Most things in life have a proper beginning and even a proper end, although I can't guarantee the same for a project like digging up your family roots. You'll find there are always more family members to research, (at least two more for each ancestor you do uncover.)

    With so many family members to research where should you start? I believe it was Alice from Alice in Wonderland who said, "The best place to start is at the beginning." For you and I that means starting with what you know, and generally what you know best is yourself. The keys to your past lie in the present.

    Not many of us can say that we were born in a vacuum or sprung directly from the ether. Sad to say however, even in this day and age this may well apply to a great many adopted children who have grown to adulthood with no idea of who their parents are and find themselves thwarted at every turn by an unfeeling government and endless red-tape. Things are changing slowly for these folks, but it will be generations before significant changes in local laws make it easier for them to discover their true roots and achieve a sort of peace with the past that the rest of us have within our grasp if only we apply ourselves diligently to the task.

    For those of you struggling with this problem, there are organizations who have dedicated themselves to helping adoptees research their past. There are several terrific websites that can provide you with more information on this difficult subject:

The Definitive Guide to Self-Empowered Adoptee Search

Vital Records Information - Adoption Resources

BirthQuest! - Adoptee Database

    Once you are on solid ground help is close at hand. Often the information you need to get started is right in front of you. We live in an age of documentation. These slips of paper and endless forms follow us from the cradle to the grave. We have birth certificates, birth announcements, baptismal records, school records, graduation certificates, diplomas, Social Security numbers, applications for marriage licenses, marriage licenses, job resum�s, children's birth certificates, doctor's records, insurance files, pension records, death certificates, obituaries, etc. There are a lot of biographical details hidden in all of these records, birth dates and places, names of parents and siblings, aunts and uncles and even the names of grandparents.

    So, the first step is gather up as many of these records as you can, make photocopies of all of them and then make a list of as many relevant facts as you can about yourself. These include:

    You'll be surprised by how much you can learn about yourself by looking at a few documents. Don't worry if you don't get all of this information from documents that you do have at hand. There are other sources for much of this information. You will find, quite frequently, that going over these documents at a later date will reveal some information that you missed on the first or even the third go-round. Some facts won't reveal themselves until you are ready for them. (Don't ask me why this is so, but it is; it's one of the quirks of genealogy.)

    The next step is to write down all of the stories and rumors or guesses that you can remember hearing about your family as you were growing up. Many of these will be fragmentary and even contradictory. Don't worry about it. Just write them down as you remember them. Don't try to edit what you remember. You'll find there's an element of truth in everything you do remember, it just may not be obvious at the beginning what the truth is. Time will tell, and after all that is what we're dealing with here; small slices of time. Once you've done that, you'll find that you know a great deal more about your family than you thought you did. (Pretty surprising really.) Put all of that aside for the moment and let it percolate.

    Next pull out all of the family scrapbooks and photographs that you can possibly find, the older the better. Photographs and scrapbooks are a tremendous resource that most people leave untapped. Sometimes there will be inscriptions on the back identifying the time and place where they were taken, and even some of the people in the photographs. Even if there are no helpful notes to shine a light on some of the murkier corners of your family's history, the photographs will give you clues to that past nevertheless. Clothing and modes of transportation, not to mention the formality or lack of it in the pose will help you to pinpoint the time period the photographs were taken. Photographs from the 1800s came in a variety of styles and formats and identifying whether it is a tintype, daguerotype, carte de visit� or other kind will give you a better idea when the likeness was taken. Family likenesses are often easily detectable and even something as simple as counting the number of children in a family portrait may help you eliminate or confirm the identity of a family group based upon what you may already know about your ancestors.

    For more information on photographs from the 1800s I suggest you visit this website:

Ancestry Magazine - Card and Paper Photographs, 1854-1900 (Sep/Oct98)

    Next make an inventory or index of all the photographs that you have to hand, writing a brief description of each, listing their salient features, approximate age and the number of people in each photograph and any caption or description written on the photograph. I would suggest you take the older photographs, for which you have no negatives or copies, to a professional photography lab, (NOT a One Hour Photoplace!), and have copies and negatives made. Store these someplace cool, safe and dry, preferably in a fireproof box or even a safety deposit box down at the bank if they are irreplaceable.

    Having done all of that, it's now time to talk to your parents and or grandparents, if they're still alive, (many of us start this hobby late in life, so this may not always be possible.) Failing that, try to talk to their siblings, (your aunts and uncles), or your own brothers and sisters and even cousins.

    Your grandparents are the people you should concentrate on first. Like everyone else on this planet, they aren't getting any younger and life is uncertain at its best. Even more importantly, though, they may remember their own grandparents and even have a story or two to tell about their great-grandparents. This could take you back to your 3rd great-grandparents in one fell swoop. You could possibly retrieve five generations of your family history just by asking a few discreet questions. (Not bad for a days' work, even if I do say so myself.)

