Genealogy Online For Dummies
By Matthew L. Helm April Leigh Helm
John Wiley & Sons
Copyright © 2008
Matthew L. Helm
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-24057-1
Chapter One
Planning for Genealogical
Success
In This Chapter
* Using the Helm Family Tree Research Cycle
* Taking your time
All great projects start with a plan, right? Starting a genealogical project is
no exception. A well thought-out plan can help you make efficient use of
your time and keep you focused on the goals that you have set for a particular
research session. Now, we realize that not everyone enjoys coming up with a
plan. Finding your ancestors is the fun part - not the planning. So, to help speed
things along, we've come up with a basic process that we hope helps you make
the most of your research time.
This chapter covers some of the basic things to keep in mind when you begin
your research journey and offers some tips on what you can do when you hit
research bumps along the way. Also, we provide some hints on how to select
that first ancestor to kick off your genealogical pursuit.
Introducing the Helm Online
Family Tree Research Cycle
No book on research would be complete without some sort of model to follow,
so we created one just for you. Of course, wanting to take credit for our fabulous
model, we like to call it the
Helm Online Family Tree Research Cycle. Sounds
impressive, doesn't it? Well, we have to admit that most of it is common sense.
Figure 1-1 shows the five phases of the cycle: planning, collecting, researching,
consolidating, and distilling.
Sticking with the
family tree motif here, we liken the cycle to the steps you
take to plant and sustain a tree:
Planning: The first step in planting a tree is figuring out what kind of tree
you want and then finding a good place in your yard for the tree to grow.
This step in the cycle is the planning phase. In genealogy, you want to
select a family that you know enough about to begin a search and then
think about the resources that will provide the information that you're
looking for.
Collecting: After you plan for the tree, you go to a nursery and pick a
suitable sapling and other necessary materials to ensure that the tree's
roots take hold. The second phase of the cycle, collecting, is the same -you
collect information on the family that you're researching by conducting
interviews in person, on the phone, or through e-mail, and by finding
documents in attics, basements, and other home-front repositories.
Researching: The next step is to actually plant the tree. You dig a hole,
place the tree in it, and then cover the roots. Similarly, you spend the
researching phase of the cycle digging for clues, finding information that
can support your family tree, and obtaining documentation. You can use
traditional and technological tools to dig - tools like libraries, courthouses,
your computer, and the World Wide Web.
Consolidating: You planted the tree and covered its roots. However, to
make sure that the tree grows, you put mulch around it and provide the
nourishment the tree needs to survive. The consolidating phase of the cycle
is similar in that you take the information you find and place it into your
computer-based genealogical database or your filing system. These systems
protect your findings by keeping them in a centralized location and provide
an environment in which you can see the fruits of your labor.
Distilling: After your tree has taken root and begins to grow, you need to
prune the old growth, allowing new growth to appear. Similarly, the
distilling phase is where you use your computer-based genealogical
database to generate reports showing the current state of your research.
You can use these reports to prune from your database those individuals
you've proven don't fit into your family lines - and perhaps find room
for new genealogical growth by finding clues to other lines you want to
follow up.
We think that using our research model makes looking for genealogical
information a lot easier and more fulfilling. However, this model is merely a
guide. Feel free to use whatever methods work best for you - as long as
those methods make it possible for someone else to verify your research
(through sources you cite and so on).
Planning your research
The Internet puts the world at your fingertips. Discovering all the wonderful
online resources that exist makes you feel like a kid in a candy store. You click
around from site to site with wide eyes, amazed by what you see, tempted to
record everything for your genealogy - whether it relates to one of your
family lines or not.
Because of the immense wealth of information available to you, putting together
a research plan before going online is very important - it can save you a lot of
time and frustration by keeping you focused. Tens of thousands of genealogical
sites are on the Internet. If you don't have a good idea of exactly what you're
looking for to fill in the blanks in your genealogy, you can get lost online. Getting
lost is even easier when you see a name that looks familiar and start following
its links, only to discover hours later (when you finally get around to pulling out
the genealogical notes you already had) that you've been tracking the wrong
person and family line.
Now that we've convinced you that you need a research plan, you're probably
wondering exactly what a research plan is. Basically, a research plan is a
common-sense approach to looking for information about your ancestors
online. A research plan entails knowing what you're looking for and what
your priorities are for finding information.
