Getting started on your family tree actually isn’t all that technical.

The goal is to map your family so you and your relatives can get a picture of where they came from and even get a feel for where they’re going–or don’t want to go.

While computers, the Web, software and CD databases have brought millions of individuals into genealogy, software programs, Web sites, digital record keeping by libraries and archives, and machines have made beginning a lot easier, at least for preliminary information.

Ted Steele, head of technology for the St. Louis Genealogy Society, reminds beginners that technology is a bunch of tools, not the end result. Technology adds speed and range, but not the smarts or tenacity.

For a beginner, the following suggestions are good places to start:

1. Start with yourself

Record everything you know and can recall about your family, things you’ve heard and things you suspect. Keep them in order under names, places and generations.

2. Make a family tree

It will look like a binary chart where one name connects to two, two becomes four and so forth. Make separate charts for other relatives who aren’t directly on your lineage, such as cousins.

To simplify your work, you might try software programs such as Family Tree Maker, Family Origins or Generations, for $30 to $100 depending on the amount of data in the program.

3. Start the real detective work after the great-grandparent level of mapping

Once you identify a relative, you need to check and double-check information to verify that that person is a relative. Do this through census, Social Security, military, cemetery and tax records — as many places as people have to sign public records.

Challenges arise: immigration laws, slavery, war and so forth, and there are special databases on CD and on the Web that can help.

Tools:

• Databases on CD are available from hundreds of Web sites for $10 to $50. They also come as part of the software packages at purchase or by mail order. That’s one of the differences in software packages: Those with more information cost more.
• Alternatives: The public library.

4. Stay in touch

The most important element in technology for genealogical research is e-mail, Steele says. Sharing information is a cornerstone of genealogical research. When you find something, put it someplace publicly where others can find it. This means you’ll need an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as AOL, MSN or Earthlink. The information can be posted on these genealogical bulletin boards in special formats.

Tools:

• An ISP to check Web sites and records that might be on the Web.
• Alternatives: Sadly, this is where a lack of technological moxie can add years to your research–writing letters that may not be answered, driving miles to places long since boarded up. The Web cuts a lot of legwork off the process.