Beginning Genealogy
Lesson (1)
The "W"s
Who, Where, When, Why and What.
What do I do to start??
To
start a genealogical search there are some things to be aware of and the needs
of a beginner in this field.
Desire to learn and know about your ancestors.
System of record keeping- computer programs or paper forms
Commitment of time Patience and dedication
To know or to learn the basics of research for any subject
Knowledge of general recognized system of written dates, abbreviations, genealogical terminology, etc.
The ability to analyse your findings
1.Frequently, a person decides that she/he want to become a member of some ancestral organization like the Daughters or Sons of the American Revolution, or something similar. With this goal in mind, then the research would be centered on a straight lineage back to a Revolutionary War ancestor. Basically, this is not a "desire to know", but a means to an end. Many people are members of the various organizations that know nothing else about their ancestral line. They are not genealogists. Nor, do they wish to be, this is a means to an end.
For the others, with the "desire to learn and know", you are embarking on a long journey backward in time. It may be the greatest experience for you personally or it could frustrating, fruitless, and sometimes it seems hopeless, but, in the long run, this is a total learning experience, with or without results.
2. Record keeping is extremely important- if you use paper copies, there will be instructions below as to the starting process. If you use a computer program, keep it updated with information and also backup copies.
3. Time- is almost an enemy of the dedicated genealogist. This is why good recordkeeping is a must do chore. It always more fun to find than to record.
Most of you have a genealogy program on your computer and for those of you who do not, These programs will do many things automatically, provided you enter the information in the correct fields.
The "W’ system will help you use your imagination.
WHO- becomes the ancestor presently being researched
WHERE- the geographical location of that family-where are they buried, married, etc.
WHEN- the period of time
WHY- If family is "out of place" why were they there
WHAT- This is a varied use of "what", starting with what do I do next; what did my ancestor do at this location; what made them go there, etc. What means many thing pertinent to your own research. You have to determine the next "What".
This is a basic beginner’s class, most of you are beyond this stage, but I have to assume that you are not. You now have this desire to know more about your ancestors, for whatever reason. Be prepared to spend time and money to pursue this interest. There are certain basic "rules and terminology" common to the practice of genealogy. This will come later as we progress. The first one is:
[DOCUMENT ALL SOURCES-ALL INFORMATION-REGARDLESS of WHERE IT ORIGINATED] Family sources, letters, etc.
BOOK NAME- AUTHOR or COMPILER-PUBLICATION DATE- PAGE NUMBERS- INTERNET SITES with the URL and as much information as possible.
First step- you begin with the knowledge at hand, basically yourself.
Basically, you know more about you than any other older member of your family,
except parents and siblings.
How to record this information. You have your
personal information, and you need a type of recording keeping to continue
backward toward your 10th gr grandfather.
[Go to http://www.geocities.com/genchatlessons/ and print out a pedigree chart [s] and family group’s sheet [s]. You can use a notebook and make you own, if you wish. ]
If you are using a computer program, or if you are using paper
genealogical charts, on any pedigree chart, you are # 1.
#1 on a pedigree
chart is either male or female. It is the ONLY place that this applies on a
pedigree chart.
Put in the information on yourself or a child or parent. If
you use a parent, then you start two charts, your mother as # 1 on one chart and
your father as # 1 on a second one. [This is for paper charts only, most
computer programs will do this for you]
This is where you begin dealing
with the terms "primary and secondary sources".
If you have a state issued
birth certificate- this is considered a primary source- for you. On # 1, add all
of the information pertinent to you at this time. Birthdate and place, and if
married, the spouse’s name below.
From here on, all even numbers are
male, all unever numbers are female. # 2 is your father, # 3 is your mother.
This pedigree chart when completed will contain four or five generations of both
your paternal and maternal lines. Depends on the use of 4 or 5 generation
chart.
Starting with you, and continuing through all of your reseach, how
you write a date is very important. It is an accepted practice in genealogy that
you use the following format:
Dates should always be written as day-month-year -- using the three-letter abbreviation for the month, 12 Oct 1958. NEVER write a date as all numbers. If you read a date as written like this ---12/10/1958, you wouldn't know if I meant the 12nd day of October or the 10th day of December.
Names: for the female lines; always use the maiden name when entering
data. Too often you will se something like" Mrs. James Smith". If you do not
know it, given or surname, put name unknown or leave it blank. obviously, to be
the wife of James Smith, she was Mrs. James Smith, which tells you absolutely
nothing. he made have had six wives.
