Families... And So On:
Geneaology Online
With Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 31, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT
Join Post Metro reporter Jacqui Salmon and Elizabeth Powell Crowe, author of "Genealogy Online." Searching for your roots? Talk about easy ways to start researching your family's history online. Crowe takes questions and offers which Web sites, ancestry-related networks and other services are available on the Internet and the most helpful in tracing your
family tree.
Families...and So On, hosted by Washington Post families reporter Jacqueline L. Salmon, is a free-ranging and freewheeling look at the American family. This is the place to talk about the burning issues facing the 21st century family.
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Jacqui Salmon:
Welcome Elizabeth. How much difference has the Internet made for people who are researching their family history?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: It has opened the world to them! Not only giving access to people researching the same family names, but also to more and more original document materials.
Norwalk, CT:
A friend tells me that experienced genealogists don't really trust the Internet because it's so easy to post inaccurate or fraudulent information. How much verification on information that I get over the Internet should I verify with other sources?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: It's just as easy to print inaccurate, erroneous and just plain bad information in a book. You judge what's online just as you judge what's in a published genealogy:
Who wrote it?
How long ago?
Are the sources cited, or at least in the case of an online genealogy, does the author offer to share sources in exchange for more information?
Most important: Does it jive with what you already know?
Jacqui Salmon:
Where should people who are just starting off in researching their family history, begin? Do you find that newbie genealogists jump on the Internet too quickly?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: RootsWeb.org and FamilySearch.org are two good places for the beginner. They have lots of "how-to" files for you to get started. Also, check out the National Genealogical Society at www.ngsgenealogy.org. They have a set of documents called "standards" for researching, sharing, publishing and storing your information. Follow these standards and you'll be doing good genealogy.
Pilot Point, Tx:
What are some of the most helpful Internet sites? I've just started, and there are so many Web sites out there that I feel lost.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: There are an embarrasment of riches out there!
These are the five sites I tell most new comers to begin with:
DearMYRTLE.com: A daily genealogy columnist with tips, news and how-tos.
RootsWeb.org: A cooperative, free site with articles, message forums and mail lists, transcribed records and USGENWEB and WORLDGENWEB. These last two are web of sites for specific places: Counties in the US and Canada; and sites for many countries around the world.
FamilySearch.org: The Mormon genealogy research site.
Cyndi's List.com: A list of nearly 100,000 genealogy sites, some very specific, some very general.
GenealogyForum.com: AOL's genealogy forum in Web form. Not all of AOL's proprietary content is here, but a lot of the articles and advice are!
Jacqui Salmon:
Hi, everyone. I'm here with Elizabeth Powell Crowe talking about genealogy. As you probably know, interest in genealogy has exploded in recent years. Researching family history has become a part-time, or even full-time, hobby for many people
Helping to spark that interest is the Internet, which makes it infinitely easier to find a sorts of information on ancestors. In fact, as Elizabeth notes in her book, the number of genealogy-related Web pages in recent years has gone from a handful to thousands.
Hoboken, N.J.:
I am new to geneology research. How difficult is it to track European ancestors?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: That depends on the country. Some parts of France and Germany, of course, lost many records in WWII. Ireland and the U. K. still have very good records. Of course any records in Europe will be in those languages.
Check out www.worldgenweb.org. and look for the country you need. Also, check out FamilySearch.org and look in the Research Guides for the country you are researching. These have information on vital records, who keeps them, and genealogy words in that language.
Fairfax, Va.:
As a woman of Western European Jewish descent, I've never had much hope of tracing my roots - much of my family and their records were destroyed in WWII, and those that came over (all pre-WWI)undoubtedly had their names changed or mangled at Ellis Island. Any tips for people like me who'd like to find any reliable lines through their foggy family history?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: I think the place to start is
www.jewishgenweb.org
This is the sort of clearing house place for world-wide Jewish genealogy. The discussion lists, articles and files posted there may be of help.
Also, don't forget Temple records. Though not so official as government records, they can be a help.
Jacqui Salmon:
How helpful has the new Web site on Ellis Island immigrants been. My husband used it and within a minute found a record of his great, great grandfather's entrance to the U.S.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: The Ellis Island site has been a real boon. Most folks I know that have searched it have had quick, and very useful, results.
