Live from Cincinnati!

Online Chat With David Rencher

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998
1-2 p.m. EDT

Welcome to a Web chat with David Rencher, the president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. He is attending a national conference with family-history experts this week and is joining us now to answer your questions about tracing family roots and finding long-lost contacts.

This real-time event will last for approximately one hour.

Send your questions by clicking on the Submit Question hyperlink.

Arlington, VA: I can trace my family back as far as my grandmother, who was
a native american cherokee indian...however back in the 1800s the trail of tears walk
more than half of all native cherokee indian moved to the state (Oklahoma) and the remaining in the eastern half
of the US. How can I find out were my family is from OK or North Carolina reservation?

David Rencher: The records for the "five civilized tribes" .. Cherokee ... and other tribes that participated in the Trail of Tears are at the Natl Archives and Records admin (NORA) facility at Fort Worth Texas.

Chappaqua, New York: Interested in any information regarding the migration of the Emiliani family from Italy to Colombia, and subsequently to Panama City, Panama

David Rencher: I'm going to guess this happened after 1900 ... The Ellis Island foundation is currently working on the passenger lists coming into the NY ports ... indexing them ... into an Ellis Island database ... and the other possibilities for you to look ... are naturalization and passport records.

Silver Spring Md: Where would the average African American (descendant of slaves) look to begin in his search for ancestry?

David Rencher: Well, you always begin with family and home sources. African Americans will be listed in the same records as Anglos until 1870 ... read property, deed and slave records prior to the civil war.

Springfield: What information is "required" when submitting requests for county records? A check of my siblings birth certificates show different birth dates for our father, there is a question about the date of our parents marriage and no one knows the place. How do we start?

David Rencher: Birth records are held by the county .. they may have been transferred to the state ... depending on the date of the birth. You can file a correction if you have evidence that the birth date is indeed different. As for the marriage question, even today, marriage licenses are filed by county. Write to the county clerk.

Springfield, VA: Many people tell me that the internet is a great place to find information on family ancesters. But I have yet to find any useful information. What are some good sites to use or the best key words for use with a search engine?

David Rencher: Cyndi's list ... has over 29000 genealogically related sites. Find it at search engine by typing Cyndi's List. Another is ancestry.com; they have a free newsletter.

Washington, DC: Are you able to trace the roots of African Americans back to their individual tribes or nationalities in east and west Africa? If so, where are your sources of information?

David Rencher: Sorry, I' haven't done research back to Africa. I trace descendents in this country. There are African American genealogical societies. Contact those by e-mailing the Federation office ... e-mail fgs-office@fgs.org.

Washington, DC: Do you have any info on Blacks during the Civil War?

Are there any military records available for the time periods when the ones were destroyed during the 1800's?

David Rencher: The natl Park Service on its website has an alphabetical index of more than 200,000 black solders who served in the Civil War. keyword for browser is cwss... it's an online searchable database

Herndon, Va: Both of my maternal grandparents immigrated to the United States (Pennsylvania) from Chechosylvakia around 1920. My grandfather worked in the Western Pennsylvania coal mines. Both grandparents are deceased I have basic information, where should I begin my research?

David Rencher: Research begins in county records where they settled. Do you know the town overseas where they came from? You may not be able to find info until the 1930 census .. which will be released April 1, 2002. Census records are held for 72 years to protect privacy.

Portland, Maine: My mother Honora (Nora) McDermott came to America from Ireland (England) in 1927 to Portland on a ship called SS Canada (I'm not sure what country the ship is registered in.) I don't know what month. Is there any way I can get a copy of the passenger lists for 1927?

David Rencher: 1927 is late enough ... that the Canadian archives may have the pasenger list. Also, civil registration of birth, marriage and death on a nationwide basis began in Ireland in 1864.

Washington, DC: I am from Statesville, NC both parents are dead. I have one brother who hasn't been in touch for year and know very little about my background how do I find my roots?

David Rencher: I wish I knew more. I have found three sisters that I had lost touch with since my birth. It is possible. There are nationwide phonedex are at the Library of Congress.

Also check social security death index online at ancestry.com

Washington, D.C.: My last name is Whigham. My family came over from England three or four generations ago. There is a town in Georgia called Whigham and I wondered how we were related to that town.

David Rencher: In England sirnames were taken from localities, so you could be Whigham by being from Whigham England. In the US it was the reverse. Towns were named after individuals. any good public library has books on English sirnames ... where you can learn more.

Reston, VA: What is the best way to start
in your search of your family
tree? How do you find someone
to do this and what information do you need to provide them.

David Rencher: If you want to hire an genealogist, they can write to the family history library
35 nw temple
salt lake city utah
84150
and ask for a copy of their brochurd on how to hire a genealogist. it's free.

Washingtonpost.com's Jude Doherty: We are roughly half-way through this live online discussion with genealogist David Rencher at the annual FGS conference in Cincinnati.

Send your questions by clicking on the Submit Question hyperlink.

port orchard wa: I understand that a search can be done by the State Dept that can yield a passport photo picture of immigrants from the early 1900s from eastern european countries. I requested a form to have this done. It asks for the home village of emigration. I have not been able to locate the exact village my grandparents came from in what is now Slovakia. Would a record search be fruitless without the village.

David Rencher: no you should send off the search by answering the other items on the form. marian smith of the ins gives good lec tures on this ... e-mail fgs-office@fgs.org and request taped lecture info if you'd like

So. Hero, Vt.: Did Mayflower passenger Degory Priest have any known descendants?

