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A good reason to check out distribution maps is that you can use them to identify potential geographic areas where you can look for your family during the years covered by the site. If we hit a wall and can’t find additional information online about a specific individual or the surname, we know we can start looking at records in these areas to find more clues about families with the name. We hope that by doing so, we’ll find our branch. For a list of surname distribution sites by country see the Surname Distribution Maps article at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Surname_Distribution_Maps.

       Choosing someone you know about

      In addition to choosing a person you’re likely to have success researching, you want to use a person you already know something about. The more details that you know about a person, the more successful your initial search is likely to be.

      For example, Matthew used his great-grandfather William Abell because he knew more about that side of his family. His grandmother once mentioned that her father was born in LaRue County, Kentucky, in 1876. This gives him a point of reference for judging whether a site has any relevant information on his family. A site is relevant if it contains any information on Abells who were located in or near LaRue County, Kentucky, before or around the year 1876. Try to use the same technique with your ancestor. For more information on how to extract genealogical information from your family to use in your research, see the section, “Getting the 4-1-1 from Your Kinfolk,” later in this chapter.

       Selecting a grandparent’s name

      Having trouble selecting a name? Why not try one of your grandparent’s names? Using a grandparent’s name can have several benefits. If you find some information on an individual but you aren’t sure whether it’s relevant to your family, you can check with relatives to see whether they know any additional information that can help you. This may also spur interest in genealogy in other family members who can then assist you with some of your research burden or produce some family documents that you never knew existed.

      

With a name in hand, you’re ready to see how much information is currently available about that individual. Because this is just one step in a long journey to discover your family history, you want to begin slowly. Don’t try to examine every resource right from the start. You’re more likely to become overloaded with information if you try to find too many resources too quickly. Your best approach is to begin searching a few sites until you get the hang of how to find information about your ancestors online. And keep in mind that you can always bookmark sites in your web browser, or record the URL in a spreadsheet or your genealogical application, so that you can easily return to them later, when you’re ready for more in-depth research.

      

For the purposes of this chapter, we’ll research Matthew’s great-grandfather, William Henry Abell – although, feel free to use the following steps on a person that is your research interest.

      Beginning to Put the Puzzle Together

      We’ve talked a bit about planning your research in the previous sections. We hope that you have selected a person or group of people to research. Before turning to the computer, we suggest that you move to the second research phase and collect some information that will help you evaluate the information that you find online, in a library, or in an archive. As you will see, there may be a lot of resources that you haven’t thought of that can propel your research.