Have you been thinking about researching your family history? Take my advice: do it now.

I started on my family tree back in the mid-1980s, before the Internet, personal computers, GEDCOM (genealogical data communications) software, the Human Genome Project, and the proliferation of genealogy interest groups.

My method involved lots of hand-written notes, phone calls, and trips to the library. I created forms that family members could complete, and chased the stragglers by telephone and snail-mail, a process, by the way, that is only tedious in retrospect; at the time, it was simply all there was.

By the time this first phase of my research was done, I had lain a good foundation for my tree, a hand-drawn chart that sprawled across two 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper Scotch-taped together. Then, branch by branch, I began to fill in the details.

As family histories go, mine is particularly challenging. On my mother’s side, there are the trackless centuries of slavery to traverse, while on my father’s there is a family in Cuba and Spain that I have never met — a family named Lopez, which is like being a Smith in America. With obstacles like that, it would have been easier to look to the future and let the past be the past, but that is not my nature.

Given the dearth of available information about my father’s family, and the difficulty I would doubtlessly encounter trying to poke around Havana for clues, I took the road of least resistance, my mother’s side, the one I knew best, where there were still a few elders I could interview.

I fleshed out my chart with whatever details I could recall from stories I had heard growing up, and arranged a series of interviews with the three surviving elders who were willing to talk to me. My grandmother was long gone, but there was my mother, her uncle, and a distant cousin. Sadly, a few others were less inclined to participate, which, given some of the events I subsequently discovered in my research, I can now understand. Some things don’t like to be remembered.

I worked furiously on this project for over a year, sorted my notes, ordered books and maps about Mecklenburg County, Virginia, my maternal family’s home for at least a few generations, pored over countless tombstone inscriptions, ordered birth and death certificates… and then put it all aside for twenty years.

It is often like that with family histories: intentions are good but life intervenes; before you know it, two decades have passed and several key people have died. I’m fairly certain that I am now the oldest person in my family.

Because things happen, because we don’t always finish what we start, because trails go cold, and people die, oral histories will always be the most important component of a genealogical investigation. I have a slip of paper on which my great-uncle Arthur, who was in his late seventies at the time, wrote the names of each of his parents and eight siblings, my grandmother among them. Alongside each name, he listed as many birthdays and deathdays as he could remember, which fortunately was most. The list itself is a precious memento, but it is also one of the most valuable genealogical artifacts I have, with markers for a time in my family’s history that otherwise would have been lost to the ages. Needless to say, I handle it very carefully.

Although I have a wealth of modern tools at my disposal today — the Internet, genealogy societies, sophisticated software, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing, an active African-American research community, the National Archives online — it has been my Uncle Arthur’s scribbled notes and my hand-drawn chart that have been my real gateway to the past, enabling me to begin accessing the story of who I am.

Perhaps you don’t have the time right now to do the deep dive into your family’s history, but you probably can set aside an afternoon with a parent or elderly relative to ask questions and take a few notes. There are so many ways today to gather and save information that it would be a shame not to.

While there are many organizations and tools to choose from, these are the ones I use and they will more than get you started.

• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation’s official repository for census, birth, marriage, and death records. Based in Washington, DC, NARA also has reading rooms with computer stations in several American cities, including one in downtown Manhattan, where you can access the main database.

• The Ancestry.com search engine is used by NARA to enable you to search the national archives. You can access it at a NARA reading room for free or from the comfort of your own home via the Internet with a paid membership. There are three plans ranging from $49.95 to $195.95 a year.

• RootsWeb is a community of Ancestry.com for African American researchers. Your Ancestry.com membership gains you access to the community and benefits.

• Genealogy.com produces the genealogy software program, Family Tree Maker. Genealogy.com membership entitles you to the software, access to the database and membership community, and a personal page where you can upload and manage your GEDCOM records. Membership ranges from $69.99 to $199.99 a year.

• Legacy Family Tree is the only GEDCOM software I have ever used, so I can’t compare it to others, but I do really like it. You can download a basic version for free and then upgrade to the full version for $59.95 if you need more features.

• The National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project is using human DNA markers to map the story of human migration from its African origins 170,000 years ago to today. You can participate in the project by purchasing a DNA kit for $100 and submitting a sample (from your inner cheek) for analysis. The results will place you in a haplogroup (mine is L3e3) with others with whom you share a recent common ancestor, and provide useful clues about your early history.

• Family Tree DNA works with the National Geographic Society by providing a community site for people who, having identified their haplogroups, want to exchange genealogy information with others who share a common background. Basic membership is free but paid upgrades for more advanced DNA testing are available. There is also online software for uploading and managing your GEDCOM records.

• The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum complex and research organization composed of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo. For the amateur genealogist, its photo archives can be invaluable.

• Don’t let distance be the reason you put off interviewing an elderly relative. Set up a ??FreeConferenceCall.com interview with him or her to begin the process. This wonderful service is — as the name says — free, and you can record the conversation.

• Finally, there are many genealogy groups on Facebook and other social networking sites. I belong to AfriGeneas.

You can get the genealogy software and other accoutrement later. For now keep it simple so you can get it done.

Like me, you may find this to be one of the most meaningful adventures of your life.

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Tech shy? Feel free to use and improve upon my circa-1986 family history forms: Bioform and Label.

Tags: African-American, Cuba, DNA, family-tree, featured, GEDCOM, genealogy, research