If you're the kind of person who likes detailed organization (like lists and steps
that you can follow to the tee), you can map out your research plan in a
spreadsheet or word processor on your computer or you can write it out
on paper. If you're the kind of person who knows exactly what you want and
need at all times, and you have an excellent memory of where you leave off
when doing projects, your research plan can exist solely in your mind. In other
words, your research plan can be as formal or informal as you like - as long
as it helps you plot what you're looking for.
For example, say you're interested in finding some information on your great-grandmother.
Here are some steps you can take to form a research plan:
1. Write down what you already know about the person you want to
research - in this case, your great-grandmother.
Include details like the dates and places of birth, marriage, and death;
spouse's name; children's names; and any other details you think may
help you distinguish your ancestor from other individuals. Of course, it's
possible that all you know at this time is great-grandma's name.
2. Conduct a search using a genealogically focused search engine to get
an overview of what's available.
Visit sites like the TreEZy (www.treezy.com) to search for information
by name and location. Using great-grandma's name and the names of
some of the locations where she lived provides you with search results
that give you an idea of what kind of resources are available. (Chapters 3
and 4 go into more detail about online trips and searching for this type
of information.) You may want to make a list of the sites that you find in
your word processor, spreadsheet, or on a piece of paper, or download
the Web page for offline browsing.
3. Prioritize the resources that you want to use.
Your search on a genealogically focused search engine may turn up several
different types of resources, such as newsgroups, mailing lists, and
Web sites. We recommend that you prioritize which resources you plan
to use first. You may want to visit a Web site that specifically names
great-grandma prior to signing up for a mailing list for all researchers
interested in great-grandma's surname.
4. Schedule time to use the various resources that you identify.
Genealogy is truly a lifelong pursuit - you can't download every bit of
information and documentation that you need all at once. Because
researching your genealogy requires time and effort on your part, we
recommend that you schedule time to work on specific parts of your
research. If you have a particular evening open every week, you can
pencil in a research night on your calendar, setting aside 15-30 minutes
at the beginning to review what you have and assess your goals, then
spending a couple of hours researching, and ending your evening with
another 15-30 minute review in which you organize what you found.
Collecting useful information
After you generate a research plan (see the preceding section, "Planning your
research," for more information), you may need to fill in a few details like dates
and locations of births, marriages, and deaths. You can collect this information
by interviewing family members and by looking through family documents
and photographs. (See Chapter 2 for tips on interviewing and using family
documents and photographs.) You may also need to look up a few things in an
atlas or gazetteer (a geographical dictionary) if you aren't sure where certain
locations are. (Chapter 7 provides more information on online gazetteers.)
For a list of things that may be useful to collect, see Chapter 2. In the meantime,
here are a few online resources that identify items to collect for your genealogy:
Suggestions for Beginners
www.ngsgenealogy.org/edugetstart.cfm
Introduction to Genealogy: First Steps
genealogy.about.com/library/lessons/blintro2a.htm
Getting Started in Genealogy and Family History
www.genuki.org.uk/gs/
Get Started in Genealogy: Some tips on how to start your family tree
research
genealogy.suite101.com/article.cfm/get_started_in_genealogy
Researching: Through the
brick wall and beyond
Of course, researching your family history online is the topic of this entire
book, so you can find the necessary resources to do a great deal of your
online research in these pages.
A time will undoubtedly come when you run into what genealogists affectionately
call the Brick Wall Syndrome - when you think you have exhausted every
possible way of finding an ancestor. The most important thing you can do is
to keep the faith - don't give up! Web sites are known to change frequently
(especially as more people come online and share their information); although
you may not find exactly what you need today, you may find it next week at a
site you've visited several times before or at a new site altogether. The lesson
here is to check back at sites that you've visited before.
Another way to get past the brick wall is to ask for help. Don't be afraid to post
a message on a mailing list or e-mail other researchers you've corresponded
with in the past to see if they have answers or suggestions for finding answers.
We provide more information for using mailing lists and e-mail in Chapter 4.
