How to research one specific family mystery without committing to a full family tree
You don't have to become a family historian to answer one question. Here's the focused-research approach.
5 min read
The classic mistake is treating 'family history' as one big project. It's easier and cheaper to treat it as a series of very small ones.
Pick a question that has an answer
'Where was Grandma born?' is answerable. 'Where did our family come from?' isn't, without a lot of narrowing down.
Work backwards, one generation at a time
Start from a known relative and prove one relationship at a time. Don't try to jump three generations. The evidence chain has to be complete.
Set a stopping point in advance
Decide before you start that you'll spend, say, five hours on the question. If you haven't answered it in five hours, you have a much better idea of what the real question is — and you can decide whether to spend another five.
Trusted with family archives
Umberdosh Restoration
Our Archive package is built around exactly this approach: one focused question, a proper research effort, and a written document at the end.
Related guides across the whole Help hub: What to do with a parent's photos and papers after they move into care, Cleared the house, kept the box: what to do with inherited family photographs, You don't have to sort it all at once — a calm guide to inherited family archives, Grandma's boxes: where to start when you don't know what's inside, How to protect family photos and documents after a bereavement, without rushing, Found a box of old family photos while clearing a house — now what?, VHS to digital: DIY vs professional — an honest comparison, How much does it cost to digitise old family photos in the UK?, Can you still get VHS tapes played? Here's what's actually happening to old tape, 35mm slides in the loft: are they still worth saving?, What actually happens to a VHS tape's picture quality over time, Cine film, slides, cassettes: a plain-English guide to what you might find in an old box, Why acid-free sleeves matter more than people think, How archivists actually store family photographs (and how you can too), The mistakes that damage old photographs faster than time does, Should you ever throw away 'duplicate' family photos? An archivist's view, What museums do differently when handling old paper and photographs, How to start researching your family history from a single box of documents, What can a photograph actually tell a genealogist?, Common family stories that turn out to be (partly) true, The best gift for a parent who has everything: their own history, restored, A Christmas gift that isn't a thing: digitising a lifetime of family photos, How to split family photographs between siblings without falling out, What to keep and what to let go: deciding without regret, JPEG or TIFF? Choosing the right file format for scanned photographs, How long do digital files actually last? Backups explained simply, Scanning photos with your phone vs a flatbed: what you actually lose, Storing photographs in a damp British house: what actually works, Looking after 8mm and Super 8 cine film before it's digitised, Why the framed photos on your wall are fading faster than the ones in the box, How to date an undated photograph from clothing, cars and card stock, Recording the stories before they're lost: interviewing older relatives, A golden anniversary gift: their wedding album, restored and shareable
