| Successful
Research on the Internet
Ron
Wild shares encouraging stories and advice on online research.
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Over the
past two years, genealogical research on the Internet has really
come of age. New online research services are announced every
few days and it has become increasingly difficult for researchers
to know how to effectively search all of this information. Frustration
and information overload seems to be a common experience. Many
beginning researchers become so overwhelmed by this that it
stops being fun and they stop researching altogether or revert
to traditional research methods with which they are more comfortable
and where they have experienced some success. I learned long
ago that it is vital to have some success at every research
outing whether on the Internet or at your local archive or Family
History Center. Success generates more success and leads to
enthusiasm and the desire to do more and more research. There
is no reason at all why research on the Internet cannot be similarly
blessed with success and not frustration. We have gathered together
some success stories from our readers and friends in the hope
that you will be encouraged by their successes and learn from
some of their techniques and methods what a boon research on
the Internet can be.
Major League Success
My own success story is so overwhelming that the results of
it will easily keep my wife and I busy for the rest of our
lives. We had enjoyed enormous success with traditional methods
but were becoming a little weary with the amount of time we
spent with our heads stuck in film reading cabinets. Having
come to computers late in life, I was hardly well prepared
for the onslaught of the Internet. It was with some trepidation
that I decided to check out a fairly new web site that offered
to match my records against their database in exchange for
me uploading my gedcom file.
Not all of my records were yet on a database but I had managed
to put 845 names on a PAF file at my local Family History
Center and made a gedcom from this data to upload to the Internet
site offering the name match service (mytrees.com).
I uploaded the gedcom one Saturday afternoon and was informed
that it would take four hours to complete the name match.
Imagine my surprise Monday morning when I discovered 795 matches
that so far have linked 1,800 new names to our file. These
new names have been added from only 23 of the name match queries
and no doubt many more will be added as we continue to check
the name match data against our file. One small disappointment
for me was that all of the name matches were against my wife’s
ancestors, two of whom came to the US in the 1600s and had
recorded ancestors themselves going back to the 1300s in England.
My wife now has Mayflower, Revolutionary War, Civil War and
Royal ancestors all of whom were found on a four hour name
match search at mytrees.com. This extraordinary success caused
my wife and I to change the focus of our research efforts
from finding to authenticating. Now I need to have a similar
success with my English Wilds.
Creative Internet Use
Myrna M. Schosser of El Paso, Texas writes, “A couple
of years ago, while doing research on my husband’s family,
we knew only that his dad’s half-brother had moved to
Valentine, Nebraska around 1900. We knew nothing of any descendants
this man might have. Using the Internet I found the name and
address of the newspaper in that area of Nebraska and wrote
to the editor telling him that I was searching for lost relatives
in that area. The editor printed my letter in the newspaper
and the very day that it came out, I had a phone call from
the great grandson of my husband’s father’s half-brother.
This led to the discovery of all of this man’s descendants.”
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Internet
researcher Myrna M. Schosser found useful information
at The Oregon Trail (top) and the Marquette University
site (bottom). |
“Quite recently I completed a small book on a second
great grand-uncle, a missionary priest who traveled the Oregon
Trail to Walla Walla, Washington and later became the Vicar
General for the Diocese of Seattle and the founding director
of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in Washington, D.C.
In doing research to write a family history of this ancestor
I used many Internet sites including the Overland Trail Links-The
Oregon Trail (www.over-land.com/trore.html)
and Marquette University Online Research Environment (www.marquette.edu/
library/collections/archives/)
indians.html) to access the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions
archives held at Marquette University. I used many other sites
including one run by the Confederated Tribes of the Umnatilla
Indians. The Amazon.com site turned up a little-known book
that turned out to be the diary of the bishop that my great
uncle traveled the Oregon Trail with. The last half of the
book was devoted to my uncle, complete with photos. There
is no question that the Internet is one of the finest tools
aiding in genealogical research to ever come along.”
International Connections
Peter Smerdon of Plymouth, England writes, “Having started
my family tree with wife Joy, son Andrew and adding our parents
and grandparents, I next turned to parish registers that took
me back to 1700. Then a visit to the Rootsweb Surnames Lists
at Rootsweb.com found Bev
Petersen of Indiana looking for Smerdon ancestors. My name
appeared on her home page and from that came Michael Smerdon
from Adelaide, Australia who turned out to be my third cousin
once removed. My latest find from Bev’s page is Eric
Smerdon from Plymouth who I first met last week to find that
he too has a wife called Joy and a son Andrew. The world is
quite small when you have the Internet!”
Internet Search Savvy
So often searches of Internet databases do not turn up the
ancestor we are searching for and we incorrectly assume that
the ancestor is not there when in fact they are. What is needed
is a better understanding of how the database is indexed and
a few search tips such as those included in Juliana Smith’s
article in Ancestry Weekly Digest of 13 May 2000 (subscriptions
available online from www.ancestry.com).
