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Families trees in full bloom: as the Web opens access to information, genealogy has never been more popular. (Life). Author/s: Karen Goldberg Goff
Issue: Dec 31, 2001

Julanne Myers has been putting together a puzzle for more than 20 years. The branches of her family tree start in England and stretch to Virginia. It has taken hundreds of hours of research, but Myers has found grandparents and great-grandparents, ordinary and infamous, settlers at Jamestown and pilgrims from the Mayflower.

"Genealogy is geometric," Myers says. "You start with two parents and four grandparents, then you have eight great-grandparents and pretty soon you find there are 20,000 people you are related to. This hobby is all a big puzzle and a great mystery. But you can't do the edges of the puzzle first. It takes time to get there."

Most Americans are immigrants, whether from 17th-century Scotland or the Ivory Coast or a Polish village. For those trying to find out exactly when Grandma came through Ellis Island, or where Great-Grandpa was married, access to information never has been easier, thanks to the Internet. Genealogical Websites give novices pointers on how to get started and maps to show the towns from which relatives came. They even enable researchers to call up vital records and share information with other genealogists.

"In the past, when a genealogist was searching for information on a given ancestor, it would take years to exhaust all the records," says Rhonda R. McClure, a Florida genealogist and the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy. "Using the Internet means genealogists can search out leads to their ancestors in a much easier and faster fashion. Genealogists are in communication with each other like never before."

Genealogists still need to visit libraries and historical societies. Records typically found online are abstracts, summaries and databases rather than images of the original documents. Accurate records need documentation, McClure notes. "It is still important that primary documents are investigated, which can only be done by viewing microfilm."

Some 120 million Americans have expressed interest in finding out more about their roots in the last five years, according to Maritz Marketing, a research firm. Whether that means punching your surname into a search engine or spending hours in the stacks at the Library of Congress, genealogical interest has grown by one-third since 1995.

"Part of the appeal is that connection is very important," Myers says. "We all want to believe we are part of something, especially since September 11. We are all Americans. We all came from someplace else. That doesn't make you any less American."

The best way to begin is to talk to living family members, says Kory Meyerink, a professional genealogist in Salt Lake City. It may be helpful to tape or videotape your interview. Even if some people have forgotten exact details, asking more specific questions may get relatives, particularly elderly relatives, talking about family memories. Instead of asking general questions such as, "Tell me about your childhood," ask what Christmas was like the year of the big blizzard or what Grandma made for Sunday dinner. Specifics like that may jog memories of people they have not thought of in years, McClure says.

The next step is to fill out a genealogical chart, using as many names and dates as possible. Start with the generations closest to yours. Documentation will verify that the relatives you find are, indeed, your relatives -- birth certificates, for instance, and marriage certificates. Obtaining official documentation usually will cost money. All states charge for copies, usually between $10 and $30.

"Genealogy is as expensive or as inexpensive as you want it to be," says Bonnie Ferguson Butler, a Virginia woman who has traced her roots and those of her husband back several centuries. She counts 550 ancestors for her young son, Jasper.

"My great-grandmother always said she had one grandfather who fought for the South in the Civil War and the other fought for the North," Butler recalls. "We can try and verify this story with military service records for them, plus attempt to figure out why a man from North Carolina might wind up in the Union Army. In this case, genealogy combines history, sociology, psychology and geography."

The world's largest database of genealogical information has been compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City contains more than 2 million rolls of microfilmed records and 300,000 books about people of many faiths and nationalities. Some information is available online at the library's Website (www. familysearch.org). Researchers also can conduct searches at one of the library's 3,400 local Family History Centers.

Some of the most helpful documents can be found in public records, Meyerink says, available through the Family History Centers but also in local libraries and historical societies. One of the comprehensive genealogy Websites -- such as Genealogy.com, Rootsweb.com, CyndisList.com or Ancestry.com -- can offer guidance on more individual challenges, such as finding records in foreign countries.

