Alan E. Mann, A.G.
Accredited
Genealogist
Phone: (801) 963-8401 Fax: (801) 963-1790
©Alan E. Mann, 1996
GENEALOGY: a Fresh Start
by Alan E. Mann
The computer has simplified the genealogist's task, but it doesn't put family trees together for us. Let's review what a complete beginner to genealogy needs to do to get started.
Step 1. Gather information on your family.
Begin with papers at home. Look for names, dates, and places on certificates, family Bibles, school and military certificates, letters, diaries, obituaries, and other home sources. Contact living relatives and get names, dates, places, and relationships they know. Then record everything onto forms (or into genealogy software). Record the source of information (if you have a certificate, record it as the source). Examine your data for inconsistencies (grandma had a baby at age 9?, or the same couple had two healthy children only five months apart?).
Step 2. Verify the information (especially inconsistencies).
Find original records confirming the dates and places shown. If you were told Grandpa was born in 1899 in Alpena, Michigan, get his birth certificate, or look up the family in the 1900 census and see him listed as a baby with his parents. Do this for each family member, noting details about the verifying source. Checking data now avoids wasting time looking in the wrong place.
Step 3. Look for previous research (survey phase).
Look for information found by others. The procedure to find everything anyone else has done is usually worth the time it takes. The exact steps may vary depending on the time period and country in which you are searching, but the following resources (the first three are part of the LDS Church FamilySearch® package) should usually be checked:
Ancestral File© is the largest, most readily available, and easiest to use previous research database. The 1996 release (available soon) will contain around 30 million individuals submitted by people around the world (predominantly North America). A name is in this file only if someone submitted it. Recheck this file whenever a new edition is released and when you discover a new ancestor. It's available at the Family History Library (35 North West Temple) or at over 2000 Family History Centers around the world.
International Genealogical Index® (IGI) contains information on births and marriages of 250 million deceased individuals (mostly U.S., Great Britain, and Europe). Many events recorded in the IGI come from original church records recorded between 1538 and 1875. It takes little time to check the IGI, and it should always be consulted when you check out a family tree.
Family History Library Catalog© - surname section lists published family histories (book or film) in the Family History Library collection by the major surnames listed in those histories. Input a family name, and the catalog list publications about that family name. You then examine those books or films to see if they mention your branch of the family.
Library of Congress homepage is available on Internet. It helps find books/films on a family name in the Library of Congress. You can search your surname and get a list of published sources. I entered "Ward Family" and got 58 responses, and 17 more from the phrase "Ward Genealogy". The list of sources included a few that were written by someone named Ward rather than books about the Ward family, but it's a useful source. Once you know about a source, look at it through a local Center, or library (on the shelf or Interlibrary loan).
FamilyFinder Index & World Family Tree are sponsored by Banner Blue Software. FamilyFinder is a CD-ROM index to millions of names (to check index entries, you need to buy the CD-ROMs from Banner Blue or use a library such as the Family History Library). World Family Tree is similar to the Ancestral File (see above), but is more difficult to use. For information on these products, connect via the World Wide Web (Internet) to
Research Coordination Lists are databases containing names
and addresses of individuals interested in a specific family. They give some
details about a family, and list the person researching that information.
For example, I registered an interest in the Kuykendall family, who moved
from Holland to New York/New Jersey to Virginia to Tennessee to Mississippi
to Arkansas to Texas to Arizona between 1618 and 1900. When someone asks
about Kuykendall, they get my name and address, with a note saying:
Kuykendall 1618 1900
HOL>NY/NJ>VA>TN>MS>AR>TX>AZ,USA.
This should help them decide if my Kuykendalls are related to their Kuykendalls,
and whether they want to contact me to share information. By the way, since
registering my interest in the Kuykendall family, 42 living Kuykendall relatives
have contacted me, giving me info on over 2000 relatives I didn't have before.
There are many research coordination lists, many of which are specific to
one country. The largest, most available, and most generally applicable list
is Roots Surname
List.
Personal Genealogies stored online are numerous. While most commercial online services have a section where people send their personal genealogy, those files remain separate and are difficult to connect to your family. A few are searchable or have an index. The largest and most easily accessible are GenServ, GenWeb, and USGenWeb Index. GenServ has nearly 3 million names contributed by thousands of individuals. GenWeb is an organization devoted to helping people put their own genealogy on the WorldWideWeb (Internet). You may read Gary Hoffman's original GenWeb proposal, visit the GenWeb home page, read or join the GenWeb mailing list, or visit one of the indexes to GenWeb genealogies--Tim Doyle's index to GenWeb genealogies or Gene Stark's Gendex.
Use specific indexes or other sources for your ancestors' geographical area. For example, if your ancestors were from North America, check PERSI (Periodical Source Index, Allen County Library), an index to most genealogical magazines published in the U.S. and Canada. Or if your ancestors were in England, use The Genealogists' Guide (Marshall, Barrow, & Whitmore) to see if pedigrees were published. For information on indexes of collections for a specific country or area, ask a reference librarian or obtain the Family History Library's Research Outline for that country. NOTE: the research outlines can be downloaded from CompuServe or Genie, and the U.S. state research outlines on Internet.
As you find information from these sources, verify the information (see step 2, above).
Step 4. Seek to contact others with common interests
Use newsgroups and bulletin boards to list your interests and contact others. This is similar to research coordination lists (above). People use newsgroups and bulletin boards to leave public messages hoping that someone will read and answer their request. Many "queries" published relate to specific families or individuals that might be related to you. Even unrelated individuals may pool their efforts when they are searching records in the same area (you look at the deeds and I'll look at the wills, and we'll share what we find). Newsgroups are available through the Internet, while bulletin boards are often restricted to members of that BBS.
There are over 13,000 newsgroups, several of which are devoted to genealogy. There are also Listservs, which are basically the same as newsgroups, but are regularly distributed by email rather than waiting for you to call up the newsgroup. We might call a Listserv a newsgroup by subscription. One important one is the Roots-L Listserv. Roots-L allows you to search its old message archives. There are three good lists of newsgroups available on Internet. These are Vicki Lindsay's, Chris Fuller and John Gaunt's (newsgroups and Listservs separately listed), and Genuki.
America Online, CompuServe, Genie, Prodigy, and local bulletin boards have genealogy sections where individuals submit ("post") these kinds of messages for all to see. To use a commercial online service, just use one of the free disks that come in the mail and install their software. They offer ten free hours to sample their service. Use your hours to check out what's available on their genealogy bulletin board area. If you didn't get a free disk (what planet did you say you're from?), buy a shrink-wrapped computer magazine from a newsstand or call:
