May I add a little more to the excellent suggestions mentioned above…
If other (close) family members are not interested in genealogy, if possible, offer to pay for their DNA test.
I am so thankful that I paid for a relative’s test; it has greatly helped me.
Know that some facts received from family members and online documents may be inaccurate.
People make mistakes, intentionally fib, exaggerate actual details, don’t know full details so add a few of their own, etc.
Keep all information.
Perhaps most people wouldn’t want to go the packrat route
, but years after receiving letters, documents and photographs I found a few answers. Example: a photograph that I took of an unusual surname on a headstone (the headstone was in a cemetery where some of my ancestors were interred) turned out to be my ancestor and his second wife (my close relatives didn’t know that he remarried after the death of his first wife).
Try to be patient and absorb the little details, taking notes, if possible. This includes online information as well as in-person events.
My husband’s elderly family member was talking about her youth and the trips they took to “grass valley”. I adored the relative and listened to her reminisce, but I envisioned her visiting a grassy valley so I didn’t retain much of what was said. Years later, I realized that she had been talking about a historic town (not a grassy valley)
and gold mining. If I had taken notes, I might have had a better understanding of my husband’s ancestor’s life a couple of decades after the start of the California gold rush.
Record the “little things”.
Keep details about the ancestor’s town’s history, find out information about the family’s (old) occupations, gather online photographs of the ancestor’s town or even house if it is still existing, find old newspapers or directories from the town or region, etc. I think having historic information makes family names and dates more meaningful.
Have fun and when needed, take breaks from researching. Know that not everyone cares for genealogy.