Very soon, they are going to add a scrapbook function on the Web. When you find your ancestor, you will be able to scan in pictures and documents, and type in stories about that person, for other researchers to see. The program is now up and running at the Ellis Island Museum, but it is not on the Web quite yet. The EI folks tell me they hope to have it up within a few weeks. You will, however, have to become a Sustaining Member of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation to use this function on-line. A one-year membership is $45.00.
Jacqui Salmon:
You know, I must confess that I always thought of researching family ancestors as a hobby more for retired folk, instead of people like me. Indeed, in my family, my mother and stepfather have done much of work in uncovering my mother's family history.
But is researching family history something that doesn't HAVE to be so time-consuming?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Well, my mother did it for years with four kids, a husband, a house, a dog, and a cat to care for!
But it does grab hold of you. It's like taking part in a mystery story, only the mystery is your own history, which tends to make it, well, almost addicting!
Jacqui Salmon:
Send in your questions NOW for Elizabeth to avoid the "1:45 pm. rush" of queries.
Lockport, N.Y.:
What can you do if you hit a dead-end? I've tried Ellis Island web site for my father's side of the family, but it doesn't go back far enough to help me?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: We all hit brick walls, and sometimes they last for years. All of the five sites I mentioned above have articles on getting around brick walls.
The short answer is: get creative. Look for secondary sources when the primary ones don't seem to be there. Look for newspaper stories, diaries, wills, even letters that might mention your ancestor. Court records where he might be a witness. Deeds, tax rolls, even bankruptcy court!
Jacqui Salmon:
I recently wrote a story on the rising interest in family scrapbooks (the paper kind). What are some of the best ways to find family photos? I'm assuming from older relatives, but are their other methods that people can explore?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Usually family sources are the best, but haunt second-hand stores, flea markets, etc. where you think the ancestor might have lived. You may find a team picture, or school year book!
Ann Arbor, Mich.:
What do you think of these new web sites from Ellis Island and familyhistory.org?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: They are wonderful!
See the answer above!
Alexandria, Va:
Is the Mormon Church a place to turn to for this information? Can you get their info. online?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Yes, qualified, and yes, qualified.
Most of the Mormon Church stuff is SECONDARY material; something submitted, and believed to be true, but not the original records. I'm talking here about the International Genealogical Index and Ancestry File.
Other materials at Family History Centers and the FamilySearch site are microfilms or transcriptions of PRIMARY source material: The real records, recorded at the time.
The online site gives you access to many of these records; other times you'll find the material is held in Salt Lake City, and for the cost of postage and handling, you can have it sent to your local Family History Center for you to look at for a couple of weeks; in other words, you can get it on loan, like your local library.
Jacqui Salmon:
Elizabeth, how did you get interested in genealogy yourself?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: I had no choice, I learned it at my mother's knee!
When my grandfather Spencer died in 1963, Mother found three family Bibles up in the attic. They took the family back to the war of 1812. She was hooked: She had to know more. I was about 8 at the time, and pretty soon the whole family was caught up in this. Daddy wrote her first genealogy database for her in DBase I; we all took a camping trip to McPherson, Kansas to track down one ancestor.
Jacqui Salmon:
We have a fascinating family mystery in my family. After my mother's father died, she discovered that several years after moving to Canada from his English hometown, he abruptly cut off contact with his family (his parents and siblings) in England. He even changed his name. His family searched for him for years and as late as the 1970s tracked him down to his home in Toronto, Canada, but he declined to re-establish contact with them and never told his wife or children that his English family had been looking for him.
Elizabeth, my mother's family have no idea why he cut himself off from his family of origin. My mother found his family in England, and relatives gave her loving letters that my grandfather had written to his mother in the years before he suddenly stopped communication with him.
It's this mystery that has really fueled my mother's research. As she grew older, she became more curious about her family past, and she's done some invaluable work.
What is it about genealogy that seems to be provoking so much passion these days? Is it because so much more information is available because of the Internet and the fact that the Mormons and Ellis Island have done so much to help people to find their ancestors by posting massive data bases on the 'Net?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: I think it's that we are all looking for connectedness. A favorite saying among genealogists is, "I want to know where I came from; it helps me decide where I'm going."