Each entry needs a complete name, date
and place. Without all of these, it should be considred as incomplete.
Basically, when this is not done, all you have a incomplete list of people,
which is nearly worthless to you later when you have to go re-do your previous
work. This is not a "genealogy"
Family Group sheets work with a pedigree
chart. A pedigree chart is straight-line genealogy. When you use family group
sheets for each couple on the pedigree chart, you are incorporating the siblings
also. The numbering system of family group sheets will or should correspond to
the numbers on a pedigree chart; FGS # 1-12 or if you have continued to the next
pedigree chart- then that PC chart would be # 12-1 as example, indicating that
you are continuing the line of # 12 on PC chart # 1.
To
continue with your information on a PC, you then gather all the information
about your parents and enter it. When this is conpleted, you and your parents,
you are now starting a search of two different surnames. Yours, and your
mother’s maiden name.
At this point you may choose to follow just one name,
or both names. Keep in mind that each generation brings another surname. The
information on your parents will probably be easy to accumulate, depending on
your age and family circumstances.
In documenting your parents, record all events, birth date and place, in the event that are no longer living, also the death date, burial date , place of death, and cemetery. Document your research with notes as to where the information was found; from whom, or what source. Use official documents, if possible. Birth certificates and death certificates. There are guides to state and county repositories of vital statistics.
At this point, you need to start a filing system. This an essential
part of the record keeping or lack of recording keeping, that will occur as you
progress from generation to generation. Y can use any type of filing system that
you are comfortable with; dividers in notebooks, the "notes" portion of your
computer program, etc. If you use the computer only, ALWAYS make a backup copy
following the entry of data. If you want an organized system, following other
ideas, consult your local library for books on this subject.
You have
now established the WHO part of your search. To continue with each generation,
start with the first unfinished entry. This is probably going to be the "Where"
portion.
At this
point in your research, assuming that you haven't done so yet, contact any and
all relatives for information, including parents, if you need that information.
The most important documents that you can find are the originals that deal
directly with your family. [ Primary records are those which report an event at
or close to the time it happened. They are original records of events and
include state or federal census records; courthouse records, such as deeds,
wills, probates, birth or death records, naturalization records, or court
proceedings (both civil and criminal); church records, primarily baptism and
marriage; ships' passenger lists; and military records. } Birth certificates,
death certificates, wills, letters, military records, church baptism records or
affiliation, old newspaper clippings, scrapbooks.
Ask them specific questions- write a business like letter, you can write a chatty letter before or after, but all in the same letter. Or, separate the pages entirely. Make one a question type thing and another a family letter.
[DO NOT ASK- "What do you know about the family." Many persons do not not how to answer a question like this.]
Do Ask:
Is there a family bible anywhere?
Are there any old letters, or documents?
Are there old pictures of our family anywhere?
What do you remember about your great grandmother? [or whoever you are talking about]
" I would like to know the name of my grandmother, where she was born, where she died, when she married, how many children did they have, etc."
[Same thing for any relative, regardless of generation.]
At this point, you need to keep an accurate record of who you have contacted, the information received, the date, and from whom.
You may be told stories of your ancestors by family. Please use the stories with caution. Memories and stories change over the years and with the telling of them. While family traditions are great, many are not accurate. There are many stories in many, if not all, families of the 3 or 4 or 5 brothers who came to this country together, one went south, one went north, one went west, one or two were never heard from again. This probably is true in some cases, but generally, does not check out. The majority of genealogists ignore this type of thing , unless proven without a doubt. It is an easy way of linking to others with the same surname.
There are some other common problems with family traditions you should watch for. Some examples:
An incident often will be credited to one side of the family when in fact it\par happened to another side. Your grandmother may tell you a story she heard as a child about something that happened to her paternal grandfather and later you discover that it was her maternal grandfather who was involved. Sometimes the story will be credited to a person in the wrong generation. An example appears in my grandfather's obituary, which says he was descended from a "Revolutionary War veteran who became known as Judge John Pence." Since Judge John wasn't born until 1774, I knew this was impossible. I assumed what happened was that the family stretched a statement in an early family history from "the family goes back to Revolutionary days" into veteran's status for the first known ancestor. Years later I discovered documentation that John's father was the one who had served in the Revolution}
Mistakes about national origin can confuse a family's history. Your great grandmother may have denied a particular nationality because it was not "the thing to be" in her day. Consequently, your grandmother might pass on to you what she believes to be the truth; in reality, though, great grandmother "withheld evidence." }
Don't be surprised if, while you're interviewing Great Aunt Jennie, she suddenly has total lapse of memory or amnesia after having displayed total recall with her remarkable memory about the family tree, complete with names, dates and places. Suddenly - when you ask her about a particular ancestor - she can't remember a thing. That's a sure sign you've found a family "black sheep" - we all have them!}
Following your interviews with relatives, and the recording of the information, the next step is to verify any and all information with documentation.
