Tracing family genealogies: genealogy ideas and pointers on how to go about gathering the needed information to make your family history research fruitful and fun.
Gathering information on your family may be as easy as breathing, yet, as difficult as climbing Mt. Rushmore. Start with the easiest pieces of information and work your way backward. Listen carefully and respectfully, but listen to any information your relatives give you. Many people talk in circles, or as memory suits them--from great uncle Jimmy, to little Susie, their niece. Your job and it is a vast one is to piece all this information together in a form that makes sense.
Gather information from Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Aunts and Uncles. Ask each of these relatives if they know of any one in the family who has already begun work on your family history. This could be a great help even if it is only a partial record. Also, always be polite, considerate, and respectful, these individuals are your family not just sources of information. Be careful not to offend anyone. Memories do not always run joyfully.
During a personal interview have a notepad and pencil handy. Be ready to spend an enjoyable and hopefully informative time. Listed below is an example of an interview outline that you may use in collecting your data:
1: Name of person you are interviewing.
2: Date of the interview.
3: Address of the person.
4: Person's occupation.
5: Has this been the person's only occupation?
6: Date and place of birth.
7: Date and place of marriage.
8: Date and place of baptism.
9: Name of husband/wife (full name).
10: Names of all children and their birth, marriage, baptism, & death dates and places.
11: Religious affiliation.
12: Their father's name.
13: His residence, occupation, and place of origin.
14: Their mother's name including maiden name.
15: Date and place of parent's marriage.
16: Date and place of father's birth.
17: Date and place of father's death & burial.
18: Same info for mother.
19: Names & dates & places of birth for aunts & uncles.
20: Full names of any other grandparents, etc.
Do not feel discouraged should you only come up with information that brings you back two or three generations. This may be more than enough information to begin research at any one of a number of genealogical facilities throughout the United States and abroad.
Perhaps the most difficult time periods to research will be the period before 1500; the period between 1520 and 1565; and the period during the American Revolution. Many records especially from England were lost during the early 1500's and surnames were not necessarily used before 1400.
Many immigrants embarked or were debarked for this country for various reasons. Some for legal matters, others to find friends and family, others for adventure, and even more so--for personal freedom. Many of these immigrants arriving during the early to middle 1800's were faced with a country that had gone through a conflict of brother against brother, country against country, and a nation that seemed to be ready for conflict again. All of these factors coupled with an increasing desire to explore westward caused some families to leave behind friends, relatives, and in some instances their existence, their individuality.
Hundreds of individuals and families left the Eastern states in search of new lands. A new life, a new chance for their dreams to come true and all of this seemed to lie just over the next hill. Many would never return or send for the remainder of their family to join them. Some would disappear and never be heard from again. This separation and migration of families has created a difficult task for some of us who are trying to piece our families history together during this period of time.
This is one reason why a personal visit with any relative is important. One of them may have the one piece of information that ties Isaac Miles of South Dakota to Levi Miles of Iowa and previously of New York, thus, giving you another piece of the ancestral puzzle.
Before you leave, your relative's home you should be sure to ask if there are any old photographs or family bibles, etc., possibly in the attic or in an old trunk in the basement. Photographs, especially if they are old, may have vital information on the backs of them.
If for reasons of distance, finances, or illness it becomes impossible for a personal visit to Aunt Vivian's, draft a form similar to the one shown in the previous chapter and mail it to them with a letter of introduction. Enclose a SASE or something similar with more than enough postage, or money for the postage. Do not expect Uncle Bill, or Aunt Jane to foot the bill for sending you any materials they may have.
If you would like you may also draft this inquiry form in a shorter easier to follow fashion similar to one like this:
Uncle Todd's dad, Levi Ernest Miles, was born on______
_________________{Date}, in_____________________________________
_________________{Place}. His father and mother were___________
_________________________________________{Include maiden name} and they were from____________________________________{place}.
Levi Ernest married Sena Severson on_____________________________
___________{Date}, in____________________________________________
___________ {Place} and their children were__________________________________________{List in chronological order, including self}. Please list, also any deaths, marriages, & baptisms you may have knowledge of, and please include dates and places if known.
______________________________________________
You may also want to include with your letter some of the other forms readily available online or at your local library for collecting genealogical data. Also do not be afraid to ask for copies of photographs, letters, etc., that they may have. Offer to pay for the cost of reproducing them, or reproducing them yourself and returning the originals to them. Also you should enclose a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope). Remember you have invited your self into their home, into their memories, show them that you are willing to help defray the cost of any mailings or photocopying that may need to be done.
