Genealogy Software - Good Idea or Not?

When I first started researching my genealogy in 1983, there was no Internet so to speak – at least outside of the military and some higher education sectors. People did not have personal computers in their home. The first home PCs were introduced in about 1985 and cost about $3,000. My “software” consisted of several yellow legal tablets. My research was conducted largely by traveling to LDS Family History Centers and scrolling through microfilm on microfilm readers. If I encountered something on microfilm that I wanted, I had to request for the film to be sent from Utah and return to the Center a few weeks later to view it. If, after viewing the actual record I wanted a copy of it, I paid a nominal fee for a copy.

This was my routine for many years, and as a result, I have binder after binder, folder after folder, of my research. Because I was fortunate enough to still have living elders at the time, I spoke with most of them, took notes and created even more paper to be filed. I traveled to libraries in different cities, buried myself in whatever books were available on genealogy in Virginia and took lots of notes. When I traveled to different cities on business, I would always check out the telephone book (remember those?) to see how many listings there were for my surname. (I have a fairly uncommon surname.) Sometimes, I would even call these people to see if I could establish a connection to my Virginian ancestors.

 Because I worked in the technology industry in academe, I became an early user of the Internet and computers – at work. PCs were still uncommon in the home and there were no genealogy software programs. As the Internet develop and spread, so did software programs. In about 1995, FamilyTreeMaker was introduced and I was an early adoptee of the program. Finally, a way to store all the data I had been collecting for so many years! I used it as a standalone program because home Internet access was not widely available. It was still wonderful, however, to be able to enter information directly into a computer instead of writing down tediously all the information I gathered. This is especially important because paper deteriorates over the years as do photographs. Digital media lasts a lot longer than paper. In 2014, as we all know, the Internet has fully blossomed as has genealogy software. Most people have high access Internet in their homes and FamilyTreeMaker software now has a direct tie-in to ancestry.com and the two work together seamlessly. Personal scanners are now comparatively inexpensive and portable, making it quite easy to scan photos received from family and other sources.

You might be wondering what all this has to do with the title of this blog post? I’ve discovered only recently that it seems many people are relying on a website to both work on and to store, their genealogy. This, in my humble opinions is A VERY BAD IDEA for several reasons. First, many people do not read the Terms of Agreement when they join a website. They are so anxious to get started, they quickly click the Agreement without thoroughly reading it. Put simply, you agree to Ancestry.com having a license to YOUR work product. By using their site, you enter into a contract with them. Ancestry.com and FamilyTreeMaker have, like many companies, undergone changes in ownership over the years. New owners can, and usually do, bring new rules. I am not comfortable at all with having all my eggs in one basket so to speak. If your genealogy is ONLY store on some company’s website (servers) and if that company, folds or goes bankrupt, all of your research might well be lost. Alternatively, a new company may increase their subscription fees substantially and you may no longer wish to subscribe to the site. What happens to “your” work product then? Is it held hostage? Does the license you entered into mean you cannot simply remove everything from their service? Secondly, though Internet availability is widespread, there will be times when it is not avail to you.

What then, if a website is the only place where you work on your genealogy? Further, websites encounter downtime for any number of reasons. Recently, ancestry.com was hit by a Denial of Service attack. This attack effectively shut down their site for almost an entire week. Users who totally relied on that site sat around twiddling their fingers, unable to do any research. This type of attack, while unfortunate, is not unheard of in the world of the Internet.

While writing this blog post, I checked the prices on most of the popular genealogy programs. None that I found are more than $50, with most costing closer to $35. Using a genealogy program ensures that your data, your work product, is always available to you, whether you have Internet connectivity or not, whether a website is down or not.

I also always advise fellow genealogists to store a backup of their genealogy file (Gedcom) elsewhere. Store it on an external hard drive or subscribe to a cloud service and store it there. Just don’t let your hard drive be the only depository of your family file.

Blessings, 


T

Kidnapping the ancestors of others from the Internet

A friend, and fellow genealogist, has discussed many times what she calls "people who kidnapped my ancestors." I guess I should explain. There are many researching their genealogy online, hopefully novice genealogists, but I fear not always, who, upon seeing a familiar name, will add the information to their family tree. These people do not verify that the family(ies) belong in their tree. They just see a familiar name and add the person, and their kin, to their family tree.

This has also happened to me a few times. A few years ago, when searching on ancestry.com, I happened upon one of my ancestors in the tree of another researcher. When I clicked on the person's tree, I saw all of my information in that person's tree. I then noticed a lot of other names of people I knew were not related to my ancestors, many of them German. When I contacted the owner of the tree, she informed me that "she was helping a friend get started on her family tree." She saw a familiar name and simply added that name (and all the people connected to my ancestor) to her friend's tree.