1. Birthdates- death dates- places of interment- marriage dates- military records-
Birthdates can be verified through some states, but, many states did not start recording vital records until sometime after 1900. Each state varies as to date, and when all counties in the state came into compliance. Some exceptions to the 1900 date are mostly in the eastern states.
Marriages and death records fall into the same category of state law. To locate the information per state, there are a number of books on the market with this information. "The Handybook for Genealogists", published by Everton Publishers is the oldest one that I am aware of, a new one is updated and issued every ten year. Information on each state and each counties within each state, plus maps of the state counties, etc. This book is a 'must' for serious genealogists, or one similar.
The Federal Census is nearly an index to the country. While there are many mistakes in the census, it does place people in a location at a given period of time. The census takers were not accurate in their recording of dates, etc. Frequently, birth year will vary from one census to the next, but it is the best "finding tool" that we have. The census may be found in libraries in book form, book index form to the microfilm, on the internet, or you may purchase microfilm.
The accumulation of the various types or records usually establish
the "Where" and possbily the "Why" .
We haven’t really discussed primary
records vs secondary records.
A primary record originates with a
person or persons have direct involvement with the event: i.e.; birth
certificate; death certificate as to the date of death only, other
information recorded on a death certificate becomes secondary because the person
giving the information was not present at the birth, etc. Census information is
primary for the residence, other information is secondary due to the nature of
the census and the taking of the census, which is after the fact for some time.
[Another lesson].
Primary sources in vital statistics is pretty well limited
to the above. Everything else is considered secondary sources. Tombstones,
obituaries, even old bible records, unless, you can prove that the person
entering the information was present at whatever event is recorded. There are
other primary sources, but this area of vital statistics is the beginning
portion of your search.
Secondary source is everything
else and should only be used as clues. An obituary is a definitely a secondary
source. Except for the death date and funeral information, all the information
is given by someone who was not present when the event happened. A tombstone
presents a different type of secondary source!
It's obvious that the birth
date is a secondary source, but if it's appears to be a new stone with an old
death date (meaning that there no stone wasn't erected prior to death, as we do
today, at the time of the death), it is has to be a secondary source.If you come
up with different dates for a person's birth [ from various sources] consider
when each was recorded or published and choose the one that was recorded closest
to the time of the birth. This sentence may not make sense, but an good example
would be a 1860 census- shows this person as 10 years old; but, he was not in
the 1850 census; a tombstone showing a death date of 1900 and a remark that says
"he died in the 50th year of his
life’., or he was 49 yrs. 10 mos 14 days.
The last is the most complete as
to birthdate. The 1850 census indicates that the person was born after June
1850, the "50th year of his life
means he was approaching his 50th
birthday. The age allows you to calculate the exact date of the
event.
Primary evidence is also considered "best evidence’ in
law.
Now that you have recorded everything you know about yourself and your parents, then comes the grandparents.you have started with yourself and are working abackwards. This process allows you to actually find out more that if you tried to start with an earlier generation.
It is not recommended that you you start at the county courthouses.
you first need to find out the vital statistics laws for that state. If you know
a birth was close to a certain date in 1870, there is a very good possiblity
that the courthouse will not be of use to you. Many states did not record births
and deaths until after 1900. Marriages may fall under those guide lines. Some
counties will have marriages that have been voluntarily
recorded.
In closing this lesson- some things to remember:
All information is not on the internet.
When writing for information, be business like, use business size paper and envelopes, keep your requests to the point of what you want to know, inquire as to costs of obtaining the information, SASE-enclose a legal size envelope with the proper postage.
For family, just make a simple questionaire- that can be undstood, many people do not understand family group sheets or pedigree charts. They also are entitled to an SASE from you.