When you put together your family tree, you need concrete evidence that you have the right people. Otherwise, you could be going down the wrong path through someone elses family. That is definitely not what you want to do.
There are few things in public records that are more important than finding records for each and every person that you want to add to your family tree as you go back through time. You may want to see how far you can go back, but you should never do that at the expense of not being sure you have the right people. What would happen if you put years into your research only to find that you went the wrong way? You would have wasted all of that time. Make sure you find vital records so you are sure before you move on.
The vital records that are available to most people that you want to add to your family tree are available. These include reports of birth/ divorce, death, and a few others. There are some cases in which records were destroyed in fires or lost forever, but most people can find the vital records to support their family heritage claims. They identify specific people, and verify they are indeed in your family.
Background records for living individuals are harder to obtain. Some websites that deal with background records will not list vital stats and records for privacy reasons. When someone is still living, you can get your information elsewhere. The records you find through these sites are going to be for the members of your family that have passed on. Along with vital records, you may find things like property deeds and immigration records that can verify your claim — “beyond a reasonable doubt . . . ”
Searching these sites is often helpful. You can decide if you want to pay for a membership through some of the bigger sites, or rely on what you can find through the free ones. The ones that have no membership fee are that way thanks to support from those that use them, and the research of volunteers. Most of them have accurate information, but not nearly what you can get through the larger sites.
If you are telling yourself: “. . . you must find your family’s background records, but you dont have a lot of time,” you can always find background records through another source — which can produce documentation in a few minutes, if you have and are willing to pay a fee. This is one of the great things about capitalism — in this instance, it helps either locating your very first clues, or when you think you have hit a brick wall.
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