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August 22, 2002
DADDY, WHERE DID I COME FROM?
Something I've begun doing as a result of Jordan's birth is researching his family history. It's not as simple as one might assume, as I quickly found out. Anyone who wants to start a similar journey would benefit a great deal by adopting some fairly simple research habits.
Starting your familiy history is relatively easy: talk to your relatives. With any luck, maybe one of them has already researched part of the family and can supply all the records you need. Beware, however, these people can be genealogy junkies, able to talk for hours on end about obscure aunts and uncles and other tidbits about the past. If you dare, call them, email them, visit them, wrest the information from them and make it your own.
There will almost surely be holes to fill, even after the most exhaustive research has been done. Keep checking with other family members. If you're near where your family came from, try the courthouses and churches and cemeteries. If you're in my boat, you're not only far from your roots, but most of those courthouses have burned down, in which case one of your best friends will be your computer and online databases. But first, some tips on how to catalog your new-found information:
BUILDING FAMILY HISTORY DATABASE
Since much of what you will find will be copied onto paper, you'll need a binder for it. The three-ring variety with a few dividers with pockets is perfect to start. For each relative, you'll want to have at least one page of paper. My system is to record the source, the name, birthdate, birthplace, death date, death place, father, mother, spouse, marriage date, and any other notes of interest that may be there. I'd recommend a new sheet for a new source on the same person. Get a system going for yourself and keep to it so you don't have to think about what to put next and what after that.
Your notebook should be divided into four partitions: your mother's side, your father's side, your wife's mother's side, and your wife's father's side. Once you spend a few days on each ancestor's line, the partitions will fill quickly.
KEEPING TRACK
To be efficient, you must have IDs for your direct ancestors, because many will have the same names. My choice was to use my son as the number 1 in the list, giving his ancestors higher numbers based on a simple formula: Each male ancestor's ID number is twice his child's; each female ancestor's ID is twice the child's plus 1. Using that method, I am number 2 in the list and my wife is number 3. My dad is number 4 and my mom is number 5. My wife's dad is number 6 and her mom is number 7. You see the pattern?
This system basically "reserves" a space for every direct ancestor. Neat and tidy, just like a stay-at-home-dad needs. It doesn't lend itself to IDing lateral relatives, however, at least that I can see. I suppose you could denote children of relative 24 as 24a, 24b, etc. Then the children of those cildren could be 24a.a, 24a.b, 24b.a, 24b.b, etc.
While I have all my information on pieces of paper, I also put it in an Excel database so that I can manipulate the data, make changes when needed, and have it all in a usable chart form. Excel allows itself to be saved in HTML format, too, making the chart at http://www.bobfarley.com/genealogy/genealogy.html much easier to build and maintain.
There are other ways to chart your family pedigree, and you will no doubt see them in use if you look around enough. One way starts with an ancestor, making him or her the number one, then follows each succeeding generation. This method also allows for listing spouses and children and then following through with each of those in a sort of paragraphical format. It's okay, but more confusing to me than the straight linear progression of ancestors.
LATERAL ANCESTORS
After a while, you'll not only want to have information about your direct line of ancestors, you'll want to know their brothers and sisters, your lateral ancestors. Lateral ancestors are aunts and uncles, grandaunts and granduncles, great-grandaunts and great-granduncles, etc.
While you may find simply concentrating on direct ancestry plenty challenging , eventually, you may want to start a notebook of lateral family member information. By keeping track of your aunts' and uncles' children, you'll have a record of your cousins, second cousins, third cousins, first cousins once removed, twice removed, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Each collection of family members should be put on its own page, what I call a family page. You can also put the children of couples on the individual pages, if you like.
At http://www.ancestry.com/learn/start/main.htm, you'll find a group of downloadable organizational forms, which you may find helpful. And, if you want to find out what relation you are to a lateral relative, check out my consanguinity engine at http://www.bobfarley.com/genealogy.
I don't use a genealogy software package, either, which limits me somewhat in what I can upload and share with others. Many people swear by these programs, though, so you may want to check out some of them.
WHAT YEAR IS IT?
Several times in the history of humanity, the calendars have been changed, usually with days left out. So you might have October 1 followed by October 15, for instance. I thought it was only in the 18th century, but after a bit of research, I found it has happened half a dozen times at least. Not everybody in the world accepted the changes, and sometimes not at the same time. This makes dating problematic during those years, and is one reason you'll sometimes see different significant dates for the same individuals. Well, you didn't think it was going to be easy, did you?
ONLINE RESOURCES
I like free databases, even though there is sometimes contradictory information in them. They usually don't list their resources, either. It's nice to know where the people got the information, even if you can't actually see it. Still, it's better than paying.
There are a multitude of databases to buy, too, if you choose, online and off. One such is http://www.ancestry.com. There are others. I don't use any of them.
Here are my main free resources:
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com
http://www.gendex.com
http://www.gencircles.com
http://www.familysearch.org
And oh yes, don't forget entering a relative's name into a regular search engine, such as http://www.google.com. You should find many personal homepages listed.
There's the baby hollering. Must be time for a new diaper. Happy searching.
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