Also, mysteries such as these are so fascinating. I found out my grandmother named my mother after her first love's mom....the one she wasn't allowed to marry. Things like that make your ancestors so real.
Finally, when you realize that major events and movements in history had a direct impact on your ancestors, it becomes clear that the whole sweep of history is all about YOU! ;-D
Arlington, Va. :
Are there any online sources for global genealogy research?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Yes:
http://www.worldgenweb.org
Jacqui Salmon:
OK, let me get real basic here...what's a "genealogy data base?" You mentioned that your father had written one for your mother.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: The standard format for a genealogy data base, a collection of all your names, dates, places, facts and sources, is now the GEDCOM. But this was before the standard GEDCOM was established, and my dad, a real, live rocket scientist for NASA, created a linked data base so she could see what she already had and what still needed to be done.
Washington, D.C.:
How accurate is the information that you get from the Internet? Do you have to find secondary sources to prove that the information that you find is valid?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: You always have to prove secondary information, whether it's from a book or from the Internet. There's an answer up near the top of the page with some of this info....also I cover this in my book ;-D
Jacqui Salmon:
You mentioned something about a local "Family History Center." Tell us more about them. What are they, and where are they located?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Many local parishes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or LDS) have a Family History Center. Sometimes it's one room with one computer and a few reference books; others are more elaborate. At any of them, though, you can search the card catalog for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and find materials to have sent to your local FHC for you to study: Microfilm rolls, books, transcribed documents, etc. etc. Usually you only have to pay the shipping and handling costs.
I have a whole chapter in my book on how to use FHCs and FamilySearch, the online LDS research site.
You can find a local FHC near you in the phone book (Look for Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or LDS) or at the FamilySearch.org site.
Jacqui Salmon:
Just a brief pause right now, folks. Elizabeth's looking up a book title she wants to give you.
Jacqui Salmon:
Are there people who do "medical" family genealogies? In other words, do some people go hunting for ancestors as a way to discover whether certain diseases or biological traits are common on their family?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Yes! A very interesting example is the group called Melungeons, common to Appalachia. These people are descended from Native Americans, Africans, Mediterraneans and North Europeans. The term was considered disparaging and Melungeons were often ostracized. Many people do not know they have this heritage until they come up with rare, inherited diseases.
A good site: http://www.melungeonhealth.org/ Melungeon Health
Also see Dr. N. Brent Kennedy's book: The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People
Arlington, VA:
Thanks for taking my question--what kind of information can you get from old census records? Where do you have to go to get this information?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: What information is available depends on the year of the Census. The 1900 census, for example, recorded the birth place of each person; many before that did not.
First go to your local library, or the regional NARA branch (you have one very near you) and look for census INDEXES to see if you can find out exactly which census date, place and page you need. Then you can order a copy for a nominal fee, usually.
Census sites:
Go to WWW.NARA.GOV/Genealogy for a discussion of what's available and what copies cost.
Go to the five sites I mentioned above and search for "census".
Finally, for a fee, www.genealogy.com and www.ancestry.com have scanned in some census records; but this is an ongoing process and the exact page you need may not be online yet. Search the sites for your ancestor, and see if any of the hits have the census. Then you can decide if you want to pay for the access.
Towson, Maryland:
What software do you recommend for use? My search has been in abeyance for the last 8 or 9 years. And my database is the old Personal Ancestor File from the Mormans. So many of the new software packages come with searchable discs, but I already know they are not of much use to me. (My family was in the Tennessee and Kentucky hills by the end of the 18th century.) I'm not much interested in paying for all those discs.
Also, if I had anything to offer newbies - Document your failures as well as your successes. I didn't and I would end up going back a couple of years later to a document I had already searched unsuccessfully.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: First, there's a new PAF available and it is LIGHT YEARS ahead of the version from 8 or 9 years ago! Go to the FamilySearch.org site; click on Order/Download products, click on Software Products, and you'll see a link to PAF.
What genealogy program to use is like what car to drive? What do you want to spend? What are your needs and habits? How far do you want to go?
I suggest reading Genealogical Computing magazine from Ancestry.com for reviews; look at RootsWeb.com for reviews and discussions; and test drive as many as you can. We have a local Computers In Genealogy group here in Huntsville that has a montly Show and Tell for software.
