Ten Easy Steps Up the Family Tree - Macoupin County
IL
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Ten Easy Steps Up the Family
Tree
Your Great Great Great
Granddaughter Is Looking For You
both by Kathleen Mirabella
If you are a beginner in family history research, this
is a MUST READ.
1. Start with yourself and your immediate family, and find birth
certificates, baptismal or other church records, marriage certificates,
death certificates, and obituaries for your parents, grandparents, and
great grandparents. If some of these documents are unavailable, start with
what you and your surviving family members know.
2. On a sheet of paper write your parents' complete names, including your
mother's maiden name. (For the sheet of paper, try a Family
Group Record printed out from your browser file print.) Record the
middle names, but try not to use initials. Include any nicknames they may
have used. List dates and locations of births, marriages, deaths, and burials.
Stop and ask yourself, "Did I check those dates for accuracy?"
And, record the truth. An illegitimate birth or a birth occurring six months
after a marriage is a fact in family history research and should be recorded
truthfully and accurately.
When listing locations, include the city, county, state and country.
List dates as 3 Feb 1884 or February 3, 1884, not
2-3-1884 which could be interpreted as February 3, 1884 or March 2, 1884.
For your brothers, sisters, and yourself, list complete names in
order of birth, including dates and locations of events as you did for
your parents.
3. For your mother, list her parents and repeat step #2 for her family.
Then do the same for your father's family.
4. Try to do the same for your grandparents and great grandparents, and
so on for as many generations as you can.
5. Contact family members who may be able to help with missing information.
Call ahead and tell your relative the reason for your visit. This will
give the person time to search the attic for old pictures and other family
treasures. Be prepared with questions to ask. Besides the missing dates
and locations, ask them about their parents, grandparents, favorite vacations,
earliest memories, childhood, etc.
To help in the recording of information, bring pencils, camera, and a tape
recorder. Tape recorder? Caution! When you call for that visit, ask if
you can use the tape recorder. Don't offend the person and cause him or
her to "clam up." If you are able to use a tape recorder, you
will not have to stop in the middle of a story to take notes. PLEASE make
sure the recorder works and is loaded with fresh batteries and a blank
tape.
Ask if you can photocopy documents, letters, family Bibles, obituaries,
pictures, etc. Copy everything. That old letter might not seem important
but could hold the clue you need in the future.
Be patient! It might take several trips to the same home before you really
get all the information.
Note: Some people, especially elderly ones,
are very very protective of their old and treasured documents. They may
not let you out of the house with their papers to make xerox copies. It
is nice if you own a portable copier, but if you don't, find out beforehand
where you can make copies if you're too far away from your home base. If
you have a spouse, other relative, or friend with you, offer to leave that
person at the house to guarantee the safe return of papers.
6. Begin to identify photos. Use a soft lead pencil, never harder than
a #2 lead. In the margins on the back of pictures, write complete names,
location, date, and occasion. Never use a pen or write in the center of
the photo. Bring your pencil when visiting relatives and ask them to label
their photographs. With luck you might inherit their photographs.
7. When requesting information by mail, always include
a LARGE self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and offer to pay
copying and mailing costs. Quoting a researcher about requests by mail,
"You would be surprised how many times I have received a small envelope
for me to return pages of material."
If someone sends you information, even if it is not your family, send them
a thank you note along with stamps to cover their postage.
8. The most common mistake beginners make is not documenting where they
found information. PLEASE, document your sources. Ten years from now you
will wonder, "Where did I find Aunt Rita’s birth date?"
9. Visit the genealogy section of your public library. Ask the reference
librarian where the genealogy section is located.
10. Join a genealogical or historical society in your area. Even if you
have no ancestors from the area, you will find others interested in the
same hobby, and you can learn from them. If you need assistance in locating
a society, please contact Kathleen Mirabella.
Genealogy
and Kids Includes a site titled High Tech Ways to Dig History - kids
and adults who are still kids at heart will like this one.
Your Great Great Great Granddaughter Is Looking For You
by Kathleen Mirabella
The year is 2068. Your great grandson John, and his wife, Elizabeth,
are in their small two bedroom apartment preparing for the arrival of their
first child. There is barely enough space in the second bedroom for a crib
and small dresser. The closet is stuffed with boxes of old notebooks and
books that John had received from his grandfather. John had never looked
in the boxes. His grandfather had told him the boxes contained family research
done by his father and mother. John and Elizabeth considered it junk, they
needed the closet space for the baby, so on recycling day your work of
30 years was thrown away.
The year is 2118. Your great great great granddaughter, Catherine, at age
25, has begun to trace her Family History. She had heard stories that one
of her ancestors had traced the family back sixteen generations. No family
member knew where these research records might be. Her grandparents, John
and Elizabeth, had died before she was born. Her Aunt stated the family
had come to America on the Mayflower. There was also the story about the
family being in Macoupin County, IL, for five generations. Utilizing the
Macoupin County, IL Home Page she decided to visit the Staunton Public
Library. She looked through all the index cards and files. Nothing! She
did not give up. She drove to the Carlinville Library. Nothing! She searched
the Macoupin County Historical Library. Nothing! She could not comprehend
how someone could do years of research and not leave copies of their work
at a library. She left Macoupin County disappointed.
The year is 2007. You can change the ending of Catherine’s trip to the
Staunton Public Library. Round up your bible records, birth certificates,
marriage certificates, death certificates, military records, pictures,
handwritten notes, typewritten notes, computer generated notes, family
group sheets, and anything else you have. Make a copy of everything for
Catherine. She does not need a professionally completed book. We all know
our research is never done. Place everything in a binder and send it to
the Macoupin County Genealogical Society.
If you listen carefully, you can hear Catherine’s scream of excitement
when she finds your gift to her.
Send Catherine’s gift to:
Macoupin County Genealogical Society
PO Box 95
Staunton, IL 62088-0095
Note: Each year send an update of your research
to the Macoupin County Genealogical Society for Catherine.