Hints and Tips for beginners

If you are interested at all in Ermland or in East Prussia , (or for that matter anywhere!) I would recommend you contact a Family History Centre connected to your local LDS (Mormon) church. This is what they do! And do so well!

Always start your search with yourself and go back in time from you.

Gather all the information you can from living relatives and family friends. (You never know. Later in your search one tiny clue could mean the difference between finding a family link or finding nothing.)

Assuming you are in the internet (or you wouldn't be reading this) search the genealogy data bases. Some are listed on this site . You may be very lucky and someone may have done some of the work for you.

Join a newsgroup, ask questions. So far I have found all genealogists are more than willing to pass on their vast knowledge of the subject. Newsgroup address's and instructions on how to join are on " Genealogy Resources on the Internet "

Contact the "Family History Centre " near you. If I can find one in a country town in Australia there must be one near you. The FHC is attached to the Mormon church and are more than happy to assist non-church members with their searches.

Once you start getting a few names together you will want to start entering them onto a genealogy program. Have a look around there is so much available. Th main thing is you have to be comfortable using the program. Most do contain the ability to transfer or save in GEDCOM, just make sure it has this and then you can change programs latter if you want.

If you haven’t already done so visit Cyndi's List .

Finally GOOD LUCK IN YOUR SEARCH.