Juliana provides several useful Internet database search tips
and uses an example of searching the Social Security Death
Index for a popular name, in this example Charles Adams. A
search for ADAMS brings up 108,133 names. There are nine records
for Chas Adams, 36 for Charley Adams, 230 for Charlie Adams,
one for Chuck Adams and 297 for C. Adams. By searching for
Charles Adams you would miss all 587 of the given name variations
any one of which could be the Charles Adams you are looking
for.
What is needed to pinpoint your ancestor is a combination
of search techniques based on any information you have on
the ancestor in question. Search the surname only and use
the Soundex option if available. This will avoid missing all
of the given name variations. If you have the year of death,
include this as part of your search criteria since this will
narrow down the number of hits. If you know the month and
the year then this will narrow it even further. In Julia’s
example, adding the year of death, 1962, turned up 484 candidates
and by adding August this was further reduced to 90. Similar
searches using known last place of residence, zip code and
surname will give you a list of candidates from which it should
be possible to pinpoint the ancestor you seek. This research
approach is an advanced way of searching many large databases
when your direct “Charles Adams” approach does
not locate the ancestor you seek or leaves you with some doubts
as to whether you have the right person.
Kids Can Help
Bev Petersen of Mishawaka, Indiana writes, “I have two
children. They have taught me a lot. They told me what the
web was all about before the web was ‘famous’.
They made web pages and then they taught me how to make web
pages. I added my family data and received many, many inquiries
about the data. Too many! I had to take the data off because
I spent too much time answering e-mail and needed to pay closer
attention to my new business. But the Smerdon and Schimmelpfennig
names fascinated me enough for me to put them back up for
people to find me. Peter Smerdon of Devon, England contacted
me too. He is now the ‘chief’ Smerdon coordinating
all the research and telling us all where we fit in. Back
to 1500? Yup. Seems all the Smerdons came from Devon, England.
All from posting a name on a web page. Hurrah for kids!”
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RootsWeb
(top) is one of the most widely recommended sites. The
LDS FamilySearch site (bottom) offers a wealth of information. |
Did They Own Land?
Mark Davis of South Bend, Indiana writes, “My ancestor,
Joseph K. Boyd, first appeared in Jackson Co., Indiana in
the 1850 census. I had searched unsuccessfully for Joseph’s
original purchase of land in the Recorder’s Office.
I evaluated the possibilities and turned to the new Bureau
of Land Management site (www.glorecords.blm.gov).
I searched for Boyds who had obtained public land in Indiana
prior to 1850, identified the legal description and traced
the land to a Robert Boyd. Viewing the original documents,
digitally imaged, on this site told me Robert was a resident
of Jefferson Co., Indiana. I eventually determined that Robert
Boyd of Jefferson County was the father of Joseph K. Boyd
of Jackson County.”
Finds Roots on Rootsweb
Marcia Staunton of Portland, Oregon writes, “Rootsweb.com
is my favorite and best Internet site. By using their county
search I was able to find information in Oklahoma for a friend
who does not have a computer and lives over a hundred miles
from me. She gave me some basic information and I logged on
to Oklahoma and found her ancestors’ county and death
records posted on that county site for her parents and great
grandparents. Starting again on Rootsweb, I knew only a town
name in Texas and was able to find ancestral family in Shakleford
County and am hopeful of making a personal contact before
the end of the summer. I have used many other Internet sites
looking for ancestors, particularly in Canada where one of
my ancestors was the Chief Factor at Ft. Edmonton for the
Hudson’s Bay Company. Since there were very few white
women living that far north in those times my ancestor, like
many other white settlers, married a native Indian and their
mixed blood children were known as Metis.”
Magic Internet site
Robert Gilmour of Bristol, Connecticut writes, “I would
love to provide a ‘magic Internet site’ that would
give everyone the volumes of data they need, but we have to
be realistic. I have used ‘Cyndi’s List’
(www.cyndislist.com)
and tried looking at every URL reading the site description.
I have looked at about 20 percent of the pages and have yet
to find any names relating to my tree. I have looked at many
other sites too but find many of them require a purchase of
CDs or membership fees or are very limited in their scope
to a few individuals. On the other hand, one visit to my free
‘magic’ site, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org),
gave me 26 pedigree names and 92 family names. FamilySearch
is comprehensive; it’s where you find results and it
is constantly being updated.”
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all of our readers and friends who sent
in their Internet research success stories. Many researchers
enjoyed success posting messages to genealogy notice boards
or subscribing to newsletters. Others searched online databases,
social security and census index records and some found address
information that allowed them to write and make contact with
living relatives. The Internet is a dynamic research resource
for genealogical researchers and though it may be a long,
long time before all records can be found there it is already
an indispensable component of any researcher’s tools
of the trade.
This
article originally appeared in the July/August 2000 issue
of Family Chronicle.
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