Other references that can offer information include:

* Vital records. Many states and counties have birth, death and marriage certificates that still exist either in original form or on microfilm. They are excellent sources for confirming names and dates. Outside the United States, these records are called civil-registration records.

* Religious records. In Early American communities and in Europe, church records began long before government registration.

* Cemetery records. Searching these, genealogists often can find confirmation of dates, marriages and military service.

* Census records. Professional genealogists call the census invaluable. Each one contains names, ages, birthplaces and relationships of relatives. Depending on the questions asked by the census taker, the entry could reveal other clues to the past, such as how they made a living and where they resided.

* Military records. Because millions of Americans have served in the armed forces, the chances usually are good that there is some record of your relatives.

* Newspapers. Newspapers are living historical records, says Meyerink. Not only do they contain obituaries, which offer great details about the past, but relatives may have been mentioned in any number of ways, such as winning the county spelling bee.

* Probate records and land records. These help define how ancestors lived and to whom they passed their possessions upon death.

* Immigration records. Immigration records can be the first link to clues such as the names of the towns and countries the people came from and how old they were when they arrived. At the official Website for Ellis Island (www.ellisislandrecords.org), where millions of immigrants first entered this country, you even can find out the name of the ship on which your ancestors sailed.

* Family mementos. For many families, some of the best documents are already in their possession. Family Bibles might have details of births and marriages. Photos may have notes jotted on the back that describe who is in the picture and what year it was taken. That sort of documentation is important to do even now, Meyerink says. Scrapbooks and photos should be kept in a manner so that all the details will be available generations from now.

Tracing the roots of some ethnic groups may be more difficult, but certainly not impossible. For African-Americans, genealogy becomes complicated because marriages of slaves were not legally recognized, nor were surnames. For Jews, there often is an assumption that the records of ancestors were destroyed during the Holocaust.

"So many people say, `Sure, I could trace my roots in the United States, but once I get to Poland or the Ukraine, I am not going to find anything,'" says Gary Mokotoff, an author and lecturer on Jewish genealogy who has traced his family to Poland in the 1700s. "That is an absolute myth. Most Jewish things were destroyed, but the civil records of that town are still there. One of the most remarkable aspects of our history is that archivists have managed to keep records intact."

Joining a local genealogy organization can be a valuable asset for any amateur genealogist, Mokotoff says. For those in an ethnic group, it is essential.

"There are more than 80 highly organized Jewish genealogy societies throughout the world," he says. "When you find a local genealogy society, join it. You can find incredible support by talking to others who are looking for the same thing as you."

Mokotoff advises those searching for records in foreign countries not to be daunted by language barriers. By learning the spelling of a few key phrases -- the family name, along with mother, father, birth and death dates -- a person can find what he or she needs. It often is not necessary to travel to distant countries. Mokotoff found the death records of his four Polish grandfathers at one of the Family History Centers in New York City.

Sometimes it does make sense to call in an expert, however. Professional genealogists -- paid, experienced researchers who have passed a professional-standards exam -- can help when your own research has hit a dead end. When you need to do research in another state or country, a professional genealogist familiar with the area can be helpful.

"It is like anything else," Mokotoff says. "If you are building an addition to your house, you might be able to do some of it, but at some point, you may need a carpenter."

There also may be some point when uncovering family history leads to excavating skeletons from the closet. Unfortunately, it's all part of the puzzle.

"No one wants their grandfather to be a horse thief," Mokotoff says. "Everyone wants their great-grandfather to be one. The further away stories like that are, they add color. The closer they are, they might be painful. I say if no one living will be personally affected by that information, go ahead and use it."

KAREN GOLDBERG GOFF WRITES FOR Insight'S SISTER DAILY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

COPYRIGHT 2001 News World Communications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists can be a goldmine of information for genealogy researchers. In a mailing list, a single e-mail address is established as the administration address. Any e-mail messages sent to that address are forwarded to everyone who subscribes to the mailing list. On a popular list, you can receive hundreds of e-mails in a single day.