Copyright © 1999 by Michael Segers, All rights reserved
When you think of excitement, genealogy—the study of family history—may not be near the top of your list. But lately, there has been a great deal of excitement on the Internet about a new treasure available to those researching their families. This site has been gaining millions of hits a day since it went on line recently.
Let’s think about the rather odd combination of genealogy and the Internet. Once again, our poor old mistrusted Internet comes up with a surprise. To do genealogical research, you need access to a great deal of information, spread out in many sites. You need to contact people, perhaps all over the world. So, the Internet, the same misunderstood Internet that is blamed for school shootings and failed marriages, can be conservative in the best of all possible ways—conserving the values, the names, the family connections of centuries past.
This exciting new site is certainly not alone. Although I’m roving into very strange territory (for me) for this rave, I’m going to share with you some of the Internet resources that you can use for your family research. I’m also going to share my experience with some genealogical software, even one of those outdated things called a book, and give you some hints that I’ve stolen from people who know so much more about genealogy than I do.
The new site is maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormons, as they prefer not to be called. Even less qualified to review theology than movies, I’ll say simply that the Latter-Day Saints believe that family connections do not end with death. They provide a clearly stated explanation of their beliefs without forcing those beliefs onto anyone else.
The LDS Church has always been very hospitable to non-members who want to use its extensive genealogical records, and a Church announcement predicted that this new site may become one of the most popular on the web. Understandably, since this site is the starting point for examining over 350 million records and thirty-five million names. It also provides opportunities for researchers to share information. If you plan to check out the site, be prepared for delays. It is about to become a victim of its overwhelming success. Besides visiting this site in cyberspace, readers in Sylvester (the physical home of Peanut.org) might want to visit the LDS Family History Center in Albany—2700 Westgate Blvd., 912-888-7588—or in major cities throughout the world.
If, however, this site is a little too intimidating, or, if, like me, you don’t like to stand in line, here are some old reliable sites to turn to. First, this one from the Baltimore City Life Museums is a good starting point because it is not so huge, perhaps intimidating as the next two.
About.com offers hundreds of mini-webs (some not so mini) of information and links, with a sense of community developed through interaction with the guides for the sites and for those of us who log onto them. I often prowl the movie sites—even turned up a memorable guest columnist that way—and I find the Genealogy site full of good stuff. I especially appreciate some great tutorials for beginners (including columnists who write about a field they know nothing about).
Since it has been around since 1996, "Cyndi’s List of Genealogical Sites" is a classic web site, and it just gets bigger and better. Cyndi Howells’s labor of love involves constantly updating her links. That means not only adding new links but also (bless her!) deleting those that no longer work. With her more than 41,750 links in over 100 categories (in 1999) at your disposal, you won’t get excited about kinfolks on the "Titanic" or "Mayflower." You’ll be tracing ancestors back to Noah’s Ark. For a sample of Cyndi’s personality and her site’s flavor, consider her description of her goal for her site: "I read somewhere that the Internet is like a library with its books strewn all over the floor. I guess I'd like my list to be the card catalog for the genealogy section of that library."
Howells also has written a book, Netting Your Ancestors: Genealogical Research on the Internet. Now in its eighth printing, it is obviously meeting a need, but be sure that it is meeting your need before you purchase it. Of its 180-some pages, only about twenty are about genealogy. This is not a book for Netizens who want to learn about genealogy so much as it is for genealogists who want to learn how to use the Net. It covers a lot of basics (very basics) about e-mail, surfing, search engines. It would make an excellent introduction for anyone you know who wants to learn how to use the resources of the Internet—be they genealogists, movie fans, cat lovers, veterans, diabetics, or just curious folks. If you know enough about the Internet to find this column, it may not be for you. But, to make a confession: I have not yet worked my way through those twenty pages on genealogy, and it will be some time before I do.
Smelling a new hobby in the air (just what I need) and justifying the purchases by saying my readers (hello, again, Mother!) needed to know, I invested in a couple of genealogical software packages. The two of them came with a total of about two dozen CD-ROM’s, covering millions of names. Knowing just how little I know about this topic, I am not going to identify these packages in this column (although I will if you e-mail me privately). But, I can offer a few guidelines to you as you shop around for such things yourself.
Bigger is not necessarily better. You will most likely get a disk with templates for various sorts of family trees and other kinds of genealogical information. You will also get an index of names available on all the disks that the company publishes. But, no matter how many disks you get initially, you are not likely to have all the disks you need. The index of names is like the preview channel for pay-per-view movies. Look at what is available, and decide what you want to get. My library of disks has almost nothing on any of the names I was looking for.
Both sets include a two-disk set of the Social Security Death Index—available separately for $39.95. Two problems with these records are that, first, not that many people are actually represented there. They begin with deaths in 1937, and many people who died after that time were not covered by Social Security. The other problem is that these records are available on the Internet for free at various sites.
So, even without naming the software packages that I purchased, I can give you some good information. Take advantage of everything on the Internet, but keep in mind that sites with URLs that end in ".com" are commercial sites. If you should decide to purchase software, keep that in mind if you turn to such sites for recommendations. It will be a long time, however, before you exhaust all the free resources on the Net.
Also, the Internet and your computer can help you quite a bit, but family history is a family endeavor. Start by jotting down all that you know about your family. Then, do something revolutionary: talk to your family, as many of them as you can get in touch with, and add whatever they know to your trove. And don’t just talk: write, e-mail, visit, kick your shoes off, pour a glass of iced tea, and catch up with folks.
There are three main pieces of information that you will seek for each of your ancestors: date and place of birth, of marriage, and of death. As you fill in the details of folks being hatched, matched, and dispatched, you will start to find and to feel a connection with them. One of the programs I bought even includes the ability to add photographs and recipes to your family history.
You will have to make some decisions. Which branches of your family are you going to research? For example, because my maternal grandfather’s name is Jones, I think that this may be the last part of my family that I try to do any research on.
What sort of original records can you work with? These are birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, entries in family bibles, military and census records, and so forth. What kind of compiled records can you work with? These are records that you will more likely find on the Internet or microfilm, such as biographies and genealogies.
As you work, continue to copy and organize your information, always documenting where it came from. Then, share your information. Again, talk to people, make copies, send e-mail. Quite likely, you will "meet" people on the Internet, even find a third cousin twice-removed in a flat in Paris. Eventually, you will need your own web site to make your information available to as many people as possible.
Not all Internet users wear black trench coats (although I do have one myself) and sit up all night looking for new lows in pornography. Nor are we all squinty-eyed from staring into our monitors. Genealogy is certainly one field that shows just how good the Internet can be. It can be a point where family members of different generations can share family history and computer knowledge to make their own little net.
If this column inspires any of you to undertake some research on your family history, or if you have already been using the Internet for your genealogical searches, I would like to hear from you. As you swing around your family trees, keep your feet dry and your heart full of noble thoughts for those giants who came before us, upon whose shoulders we stand.