Let’s talk today about something that was almost impossible to do before the computer age. Genealogy – or tracing your family’s roots.
My family was very lucky because my grand-father and his father began the tracing of our family almost 70 years ago. Some of the things they discovered added to our family’s pride. For instance, they were able to trace our family back to 1066 and the invasion of England! We also now know that we are descended from a past US President (Thomas Jefferson). It was also fascinating to see how large families in the US used to be. Several of our past relatives had 12 sons and daughters. In addition, several of my nieces and nephews have written school reports taken from the information that was ‘dug up’ so many years ago.
So what do I do, you ask? (Please note, that most information found on the sites mentioned are of US origin. However, your country also may have information that is available over the internet. Just do some Google searches) Here are some web sites to get you started:
Ancestry.com — the most widely used — is from Generations Network in Provo, Utah, which also owns Genealogy.com, a rival site, and Myfamily.com, which is essentially a family networking site. Ancestry.com currently has more than 800,000 paying subscribers and 14 million registered users.
The site has free content, including a family tree maker, but also lets users search immigration, census and military records for fees that depend on the level of records needed. Family Tree Maker, which I use, is part of the company as well.
Another company, Onegreatfamily.com, also lets users create family trees and aims to share work with other genealogists. Currently, there is a tremendous amount of duplicated genealogical efforts. Several people could be working on the same family without knowing it. This site hopes to reduce this duplication and help us all find our ‘roots’ and will automatically merge family trees once it finds a common ancestor.
The proliferation of sites did not deter the former chief operating officer of PayPal, from creating a new entrant this year. His interest in his family history inspired him to design a site combining genealogy software with the ability to network with relatives — essentially a Facebook for families. The site, www.geni.com, allows users to create a family tree and to post photos, send messages and write free profiles. The success of this type of site depends on what is known in the online industry as viral growth, as users invite others to join by sending links to the site. Since its January introduction, the site has attracted approximately 500,000 users.
While these Web sites are very popular, they have their limits. Some documents, like marriage records or baptism records, are not easily found online if at all. Many of these records have not been digitized or even microfilmed, yet.
By the way, even something as simple as our family name can be misleading. A common misconception is that families changed their names at Ellis Island after arriving in the United States from Europe. Many family names, actually were changed either before emigration or after families arrived in the United States.
Whether the research is do-it-yourself or done by a professional, expenses can mount because of the time involved.
My sister became involved in following up on what my grand-father had put together. She has spent hundreds of hours since she became serious about genealogy. “I do it in fits and spurts,” she explained. For a time, she “spoke on a daily basis to a cousin I had never met.”
“We were consumed by finding our story,” she said. “I felt like Nancy Drew, it was exciting.”
She said: “if you’re successful in the early stages, it’s like salted peanuts. Once you start, you won’t stop.”