While going through the information and books, pictures, letters that you may have received during your personal interview or through the mail be careful to take your time. Read every scrawl in every margin, on every page. Look at every picture, you do not want to miss any piece of information. Many people write as they read, or doodle, and could be within one of these doodles or scrawls in the margin that you find the nugget you have been looking for.
For example, while going through a cook book of my grandma's I came upon a note she had written in the margin: "Sam Raizes' has boys Levi's for 1.00 and butter is 5 cents a pound at Mabb's. Dad's great grandpa Richard Miles was the first Miles to arrive in this country in 1635. Beverly's boy Ronnie is taking piano lessons. Ernie's Uncle Isaac got mixed up with a group of outlaws. Ernie says the rest of the family don't want anything to do with him." If I had just glanced at this piece of writing, seeing only the price of butter, it could have been left undiscovered for months, years, or perhaps forever. From this one passage written by grandma, I gathered three valuable pieces of information:
1) Richard Miles arrived in this country in 1635
2) Isaac Miles my grandpa's uncle got mixed up with some outlaws
3) Isaac's family wanted no part of him due to this information
These three pieces of information gave me nearly one hundred and fifty years of family treasures. Thanks to my grandma's doodles as she made noodles.
In a notebook of my grandmother's I found information pertaining to Richard Miles' home being in England. There was also a passage telling about how he came to America in a ship that was built by his brother. I also discovered that he along with 10 to 15 other settlers left the first settlement in America and founded their own community. This information led me to books containing complete biographical sketches, etc. Later, I found an entry in a book that named a ship called the Mary & John, this ship was supposed to have been piloted and built by my ancestors. I have not yet found any other reference to this piece of information, but I still have it recorded, with a notation such as the following:(the Mary & John information is only verified by a notation in my grandmother's notebook, and one other sketchy entry in a reference book). By noting this information I will always have a record of it; and when I find another reference, if I find one, I'll be able connect another piece of the ancestral journey. Journeys I have learned to enjoy, love, and cherish over the years. Journeys I hope you also learn to love and cherish. It will bring you great enjoyment if you allow it. So do not discard anything sent to you and read all information closely.
Family Bibles are another great asset to the genealogist. Some family Bibles can be a storehouse of information; and if you are lucky enough to stumble upon a family Bible you very well may have also stumbled upon an entire family tree going back two, three, four, or more generations. Do not be afraid to ask if you may have the Bible so that you can make copies of the pages that have information on them. In some instances, you may be given the Bible for keeps. A lot of times relatives with basements and attics full of trunks, boxes, and sacks full of pictures, etc., are more than happy to find a relative willing to take all this stuff off their hands. If this happens to you, do not hesitate; say yes and thank you, as quickly and politely as possible.
Remember to gather all information available to you. If Aunt Georgie says here, take the whole trunk, take it. And go through everything. Magazines, pictures, pockets of clothing, look at the clothing for names, look at the backs of pictures. Leave no corner un-turned. Always write down your information, and where it came from. Develop a method of cross-referencing your notes that is easy and efficient for you. Over the next few months you find your self bogged down with pictures, letters, photocopies, note-cards, etc., and if you do not organize these materials you will spend valuable time sorting them out at a later date. Organization is always important and can be interesting and fun. Obituaries are also a very important piece of information. Obituaries carried in the newspapers before 1980, generally carried information on the persons immediate family, and their mother and father, as well as where they were born.
Bibles, letters, diaries, oral histories, all are important and all need to be checked and rechecked. By cross-referencing this information, you can very well close a gap of one or two generations. An entry in the family bible may mention great uncle Isaac having been born in New York, but giving no other information. And then an entry in a diary or a paragraph from a letter may mention how Isaac fell in with a group of outlaws and was banished by the rest of the family. Thus, another piece of the puzzle falls in place.
As with any bit of information that has survived for generations, there will be exaggeration, mistakes, and discrepancies, don't let these discourage you. Use the mistakes and exaggerations to help build an interesting story to accompany your family history. After all, history is the retelling of events, places, and individuals, so use the flowery language, the variant spellings of names, and the trials and accomplishments of your ancestors. Let the oral traditions they spin to you, spin a tale of fantasy, truth, and genuine love, the basis of your research. This is your family's history, your country's history, and your children's history, treat it with care and it will reward you, encourage you, and, it will also discourage you, but more so, it will thrill you.