Verify, verify, verify! Document, document, document! We all have missing information and unintended errors in our family trees. This is compounded by people who post trees without first verifying the information is correct (to the best of their knowledge and efforts) and documenting their sources.


Blessings, 

T

The importance of vital records

Vital records can be, and usually are, a genealogist's dream. Marriage certificates and death certificates usually contain the names of parents. This can give the researcher an entirely new generation of ancestors. I should note that some states either had a period where the names of parents were not required or have never required that information. The District of Columbia, for example, has never required the parental names of either the bride or the groom. This saved me what would have been an unnecessary trip to D.C. a few years ago. Luckily for me, I first called the vital records office to determine their hours and asked about the availability of their marriage records and told the clerk my intent to recover parental names. The helpful clerk told me that the District had never required nor recorded such information.

 In the state of Pennsylvania, there was a short period at the end of the 19th century (for approximately five years), where the names of parents were not required. Following that period, they once again began requiring the parental names. Additionally, in some states, if either the bride or the groom is under 21 years of age, a parent must agree to the marriage and sign a form. This form is attached to the marriage license application itself. Another source of valuable information! Also, in many states, if either the bride or groom is divorced, a copy of the actual divorce papers are attached to the marriage license application. The information contained in it can lead to additional, valuable information.

Like marriage certificates, death certificates usually contain the names of both the father and the maiden name of the mother of the deceased person. One should note, however, that the information is only as reliable as the knowledge of the informant giving the information for the death certificate. In some cases, the information on the death certificate is complete and reliable. In yet other cases, only a first or last name is given. The death certificate will also contain the place of birth. Another added bonus of a death certificate is the informant's name. The informant is usually a relative whose name can be researched. In some cases, especially in very old death certificates, the informant may sometimes be a neighbor or close friend.

Since I began my genealogy research in 1983, my now elderly mother told me of an "Uncle Willis Basey," who in the memory of the child she was at the time, was "very old" when she was a child. My mother remembers even her grandmother, Elizabeth, calling him "Uncle" Willis. Since Elizabeth's maiden name was Pryor, I always wondered how Willis Basey was her uncle. I long wondered if perhaps Willis was a brother of Elizabeth's mother, Easter Pryor. I long ago found the marriage license of Easter and her husband Thomas Pryor. Easter's last name was Matheson and she was listed as 17 years old and a widow. So, I surmised that Easter had a first husband whose surname was Matheson. Could Easter's maiden name have been Basey? That question remained in the back of my mind for years. I should mention here that I assumed that Easter and her husband, Thomas Pryor, died in Virginia where they had lived. Several years ago, I discovered Easter, now with the last name of Carter living in Pittsburgh along with one of her daughters and the daughter's family. Further research led to the discovery that Easter died and is buried in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania now has its death indices online. Searching that, I discovered the date of death and death record file number for Easter. I sent for Easter's actual death certificate and patiently waited the 10-12 weeks to receive it. Last week, I received the death certificate in the mail. On it, were the names of Easter's mother and father, Gellis and Fannie Basey! I now know that "Uncle Willis Basey" was the brother of Easter's mother, Fannie Basey.

 As always, I caution the reader to document your sources, do not rely on your memory!

 Blessings, 


Tee

Writing Your Ancestors' Stories

It's now been 31 years since I began researching my family's genealogy. I've become quite an adept researcher during this time and genealogy has become a passion for me. Though I've long had a genealogy software program (FamilyTreeMaker) in which I've recorded all the names, dates and locations, I realized that there's something missing.

As I've talked to older family members during the years, the stories told to me by them exist largely in my memory store. One of my uncles, in addition to giving me family information, had a noted career as a musician. He has told me many stories about the places to which he traveled during his career and of the many entertainers he met and played with along the way. An older cousin has told me many stories of her visits to my great-grandmother's farm "down in the country." My mother has shared many stories of her growing up in Pittsburgh. Another relative told me stories of the "unofficial" Jim Crow in Pittsburgh. All of these stories cannot easily be recorded in genealogy software programs. Yet, these tidbits, these stories, are also part of my ancestry and I realized that these stories should be recorded, somewhere.

Our history, our ancestry, our story, is just not about the places our ancestors lived and the jobs they held. It is also about the great-grandmother who smoked a pipe, the uncle who was mentored by Count Basie, the other uncle who played with the Ike Cole Trio, the aunt with the red hair who drove the big car, another aunt who passed economically in order to find and keep a job, the grandmother, born in slavery who went on to become a successful businesswoman - and oh, so many stories. It is important for the genealogist/researcher to also record these stories so that these stories will be passed on and be told.

Whether you type these stories into your computer, write them with pen and paper or record them on a micro-cassette recorder, the important thing is to record these stories so that they live on once we, the current researcher has transitioned.

