Where do I find my family tree online? That’s a common question asked. The answer is, it isn’t there yet. All reputable family tree databases protect anyone known or suspected to be still living. Those entries are purposely hidden from view. You need to personally research the first three generations before you move on to websites like Ancestry.com.
In STARTING A TREE, I prefer to give each family unit their own sheet of paper. We call this a FAMILY GROUP SHEET. It contains one Father, one mother, known children. If there is a remarriage, make another sheet and mark it second marriage. This gives you room to add notes for dates, places, where you found the information. You can take that information later and make the traditional abbreviated chart. The Family Group Sheet is used to record verbal history you remember from around the dinner table as a child, family gossip, and guesses of any kind. This allows you to evaluate reliability of the information. Example: you found names and dates on a gravestone. The information may not be perfect. Someone in the family had to supply the stone carver the information. The informer may not have had first hand information. Also, we old people, errrr… age challenged persons tend to fudge our ages a bit. The stone carver generally got paid by the letter, so cheap relatives often would only supply the year, not the full dates. If the carver made an error, too bad. On a personal note, I love to read an old newspaper obituary. They were usually dictated by a family member. Then I look for a death notice written often times a week or two earlier and compare the two. I find it wonderful trick of human nature to find that Joe Schmidt was found dead of some accident. The editor when on to add that Joe will NOT be sorely missed by those in the community effected by his drunken rages. Next week, in the obituary, Joe is exclaimed to be close to sainthood as a devoted husband.
In the next issue I will go into detail of HOW TO COLLECT ENOUGH INFORMATION FOR 3 GENERATIONS. Enough to start connecting your family to documents, and databases that are open to public research.
Ed Peck can be reached thru this newspaper and also the White River Museum on Park Ave. He available for guidance at no cost. Contributions to the museum are encouraged.
By Ed Peck
Special to the Herald Times
