Family History Genealogy Research

About Me and Genealogy Research

 

Pictured is my great-great uncle, Clifford Richardson, my spitting image.

 

Some years ago, I gave my wife genealogy software for Christmas in hopes that she would take the time to put together some information about our families so we would have something to hand down to our children.  It didn't work.  So I started using the software instead.  Thousands of hours later, our family tree includes over 18,000 names, going back to 1385 and spanning 22 generations.   I had the added benefit of inheriting my aunt's work - over 50 years of effort - as well as my father-in-law's research into my wife's family.  In addition to many papers, I inherited a significant library specializing in New England and the Great Migration.

 

I would encourage anyone who has the time and the inclination to do their own research.  There is a cost.  At a minimum, you will need genealogy software ($30-100) and online subscriptions ($20-50+/month).  And you will need time and patience.  Time can be a big constraint.  I have sometimes spent hours tracking down a woman's maiden name (note that if I am doing research for you, I will not spent large amounts of time on a single fact unless you give me the OK).  One of the biggest mistakes beginners make involves a lack of patience.  When you find a family tree with your great-grandfather and 5 generations beyond that (none of which you have), there is a great temptation to just copy all those generations over to your tree.  But most online family trees are poorly sourced and have many errors.  I have seen the same bad data repeated over and over in many family trees - a sure sign that people are just copying data willy-nilly.  And once your tree is infected with bad data, it can be very difficult to clean it up.  It is best to take the time to minimize bad data in the first place.

 

With experience comes the ability to track down facts more quickly, connect seemingly unrelated facts and to use judgment and common sense to disregard unreliable information.  A source that has someone born in Massachusetts prior to the Mayflower is clearly not to be trusted.  Sometimes many searches with slight variations will be required to track down a particular fact. Or browsing through newspaper article after newspaper article.  Yet occasionally you can strike pure gold just doing general web searches and checking link after link. 

 

I've included the image of another great-great uncle of mine, David C. Camp, killed in action near Greenville, NC in 1863.  In addition to finding this photograph, I found photographs of his mother with two sisters and his wife - all from a website of the 1st North Carolina Cavalry.  The photograph of his wife is the only evidence I have found that he was even married!  In addition, a separate web search found a description of the action in which he was killed.  Subsequent searches of newspaper articles found several tributes to my uncle and to another Confederate soldier killed in the skirmish.  Being a bit of a Civil War buff, this kind of information is wonderful to have.

 

Of course, generally we look for the low hanging fruit first.  We try to fill in names first along with whatever dates we can find.  Sometimes that is all we are seeking - the bare bones.  But even then, we may stumble across additional information, so why not include it?  Obituaries often contain the parents names and that may be why we searched for obituaries.  But they may contain information about many other relatives as well, to say nothing about such tid-bits as occupation, church membership and civic involvement.  Once you have found the information there is no reason not to include it.  Similarly, we may look at the 1880 census to confirm that John Smith Jr is the son of John and Mary Smith.   But since the census includes John Jr's siblings, we might as well include them even if that was not the original plan.

 

Just how much detail you wish to go into is up to you.  If I am working with you we will determine what kind of detail you are interested in and I will follow those guidelines as closely as I can - though I will always include any extra info if I happen to stumble across it.  And of course, those guidelines can be changed over time.  One of the advantages of doing your own research is that you can change your guidelines on the fly or on a whim.

 

One reason I love doing genealogical research and the reason that I call my business 'Family History' is that I love what you might call social history - learning about how people lived in various times and places.  You observe the change in family size over time and between farm vs town families.  You can see the shift from an agrarian society towards manufacturing and the professions. You see when divorce began to creep into the picture.  You notice the tendency of widows and widowers first to re-marry, later to live with children and finally to live on their own.

 

If you are interested in learning more about your family history, give some thought to tackling it on your own.  But if you need some help, whether it is just to get started or for the long haul, contact me and let us see what we can do.