Beware the Generic Family History
You may be tempted by the allure of various advertisements that promise a family history of your name in America with origins of the surname, coat of arms, and every individual in the United States with your name, or other ads touting books with information about your forebears and why they immigrated to the New World. Don't be misled. It is not your family history, or anyone else's family history. These publications are usually nothing more than paragraphs of general information that could...
Contact and Interview Living Relatives
Following the suggested pattern of research, interviews were conducted with all the grandchildren who were living when this research was undertaken in the 1960s. They were exhaustively interviewed about their recollections, and each scoured his or her own collection of family material. A handwritten paper was found in Anson's son Marsena's hand, stating that Father went ahead out west, to grow up with the country, and he bought a farm, 200 acres, one half mile from Ft. Atkinson and built a...
Why the Effort
With all the entertainment available, why would you want to spend your time writing letters, talking to relatives, and visiting libraries and cemeteries A definitive answer defies all who attempt to explain. A sense of identity is foremost for many. Those who believe their family was too ordinary or too poor to be interesting are amazed to realize the sense of value they place on their family and heritage after delving into the family background. The tales of hardship, of endurance, will...
NGSQ System
The NGSQ System is based on the Register system, but assigns an Arabic numeral to each child. A mark in front of the Arabic numeral designates whether the child is carried forward. As seen in the figure below, the readily identifies the sections that hold further details. Those sections are preceded by the Arabic numeral assigned to that individual, in larger bold typeface if using a computer . The modified Register System, known as NGSQ System. 1. John1 Smith was born 3 April 1788, etc. Known...
Descendant Charts
Other charts are useful for genealogy research. You will more often use descendant charts later in your research. These charts start with an individual and list that person's descendants. Because descendant charts begin with a progenitor, you must do some research to find the progenitors in your lines. Descendant charts include all the descendants of the progenitor, or as many as can be identified. A progenitor is an ancestor in a direct line. When genealogists refer to a progenitor, they...
Cracking the Code
Federal indexing for the 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 censuses is based on a phonetic system called the Soundex or a similar one called Miracode . It was devised to overcome the vagaries of spelling by grouping together surnames that sound alike, but are spelled differently. In the Soundex, Bream, Breem, or Briem will be found in indexes under B650 Wier, Weer, Wiere, and Ware would be W600. The 1880 census was Soundexed only for households having children under the age of ten. These children were...
Spell It Correctly ZIP It Right
When you send a letter, you are eager for a response. It is disappointing to have the letter returned in a few weeks because you misspelled the street name or inserted the wrong street address. Recheck the address. If in doubt, your library may have a telephone book with the address to which you're writing so you can verify it. You can also check one of the CD-ROMs that show addresses for residences and businesses, or even a mailing list on one of the on-line computer services that provides...
Pedigree or Family Tree Charts
The chart you begin with is a pedigree chart, an ascendant chart. On it you start with yourself and work back in time, generation by generation, filling in your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, as far back as you can. starts with you and shows the line of your direct ancestors. It is sometimes called a family tree, lineage, or ancestry chart. Think of the pedigree chart as a shorthand master outline of your bloodline. A quick glance at it alerts you to the blank spots in...
Latin for Genealogists
Legal documents and court records are full of Latin terms that need defining. It is important for you to know that when an index lists a name followed by et al, there are other names connected with this document in addition to the name that is indexed or that et uxor or et ux. means and wife. The best source for legal terms is a law dictionary. Consult Black's Law Dictionary, whenever you encounter legal terms you do not understand. A common phrase may have variant meanings. Meeting house could...
Using Computer Programs for Genealogy Record Keeping
If you have a computer, consider using a computer genealogy program to manage your genealogy information. These programs give you great flexibility in compiling and analyzing your research, as well as making it easier to share data. After entering the data into the computer once, you can arrange it in many ways. All the programs use a family group sheet format to keep track of your information, and all print pedigree charts. The differences in genealogy programs lie in the amount of information...
You Can Read It But What Does It Mean
The terminology that baffles you may be complex legal phrases or obsolete clauses. It could just be a peculiarity in the writing of the individual who created the record. Working with the official documents of a specific place and time, you will learn the terminology and recognize standardized words or sentences that aren't important to the interpretation of the document. But when you begin, if you transcribe the complete document as suggested, including all words and punctuation , it won't...
Family Group Sheets and Sources
Each fact on the family group sheet must be linked to a full source citation. If all the information came from the same source, the family group sheet notation might read All information on this family from 1860 U.S. Census, Population Schedule, Noble County, Indiana, Perry Township, Ligonier, page 105, dwelling 84, family 84. As your research progresses, your information on the family will come from several sources. The same information may be in two or more documents. For example, the birth...
Large or Small They Chart Your Family
Blank pedigree charts accommodating 4 to 15 generations can be purchased. The four-generation pedigree chart is the most convenient to work with in your day-to-day research. The more generations on the chart, the less room there is for data about individuals. Some decorative pedigree charts are suitable for framing. They can be fan shaped with the lines radiating out from you at the center. Some are in the form of a tree with limbs and branches representing family lines. Still others have...