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.
Information gathering first step in genealogy
This story was published Dec. 12, 1999
Recently a reader asked me how to get started in genealogy. She wasn't the first, and I hope she won't be the last. As I mulled the question, I realized that in six years of writing this column, I've never written on that subject. At least I don't think I have. So here goes.
Genealogists don't begin in the beginning. We do it backward. We start with the here and now and work our way back toward the beginning, as far as we can go.
There is no one way, and each genealogist goes about the work a little differently, but basically, the first step in genealogy is to write down what you know about your family:
-- Parents' names.
-- Parents' dates of birth.
-- Place of birth for your parents.
-- Date of parents' marriage.
-- Place of parents' marriage.
-- Date of parents' deaths, if they aren't still alive.
-- Place of parents' deaths.
-- Place of burial.
Those are the bare bones, vital statistics. And they are just that. Vital. They identify people. They help us tell the difference between the two Lyle Keith Days in our family, they identify Charles Frederick Thompson, Charles Frederick Thompson and Charles Frederick Thompson in my wife's family. And they distinguish between the Terence Day of Pullman, Wash., and those Terence Days who live in Raleigh, N.C., and Denver.
They also give us clues where to look for other relatives.
Next you do the same thing for your grandparents, all four of them. Then for all eight great-grandparents.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people can't get that far, with names alone. Some don't even know the names of grandparents.
Somewhere between your parents and your great-grandparents, you will realize you need some means to organize your information. You'll also quickly discover holes. Let's deal first with holes - missing information.
Your first step in trying to fill in the blanks is to ask others in your family. Some will have data you don't. Some will have it but won't give it. Let's save that as the subject of another column.
While all aren't so lucky, I think most folks can get back 100 years or so - three or four generations - just with information in the minds of the living.
Get a notebook, something to write with and start asking questions. If family doesn't live close, pick up that marvelous invention, the telephone, and get crackin'.
Collect what you can and don't fret the rest. You can search for it later.
OK, now it's later. How do you find that missing information?
Since roughly the first of the century, births and deaths have been recorded and collected in most states. Marriage records tend to be older.
Finding these records will depend on when and where. It varies. Your local public library or nearest genealogy society should be able to help you find out where to find these records. Ask for The Handybook for Genealogists.
It's published by Everton Publishers. The Handybook, as most genealogists refer to it, tells when each state began collecting these records and tells whether to write the county courthouse or the state archives.
Once you get back 70 years, you have access to U.S. Census records, which are an invaluable source of information. These censuses have been conducted every 10 years since 1790. You can access any of these on microfilm up through the 1920 census. Censuses since 1920 are confidential.
This is how you get started. At some point you will need to know more, much more, but this will do for now.
So how do you organize all the information you're gathering?
That will be the subject of my next column. Sorry to keep you waiting, but you can get started collecting information in the meantime.