Fortunately, there are also suggestions posted online on how to get through
that brick wall when you run up against it. Check out these sites:
Breaking Down Walls, Brick by Brick: The Search for Henrietta:
genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa042602a.htm
Brick Wall Research: genealogypro.com/articles/
brick-wall-research.html
Brick Wall Genealogy Solutions: A Family Heritage Resource:
www.workingdogweb.com/Brick-Wall-Genealogy.htm
Consolidating information in a database
After you get rolling on your research, you often find so much information
that it feels like you don't have enough time to put it all into your computer-based
genealogical database.
GENEALOGY LINGO
A genealogical database is a software program that allows you to enter, organize,
store, and use all sorts of genealogical information on your computer.
When possible, try to set aside some time to update your database with
information you recently gathered. This process of putting your information
together in one central place, which we call consolidating, helps you gain a
perspective on the work that you've completed and provides a place for you
to store all those nuggets you'll need when you begin researching again. By
storing your information in a database, you can always refer to it for a quick
answer the next time you try to remember something specific, such as where
you found a reference to a marriage certificate for your great-great-grandparents,
or where your great-grandfather lived during a particular timeframe.
Distilling the information that you gather
The final step in the cycle is distilling the information that you gather into a
report, chart, organized database, or detailed research log that you can use
to find additional genealogical leads. Frequently, you can complete the distillation
process by producing a report from your computer-based genealogical
database. Most genealogical software programs allow you to generate reports
in a variety of formats. For example, you can pull up a Pedigree chart (a chart
showing a primary person with lines representing the relationships to his/her
parents, then lines connecting them to their parents, and so on) or an outline
of descendants from information that you entered in the database about each
ancestor. You can use these reports to see what holes still exist in your research,
and you can add these missing pieces to the planning phase for your next
research effort - starting the whole cycle over again.
Another advantage to genealogical reports is having the information readily
available so that you can toggle back to look at the report while researching
online, which can help you stay focused. (Toggling is flipping back and forth
between open programs on your computer. For example, in Windows you press
Alt+Tab to toggle, or you can click the appropriate item on the taskbar at the
bottom of the screen. On a Macintosh, you can use the Application Switcher
in the upper-right corner of the screen.) Of course, if you prefer, printing copies
of the reports and keeping them next to the computer while you're researching
on the Internet serves the same purpose.
Selecting a Person to Begin Your Search
Selecting a person sounds easy, doesn't it? Just pick your great-great-grandfather's
name, and you're off to the races. But what if your greatgreat-grandfather's
name was John Smith? You may encounter millions of sites
with information on John Smith - unless you know some facts about the John
Smith you're looking for, we can almost guarantee that you will have a
frustrating time online.
Trying a unique name
The first time you research online, try to start with a person whose name is,
for lack of a better term, semi-unique. By this we mean a person with a name
that doesn't take up ten pages in your local phone book, but is still common
enough that you can find some information on it the first time you conduct a
search. If you're really brave, you can begin with someone with a very common
surname such as Smith or Jones, but you have to do a lot more groundwork
up-front so you can easily determine whether any of the multiple findings
relate to your ancestor. (For more on groundwork, see Chapter 2.)
Also, consider any variations in spelling that your ancestor's name may have.
Often, you can find more information on the mainstream spelling of his or her
surname than on one of its rarer variants. For example, if you research someone
with the surname Helme, you may have better luck finding information under
the spellings Helm or Helms. If your family members immigrated to the United
States in the last two centuries, they may have Americanized their surname.
Americanizing a name was often done so that the name could be easily
pronounced in English, or sometimes the surname was simply misspelled
and adopted by the family.
TIP
To find various spellings of the surname, you may need to dig through some
family records or look at a site like Table of Common Surname Variations &
Surname Misspellings (www.ingeneas.com/alternate.html).
Narrowing your starting point
If you aren't sure how popular a name is, try visiting a site like Hamrick
Software's surname distribution site (www.hamrick.com/names). At Hamrick's
site, you can find the distribution of surnames in the United States based on
the 1850 Census, 1880 Census, 1920 Census, and phone books from 1990 to
the present. Here's what you do:
1. Open your World Wide Web browser and go to Hamrick Software's
surname distribution site (www.hamrick.com/names).
The Hamrick site appears with instructions and a form to use for searching.
2. Type the surname you're researching into the Surname field in the
search form.
For help choosing a surname, see the preceding section.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Genealogy Online For Dummies
by Matthew L. Helm April Leigh Helm
Copyright © 2008 by Matthew L. Helm.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.