Genealogy #68: Detective Work

I attempted to do some oral history with my mother around her 85th birthday. Not really having a plan of procedure, she just really started talking about various happenings from her childhood as I took notes. I feel compelled to attempt it again with a recorder. She would be a great subject, as she's very talkative (and opinionated).

I had some difficulty determining how to find the oldest grave in the Ponca, Nebraska cemetary. I did not find the help section for Find-A-Grave user friendly (or the site in general). It did look like several of the graves (over 300) went back to the mid-1800's (date of death).

Genealogy #69: Database Research - Digging Deep

In searching Ancestry.com, I was able to find census, marriage and military records for my grandfather on my mother's side. I discovered his mother's name and then tried to search for her to see how far back I could go. I was hoping to discover ancestors in Europe. I didn't find Ancestry very helpful for this--there seemed to be very little information about her. So, I attempted a google search and viola! Someone had created a family tree and I was able to trace back several generations--not Europe, but to 1700 U.S.

Genealogy # 67: Genealogy Genesis-Ascending the Tree

Ascending is not the word. It's too encompassing. Genealogy work requires an ongoing alertness to details, a compulsion to probe, CSI style, to uncover often one-word details. It's an exercise that can be given proper time and attention in retirement only. By this time, a good many reliable sources of family information have passed on. Therefore, it's urgent to do the following immediately:

1. Gather all paper documents pertaining to my parents (records, letters, documents, etc.) from family members. For this I would begin with my mother (closest living relative) and fan out to aunts and uncles.

2. Talk with key relatives about family information and begin recording family history. I began this with my mother a couple years ago and have since become lax about it. I remember being impressed with the number of skeltons in the closet and thinking there was enough drama for a fictionalized version of my own family's story. Also, I remember hearing comments from a couple of my more analytical cousins at a family funeral about their eagerness to initiate a genealogy search.

3. All this would reveal names and dates and to keep it all together I would print out a free genealogy chart and begin inserting all the gathered details.

A very time-consuming process, but the minimum that must be done at this stage!