Date: Fri 18-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Internet-Genealogy-Brand

Full Text:

INTERNET INFO FOR REAL PEOPLE: Genealogy on the Net

By Bob Brand

When the Mormon Church announced their genealogy database would be made

available on the Internet, the website immediately spiked with activity. The

popularity of digging through a vast amount of easily accessible data to find

a family's ancestry runs at an all-time high. For many people who are

connected to the Internet the process is easy. I asked friend and neighbor Jim

Macauley for pointers on this popular hobby.

Several years ago Macauley, after retiring from a successful law career, found

the Internet. With time to travel both terra firma and cyberspace, he decided

to trace his ancestry. As a first step, he purchased genealogy software,

SoftKey's Family Tree and Palladium's Ultimate Family Tree. This was a

mistake, he said. "I decided to try to find just direct lineage. My method is

"keep it simple -- in a binder." Once someone starts collecting genealogy

information, they become overwhelmed with information. It is everywhere.

Starting Out

As a first step, Macauley suggests someone compile a complete list of family

surnames. Next feed the names into all the search engines on the Web --

Altavista, Excite, Yahoo!, Google and many more. Keep in mind that the World

Wide Web has become so large that even the biggest engines have indexed only

about half of the websites on the entire Internet. The data comes streaming in

immediately. The next phase involves e-mail contact. He notes that invariably

people on the Net enjoy receiving e-mail, especially if it comes from someone

who might be a long lost relative.

A Rich Vein

With just a little luck, he says, many sleuths come across a relative who

maintains a genealogy family website. Paydirt! (Note: with 70 million people

in the United States now on the net, chances improve hourly.) Macauley states

that genealogy webmasters are particularly warm and friendly. Almost every

family has a few members who are both highly computer literate and active on

the Internet. It was here that he made a major find. As a result, he started

tracing his direct lineage through Amelia Emily Partello, his great

grandmother.

A Long Strange Journey

In two years of casual keyboard sleuthing, Macauley determined that he could

trace relatives back to the Revolutionary War. It turned out many of his kin

were Tories. Land records in Greenwich, Connecticut confirmed `The Americans'

had confiscated property owned by his family. They fled to Nova Scotia where

the family name changed. In fact, he says, the names changed several times,

not an unusual discovery by seasoned genealogists. When looking at the actual

records, he observed that some relatives signed official documents with an X,

the mark of illiteracy.

On one memorable occasion, he took a trip to Nova Scotia to visit the

graveyard where the remains of direct ancestors are buried. He walked the

ground they walked. "It leaves a deep impression of roots," he said quietly.

A Side Trip

People who actively trace their ancestry make many new friends in cyberspace.

It is not unusual to be asked to run special errands. Macauley undertook a

trip to Stamford for the sole purpose of verifying information for a distant

relative. With a large part of the family tree in Germany, he will be seeking

favors in translation and data verification in the future, he feels. "It's all

part of the enjoyment of the hobby."

The Book

Macauley has the treasures of his roots neatly compiled within a three-ring

family binder. Pictures extracted from the Web are rendered on an inkjet

printer and embellished with clipart and graphics from the period in which the

ancestor lived. A stationery store, like Staples, does a superior job in

reproducing old photos, he notes. At times he will prepare a template that

will hold the reproduction of a precious old photo. "Keep it interesting and

fun," he suggests. "When I come across a particularly colorful distant

relative, it becomes included even though this is not a direct descendant." In

a somewhat unusual approach, he includes a section called "Family Traits." He

gathers, when possible, clues that seem to paint a pattern of heart and gall

bladder problems.

The Antiques Roadshow Factor

Any seasoned "Antiques Roadshow" viewer knows the value of an antique

increases when the provenance (documentation) includes a history of the piece.

Future Roadshow programs will undoubtedly include genealogy compilations along

with the antique treasures. The Internet and now the Mormon (free genealogy

database) on the Web will continue to fuel the interest in people finding

their roots. It is easy and fun. Just ask James Douglas Macauley.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.genhomepage.com/

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.lds1.com/index4.html

http://www.ancestry.com/

http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/

(This is the 159th of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, Electronic Warfare on eBay is the subject on tap. Stay tuned.

Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet

Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail

comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)