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Tracing Your Child's Family Tree By
Robin C. Mason |
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As soon as your baby is born, the inevitable
question arises: Who does he or she look like? Even strangers in the
supermarket will look at you, and then your baby, trying to match physical
traits. Maybe your baby has Grampy's blue eyes and Grandma's gregarious
personality. Besides genes, one of the things you share is your family
history. So help your child learn about the family by creating a family tree. |
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You don't need to trace your family back to William
the Conqueror or Charlemagne. Start with a smaller project, one that can be
accomplished between reading childcare books and changing diapers. With a
little sleuthing, you can create a four-generation pedigree chart to put with
your baby's keepsakes. Adoptive couples can also get in on the ancestor
hunt and chart their families. Although you and your child don't share the
same genes, he or she is part of your family--and we are products of our
environment, too. You could also collect all the information from your baby's
adoption in case he or she decides to look for birth parents. |
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Home Sources |
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As you gather your facts, it's important to write
down your sources. You may ask why, since it's only for your child, but you
may come across conflicting data. Then you'll need to determine which one is
the better source. For instance, when I visited a cemetery, I found a death
date disagreed with the actual death certificate. In this case, the death
certificate carried more weight, since it was written at the time of death or
shortly thereafter. The headstone, however, could have been chiseled years
later, with dates based on faulty memories. It's a good idea to keep a file
(or many files) of your sources, from notes of your interview with
great-uncle Harry to obituaries to copies of marriage certificates. These
files will become part of your family treasures . |
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Internet Sources Say you've mined all the home sources, filled in
some blanks on your pedigree chart, but you don't know when your grandmother
died, when your grandfather was born, or when they married. Here's where you
move from the known to the unknown. With Internet access, you can find some
information online, from scanned records, record transcriptions, and indexes
to queries and extensive family trees. Some material is freely available,
such as data from FamilySearch, RootsWeb, and the USGenWeb Project. Others
charge a membership fee for searches, such as Ancestry.com and
HeritageQuest.com. |
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The trick is to use these resources to help you
delve into the actual records. The International Genealogical Index (IGI) at
the FamilySearch site, for example, is a mix of both extracted and compiled
data. Extracted data serve as an index to the actual records, although some
details from the actual records may not be in the database. Marriage records
after 1854 in Scotland, for instance, included the bride and groom's parents'
names, but the IGI entries don't include them. You still need to go to the
actual record to confirm that this couple is related to you. Lucky for Scottish
researchers, Scotlandspeople.gov.uk has scanned many of their birth,
marriage, death, and census records so you can print and download them for a
nominal fee. |
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Like indexes and extracted records, compiled data
and trees are useful for clues. Be aware, however, that there are many people
who are collectors instead of researchers, busy building the biggest database
of so-called relatives rather than carefully fact checking before adding
people to their trees. With the Internet, mistakes get reproduced many times
over. |
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It may take more time to order vital records, peruse
a census microfilm, visit a cemetery, and read county biographies, but you'll
have confirmation that that person really does fit on your family tree. |
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Finding the Answers Doing an online search of the Social Security Death
Index should help you find your grandmother's death date. The SSDI gives
birth and death dates for millions of people, mostly from the 1960s on, but
also as early as 1937. Not everyone is in the database, but it's always the
best place to look first. With the date in hand, you can go to VitalChek to
order the actual death certificate. The death certificate may include birth
date, parents' names, spouse's name, occupation, address, cause of death,
cemetery name, and funeral director's name---all depending on what
information was required by the state. |
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Besides the death certificate, you may want to check
for obituaries, cemetery records, and funeral records. By going to the
USGenWeb site for the state and county, you may find leads to help you get
these unofficial but often very revealing records. Sometimes obituaries will
give names of parents and children (which is particularly helpful with
married women's names), occupation, membership in societies, and a short biography. |
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Now, when my one-year-old daughter catches me on the
computer doing genealogy, I tell her I'm busy working on my family tree and
she can work on Daddy's. She smiles and grabs for the keyboard. |
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Internet Sources for Genealogy How-to
Record Search (free)
Other
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