Beginning Genealogy Lessons include: • Your Best Ally in the Hunt: The U.S. Census • U.S. Birth, Marriage, and Death Records • Reconstructing Your Ancestral Family Tracing Immigrant Origins Lessons include: • Somebody Has Already Found Them: Compiled Indexes

Begin Your Research at Home
• Heirloom Hints
• Family History Begins at Home
• Gathering Family Memories
• Researching Family Traditions
• Family Legends and Myths

What's in a Name?
• They Changed Our Name at Ellis Island
• American Surnames
• The Importance of Given Name
• Names and Word Spellings
• Spelling Doesn't Count
• What is a First Cousin, Twice Removed?

Collaborating with Others
• A Little Help from Your Friends
• Using Message Boards on the Internet
• Ten Reasons to Join a Genealogy Society
• Writing Letters that Get Results
• Running a Family Association

Finding Existing Research on Your Ancestors
• Evaluating Written and Oral Evidence
• Finding and Using Published Genealogies
• Locating Published Genealogies
• Find Your Family in Compiled Indexes
• Your Family in Print
• Using Indexes
• Finding Ancestors in Periodicals

Outfitting Your Genealogy Toolkit
• Building a Dream Library
• 10 Things I Could Not Live Without
• A Primer for New England Research
• Using Dictionaries in Genealogical Research