The Family Tree
By Terence L. Day
Terence L. Day, genealogist and journalist, is on the Washington State University faculty. He welcomes e-mail at genealogy@moscow.com, or regular mail in care of the Tri-City Herald City newsroom, P.O. Box 2608, Tri-Cities, WA 99302-2608.
Booklet a big help in getting started on family research
This story was published Aug. 2, 1998
Recently, my nephew, Keith Day, called from his home in Utah. He's been bitten by the genealogy bug and wanted to know how to get birth records for his great-grandparents who were born in Sebastian County, Ark. They probably were born late in the last century, or early in this century.
Keith already had begun where all beginning family searchers should start. He had been asking aunts and other family members what they knew about family origins and was writing down information and leads that need to be explored.
In calling me, Keith wanted to know how to take the next step in genealogical research, searching vital records.
I referred Keith to The Handybook for Genealogists, by Everton Publishers. It's a standard reference found in most genealogical libraries, including every Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I've ever visited.
Handybook is a basic and extremely valuable resource for beginners and professionals alike.
The book is broken down by states, giving a brief history of each, with attention to details important to genealogists. Things like when the state was created, from what territory, and where vital records are stored, what periods they cover, etc. For instance, Handybook reports that Arkansas territory was created in 1819 and included present-day Oklahoma until June 15, 1836. This is important for people doing research on people who lived in present-day Oklahoma prior to that date because their records would be in Arkansas, not in Oklahoma.
Birth and death records from 1914 are available from the Division of Vital Records, Arkansas Department of Health. The office has marriage records from 1917 and divorce records from 1921.
Some vital records are duplicated. For instance, marriage records are available at both the state office and in county offices. Records prior to these dates are available in the relevant county.
So, I looked up Sebastian County for Keith. It was formed in 1851 out of Scott, Polk, Crawford and Van Buren counties. That means some records for what now is Sebastian County will be found in those other counties if they were filed prior to 1851.
This won't be of immediate concern to Keith.
What will be of interest to him is the fact the Sebastian County Clerk's office has marriage records beginning in 1865, probate court records from 1866. Divorce and some other records are in the Sebastian Circuit Court office.
Handybook gives mailing addresses to contact each of the offices listed in its 326 pages of data. It also lists telephone numbers for state offices, but not for counties. Researchers are encouraged to call for quotes of the cost of copying records. It doesn't print these charges because they change too quickly.
Genealogists almost always have to research in several states. So far, my family research has involved Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Virginia, and England. It will take me to Ireland if we ever identify the ancestor who took the long boat ride.
Some lucky folks have ancestors who stayed put, living and dying in the same community generation upon generation. But most of us, particularly we Westerners, descend from ancestors who had a bit of wanderlust in their bones and sinews.
For this, I suppose we should be grateful, for it gives us greater opportunity to learn geography.
At the end of this column is an invitation for readers to write me in care of this newspaper, or to e-mail me. Recently I discovered that I haven't been reading some of the e-mail messages. The reason is I receive more than 100 e-mail messages a day, many of them from various topical lists to which I subscribe via the Internet.
And, no, I don't read them all.
Each day I skim the list of incoming messages and open those that sound interesting to me. Putting "genealogy" on the subject line is certain to doom your message to the electronic trash box, unopened.
Readers who e-mail me need to put something on the subject line that will catch my eye. "Genealogy Column" should do it. "Hey, Terry" would be a lead-pipe cinch.
My apologies to anyone who has e-mailed me and not received a response. My practice is to respond to every e-mail generated by my column. I am interested in your questions, comments and suggestions.
If you send me e-mail and don't receive a response within 10 days or a couple of weeks (I do travel and sometimes get terribly busy), send me a reminder. One of the beauties of e-mail is messages are free.