Genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in the United States. It is something that everyone from grade-schoolers to great-grandparents can do. It satisfies the urge to know about our past, and perhaps our future. Every day I see something in one of my grandchildren that reminds me of my parents or grandparents. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes not so good.

In the olden days, when people walked five miles to school after milking a dozen cows, the pace of doing genealogy was slower. We wrote a letter, and we waited for a reply. We visited libraries, and we took notes by hand because there were no copy machines. With the advent of the Internet, times have changed, but the "recipe"for doing genealogy has not. There are still steps that need to be followed.

Surname and Cousin Searching

One of the first things a genealogist does is to see if someone else has researched the family surname.

We reach out to our family and to cousins. They usually have information and documents that we do not have. If grandma had five brothers and sisters, each of those siblings probably had correspondence with relatives. They made family photos. They collected family items. Perhaps one of these items is the family bible that extends the family back three generations. Perhaps there is a biography that tells family traditions. A cousin, the descendant of one of those siblings, may be willing to share family treasures with you.

Contact all of these relatives. Ask them to help you clarify dates and fill in missing names. Ask them if they will share photos and documents.

Even the largest family has a limited number of cousins. After we contact them, we seek out additional cousins.

Before the Internet, we read queries that people placed in magazines, hoping to find a cousin who had the family history. We wrote to libraries to ask if they had a surname file that some cousin had deposited. Sometimes we found someone who was researching our family. Sometimes we found a library with a surname file that matched our family.

With the Internet, we do this same step, but it is faster, and there are more resources available.

RootsWeb allows the family historian to search for surnames in their free databases. I experimented with one of my lines, the Stariha family. I typed in the last name, "Stariha"in the search box.

Even though Stariha is an uncommon Slovenian surname, there were more than 100 "hits." These included the World War I Civilian Draft Registration Database, the Texas Birth Index, the Texas Death Index, the California Birth Index, the California Death Index, Obit Times, and the Social Security Death Index.

WorldConnect, also on RootsWeb, is a collection of family trees submitted by genealogists, had 38 matches. One of these led me to a man researching a cousin's family.

Rootsweb has a wealth of other sources for finding information about surnames. Click on the Mailing Lists link. Here, you can learn if someone has created a mailing list for your family. Mailing lists are great fun, for you find other people who are researching your surnames. One of these people may have the family Bible or a photograph of an ancestor. If not, they may offer support and advice about how to research.

Another website for finding surname information is FamilySearch.org . This is the LDS (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) website. They have been collecting information about families for generations, and they share it with all of us. When you type an ancestor's name in the Search For Your Ancestors" section, you search the International Genealogical Index (IGI), Ancestral File, and the new Pedigree Resource Files.

GenForum has a "Forum Finder" where you can search for surname message boards.  I was astonished to find a Stariha message board. It only had two entries, but both looked promising.

The USGenWeb project consists of websites for each county in the United States. Each site, hosted by volunteers, contains genealogical information for that county. Some sites have much data, while others have little. Each site does have a query section where you can post a note that you are searching a particular family. Other genealogists who are researching the same county and the same surname can then find you.

Whenever I begin work on a new family, I use a search engine to look for family websites. I like Google ( for searches. When I directed Dogpile to look for Stariha, it returned several hundred hits, including a couple of family websites. The most significant hit was a Slovenian website with the name of a Gorazd Stariha. I have no idea if he is related to me, but I immediately composed an e-mail that listed my oldest known ancestor and his family. I'’m now waiting for a reply. It will probably be in Slovenian, but I have a dictionary that will help me translate it.

Cite Sources and Analyze Information

As one races along, gathering information on the family, it is important to write down where you found the information. In the excitement of finding one fact after another, it is easy to loose track of where you were.

At the minimum, record the URL where you found information, the title, the author, and the date you downloaded the data. Web sites come and go, so look for additional contact information for the author.

It is also important to evaluate what you found. The quality of the information on the Internet varies from excellent to just plain wrong. Did the author of the web page say that Grandpa was born in 1870 and have his first child in 1880? According to the author, did Grandpa live to be 120 years old? Finding this type of improbable information makes me question the accuracy of everything on the web page.

Does it look like the author copied someone else's work? You can usually tell if they did not include documentation of their sources.

If you use information that a cousin provided to you, credit them as the source. If the cousin gave you information about living people, do not include that on a web page.

It is poor taste and an invasion of privacy to put information about family members on the web - especially if you don't ask them. A distant cousin did that to me and couldn't understand why I didn't want my birth date, my maiden name, and the maiden name of my mother on the web.

Someday you will submit information to the Web. When you do, include documentation for your facts.

Organize.

As you gather information, you will find a new challenge-to organize all this stuff.  Heaps and piles is one method, but it is hard to find anything that way. Another method is to purchase a three-ring notebook for each family. Put documents into plastic sheet protectors. Place notes and correspondence logs in the binder.

An important item in the binder is a family group chart. This chart lists the father, the mother, and all of the children of a particular family. Dates and places for birth, marriage, and death are recorded. Most family tree programs will print out family group charts, but when a person is just beginning, they usually have not selected a computer program.

There are Internet sites where you can download and print out charts. Cyndis List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet has a section for charts and supplies.

A good book for organizing is Ann Fleming's The Organized Family Historian. It's available for purchase from many booksellers and from the National Genealogical Society.

Opportunities for learning.

A good genealogist is always learning. There are a number of how-to books in stores, in libraries, and on the Internet. Desmond Walls Allen wrote one that is easy to understand and then placed the book on her Internet website. Genealogists can print out the chapters on their home computers. Go to: http://www.arkansasresearch.com/guide.html to read and to print out a copy.

The National Genealogical Society has an online "Introduction to Genealogy" course that teaches the basics. They also hold an annual "Conference in the States"usually in May or June. There are usually e over 200 classes on all aspects and levels of family history research. The tracks include: methodology (how-to), record sources, US research, family health history, international topics, and migration.

There are daily computer classes, labs, workshops, and exhibits. Computer lectures include information about Internet sites, computer database programs, computer publications, computer viruses, and more.

© 2001-2006

Connie Lenzen, CG