Blessings,
T

Our History Still Saddens Me

Those who know me well know that I like to discuss and write about race and ethnicity. They also know that I have been pursuing genealogy for more than 25 years now. Though I came of age at a time when, at least in my high school, there were no black history classes, I grew up with a strong knowledge and pride of my black ancestry. As I've pursued my personal genealogy over these 25 years, I also developed a knowledge of and love for history. As I've read and discovered many of the atrocities African-Americans underwent during our history in this country, I have still not become inured to what occurred. I am often amazed, but more often saddened, at the mindset of many whites in the early history of this country. One such person was Dr. Walter Plecker. Dr. Plecker was the first Registrar of Vital Statistics for the state of Virginia. Dr. Plecker was a racist, a white supremacist and a proponent of eugenics. For the uninformed, eugenics is the now discredited theory that applying the principles of genetics to improve humankind. That is the "nice" definition. Its most rigorous proponents felt that interracial relationships diluted the superior race and, therefore, should be prohibited. Sir Francis Galton, in 1904, stated "Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally." Wikipedia defines eugenics as a "social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention." See http://www.ourfounder.com/jleroy/eugenics.htm for a primer on eugenics. All of this is, of course, code language for selective breeding and a method to promote irrational fear of miscegenation.

About ten years ago, I stumbled across what I thought was an index of the marriage license of my paternal great-grandparents. I mailed the required fee to Virginia to obtain a copy of the actual license, knowing it would not only contain the dates of their marriage, but also the names of their respective parents. After an anxious two-week wait, I received the copy. As I eagerly perused the license, I realized that, rather than it being the marriage license of my forebears, it was the license of white couple with very similar names. Disappointed, I filed the license away. Several years later, I was able to obtain via inter-library loan, the actual microfilm of the marriage license. On the microfilm, I once again saw the marriage license of this same couple, but the race white was struck through and "Col." was handwritten on the license. After some research, I learned about the infamous Dr. Plecker. It seems that shortly after he was appointed Registrar, Dr. Plecker decided there were no true "Indians" left in Virginia, but rather "negroes masquerading as Indians." He then sent a directive to all of the vital records offices in Virginia warning of these negroes and directing the staff in those offices to comb vital records and "correct" the records. His memo even included a list of the negro families who were doing this. See http://www.melungeon.org/node/91 for an actual copy of Plecker's 1943 letter. In 1924, Plecker had this to say at a joint session of the Public Health Administration and Vital Statistics Section of the American Public Health Association in a speech that was published in 1925 in The American Journal of Public Health:
"When two races live together there is but one possible outcome, and that is *the amalgamation of the races. The result of this will be the elimination of the higher type, the one on which progress depends. In the mixture the lower race loses its native good qualities which may be utilized and developed in the presence of a dominant race."

"The mongrels are superior in mental power to the lower race. They are more cunning and more capable, but they lack the creative power of the higher race, and cannot sustain a lasting civilization that will rank with the best of the world."

Both my paternal and maternal great-grandmothers were Native Americans. After Plecker's racist initiative, many Native Virginians fled Virginia rather than be classified as "colored" or negro. Following Plecker's death in 1947, his successor continued Plecker's legacy. At about the same time Virginia's Racial Purity Act was passed, another act, "The Sterilization Act was passed. From 1927 to 1979, about 8,300 Virginians were sterilized involuntarily in Virginia.

From the grave, Plecker continues to harm the Native population of Virginia. In order to be a federally recognized tribe and receive certain federal benefits, a tribe must prove its continuous existence since 1900. Because of Plecker's actions and his declaration that there were no Indians left in Virginia, many Virginian tribes are fighting to this day to prove their continuous existence.

Further reading:

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2004/09/the_black_white.php
http://www.virginiavignettes.org/?p=45
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1157/is_1999_April-Sept/ai_70872606/pg_5

Random Acts of Kindness

One of the many blessings I've received since beginning my genealogy quest 25 years ago is how willing and helpful other genealogists have been to me. Most people who are pursuing their genealogy are more than willing to share information they have discovered on surnames others are also searching. There are others who take note of information on surnames that aren't in their ancestry and share this information with those who are researching those surnames.

Recently, I was contacted by a man who, after reading my query on a genealogical bulletin, recalled his encountering my surname during his research at the vital records office of Virginia. We began an e-mail correspondence and he has given me such valuable information! Through him, I discovered that one of my ancestors was possibly enslaved on Thomas Jefferson's plantation. He has also put me in touch with a historian at Monticello, Jefferson's plantation. This historian has begun to eagerly assist me with my research. I am thankful and blessed to have met both of these people.

The random acts of kindness of two strangers has enabled me to finally begin to chip away at the brick wall of 1960 that most African-American genealogists encounter. If while pursuing your genealogy you encounter information that may be helpful to others, please share that information and help another. Your tiny bit of information may be just the help that someone needs.