    You should now find yourself in a position to ask better questions of your family members since you've done the hard background work first. You won't find yourself groping in the dark so much when you listen to these new family stories.

    The next step is to verify the information that you've gleaned about your parents and grandparents. If your relatives died sometime after 1962, and had a Social Security Number, then the chances are pretty good that you will find them in the Social Security Death Index, (SSDI). This is a database maintained by the Social Security Administration which details people for whom Social Security Death Benefits were paid out.

    There is a complete write up on where to go to find this information and what to do with it afterwards at:

Social Security Death Index.

    Having thoroughly exhausted the resources of the Social Security Administration and local government files, contacted funeral homes and cemeteries it's time to move on to the next arm of the Federal Government; the National Archives.

    By now you should have some idea of your parents' and grandparents' full names, (thanks to the SS-5 form) and some idea of when and where they were born, (from your earlier research and interviews.) The time has come to tackle the Federal Census records.

    The Constitution of the United States ordained that every ten years, from 1790 to the present, a full count of the population of the United States be conducted. The reasons why are many and various and do not concern us here. What does concern us is that they were taken at all, and even more importantly that all of the census returns, (with the exception of the bulk of the 1890 Census), are still in existence today and readily available on Microfilm and to a small extent on CD-ROM as well. Thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program of the 1930s, the censuses for 1880 through 1920 have been indexed, (through the WPA, Works Progress Administration), and these indexes are also available on Microfilm and to a large extent CD-ROM.

    There is a full write up on how to use the Census records at:

National Archives and Records Administration.

    Wynkoop is a comparatively rare name in the Census records, less so in the Northeast and more so virtually everywhere else in the country. This should make researching the Wynkoop family name pretty straightforward.

    Researching their wives and daughters is a different kettle of fish. In the early days, (1651 to about 1800), important family records like baptisms, marriages and deaths used to list the maiden name of the wife. After 1800 all of that changed and the identity of wives and mothers were submerged under the umbrella of their husband's surname, a practice which has continued well into the closing years of the 20th century. (This is slowly changing. Pendulums swing both ways and this one is on the way back I believe.)

    That being said, it is important that you pay attention to all the clues hidden in the Census records. Up until just before World War I, 1914-1918 in this country, families had a tendency to stay together. They lived next door or just down the street. They may have moved to the next Township or possibly the next County, but that is about as far as you can expect them to have gone at this time. (You may find them in the nearest big city where wages were higher.)

    You will often find siblings and/or parents of the wife living with the new family. These will give you clues to her maiden name. When transcribing census records, make sure you write down the names of everyone in the household, especially those who have different last names. Every clue is important. You may not understand what to do with them or what they mean at the moment, but eventually you will find some other clues which will lead you back to your carefully taken notes. What you'll find then will be eye-opening!

    Review your old notes on a regular basis. You'll find there's a lot more information there than you realize.

    After you've exhausted the Census records you'll find that you now have some idea of where your ancestors lived at a particular date and time. It's time to start writing to local Genealogical and Historical Societies to see if they have any information on the people that you're researching. Try the following website to find places in your neighborhood:

ROOTS-L Resources: United States Resources

    Other places to research include the local courthouse near where your ancestor lived. The old Dutch were pretty litigious and the Wynkoops were no exception to this tradition. You'll find some pretty interesting material here: property deeds, lawsuits, road petitions, property disputes, wills, probate and orphan's court records, tax records, voter registrations, divorces. All of this will give you a much better picture of your ancestors than just the Census records. Don't overlook this very important source. Try this website for more information on this and other research subjects:

Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Court Records -- Finding Your Ancestors

    This paper is intended only to show you how to get started researching your own family. You will have many questions that this write-up will not answer. For answers to some of those I suggest you go to the following website:

Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Step-by-step guide to finding family information

    Researching your family online is another option of course, but I must caution you that all facts must be verified by going back to the original source. Many a family tree has come to grief by accepting unverified and misleading information from sources of questionable authority. This is your family we're talking about here, not someone elses.

    That being said, the single best place to start is with Cyndi Howell's list:

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet

    Eventually you'll get to the point where you want the information to come to you. When you get there, I would suggest that you do two things:

1. Subscribe to some of the E-mail newsletters listed on this page:

E-Mail Newsletters.

2. Start placing queries of your own on some of the message boards found on the World Wide Web. There are a wide variety of message boards for almost every county in the United States. These can be found at:

GenConnect at Rootsweb; Connecting Families Through Genealogy

    You might also try the surname message boards at Genforum. I personally think the Wynkoop Family Genealogy Forum is a good place to start, but you may want to start somewhere else:

Wynkoop Family Genealogy Forum

    I want to wish you the best of luck with your family hunt. It's easy to get discouraged. Genealogy is a feast or famine sort of hobby. One day you'll find tons of material on your family line and the next day your sources will dry up for months or maybe even years. It's an emotional roller-coaster. If you keep plugging away at the problem eventually you'll find the answers you started out to find.

    Best wishes,

    Chris