Genealogy and You! A Series of Resources to Help You Find Your Past
If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. – Michael Crichton
Have you ever wanted to know where you came from? I did. My search started almost 15 years ago. Armed with only a handful of names and random family records, I set out to discover where exactly I came from. The problem was I didn't really know where to start. Sure, I knew where my Grandma Julie was from, and I knew her parents were Italian, but then what? At the time, I did what everyone else was doing; I started an Ancestry account. After going through countless census records, directories, immigration records and so on, I started to find out more about who these people were that, effectively, made me. After nearly a decade of searching, on and off, I have traced family names back to small towns across Europe, got mixed up in the DNA test craze and have connected with relatives I never knew existed around the globe. However, I am still searching for that long lost rich uncle.
Through this post I will show you several websites that are completely FREE to help you find out where you come from. As the holidays near, I will also give you a section of questions to ask family members to start building a good background of information on your family and it's history.
As stated above, Family Search has records from all over the world. You can search or browse their growing collections. And if the genealogy bug really bit you, you can also volunteer to help index projects they are currently working on. I have worked on several that I had no relation to and felt it was very helpful in building my ability to read century old records. The best part about the site is you can save records, download them and even print them...yep you know it - for free! You can also add images, or sources as they call them to your tree with no problem. Aside from records them also have a searchable book collection and if need be they have sites throughout the US to help aid you in your search.
The next valuable source is Chronicling America from the Library of Congress. The site allows you to search for any time your ancestors may have made the news. The newspapers are from across the US and range from the years 1792 through 1963. As you search here you can find out many great details about your ancestors, or perhaps a deep dark family secret.
Some of the reasons I like this database is you can search for information on people, places and events. You can search by the day, or even by concept or idea. The LoC offers a few tips and tricks here. This is a really fun database to search because you never know what you find. Personally, I found out my grandfather won a radio flyer in 1936 for selling the most subscriptions to the Hudson Dispatch!
There are two great sites for searching the histories of immigrants that entered through the Port of New York. Castle Garden has 11 million records for immigrants that entered there from 1820 to 1892. The Ellis Island database has nearly 65 million records starting from 1892 and going until 1954. On both of these sites you can learn things about your ancestors journey to America. Things like the name of the ship they travelled, the dates of arrival and how old they were at the time. Where they departed from and even who paid for their voyage.
Oh how I hate this scene from The Godfather II! One of the major myths about immigration through Ellis Island is..."They changed my family's name there!" I have some news for you, they didn't. All the records they came with the immigrants were completed in the port of departure. Are there spelling errors? Absolutely. However, officials on Ellis Island didn't change Franz to Frank or Giuseppe to Joseph, that modification happened much later. So beware, when you use the databases for Castle Garden and Ellis Island you must use ethnic specific names. Here's a personal tip from a former Ellis Island employee (me), search by last name only, and be prepared to search through many misspellings of your family names. Trust me, my surname Maring might seem like an easy name but I have found over 15 different spelling of the name during my research.
The US Gen Web Project has been proudly serving family historians for 25 years! Their collection is searchable by state and county and is maintained completely by volunteers. The USGenWeb site offers information about people, places, cemeteries, birth and death records, obituaries and so on.
Speaking of local records, how could I forget the Hudson County Genealogical Society! They have a great set of collections and databases all related to Hudson County. A truly great and undervalued genealogical asset. They host monthly events highlighting different topics related to understanding and searching genealogical records. You can also become a member to gain access to discussion boards and services offered by the society, a must when researching family in Hudson County.
The last of our my great free choices is Google Books, well even the Google search engine in general is an bountiful resource. In general, books are a great resource for doing genealogical research. Many genealogies, family history books and biographies have been cataloged and are free to search via Google. Often you will even find images and sketches of your ancestors, if you're lucky enough.
Now if you aren't lucky to find a biography about a family member, you might be able to at least find important facts about locations and eras they lived through. When doing genealogy work, you can never have too much information.
Still looking for more sites, or something more specific? Check out The National Genealogical Society. On their resource page they have 18 sites, some of which we discussed above, that can aid you in your search.
What do you do if theses sites do not yield any information? Should you give up? No! Now let me be the first to congratulate you on become your family's official historian. Being the family historian, it is time for you to start recording family histories, memories, stories and so on. But how or where do you even start? Family History Daily came up with "100 Questions Every Family Historian Should Ask Their Relatives." You might be thinking, is he crazy? How can I sit down with all these people and ask them each 100 questions. Well, there is a printable sheet you can send out to each family member, trust me they'll love it. The questionnaire actually makes me think of the great genealogy quote, "Genealogy: Where you confuse the dead and irritate the living."
The questions are as simple as name, place of birth, occupation and so on. But they they get interesting, like were you named after someone, what do you remember about your great grandparents and many other personal questions, that in my experience people love to answer. Will all 100 of these questions help you find your 8th great grandparent, probably not, but it will set a foundation for any and all research to come in the future.
Too many times when working with people searching for their past there is always a moment when this phrase comes out, "I should have asked more questions." It something most people attempting genealogical research will have to face, we didn't ask grandma or grandpa enough about their youth. But these 100 questions are a way to get family members to preserve your history now. It still may not be a complete story, but its a better chuck of it then you had at the start of your research. You can use all 100 questions or narrow it down, or at least let people know they don't have to answer all of them and that any information can help.
A lot of people often ask me about the DNA Testing and I say, go for it. I have done both the 23andMe and Ancestry DNA Tests. Personally, I think they are a lot of fun and if you do not want to put the time into researching this is a solid option. You won't find records or names of ancestors attached to anything, but you will get a breakdown of ethnic backgrounds, some even very surprising. You will also be shocked to see how man distant cousins you have out there, usually sharing a 4th great grandparent somewhere. Both sites offer their own version of a family tree based on the DNA results and map showing estimated origins and locations of family members in their system. The other good thing about these test is if you are in the market for them now you can probably get a good deal on them
And lastly, and certainly the most handsome resource I have to offer, myself (at least that's what my wife thinks). I have been a history nerd my whole life, worked in the field of genealogy for several years and now hold my act 5 periods a day in North Bergen High School and monthly with the North Bergen Historical Society. If you ever have any questions about family research, or need assistance looking for records of information do not hesitate to reach out to be through The North Bergen Historical Society's Facebook Page.
So as the holidays draw near, and family gatherings start up, get everyone involved with your search, it's their story too. Good luck with your searching and happy hunting. Your part of a much larger story, make sure you are aware of the chapters that came before you, so the chapters that come after you makes sense.
Other useful links:
For-profit genealogy company. Databases include Find a Grave, RootsWeb, a free genealogy community, and Newspapers.com.
Free online repository with a section dedicated to genealogical research.
Online database of cemetery records (over 152 million burial records and 75 million photos).
Online repository, formerly known as Footnote, focusing on military records; owned by Ancestry.com
Aggregated search system and genealogy databases.
This site contains tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets, and numerous other applications. Some of these tools fetch data from other websites but do so in more versatile ways than the search tools provided on those websites.
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