1. Realize that this project is a hobby, for learning, fun, and recreation.
2. Ultimately, this project can help publicize your family history and provide a sense of identity for your children and later descendents. While not a "Who's Who", the Juntunen Family book can have much of the same flavor.
3. This is a long-term project with a generous time horizon for completion. While it is essential to have goals in order to accomplish results, it is not necessary to be anxious about how long it will take to collect data. After all, the Juntunens began making recorded history in the 1500's!
4. Remember that most family members are busy people. Respect their good intentions even if they lack time or are slow to submit data or stories.
5. Maintain a cheerful, positive image for your research project. An optimistic outlook will be necessary because some family members will not, for various reasons, be comfortable with sharing their family data or stories. Respect their reasons for hesitation or delay. Keep focused on long-term results. Maybe a second or third contact at a later time with a family member will yield information and cooperation.
6. Remember to use patience and positive encouragement when needing to remind family members to submit data. We do not want to create guilt or get into nagging for the North American Juntunen Project.
7. Realize that in all likelihood you will need to research some family members' data yourself. Request their permission for you to do so.
8. Above all, keep a good sense of humor as your Finnish sisu keeps you researching! For support among research friends, stay in touch with other Juntunen family members who are working on their genealogies.
9. Keep the North American Project coordinators informed about your questions, problems, and successes in your research

Here are some Internet Web sites that we have checked out and found to be very helpful in learning how to do genealogy research:

Learn Genealogy for Beginners from Ancestry
How To's - Setting Out and Tutorial from Ultimate Family Tree
What This Site Can Do to Help Your Research from Family Tree Maker Software
7 Steps Help Guide from AGLL
Family History - How Do I Begin from the LDS Church

If you are interested in using genealogy software to record your family data, below are Internet Web sites for three major software programs, Family Tree Maker Deluxe (version 4.4 is the latest), Ultimate Family Tree Deluxe, and Reunion 5.0. All of these software programs have Web pages with many features, including genealogy how-to. All of the sites also have members-only sections that contain resources and features to help members with genealogy research.

Family Tree Maker by Broderbund software

Ultimate Family Tree by Palladium Interactive software

Reunion 5.0 by Leister Productions software
 

National Archives and Records Administration
US Gen Web Project
Rootsweb Genealogical Data Cooperative
Ancestry-The Genealogy Research Home Town
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites
Helm's Genealogy Toolbox

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This page was last modified on March 2, 1998