Blessings,
T

Genealogy Tips

• Begin your research by talking to your oldest living ancestor. If you've a grandmother, great aunt or uncle or even better great-great ancestors living, talk to them. You will be amazed at the wealth of information they have. Many can remember not only people and events from their childhood, but also remember the stories of their parents and grandparents.
  
  Don't rely on your memory, invest in a micro-cassette recorder and record their conversations. This will also become important as you provide documentation (sources) for your research. In my own case, I began talking with my father's older brother who had a wealth of family history gleaned from his hiding as a small child behind the bureau and listening to the "grown folks talking." Don't delay in talking with these elders. The years are passing fast and often, before we know it, these elders will pass away, taking with them the wealth of information stored in their memories.
  

• Approach all of your research with a non-judgmental approach and assure all those with whom you speak, that you are only attempting to document your ancestry, not to make any judgments about behavior or lack thereof. In your research you will undoubtedly encounter "illegitimate" births, "mixed" marriages and even criminal behavior. Your role is that of researcher, not judge or clergyman. Tread gingerly when these subjects arise while talking with your family. What is common and accepted today may still be considered unacceptable and even shameful to your older relatives.
  

• Invest in a good genealogy software program, such as Family Treemaker™, Roots Magic™, Ancestral Tree™, or any one of several others. I have always used Family Treemaker and feel personally it is the best that's out there. There are free programs out there, but as with most things, you get what you pay for, imo. Regardless of what software you choose, back-up your family file often. Store this backup on cd-rom or on another computer. Do not store your backup on the same computer as your program. The hard drive on my laptop computer crashed recently. Had I not backed up my family file (to another computer), more than 20 years of research would have been lost!
  

• Don't attempt to do both sides of your family (maternal and paternal) at once, keep the two separate. This is important because as your family tree grows, you will become overwhelmed attempting to manage it all. And, your mother's sister's husband's sister is not really related to your father.
  

• Document, document, document. Don't rely on your memory. If you find information from another, outside source, verify the information and document the source. Many researchers have eagerly added information obtained from someone to their family tree only to later discover the information was erroneous or in error.
  

• Allow for misspellings of names in public records such as the census. I searched for many years for my great-grandfather, knowing the surname was spelled Cottrell. When I searched for the soundex version of Cottrell, up popped Great-grandfather Granville Cottrell, spelled Granvile Cotrill in the 1870 census. In another, I found him as Granvil Cotrible.
  

• As with names, there are also errors in racial classifications in older public records. African-American ancestors may be classified as Mulatto, Colored or even White in various censuses. Caucasian ancestors are also sometimes labeled as something other than White. Native American ancestors may be listed as I for Indian, C for Colored and even B for Black. Relax, forget your assumptions and what you think you know.
  

• If you find an ancestor in one county in one census, but cannot find them in the same county in the next census, check neighboring towns and counties. In earlier times, people rarely moved far away from their home towns.
  

• In earlier times, diseases that are curable today were fatal, e.g., pneumonia, tuberculosis, influenza and others. There were periods when cholera and influenza killed thousands in one town alone. If you find a person listed in one census, but cannot find them in any others, consider that the person may have died. Check the death records for that time period.
  

• Don't think you are going to be able to do all of your research online and by talking to relatives. If you don't find a record in a census at one site, don't assume you won't find it in a census at another site. You will definitely have to travel to libraries, vital records offices and the like. Be prepared when you do. You will quickly be overwhelmed by the vast amount of information contained in these public offices. One clue will lead to another and that to even another. You'll quickly forget that the main reason you went to the library was to discover the date of your grandparents' wedding! Make lists of specific tasks, concentrate on those tasks and make plans for future trips. I spent two full days in the Library of Virginia and didn't scratch the surface of what they have.
  
  An additional note about census records. Most of the 1890 census records were destroyed or badly damaged in a fire at the Commerce Department in 1921. Only approximately 1% of the census records survived the fire. For a list of the surviving schedules, see Surviving 1890 Census Records.
  

• If you're fortunate enough to have old pictures, find out who is in the picture, the date and location of the picture and LABEL it accordingly. Your grandmother may know that the picture is of her, her cousin Jake and Aunt Mabel, but when grandmother passes away, the people in that picture will become anonymous. The same can be said of current pictures. You know everyone in the picture but will your grandchildren know 30 or 40 years from now?
  

• START WITH YOURSELF AND WORK BACKWARDS. I cannot stress that enough. I met a woman who decided to start with her great-grandmother and work forward. Her family tree consisted of two generations. Genealogy is about ANCESTRY. The first name in your genealogy software should be your name, then enter your parents' names and their parents' name and so forth.
  

• Lastly, relax and enjoy your journey. It is, indeed, a fascinating exploration!
  

• If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.