ABSTRACT: Genealogy is perhaps one of the most fascinating mysteries to solve as it is a search of one's family roots.
CONTENT: How much do you know about your family background, a lot, a little, none at all? Most people might know the very basics of their family tree-line or their "roots," such as knowing one's parents information of where they were born, their birth-dates, when they got married. One might even be able to know this same information about their grandparents. Going back further though may be a little trickier, and this is where the fascinating world of genealogy comes into play.
I was one of those people who fell in the category of not knowing all that much about my family history as neither my grandmother nor mother took any real interest. I did naturally know some of the basics, of my grandmother and mother, and could even go back to knowing some information about my maternal great-grandmother, and they had also told me some of the stories about themselves. However, when it came to my father's side of the family, I knew absolutely nothing about them as my mother and father got divorced when I was only one and a half years old.
It wasn't until I was in my college years during the 1970s that I did a very, very brief looking up into my father's line of the family. I had gone to the famous New York Public Library which boasts of an extensive Geneaolgy Room and by good fortune found a whole book about my father's side of the family. At that time, I photo-copied some of the information from the book and that was that as far as my extent of my search. It wasn't until many years later in the late 1980s through the 1990s that my interest was renewed again and once more decided to make a real effort in searching for my family roots. Unfortunately, by the time I took this real interest in the family tree, my great-grandmother had passed away many years before, so I wasn't able to ask any detailed information about her line of the family, and as mentioned my grandmother and mother had never bothered to ask about the family either. For some reason, I decided to first search more extensively on my father's side of the family, and with that miniscule information I had gathered years ago about my paternal family started on my genealogy research in earnest.
Among some of the other things I had in my possession when I had done my initial search was I fortunately had a listing of a variety of places to write to in Virginia. According to the book written about my father's side of the family, my ancestors had settled in the Loudoun County area of Virginia in 1785. I had a listing of all the major libraries in the area, historical societies, but best of all I had the address of The Loudoun County Museum, which is where I contacted first. I can't tell you how wonderful the one researcher was in giving me valuable information that expanded my knowledge of my father's ancestors, and she also pointed me the way to other places and people to contact for more information. Now I was thoroughly hooked and my research became a bona-fide obsession, so much so, that not only did I research into my father's direct line of ancestors, but I began researching into the families they had married into. I had discovered for instance, that direct ancestor had married into a family whose origins in America even predated theirs and had settled in Pennsylvania in 1689. Another ancestor was a woman who had married into my family had her roots with a father who had come from Germany during the Revolutionary War to help non other than George Washington during that war. I was to discover one ancestor had married a Wiccoccomicco Indian chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, who had participated during the French and Indian Wars.
The most fascinating thing I discovered was with my direct paternal ancestral line and how they branched out and were later to become participants in America's Civil War, which consequently gave me a newer appreciation of American History in general. One branch of the family was to remain in Virginia. A later descendent was a soldier with the 35th Virginia Calvary Regiment, and was involved with one of the most famous battles of all time, that is, Gettysburg and some months, in October of 1863, was captured sent to a prison where he was to remain until June of 1865. Two other branches of the family moved to the Ohio area around the early 1800s, and some of those descendants became soldiers for the Union side. My direct line decided to move to Missouri in 1859, only two short years before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Perhaps due to their loyalty to their Virginian roots, two brothers of my great-great-great grandfather joined up with two separate Arkansas military units, and therefore were for the Confederate "cause".
One thing I do have to point out however. I was very lucky in that at the time I was doing all this research, and writing scores of people for information, most researchers did so for free or for a very, very small fee. In most cases, all I had to do was pay for any photo-copies they provided for me of any existing documents that still existed, such as the original Indenture For Land signed by my father's "founding" ancestor on April 1, 1785. As time passed however, things were quickly changing. Many of the places that one could get genealogy information were often non-profit organizations and soon none could offer free researched information and would often point me to write to professional genealogy researchers who usually would charge a minimum of $25.00 per hour.
So how does one start their search for their family roots? With oneself. In doing a genealogy search, one works backwards, by starting with information on oneself. List your full name, including maiden name if married, your birth date, and birthplace. Then, if you know the particulars of your parents information, list the same information. If your grandparents are still alive, ask them the same detailed information, if not, ask your parents who might know this informattion. If you're lucky in that your grandparents are still alive, ask them about their parents. However, usually the further back one goes, then chances are the information will get vaguer and vaguer, and this is where you may need extra help and resources to find this information out.
There are several great information resources one can get information from, and one of the more famous of these genealogy on-line websites is Ancestry.com, however, it's not exactly free. One can do very simplistic and basic listings of one's family tree for free, provided of course, you already know it. To access Census Records, possible birth, marriage and death dates and places of ones ancestors, one will have to get on their paying program which is either annually at $12.95 a month, $16.95 a month for three months, or $19.95 monthly. Of course another route one can try, is if you know where your ancestors were born, you can look up the addresses of the historical societies, Vital Records archives, Civil Courts and libraries of where those ancestors lived. Many of these places may contain the birth, marriage and death records, but again, most will charge a fee for getting copies of these records. Another route to go, is naturally to hire a professional genealogist who will do all this work for you, and may be of particular use to you if you're dealing with very common last names, this is where it can get expensive as most will charge by the hour and one can pay a hefty fee into the hundreds.
I'm citing examples here in reference to ancestors who lived here in America, but sooner or later, one may wish to go even further back to find documented records of the origins of where your ancestors came from. Technically speaking one can find such information also at Ancestry.com, but of course, one has to know the names of one's ancestors and a general idea of where they had lived in another country. There are even specific websites one can search in relation to finding ancestors in their original country just by doing a search. Don't overlook the possibility of finding other resources, such as a simple typing in of one's ancestor's name, you might be surprised in coming up with something, as long as you know their name and general area of where they lived. Also, go to a major library. Many major well-known libraries, such as the New York Public Library have their own Genealogy Rooms, this was how I found an entire book written about my father's side of the family. Of course, one has to personally go to such sections of a library and look the information up oneself as any book you may find that was written about your particular family line would be reference only and can't be taken out.
As you can surmise, doing research into one's family background can get rather extensive, and one may become a little obsessive after awhile as was in my case, as not only did I do research of my direct line of my father's side of the family but did a search into the families they had married into. I'm still hoping to do more research on my maternal line however, and had only scratched the surface. I had to hire a professional genealogist as I was dealing with very common Irish last names of Burke, Lee and Kelly. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to achieve this goal, and also hope to do more extensive research of the countries of origins that both sides of my family came from.
Genealogy is a fascinating pastime to do, but don't expect to have the answers to your roots and of your family line to materialize overnight. It can literally take years to accomplish, maybe even almost a whole lifetime in itself, but I can't think of anything more rewarding than finding and discovering just who your ancestors were. Genealogy is like pieces of a puzzle, a mystery to solve, but instead of trying to find a hidden archaeology treasure, you are finding about your own past.
On-line Genealogy Websites:
Below is a listing of just a few Genealogy Websites one can use to do research on one's family background. Some are totally free, while others are free for basics, like Ancestry.com, but do charge for more comprehensive research. Some websites listed here are listings of genealogy sites in general
Genealogy Software Programs
Genealogy Forms One Can Download
These are sites one can download and print out genealogy forms and all are free to do:
Image Source~©MELANIE NEER~Glass photo of my great-great grandmother~circa 1860s
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