Genealogy

So you’ve decided to build your family tree?   A somewhat daunting task that can easily overwhelm you if you’re not careful.  According to genealogists, if you go back far enough, you’ll discover that everyone on earth is a fortieth cousin.  Don’t want to go back quite that far?  I understand.

Here’s a guide to help you sort out all those bits of information and follow the roots of your family tree.

Start at the Library: The internet connects you with information form all over the world.  Unfortunately, it also connects you with misinformation.  So if you can, start with your local library.  Forget the online versions, what you need to find are real books.  History books in fact.

Most towns, counties and municipalities have a wealth of local history books all neatly organized at the library.   Some of them are fairly old, and almost all of them include names, dates and events.  Many of them are self published family histories.  Or stories about a particular school, post office or other important building.

These gems include stories about the community, the landscape and the people who built it (your ancestors).   Often they have pictures too.  You’ll be delighted to find a clipping about your Great-Uncle John and Great-Aunt Irene’s 25^th wedding anniversary, which will of-course include names of several of the guests.

Looking through local history books can help you narrow down names and places to start a more comprehensive search.   It will also help you put children with parents, step parents and so on.  Take a big notebook and remember to jot down not only names, but dates of events, addresses (or regions) and occupations.

Check out the Neighbours: The further back you go in your own family history, the smaller the population was.  That’s important.  You also have to put the era you are researching into perspective.  If your great-grandparents were born in the early 1900′s, there’s a good chance they didn’t travel by car.  It also means social gatherings of your ancestors were limited to church on Sundays, and the nearest neighbours.

This small social network is why you’ll likely discover that many families had several marriage couplings.  Don’t be surprised if your great-grandparents lived a few houses down from each other.  You’ll probably find that their siblings also married each other.  When the group is small, you have no choice but to court within that group.

Getting to know the neighbourhood your ancestors lived in will help you narrow down the search.  The names of people who lived next door will show up on census reports and so forth, so if you stumble across a name in your tree, knowing the neighbours helps authenticate your ancestor.

Learn the Traditions: In some European countries, it was customary that the first born son uses his mother’s maiden name as his middle name.  This can really help isolate a branch on the tree.  Women’s names are not always listed with maiden names, but if you see an birth record as John Wellington Smith, son of Thomas and Anne Smith, there’s a good chance Anne’s maiden name was Wellington.  (Hint:  is there a family of Wellington’s close by?)

You will also discover things like generation names.  John’s first son was Thomas, whose first son was John, whose first son was Thomas and so on.  That’s why you see the same name, in the same region but with different birth dates.  It’s part of the family tradition, and also part of your ancestry.

Get Used to Poor Penmanship: The further back you go, the more handwritten documents you’ll find.  It’s really only the current generation that has nicely typed, computerized records.  In previous decades, everything was done by hand.

You will come across census reports that are difficult to read, or may have spelling errors.  Just because you see Smith spelt Smyth or Smithe, doesn’t necessarily mean your ancestor had a name change or spelling change.  It’s likely just how the census taker or registrant thought it spelt.

While Smith is a fairly easy one to figure out, you might see a name like Bestward interpreted as Basdward, Bessword or any number of variations.  Again, this is when knowing the neighbours of your ancestors comes in handy.

Getting started on your family tree is the toughest part, as you navigate through census records, birth and baptism records, death notices and ships passenger lists.  You hit road blocks and dead ends.  You find names you’ve never heard of, and sometimes the same name for 6 different people.  Frustrating?  Yes.  But it’s also rewarding, and gives you a legacy to share with each new generation that becomes part of your own family tree.