Research Goals and Responsibilities

SOME NOTES ABOUT MY RESEARCH

GOALS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

I have intentionally limited myself, for the most part, to research within the United States. If I have found an important book with the genealogy going back into Europe, fine. But I have never proactively researched in Europe. Nevertheless, what you will find here is a great body of information about our ancestry. You can guess that in doing research, each generation you go back, the number of families grows. For instance, your mother and dad represent two families. Going back one generation, you have four families (two of them new); another generation and you have eight families (four of them new). And so on until it becomes clear that we'll be dealing with dozens of families. Some we know a lot about, some very little.

As a genealogist, while it is important to allow others to have their memories of what they remember hearing, or how things were for them, when I have documentation that things were actually otherwise, I must and will note it. Therefore, from time to time, in many of the documents I’ll be presenting on this website, you’ll see my notes as to what research has been found to correct someone else’s personal memory. This is very important as it is unfair to future generations to allow incorrect family stories to drift into untenable legend and myth – fun and quaint though the stories be.

As mentioned earlier, I’m just now getting the courage to attempt this website venture. I’ve been teaching myself HTML and learning, slowly how to build websites. Presenting genealogical family trees, and documentation, can be very tricky and I’m still not sure how that's all going to work out. I’ve examined and analyzed dozens of genealogy websites and am trying to come up with the best and simplest way to present our information. I welcome any and all suggestions as to style and if any one has a better way to present something, please let me know. I do not use PageMill or any other website builder, I write my own codes, so if you’ve had anything to do with building a website, you know it’s hard work, especially for someone who’s not in the business.

With there being so much that is negative about the Internet, it has become sort of a standard in genealogy to not include in genealogy “trees” or GEDCOM databases, any information about people who are still living. Therefore, I will do my best to eliminate references to anyone who is living before I publish it on the web and to adhere to the National Genealogical Society’s “Standards For Sharing Information With Others”. Living cousins may be mentioned by first name. These precautions should satisfy most anyone.

As you does genealogy research, or read the results of it, there is a continuity and connectedness you can feel about being a member of a remarkable family. Like it or lump it, if you are descended through the lines represented here, you’re part of this family, and have inherited much, for better or worse. As you learn more about one or another, you should find things about them that you recognize in yourself. I have learned a lot about one ancestress, who died about 80 years before I was born, and is two generations away, that totally shocks me. I’ve noticed parallels in many of her life choices, inner thinking, and some of her experiences. What we inherit does go back farther than mom or dad, grandma or grandpa. But unfortunately, about most of our ancestors, we’re lucky just to have names, dates and places. It is my goal to give you as much personal and social history of our ancestors as possible.

Please keep in mind, I am still an active researcher. When an opportunity comes to travel to a place where our families lived, I jump at the chance. Since 1982 it has been my dream to do research in Massachusetts and Connecticut. So far I’ve spent only a few hours one day in Hartford, Connecticut, and that was with husband in tow. When I do get the chance to be on my own, I’ll be in the court houses, public libraries, historical societies, in the cemeteries, and out on the streets, map in hand, in a dozen communities. I’ve found there is always something more to learn. You will be able to read in pages to follow of many adventures I’ve had in research.

And lastly, I solicit information from anyone who sees what is put up here and who has anything to offer to fill a data gap. Are you a cousin who was the recipient of an old letter passed down in the family to you? Do you have old pictures of great-aunts or uncles, grandparents? Do you have any family artifacts that, if photographed, could be visually shared with us all? You don't have to be in the direct family line. Maybe you have information on one of our lateral lines you'd consent to contribute. Please contact me. Arrangements can be made for photographing anything that would be of value and interest for this site. Eventually I'll be setting up a family forum on Roots-Web that we can use to share questions, and answers.

Home Page | Gateway to the Archives

Official Website of the
Burch, Nickel, Sheldon, Griffin,
Saemann and Brazelton Family

Joann Saemann
West Jordan, UT

This candle was lit on the 11th of September, 2001.