Genealogists utilize four steps when researching.
There are small variants but these are the most generally accepted (1) :
1) Find your ancestor's full birth date and
birthplace.
2) Learn the names of your ancestor's parents.
3) Find the names, birth years, and birthplace of
your ancestor's family members
4) Find the full names and marriage information for
your ancestor's parents.
And then we repeat these four steps for as many
generations as we want.
In the United States these are records can use on
each step:
Step 1
a. Social Security Death Index
b. Death record (vital records)
c. Social Security application
d. Cemetery records
Step 2
a. Death and birth record (vital records)
b. Social Security application
c. Obituary and funeral home record
Step 3
a. Census
Step 4
a. Marriage record (vital records)
In the United States many of these records are in
digital format. There are companies that make the records commercially
available in electronic format, including indexes that simplify the researcher’s
work.
For the genealogical research in Spain and Latin
America we follow exactly the same steps but we use different records. Unfortunately
the amount of digital and indexed documents on these international locations is
very limited; therefore the genealogist needs to the research work on site,
working with paper documents in the local archives. In recent years we have seen some movement
toward the digitalization of the archives in Spain. The Basque region is an
example of where we see very good progress.
(1) These steps are found on the Mormons’ Church
documentation
