Genealogy Tutorial
Uncovering Family History and Sharpening Research Skills through Genealogy
by Betsy Butler
Wondering about the story behind a grandfather's prized diary, the occasion prompting an aunt to receive her favorite childhood doll, or the date of a distant cousin's birthday can lead curious students to become intrepid researchers of their family histories.
Genealogy, the study of the history of a family, has become one of the most popular hobbies in the United States. To learn about a family history, researchers start with the present and work backward, verifying individual pieces of information before trying to locate additional facts. Along the way, they can discover details about time periods, ethnic customs, and religious practices that help them place their family's lives in a meaningful historical context.
Tracing family roots
Carefully recording the full names (including given names, surnames and nicknames), birth dates and places of birth, and wedding dates and places for immediate family members is a valuable first step for the beginning genealogist to take. Often, this information can be discovered through copies of birth certificates and other family records kept at home. Informal conversations with family members can also provide these details.
Many genealogists record these family facts on a diagram called an ancestor chart. Resembling a family tree, this generational diagram illustrates generations of a family. In as complete detail as possible, researchers record vital information about themselves, their parents, and their grandparents, using maiden names for female relatives. To see an example of an ancestor chart, click on the link under Resources.
To track more detailed information about everyone on an ancestor chart, genealogists prepare family group sheets. To create a family group sheet, start with one sheet for each married couple on an ancestor chart. Then fill in vital statistics and other details about each husband, wife, and child in the spaces provided. To see an example of a family group sheet, click on the link under Resources.
Conducting oral histories
To fill in gaps on ancestral charts and family group sheets, genealogists interview relatives. Obtaining these oral histories can lead to some fascinating conversations with family members.
To begin conducting an oral history, make a list of relatives or close family friends to speak with either by telephone, in person, or by mail or e-mail. Think about what you want to talk about with each person, then write out a list of questions to guide your conversation. These questions can range from capturing or verifying basic details like dates and places of major life events to recording stories about what relatives were like as children and what it was like to grow up during a particular time in history. Letting people know the types of questions you'll be asking ahead of time can help them recall things better.
Beginning an oral history interview can be as simple as asking a relative to show you old photographs or other family memorabilia. Having people talk about what is happening in the pictures or explain the objects they have collected can also help them remember stories to share.
When interviewing people, record the name of the person being interviewed, as well as the date and location of the interview. Since it's often difficult to write down essential information when someone is speaking, recording personal interviews on audio or video tapes can also be helpful.
Remember that some of the answers obtained through oral histories may be wrong. People can forget names, places and dates, so verify the information you obtain in vital records, a family Bible, or church records.
Finding original sources at home
Organizing family closets and browsing through family memorabilia can often yield real treasures to a genealogist. Family Bibles often contain information about family marriages, births, deaths, and other events such as baptisms and confirmations. Letters and postcards are often filled with family stories. Even the postmark on the envelope or postcard can provide important clues about when it was written and where it was mailed.
Photo albums help match names with faces. Labeled pictures may provide clues to names, dates and places. If pictures aren't labeled, looking at clothing, hairstyles, cars, the appearance of familiar landmarks, and other details can provide clues about the date the picture was taken.
Favorite clothes or outfits worn on special occasions, baby books, diaries, passports, report cards, toys, ticket stubs and event programs personalize vital information for genealogists, also provide an important context to a family's history.
Extending the search for information
When you're ready to take your genealogical research beyond your immediate family in order to complete ancestor charts, set simple goals. The information you need might be in sources held by libraries, archives, and government offices.
To discover and verify family information, genealogists turn to other types of sources, including:
- Vital records, including birth, marriage, and death certificates.
- Probate records, such as wills, adoptions and guardianships.
- Military records provide key information about ancestors, including the color of their eyes. To request veterans' records for wars fought between 1776 through 1918, contact the National Archives. For veterans' records from subsequent wars, contact the National Military Personnel Records Center. Only the soldier or a member of a deceased soldier's family may obtain records for these more current wars.
- Passenger arrival records are available from the National Archives. The Passenger and Immigration Lists Index (Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1981) is a guide to published arrival records of approximately 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
- Naturalization records are available from the National Archives, one of its regional branches, or the county courthouse where the naturalization took place.
- City directories are helpful for when you know the city in which an ancestor lived, but not the address. Published annually, these directories list each inhabitant by name, as well as that person's address and occupation. They also provide a listing of businesses in a community.
- Land records are documents relating to the buying and selling of land. For example, deeds are the record made of the transfer of property from one person to another.
- Court records offer legal material consisting of divorces and civil and criminal cases.
- Church records include information about baptisms, marriages, burial records, and school reports.
- Burial records. Cemeteries can provide the location of an ancestor?s grave and information contained in tombstone inscriptions. When visiting a cemetery to collect these details, take pictures or draw sketches of the tombstone and any designs on it. The shape, size and decoration of the stone may have had a special meaning to an ancestor or provide details about his or her life.
- Maps. Often used as clues to where ancestral records can be found, maps reveal changing place names and boundaries of political jurisdictions. For example, more than 40,000 Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Ohio towns and cities, created by the Sanborn Insurance Company from 1876 to 1970, identify individual buildings on each block. Detailed information on the maps includes a given building's height and street address.
- Magazines and newspapers provide the news of the day and record details about styles and practices of certain eras. Additionally, they can include birth, death, and marriage announcements; news articles about family members; professional notices and business advertisements; public notices and sales; personal advertisements for lost and found items, places for rent or sale, and help-wanted ads. Libraries have back copies of periodicals or magazines and previous issues of newspapers that may be available on microfilm.
