"Genealogy is Like a Very Big Puzzle"

I have always liked to solve mysteries and to put together puzzles.  I was making a comment on one of MyFamily.com groups of many of my West family and other related families.  We have pooled our resources and what we already have learned to attempt to fill in the gaps of our family history.  I suddenly wrote that it was like we were all working on one very big puzzle.

We are finding the puzzle pieces, but we need to be able to put them all together. As with puzzles, many of us start by finding the flat edged pieces to put together the outer edges (frame) and then concentrate on areas of similar characteristics putting the pieces in one by one until they all connect and the puzzle is complete. This is what we are trying to do, except it is hard to make that frame and there are so many pieces that seem to be the same! :) Also because we can not find some documented records, the pieces are not complete or some of the image of the piece was damaged (lost). No matter what, it is very hard to put together a puzzle if you do not have all of the pieces.

When we first start researching our families, there are just a few that we know who may be of help to us.  As time goes on we build a network of researchers and resources.  We use libraries, DNA, courthouses, friends & family, genealogical societies, the Internet.  Many now are using resources like Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest, bulletin boards, USGenWeb, MyFamily.com and so many others.  What we are doing are looking for the pieces of the puzzle and trying to connect the pieces.

The group I mentioned is a good sized group of cousins that are trying to find these puzzle pieces and then try to put them together as a large diverse group of people.  When I work on a picture puzzle, it seems to get put together so much faster when there are several working together.

Genealogical societies provide resources to help us put together our family puzzles.  Working with others who are researching the same family can increase your chances of finding missing pieces and then connecting them.

My point is that our family puzzles have been scattered about and some pieces are lost or damaged beyond recognition.  We can not rely on just one resource or one person to gather most of these pieces.  We need to work together as much as we can and we can put together that family puzzle.  Of course, once we get that puzzle done, we start expanding the frame!  Hopefully, putting together the puzzle will be fun and enlightening as you go.

- Written by JGWest

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

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Every time I really want to break down one of my genealogy "brick walls," I think about doing "back-door" research. This is when you try to go around the "wall" instead of over or though it. Sometimes I call this "side-door" research. It is that day when I take time to see what I do not know about the person and the family. Generally, I notice that I have not checked into the siblings and their lives. Was Richard the older or the younger brother? If I check him out, I might learn that he is the older brother and he was born in a different location. By going through this "side-door" (via Richard & where he was born), I might find new clues to find out about their parents... my brick wall.

Since I have researched for a lot of years, there was a time that it was more expedient to just gather data on my direct line and just recording the minimum on the brothers & sisters. I am talking about the days before the Internet, Ancestry.com, Find-A-Grave, HeritageQuest, USGenWeb Project, Fold3, and the many, many more resources available on the Internet. Back then, I had to pay a small fee to get a microfilm of a census for a certain location that I thought my ancestors lived. When it came in, the library would call to say it was here - we had about 10-14 days to use the microfilm (only at the library - when it was open!) before it had to be sent back. It usually took several hours to browse through the microfilm looking for anyone that had the surname you were researching... all the while, the pages rolled by causing you to get sleepy. I hated it when I would dose off while continuing to crank the handle on the machine and then not know how much film I did not see!!! The Willard Library at that time was not open on Monday, so if you worked during the day - you only had the weekend and Tuesday night to go through your microfilm. The library had far less research books available, too... many without an index. All of this meant you had little time to get info on your direct line of ancestors, let alone the siblings.

What a difference having a computer to record your data and to be able to use the resources on the Internet. You still need to go to the library, to courthouses and other repositories, but you do not need to order microfilm anymore. Ancestry.com, Heritage Quest & others have posted the US Census and a lot of other actual records on the Internet. Most are not free, but it is searchable and nearly all of it is available!!! Too often we are not sure what county or even which state to find them in 1860, for example. Granted these searches often give you many more choices than you want, but the first ones are more likely to be the one.

I have always used the computer software called "Family Tree Maker" to record my database for my family history. It has a special feature that allows you to go online with a button to search all of Ancestry.com for each individual in your database - one person at a time. It is perfect for checking out the brothers & sisters that you have not had time to check before. The search engine uses all of the data concerning that individual that you have entered into FTM. In just a few clicks you are usually taken directly to the page in the census listing your family. and you can copy & paste it right into your FTM program. Ancestry also allows you to put your data onto their servers and when it discovers something about one of them, it puts a leaf by that person's box for you to explore what clues & documents that may relate to your research. Ancestry costs about $100 a year as a subscription and may not be what you want to do. But Google or Yahoo can help you find free sources for most of this data online.

Just remember that Friends and Family uses the back or side door to visit... start using that approach more in your family history research.

- Written by JGWest

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

Optimizing the Internet for the Genealogical Researcher

I have been using the Internet for genealogical research since 1995... a relatively short time in my tenure of over 50 years of researching my family. However, on the Internet, it is a significant time span. I have explored all sorts of different “new” ideas of getting all sorts of people and/or data together. Right away, in 1996, I (along with about a thousand others) volunteered to be a county coordinator for the USGenWeb Project that concentrated on each individual county in the USA as a method of researching genealogy by location... common families, migrations, lifestyles, etc. Each county holds the legal records and even the legends of your family's journey in that county. We already had “bulletin” type email boards where we could interact with others interested in a location, a surname or even a surname in a specific location. Some of the most significant bulletin boards are RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com. Other ways to interact with family and associates is through blogs, Twitter, YouTube and more.

A similar site, but more specific to a particular family, was developed - known as MyFamily.com, which is a private password protected site that require members be invited to participate. This is great for a specific family or inter-related families to get together to share current events, photos, family lore, genealogy, or team up to go back further in their genealogical research. This site has a small annual fee to maintain it. It is an excellent means of storing & sharing family data. Each family and its members determine how it will interact by posting items in various categories: photos, news, history, file cabinet, recipes, etc.

Not too long ago some other genealogical Internet ideas popped up. These are interactive family trees, where members post, counter post and add information to each others ancestry. Two of these are WeRelate and Geni. Geni is new to me, but WeRelate has some nice features to post notes and documentation. Like anything that you ever uncover in your research... you need to verify everything to ensure that it meets a high standard of validity.

Now comes yet another Internet idea known as Face Book (FB) that utilizes other ideas of mass communications like YouTube, iLike, all sorts of applications & others. FB allows you to set-up your site by recruiting “friends” in your profile. As often as you wish you post your status on your “profile” or “wall” for all of your FB friends to see and possibly add comments. FB becomes an excellent resource to keep up with family, friends & associates that you have known throughout your life. It is great for me to have a place on the Internet that I can briefly chat, post comments, upload family albums of events and just old photos or relay news with all sorts of “lost” cousins, friends and old associates from previous relationships. I have a lot of family members on my FB from sister to nephews, son, 1st, 2nd, 3rd (& more distant) cousins that post little things (along with major events) that are happening in their lives... it is a great way to keep up with your family in these busy days. They also upload photos of them and their friends & family.

Other than just relaying some information about the Internet, I have a purpose behind this discussion. FB, WeRelate, the bulletin boards, USGenWeb can all be used to work together to enhance your genealogical contacts and find cousins that have interest in the family history that just might be willing to work as a team on sites like MyFamily.com to share your knowledge of the family's history and you might be able to find a few cousins that will take DNA tests to further make connections or prove relationships. This is a better method to learning your history than just tracking down databases that may not even pertain to your family. Check these avenues of research out to see if you can optimize your genealogical endeavors on the Internet.

- Submitted by JGWest