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Dalton Blackmon
Ms. Bennett
British Lit
13 September 2012
Genealogy Where It All Began
Do you ever wonder “Who am I?” “Where do I come from?” That’s the question I’ve
been asking for years, given how many blanks there are in my family history. What I plan to do
is fill in these blanks, those questions that have never been answered. My family for the past
seven months has been asking me to do research on the family, since I am the most passionate
about my family history. I will be going through the history of the study of genealogy and
modern genealogy sources, the basics to consider for research, and what I expect to find.
The study of genealogy, Greek for "generation" "knowledge", is the study of tracing of
people’s lineages and history. Using birth records, death records, marriage and divorce records,
Church records, coroner's reports, court records, civil records, criminal records, diaries, personal
letters and family bibles, medical records, military and conscription records, ect. Genealogy is
often entwined with heraldry, which is the idea of ancestors’ of royal birth which are reflected on
the family coat of arms, which only the people of higher society could have, but many believe
that these could have been fabricated. The study of genealogy in the United States can first be
traced back to the 19th century with John Farmer, 1789-1838. Tracing one’s family ancestry in
America was first done by the early colonists to try and secure a higher standing in the colonies
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under British control. John Farmer idea was to capitalize on the acceptability of antiquarianism
(person that studies antiquities) to frame the genealogy during the early years of the republic
ideals of pride in one’s American ancestors’. Farmer corresponded with other antiquarians in the
New England area, which in this area was the best concentration of the study of genealogy and
antiquities, to which Farmer contributed much to the cause in the area. During the 1820’s Farmer
and his colleagues started to produce genealogical tracts earnestly, slowly but shurly starting to
gain a devoted audience with the Americans. After Farmer’s death in 1839, because of his efforts
in the field, led to the creation of The New England Historic Genealogical Society. Along with
NEHGS the Genealogical Society of Utah was formed in 1894 in Salt Lake City, Members of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that tracing family lineage is essential
for special religious ceremonies that seal family units together for eternity. The Genealogical
Society of Utah houses over 2 million microfiche and microfilms of genealogically relevant
material, which are also available for on-site research at over 4500 Family History Centers
worldwide, it is the world’s largest database on family lines in the world.
There are many basic things that one needs to take into consideration when doing
research about one’s family. Location of ancestors’ home and life are very important elements of
research, in which it can be very confusing. Things like place names can be subjected to variant
spellings by things like literate scribes. Along with this is that a locations name may have
resembled that of another with a similar name, along with the shifts on the political borders.
Another thing to be cautious of is with dates, which are more difficult to recall years after a
certain event, and are often the easiest to mess up on than any other area of one’s research. In
which it would be best to get a source that was recorded during the time of the event. One’s
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ancestor’s occupation information would also be very important of understanding an ancestor’s
life. An ancestor’s occupation could be related to his or her social standing or social status,
migration pattern, and political interest. Especially since skilled trades were very often passed
down through generations from father to son and so on. Research regarding given name aka first
names has many problems similar to the problems from the above, like family names, place
names, and nicknames which were very common. Regarding many cultures around the world, a
person’s given name can refer to that person’s family to which they belong. Which is called
one’s family name, surname, or last name? There are also things called patronymics, which is
when a person is named after their father, grandfather, or just about any ancestor that was male,
many different cultures used this before adopting the idea of using surnames.
Finally how to research your family history though websites, books, and other
resources. The first thing you should do is contact your oldest relative, and start asking questions
about their parents or grandparents. One needs to record names, birthplaces, death places, and
any other names that pop up that they may not know too much about. One needs to try for
maiden and legal names. The next question one needs to ask is what was their family or family
member like, did they have hobbies, what line of work were they in, important events that
happened in their life. Don’t forget to ask about their life as well ask about things about their
education and what was it like in school back then, stories about their parents or grandparents,
military service in the family, early childhood memories, other relatives in the family,
celebrations and holidays, objects worth remembering, fashions during that time, world events
that happened during their time, and typical day with the family or outing or dinner.
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Vital records will give one a broad aspect about someone, but it will not tell one
important details, that’s why one needs to ask as many questions as possible. After interviewing
your oldest living relative, start with information that one already knows. Use the information
collected and starts putting it all together as accurate as one can, then try to find things like
newspapers, family bibles, diaries, and photos that can narrow things down or confirm a few
things stated. From there one then questions closer family members using the same format, then
start to put the pieces together. Then start to do more intimate research on things like documents’
like birth and death records, marriage and divorce records, military records, and depending on
your family church records. Now for the use of websites such as ancestry.com which will when
you start to form a family tree will give one things called leaflets or clues about the information
one has put in, now this can be used as something to look into, but do not just decide to go with
what the site has given to you, for it may not be true and could be just a guess. So use the
information that they have suggested to you and then do more of your own personal digging into
it to see if there is any truth to what they sent you, it could be true or false information or it could
be just slightly off. So the main thing is do not believe everything you read on the sites or in any
case the internet.
In conclusion these points can help one conduct deep detail into understanding even just a
little bit about what many of us ask “Where do we come from?”. Although these are not all the
questions that one needs to ask or cover every aspect one needs to cover in their research, but
these are the clues the broad aspects of how to begin a difficult journey into the search for who
we are. One just may surprise themselves in what they might find, so the posing question is “Do
you have what it takes to find the real answers that have been lost to many other before you?”
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Works Cited
"Awards & Competitions." National Genealogical Society. Www.ngsgenealogy.org, 2012. Web.
19 Sept. 2012. <http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/past_halloffame_winners>. Contain
information I gather on Mr. John Farmer a legendary genealogist who published the
First Settlers of New England in 1829, and lead to the creation of the New England
Historic Genealogical Society.
"Family History Library Salt Lake City, Utah." FamilySearch Library. Www.familysearch.org,
2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <https://familysearch.org/locations/saltlakecity-library>.
Contains history about teh Family History Library as well as details about how it works,
and it is the website of the FHL itself.