Your point on documentation is very astute! Document everything, ESPECIALLY those sources that weren't any use. Keeps you from reinventing the wheel.
Arlington, Va.:
What improvements do you think needs to be made by online geneaology resources? Are there any sites that are funded by the government?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: More of them!
The Bureau of Land Management has a searchable database of their records; the Library of Congress has many searchable databases, for example the Oral Histories collected during the Depression; the Library of Virginia (funded by that state's government) has a searchable database of scanned historical documents. Those are just some examples of what's online now. But we are losing records to fire, flood, mildew and just plain running out of room, every single year. We need more of it digitized and posted online.
Bowie, MD:
Hi:
I recently started researching my husband's family (largely because his 94-year-old grandmother is around to help me). Her memory on the names and dates are pretty good, but the records at the Ellis Island site are a MESS! Her father's last name is recorded as "Ostrofsky" while his mother's name is recorded as "Ostrowska" and the name the family used once in this country is "Ostrosky." Any idea why there's so much variation in how names got recorded?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Was it Mark Twain who said, "I pity a man who can spell a word only one way"--?
The workers at Ellis Island put down what they thought they heard. The language barrier went both ways.
After you search for any variation of the spelling, look at the top of the results. You can choose exact matches, close matches, alternative spellings, or ALL records (anything remotely close).
Also, if you know the name of the ship, search on the ship, then look down the manifest to see if you can find your ancestor.
Alexandria, Va.:
I'm only 28 and have been doing genealogy for over 4 years. I tend to use the internet for leads and then try to follow up and confirm with primary data sources. I have found the internet especially useful in keeping tough with relatives who are out of state and in meeting people who are researching similar lines. The only problems I see are those that try to exploit other people's work.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: This is very true; we have made many friends just from finding people searching the same lines, but other people just demand you hand over 30 years of research because they asked you to.
Jacqui Salmon:
How far back have you been able to go in researching your own family history? In fact, what is the longest family genealogy you've ever seen?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Well, in the Powell line we are stuck in the early 19th Century, looking for the parents of William Reason Powell. Apparently his parents were very poor and very honest, because they don't appear in any court, government, tax or census records we can find...yet!
In the Spencer line, we are stuck at 1792. We know Abraham Spencer was born then, but we do not know his parents. If we could prove his parents, we're pretty sure we'd be back to the 5 Spencer brother who came to Boston in the 1600's.
Jacqui Salmon:
What about African-Americans' genealogy? Friends tell me that it can be enormously frustrating because many of them hit a brick wall when they get to the mid 18th century because slave records are so incomplete or non-existent.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Yes, you have to go to wills, letters, and court records that note agreements of leasing slaves for clues.
The place to start for Afican American genealogy is
http://www.afrigeneas.com
Vienna, Va.:
Elizabeth, what if your descendants were Asian or Latino? How do you go about researching them if they did not come in from Ellis Island? Where can I start?
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Both of these questions are covered in my book. Quick links:
Chinese Roots
www.chineseroots.com
and
Genealogy Resources on the Internet: Latino
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cgaunt/chicano.html
Rockville, MD:
Through my mother's hard work we are now able to track one line of our family history back more that 1,000 years.
Her break came when she was able to link the family to one of the early settlers in St. Mary's Co., MD. From there things led to members of the British nobility of the time which led back to William the Conqueror and his ancestors from the European continent. Fascinating stuff.
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: Once you get back to England, Ireland and Scotland, it's usually possible, through church records and government recrods, to get back to 1066. How wonderful!
Chantilly, Va.:
I just took a look at the Ellis Island Web Site, www.ellisisland.org.
What a resource! I entered my mother's unusual maiden name into the passenger database search engine and in seconds got 40 names!
Elizabeth Powell Crowe: It is a wonderful resource!
Jacqui Salmon:
And that's all we have time for today. Thanks to Elizabeth for giving us so much valuable information on finding our family backgrounds. "Families...and so on" is off next week. Join us Aug. 14 for the start of a series on back-to-school.
Jacqui Salmon:
That was our last question today. Thanks to everyone who joined the
discussion.
Stay tuned to Live Online:
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