David Rencher: i have no idea, sorry.

Bethesda, Md.: Many cultures often keep family records. Koreans, for instance, have a designated person who will record the names of new family members in a book, with which one can look back many generations. Do you see a surge in interest from Americans wanting to trace their family roots? Why?

David Rencher: we're seeing a lot of interest from baby boomers .. a study for American Demographics magazine, dec 95, said that 113 million americans are intereted in tracing family history and at least 20 million are actively involved. Others are intereted for genetic reasons ... inherited diseases ...and dysfunctional families ... and single family households.

Boston, MA: What's the best way to trace the roots of a Jewish family whose members arrived in the US at the turn of the century from Russia/Poland?

David Rencher: There is an organization called Avotaynu, the Jewish community is one of the best organized in the US for tracing Jewish roots. They have a Website. BTW, a lot of the recommendations I'm making involve people who are at the Cincinnati conference with me, so give them a few days to repsond.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana: My grandmother's grandfather (1830's) was a "preacher". Is there a list of clergy? He lived in the south.

David Rencher: Depends on the religion. there are historical societies for every major religion. Write to the state historical society and ask them for their lists of ordained minsiters.

Lorton, VA: I'm interesting in my father's family. I know his paternal grandfather came from Scotland and his maternal grandfather came from Belfast (Protestant part) Northern Ireland. Where do I start?

David Rencher: It helps to know when they're born. There is an index to all of the Scottish Church records for christenings and marriages prior to 1855 availabe fromn the Scottish Archives ... post 1855 there is a nationwide index for Scotland from the Scottish record office.

Belfast has a complete census from 1901 .. if they were still living there then.

You may have to use a city directory to find an address for Belfast.

San Francisco, California: I'm looking for the history of my family, but I believe our name was channged two generations back from Francois to Frank. How should I go about researching the name and should I look under the new or old name?

David Rencher: Contact a family history center to help you you get some resources. Call 801-240-2331 to learn the location of a center near you.

Bethesda, MD:
How does one go about research ing Irish heritage here in the U.S. - I've heard most of the information in Ireland was lost during the "troubles". Is that correct.

David Rencher: No it's not correct. the records that were destroyed were national records deposited in the public record office in Dublin. Those were destroyed by fire in 1922 . It did not effect all of the Catholic or Presbyterian church records, all of the records held by the counties, by private institutions or companies .

Potomac, Maryland: Are there any good books that list german immigrants leaving from the ports of Hamburg or Bremen that you could recommend. Also, is there a book in german or english that lists immigrants from the Duchy of Nassau?

David Rencher: There is a series of published passenger lists (books) onGermans to America ... contact the Library of Congress or the DAR Library in Washington DC ... they can give you more info on the series.

Charlottesville, VA: When you run into a deadend, i.e., the courthouse in North Carolina that housed the family records burned in the 1800s, where do you go next? Can you go anywhere else to get that information?

David Rencher: The answer to this is long but there are lectures that are given on burned courthouse resarch .. where the instructors give you a variety of alternatives. Email fgs-office@fgs.org for info on these lectures.

dayton, ohio: when might census records be available online? I find very little "hard" data on the web and usually find other folks who can help as opposed to factual data. SSDI is about the only info I have found which has been helpful.

David Rencher: I don't know when census records will go oneline but the 1880 census containing 50 million entries will be available from the Salt Lake family history library early this year or next .. and will be on compact disk.

New Mexico: As far as I know my family has lived in the New Mexico area for approximataely 8-10 generations. I've tried to speak to the elders in my family to trace my roots to either Mexico, Spain or tribes originating in Northern New Mexico (Comanche), however no one in my family will speak. The reason being they live a very old fashioned way of life in which they don't speak about past relatives, etc. I've tried to start a geneology chart using the Internet, however sources for immigrants (if that's what my ancestors are) from Spain and/or Mexico are not documented. Can you suggest additional ways to track my heritage other than speaking with relatives?

David Rencher: Contact the local News Mexico genealogical society in Albequerque(sp?). I bet they've dealt with this type of situation before.

Greenbelt, MD: Might it be possible to trace an Irish relative of the Civil War through the net?

David Rencher: It would be hard to do on the 'net cause the net is good for communicating but nor for research data. Best bet is library and archives.

lansing,mi: I would like to find copies of my grandparents birth certificates. Both were born in Ireland and came to Boston in the1990's. I traveled to Ireland last summer, but was unable to locate the records since I did not have the dates of birth or exact locations. How could I locate their records. I need the birth records to apply for an Irish pasport. Thank You. Mike Mullen.

David Rencher: You need the year ... you need an idea of the county ... not impossible but sounds like a tedious search.

baltimore, md: Is there a list of all concentration camp inmates for the extermination camps in Poland?

David Rencher: Contact the National Institute for Research on Jewish Holocaust Victims thru the Red Cross. Stephen Mandell is the director. The office in Baltimore.

Washingtonpost.com's Jude Doherty: We're out of time now … so let's bring this online chat to a close. David Rencher, president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, has joined us from his group's annual conference in Cincinnati. Thanks to all for participating. There were many questions we couldn't get to ... so contact the corrrespondence unit at the the Family Library in Salt Lake City Utah. Their address is listed above ... we gave it out in the course of today's Web chat.

Tomorrow at noon, come back for "Tell Me About It" - Live! Every Friday Washington Post staff writer Carolyn Hax offers advice to the under-30 crowd. See you then.

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