Family Historian – May 2008

Mary Alice Dell

 

Surfing for Family History – The Real Story

Can you really trace your family’s history on the Internet?  Had you asked my opinion a couple  years ago about the success you would have researching your family’s history, I would have answered negatively.  Today, I concede you can accomplish a great deal there.  How much depends on three factors:  how much you want to know about your ancestors, how much you are willing to pay, and your tolerance for frustration.  There are thousands of genealogy related sites – which will list your John Brown or Mary Smith?

Family historians differ on the amount of information they want to know about the family.  Some are satisfied to trace one or perhaps two lines, usually those of their parent’s surnames. They may be interested in finding every morsel of information about every generation, or just the bare bones of birth, marriage and death, and perhaps what wars the males fought. 

Others are interested in pursuing every surname line (by the time you have traced your line to your great-great grandparents, you have uncovered 16 surnames) and in learning every detail they can discover about these ancestors.

No matter which describes how you approach your family history, the Internet has information that will assist you.  And likewise, you will not find all the answers on the Internet, no matter how many fee sites you subscribe to.  The daunting challenge is how to sort through the Internet maze to find that which applies to your family.  Where do you start?  What are the most helpful beginning sites?   

Planning an Internet Trip

If you were planning to take a 3 month driving vacation of the United States, it is doubtful that you would just jump into the car and start driving.  You would spend time making some advance preparation, thinking through what you needed to take with you and perhaps drawing up a plan of travel.  Doing research is much like that.  To be successful takes some advance planning.

Before you jump onto the web, assemble your searching tools: a summary of the information you already have and a list of the information you are seeking.  The summary may be family group sheets, a pedigree chart, or just having your genealogy data base program running in the background so you can refer to it.   The list of information is your written “task” list, a specific description of who you are looking for, the event or events, and the place and dates you think the event may have occurred.  If I am looking for the marriage record of Ellis Mann and Mary Ella Pierce, I know from a Bible record they married in 1882. Since the Pierce family lived in Missouri in 1880, that is the state I need to search.

 

Once you have selected the person, place and event for that particular session on the web, stay the course.  Do not allow yourself to get distracted.  Bookmark (or make Favorites) the sites you find along the way that you want to return to for future research.

Snoop for Clues

But what if you are new to family history research or just discovered a new line and you don’t have anything but a name and probable date and place?  Then, you need to search for clues on that ancestor to aid in further research. You are not likely to find much information on line about people living today (at least not genealogical information). You will need the name of some ancestor born before 1930.  Why 1930? That is the latest census which is open to public scrutiny.    

Search the 1930 census for that ancestor and trace the family back in time using the names and clues given in each census to go back another 10 years.  This is how you build the family pedigree of names, places and dates you need for more research.  The 1930 census has been fully indexed and digitized on Ancestry.com, a subscription site which is free to users at the Boerne Public Library.

And/or, you can search for your family on one of several databases on line where other researchers have uploaded their family information. Doing that is an excellent way to get clues about your line.  I emphasize the word “clues”, as much information on these web sites is inaccurate.  Most do not list the source of their information and without a source you have no way of knowing if the facts stated are true, or someone’s guess.  If you accept erroneous information as fact, you will soon be barking up the wrong family tree. 

There are several useful sites such as www.familysearch.com which has family trees input by researchers and some vital records transcribed from church records.  Another good site is www.rootsweb.ancestry.com.  Don’t let ancestry in the URL scare you, this is a free site, with many helpful features as well as World Connect, a massive family tree database, full of clues.  When you do find clues or data about an ancestor, record where you found that information. 

Find Other Family Researchers

I have never been one to “re-invent the wheel”, so if you can find someone who has already eked out family information, you will want to exchange email with them. The sites mentioned above can lead to that, but even better sources to find other family researchers are the Message boards and Mailing Lists found on the free Rootsweb site. Don’t be tempted to jump right in and start using these; read the instructions first.  You’ll save time and frustration.  Both message boards and lists cover surnames, localities and subjects.  Queries or answers placed on Lists are transmitted daily or weekly to the email address of whoever signs up for these free lists. 

You can search Message Boards or place queries on them such as “PIERCE AND BOOTS 1810 FRANKLIN CO. KY- Need marriage information on Joseph Pierce and Catherine Boots, daughter of Bartus Boots. They lived in KY 1810 to 1839, before moving to MO.  Need parent information on Joseph b. c.1785, place unknown”.  Be sure to put names, places and dates in the title. You can arrange to have notifications mailed to you when someone answers your query.   .  

Don’t overlook RSL, the granddaddy of the message boards, listed under Search Engines on Rootsweb.  Here you will find surnames and family migration paths listed, such as my Vansant (VanSandt) line: Vansant 1660-1830 NLD>NY>BucksCoPA>RockbridgeCoVA>GalliaCoOH>KY This line traces from Garret who immigrated to NY to George in KY.

Use Rootsweb Search Utility

The best way to access information about an ancestor on Rootsweb’s 46 data bases is to input the ancestors name in the search box entitled Search Rootsweb.  The results will indicate in which data bases you may find information, for example the California death records or Social Security Death Index.  To find links to State websites, go to the heading Tools and Resources on the Rootsweb site and click on States.  Be sure to check out two of my favorite search engines Linkpendium and cyndislist.  Other useful information is listed under Roots-L library. 

Next month’s column will discuss some new websites, how to search smart on the Internet, and how to use the subscription sites even if you are not a member.  Meanwhile, if you have any questions or want to share an interesting website, email me at rvgenie@gmail.com.