Starting your Genealogy

who·what·when·where·why

Bill McKeeman 2015

Goal

An interesting story of your family (more than begats)

Personal Note

At age 50 I knew almost nothing about my father, who had been divorced from my mother and was gone by the time I was 6 months old. My family would not talk about him. But … I also had a file-box full of hand-me-down family documents and pictures. As they say at Canaveral: “We have liftoff!”

Quick tour of my ancestors

Cowles Doubleday Birchard

How to get there … … from where you are now.

• Family sources • Internet • Libraries • Footwork

Family Sources

Your Living Family Members • Collect names, events, stories, pictures, documents, legacy

genealogies…

• …from yourself, your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, in-laws, out-laws, children, grandchildren… ancestors and descendants

• Record what you hear; label what you collect, including the source.

• Do it now!

Full Names

• Surname, given names, maiden names, nicknames, titles

• People often have more than one name • Examples:

– William Marshall “Winky” Hand – Lt. William McKeeman, USN – Dr. William Marshall “Bill” McKeeman – Dorie-ann Rockefeller – Dorie-ann “Dorie” Rockefeller McKeeman

• Use a consistent naming convention for files – Birth Name (born-died), e.g.

• Hand, William Marshall (1934-?)

Events

• who, what, when, where, why – Every little clue matters when digging through a confusing history.

• Birth – Names, where, when, doctor, hospital

• Baptism – Where, when, church, clergy, witnesses

• Marriage – Names, where, when, witness, officiating, church

• Death – Names, where, when, why, burial

Stories

Everyone has stories. We tell them all the time. The genealogist says “record them.” Here are some titles taken from my story page:

• Pearl Harbor (I remember it well…)

• Midshipmen to the Glacier

• Snow Takeoff

• Incident over New York

• Wang Institute Graduation 1988

• Teaching in India

• Genealogy Can Be Dangerous

Pictures

1874

Credibility

• There is a lot of inaccurate data out there – Rumors and oral traditions are part of the “take”

– Families embellish traditions

– Families hide some details (race, adoption, illegitimacy, rape, incest)

– Illegible handwriting & carving, poor spellers, bad copy

– Given names reused generation after generation

• Document your sources – You will forget where you found/heard it

– Others can verify your results

NEHGS survey about family secrets. 4,428 people took the survey. More than one answer could be selected. The results are:

• 9%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about me, my siblings, or my first cousins.

• 21%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about my parents or their siblings.

• 39%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about my grandparents or their siblings.

• 32%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about my great-grandparents or their siblings.

• 18%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about my great-great grandparents or their siblings.

• 22%, Yes, I have uncovered at least one family secret about an earlier ancestor or the sibling of an earlier ancestor.

• 11%, I am currently on the trail of a family secret and working to verify it.

• 23%, No, I have not uncovered any family secrets during the course of my genealogical research.

Internet

Google Have you ever googled yourself?

Google Have you ever googled a relative?

FamilySearch.org

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Free access to all

– Large online data base

– Enormous microfilm data base

– Research Center in Salt Lake City

– Branch centers all over the world

Ancestry.com

• Commercial site

• $300/year

• Easy to use

• p.s. Ancestry.com would like your DNA

My immediate family tree (using Ancestry.com)

gg grandparents

FindAGrave.com

• Commercial site

• Volunteer-run

• Burials

• Cremation/scattering

Newspapers.com

• Commercial site – Obituaries

– Letters to the Editor

– Public notices

– Famous relatives

Libraries

Books

Other Public Sources

http://www.genealogytoday.com/surname/finder.mv?Surname=McKeeman

http://www.americanancestors.org/browse/publications

/the-weekly-genealogist

http://www.familytreenow.com/

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/20/8445187/immigrants-history-poor

The American Genealogical Biographical Index (AGBI)

census, church records, legal records, wills and probate, military, etc. etc.

Difficult Case

My great-grandmother, Mariette Meserve Hartshorn was born in Gorham NH in 1835.

I knew nothing of Mariette’s parents. So, lacking alternatives, I went to Gorham, ending up in the Weeks Library in Lancaster. A long-departed librarian had filed a handwritten note about Mariette’s mother’s gravestone.

Abiah Whitcher Meserve died two years after Mariette was born (probably in childbirth). The family immediately left NH.

Headstone Inscription

In memory of Abiah,

wife of Joseph Meserve,

who died 30 Mar 1837,

age 32 years, 8 months, 26 days.

The marriage of Abiah Whitcher and Joseph Meserve Jr. “Abiah” sounds like “Byer”.

Found on microfilm in the LDS Family Research Center, Salt Lake City 2012

Marriage of E.D. Hartshorn

to Mariette Meserve

1852

(there is a branch research center in Nashua)

Presenting your Genealogy

• Roll your own (I did) – Maybe just paper in a file box – Computer files and HTML – Self publish https://www.createspace.com – http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publishing-using-Microsoft-Word-

McKeeman/dp/1479161

• Use a web service – http://ancestry.mycanvas.com – and many more … some with continuing cost

• Buy software (read customer reviews first) – http://www.shopfamilytree.com/rootsmagic-version-4 – http://www.novadevelopment.com/software/family-tree-maker

Preserving your Genealogy

• Who takes care of it when you are gone? – Perpetual problem for genealogists

– Physical objects (bibles, letters, possessions)

– Computer files

• Another (younger) family member?

• A library? (you need a famous ancestor)

• Another genealogist?

Results

I have traced my ancestors back to Europe. Some lines go back to the 1400s.

I found connections to the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest, the Moravian Brotherhood, and even the Germanic Saxons that were invited to England around 300 AD to help the Angles fend off the Scots and the Picts.

Fellow genealogists say that I am blessed to have “strong lines.”

Summary

• Find out what your family members know.

• There is a lot of publicly available information

– Internet

– Libraries

– Boots-on-the-ground

• Finding your roots is hard work.

• I found it worth the effort.

Discussion &

Questions