Katherine Pennavaria - Genealogy for Beginners

Genealogy for Beginners

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

To Rosemary Long Meszaros, my good friend and WKU colleague. Couldnt have done it without you, comrade. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

I owe the following my sincerest thanks:

• My colleagues in the library at Western Kentucky University, especially Michael Franklin and Morgan Moran at the Visual and Performing Arts Library, for listening and for multiple assists while I worked on this book; Rosemary Meszaros, to whom this book is dedicated, for comradely collaborating over many years, for legal citation and government records expertise, and for reading my drafts; and Brian Coutts, former WKU Libraries department head, for always encouraging me to think big.

• The genealogists Ive spoken with at conferences and presentations, for their never-ending enthusiasm about the process.

• The staff at the Bowling Green Kentucky Family History Center, for the microfilms and other research help, especially Carol Ann Stott (deceased), Gail Jackson Miller, Frances Naegel, Loretta Hook, Dorothy Campbell, Linda MacDonald, Bill Copas, Jim Steen, Leland Stott, and John Cullen (deceased).

• The volunteers all over the world whose hours of dedicated effort over many years has turned difficult-to-access genealogical records into online gold.

• Robin Rae Harris, editor of Kentucky Libraries, and the rest of the editorial staff, for steady support and for liking my genealogy column idea.

• M. Sandra Wood, former series editor for Rowman & Littlefield, for patient encouragement and sharp editing during our initial collaborations on this subject.

• Elizabeth Shown Mills, professional genealogist and author of Evidence Explained, for corrections and suggestions on an earlier version of this book.

• Linda Ehrsam Voigts, former University of MissouriKansas City graduate advisor, for showing me how to be a researcher.

• Cynthia Cornell, former DePauw University undergraduate advisor, for inspiring me all those years ago.

• My entire family, especially my dad, Russell James Pennavaria, and my son, Adam Russell Pennavaria. I know its TMI sometimes, guys.

• And finally, Donna McKay Kasznel, my partner, for being wonderful and for always believing in me.

Every day in America, someone makes the big decision to start researching his or her family history. Perhaps its long been on the to do list, or maybe watching Who Do You Think You Are? got the project going. Are you one of those people? If so, welcome to the fascinating world of family history research!

Commercials for Ancestry.com indicate that the process of genealogy is fairly simple; you just plug in what you know, and the database does the rest. Well, those ads might sell subscriptions, but they are rather misleading. Getting beyond the low-hanging fruit is not easy; collecting original records, analyzing them, and reaching accurate conclusions requires time, organization, and informed research.

Fortunately, help exists. With dedication and a modest outlay of time, money, and effort, you can succeed in building something beyond what you already know. The history you piece together will form part of the legacy you leave to your immediate and extended family.

Not all beginning genealogists have the same goals. Perhaps you want to track your direct ancestry going back several generations, or maybe you want to focus on capturing the lives and stories of people currently living and the preceding generation. Some people are determined to track down every person connected to their family, no matter how remote. Whatever your goals (and they will change), think beyond merely compiling a tree; the real goal is to conduct historical research according to the best genealogy research standards. As you look for and collect records, try to think like a historian rather than a hobbyist; aim for creating an evidence-based history of the various families you research. And dont give up when the going gets tough. The work you do now will someday be found and appreciated by family members you most likely have never met or will never meet.

Tracing a familys history is not easy for Americans. We inhabit a melting pot culture where movement and self-reinvention have long been part of the national ethos. Except for those individuals descended entirely from native peoples of North and South America, U.S. citizens have immigrants in their ancestry who came to this land within the past five hundred years, whether those people traveled by choice or were forced to make the trip.

Every genealogy project is built on records. Records come in all shapes and sizes, but most of the ones youll need were originally on paper, most likely created by a government entity. Finding these records is part of the initial challenge, as they are not all online and some can be difficult to get to. Once you have the records, youll need to analyze and interpret them.

Conducting good genealogy research has a great deal to do with decisions you make early on; this book concentrates on those early days, especially what you need to succeed and how to make things easier for yourself. But while it is aimed at beginners, this book also contains plenty of advice for advanced family historians about resources and the research process.

It begins with an overview of genealogy as a hobby and passionate interest for millions of Americans. Youll learn how the Internet, that magical genie in our computers that has so changed our daily lives, can be credited with sparking the genealogy boom. But credit also goes in large part to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its contribution is duly noted. Chapter 1 finally lets you into the secret of family secrets and family names and describes what arrival in America was like for millions of European immigrants.