Behind the Headlines

This article is on page 1A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News, but it didn’t make the list for the monroenews.com headlines. Here is the article for the benefit of out-of-town seminar attendees who wanted to look it up. I also have a previous blog post about the event. — Paula Wethington

Genealogist: document your work researching family tree

A speaker at the county genealogical society’s spring seminar reminded attendees not to be lax when compiling citations to trace their roots.

By Paula Wethington
paula@monroenews.com

The inspiration to delve into genealogy often starts with an interesting story that has been told and retold within your family.

But unless you take the time to properly document what you learn as you track down the details of what really happened to that ancestor, that favorite story will be of little use to other family historians.

Documentation and source citations were some of the main take-home points during the Genealogical Society of Monroe County’s 32nd annual spring seminar Saturday at Monroe County Community College.

“It’s how we go about evaluating evidence,” said John Humphrey, a genealogical researcher and author from Washington, D.C.

Mr. Humphrey first got interested in genealogy by hearing his grandfather’s family stories. He also was the only grandson who would be carrying on the family name to the next generation.

But Mr. Humphrey, who gives 40 to 50 genealogy presentations across the country each year, admits he has made mistakes by overlooking critical research details. There was a point, he admits, when he got lazy about recording where he found information.

When he wanted to compile his information into a book, he realized his research had to be proved to other genealogists through accurate source citations.

“I had to go back and do over my research just to get the source material,” he explained to more than 180 people — coming from cities such as Monroe, Royal Oak, Ann Arbor, Toledo and Gaylord — who attended the local seminar.

“It is a lot of the same people,” Laurence Wilson of Dundee, who was involved with the seminar planning and logistics, said about the year-to-year attendance. “But every year we have new ones.”

One of those first-time visitors was Carol Reschke of Troy. She said her daughter has been involved in genealogy. Now the two will be looking up different family lines and sharing their research.

Barbara Maas of Custer, Ohio, came to the Monroe seminar with her sister and a friend.

“My sister and I started with our family, and we kind of branched out to our husbands’,” she said about their research so far.

Ms. Maas said genealogy research techniques and logistics today include many more Web sites where researchers can look up information without leaving home.

But she’s noticing more hurdles in accessing legal documents because of recent privacy and identity theft concerns. Sometimes, she said, government agencies provide only a computer printout that may or may not have all of the information found on the original document.

But no matter how information is obtained, Mr. Humphrey showed the audience examples of recommended formats for source citations for accuracy, clarity and consistency. He also explained what to consider should researchers find discrepancies between one record and another.

Other topics of the day included German ancestry and researching Pennsylvania families.

“More Americans have ancesters from Germany than they do from the British Isles,” Mr. Humphrey said.

But the language barrier doesn’t have to be a problem, he said. By learning some key words in German, family historians can determine whether they have found a birth record or a baptism record.

“You don’t have to be conversant in German to do genealogy,” Mr. Humphrey said.

The event also featured a room of vendor tables. There were local history books and compilations of Monroe County birth and death records, history books and Census charts from several states, T-shirts, tote bags, magnifying glasses and family heritage posters.

On the Net:
Genealogy Web sites:
www.ancestry.com
www.familysearch.org
www.genealogy.com