Once you have completed your family interviews, you will need to begin looking into other sources of information. Today, that typically means the Internet and websites. There are lots of resource sites!
Many of the best websites that are easiest to use often require a small fee. It’s worth it, and they can make your job much easier. Genealogy software can also help you with this task. All of your pictures and documents and data that you have acquired can be organized with this software.
Templates of family trees are also a genealogy supply. Creating one yourself can be difficult. You’ll want to hand out these documents to family and friends. You will want them to be “clean and attractive” and well organized into a great presentation!
One of the hard tasks is trying to fit all of the names and information of your relatives, and deciding whom to include. Your great grandfather may have had six brothers and each of his brothers had four children. Should you include this information? On the Internet you will find templates, forms or charts that will solve a lot of these problems for you.
Genealogy research does not require a lot of investment, but the right supplies can make your hunt for your family history easy and fun to do.