Additionally, some libraries maintain scrapbooks or indexes of local events or people, vertical files containing information about local individuals and happenings, and local history collections.
Census records
Federal and state census records are the best genealogical sources to use in a library. A census is a count of the population either in a state or in the entire United States. Federal censuses have been taken every ten years since 1790; state census are taken during the years between federal censuses to determine how many representatives in state legislatures each state voting district is entitled to have.
In the 1790 census, only heads of families were listed by their full names, along with their occupation. Wives, other women, children, boarders, servants and slaves were entered as part of the household. However, from 1850 on, more information was taken in the census, such as the names of all household members, their exact ages and places of birth, and their occupations. While full names, dates and places of birth, and occupations are some of the facts a census record can uncover, remember that they can be inaccurate.
Since many censuses are indexed by county, it's important to know the county in which your ancestor lived in the year the census was taken. Knowing township information can also be helpful. Therefore, to investigate a census record, know the census year, the address at which your ancestor was living at the time, and the surname of your ancestor.
Since the federal government considers census records confidential, census records are only available through the 1930 census. Questions about obtaining federal census information should be directed to the National Archives and Records Administration or any of its regional branches located around the country. For information about census records after 1930, request an Application for Search of Census Records (Form BC-600) from the Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce.
Additional sources of information
Since the Salt Lake City, Utah-based Mormon Church has the largest collection of genealogical materials in the world, branch genealogical libraries of the Mormon Church are other valuable resources in genealogical research. Church resources include a database of ancestral files created by both church and non-church members; an international genealogical index listing birth, christening and marriage information; a military index of individuals who died in the Korean and Vietnam Wars from 1950 to 1975; and the Social Security Death Index, including an individual's date of birth, the state where the social security card was issued, and the person's place of residence at time of death. To find the name of the branch library nearest you, look in your local telephone directory under Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or contact the Genealogical Society of Utah, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150; (801-538-2978); http://www.gensocietyofutah.org/
Research tips
Store genealogy research in file folders or notebooks, dividing information by surname. Because it is very important to record the sources consulted during research, write down the location of the information every time you contact someone or look at a document.
It's also essential to copy down everything completely. Then, record that information on family group sheets soon after discovering it. Once you have recorded your information, make a new checklist of things you need to find or verify so you will always know where you are in your research. Creating such a log can help you plan an efficient research strategy.
Photocopy all written and printed materials and make new sets of family photographs in case the originals are lost. It's also a good idea to print off a hard copy of what's on your computer.
After you discover information about your family, share it with others. For example, you can:
- Create a family newsletter that you can e-mail or send to your relatives. Invite them to add to it.
- Write your own family history
- For oral histories you may have recorded, play a few minutes of them at an upcoming family gathering
- Draw your own family tree for an art project or special present
- Put together scrapbooks of family memorabilia, such as photographs, postcards, and ticket stubs
- Make a calendar of family birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, and other important family events.
Additional Resources
Books
Croom, Emily Anne. Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy. 4th edition. Cincinnati, OH: Betterway Books, 2001.
Doane, Gilbert H. and Bell, James B. Searching for Your Ancestors: The How and Why of Genealogy. 6th edition. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Greenwood, Val D. The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy. 3rd edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2000.
Guide to Genealogical Research in the National Archives of the United States. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2000.
The Handy Book for Genealogists. Logan, UT: The Everton Publishers, Inc.
Sperry, Kip. Genealogical Research in Ohio. 2nd edition. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub., 2003.
Other sources of information
- Ancestry.com
This site provides free access to the Social Security Death Index. Access to other searchable databases is available for a fee. - Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
This site links over 21,000 genealogical Internet sites that are organized by category and cross-referenced. - FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service
Sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints', this site provides access to an extensive collection of genealogical records. - Heritage Quest
A subscription database, Heritage Quest is available to Columbus Metropolitan Library cardholders through the library's Electronic Resources page. More than 7.5 million pages from genealogical resources, such as Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, tax roles, cemetery lists, military rosters, court, and census records, are included in this comprehensive database. Current holdings of 25,000 published genealogies and local histories, dating from the 1600's to the present, are frequently supplemented with new titles. - National Archives (NARA)
Pennsylvania Avenue at 8th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20408
(800) 788-6282
NARA offers a free publication called Aids for Genealogical Research. - National Center for Health Statistics, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides information about where to write for vital records in each state.
- National Genealogical Society
4527 17th Street North
Arlington, Virginia 22207-2399
(703) 525-0050 or (800) 473-0060 - National Military Personnel Records Center
9700 Page Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63132 - Ohio Genealogical Society
713 S. Main Street
Mansfield, OH 44907-1644
(419) 756-7294 - The Ohio Historical Society's Ohio Death Certificate Index
A searchable database indexes Death Certificates of persons that died in Ohio between 1913 and 1937. Information found through this index is useful not only for determining date of death and certificate number, but also for obtaining a copy of the actual death certificate. - United States GenWeb
This site offers information about genealogical resources within the United States.
The Ohio Historical Society, the Ohio Genealogical Society, the Franklin County Genealogical
and Historical Society and the Columbus Metropolitan Library jointly offer periodic workshops designed to introduce family history researchers to genealogy resources. Topics covered in these fee-based workshops include understanding the probate process; immigration, passenger lists, and naturalization; oral history and lineage documentation; and exploring genealogy with the Internet. For more information, call (614) 297-2510.
Resources
- Ancestral Chart
- Family Group Record Worksheet
- Genealogy Lesson Plan
- OHS Archives-Library Genealogical Resources
