Puzzling Times

How many of you are spending these days putting together puzzles?

My cousin's family had a puzzle challenge where they challenged a friend's family to start a 1000 piece puzzle at the same time and see who could finish it first. (Then switched puzzles and challenged again.) My puzzling challenge for the last four weeks has been "family history".  I researched, documented, and wrote out a family history for my aunt's birthday gift. 

If you haven't built your family tree or you've heard family stories about where ancestors came from and never documented these stories: chunks of uninterrupted time is all you need.

FamilySearch.org is a great place to get started. Archiving genealogical resources for education and family archiving, and research has been a goal of the Church of Later Day Saints since 1894. They have been microfilming records since the 1930s and switched to digital archiving in 1999. In 2013, through mostly volunteer efforts had digitally indexed over 1 billion records. (data from FamilySearch wiki)

"The library holds genealogical records for over 110 countries, territories, and possessions, including over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 742,000 microfiche; 310,000 books, serials, and other formats; and 4,500 periodicals.^{[35] " - Familysearch Wikipedia}

Through FamilySearch.org, just by entering a name of an ancestor, you can probably find information about that ancestor, even sometimes photos. Knowing the information correctly matches your exact ancestor takes a little more digging.

FamilySearch.org features numerous articles to get you started based on your interests, but I recommend starting simple if you have never entered the digital world of searching for information about your ancestor.

1. On 2 separate sheets of paper: write down your parents and their birthdate, birth place. (death date and place if applicable) 
2. For each parent: write down their parents (your grandparents) names, birthdate, birth place. (death date and place if applicable)
3. Leave about 10 blank lines between each generation and keep going with great-grandparents for information known. If you only know their names - write them down.
4. Go back and list siblings (i.e. your aunts/uncles) under each parent's/grandparent's names. Only write down what information easily comes to mind.

Note any "nicknames". Don't know exact information but approximate year range, region? Note that by each name.

Now you are ready to search for information online.  FamilySearch.org will give you the most free access to records. Ancestry.com is one of the most popular subscription based services.  There are a couple of more free services. One of them,  Heritage Quest Online , focuses on genealogy and local history books, as well as, specific census record lookups and Freedman's Bank records for African-American genealogy lookup prior to the Civil War. It is available through DuxburyFreeLibrary.org, but nothing will beat free the information and knowledge accessible through FamilySearch. 

I pay for a subscription on Ancestry.com because I found their tree building interface the most user friendly. I access FamilySearch.org to expand my search of information. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch access similar collections, but sometimes one does a better job of indexing then the other. Also, for some collections, like marriage certificates, images appear in FamilySearch and not in Ancestry.

My recommendation is to start with FamilySearch.org for your initial step into finding more about your ancestors.  "How to Start a Family Tree on Family Search" will get you started on how to use their interface.  https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/how-to-start-a-family-tree/?cid=bl-fsb-8860

"Watch out!!" Hours will pass very quickly, your heart will beat faster with excitement when you see a marriage, birth, or death certificate that gives you more information.  Maybe you will stumble upon a census record that matches your grandparent's family in a place you never knew they lived.  Some census records give immigration dates and now you can refine any immigration record lookups by name, age, and immigration date. "Friendly Warning" - its like a puzzle - it',s addictive. Also, make sure all the pieces accurately fit in or you might connect a whole section incorrectly (or even worse mix unrelated puzzle pieces into your family's puzzle).

Have fun, but before you go down too many rabbit holes, keep this rule in mind.

Try and match as much information as possible in a record to prove the ancestor information you have retrieved is accurate.  Name, birth date (age), death date, spouse and children names that match a census record, place, or parents listed on Marriage, Birth, Death records.  If any of the information differs from something you already know - this record may not be a match.

If you do not know much about a person - find at least 3 source records that correspond to that person and try and corroborate the information with what you do know.  Information from other people's trees don't count as source information. Census, Birth, Death, Marriage records are your best source of information. Even the information on these might have error since everything is collected by humans.

Do not add a person to your tree unless you can find 3  source records that corroborate others on the tree.  Other people's family trees are the most susceptible to errors, so don't add a family member from another person's tree unless they have at least 3 sources that correspond to that person and their tree.  Sound confusing? You will understand once you get started on building your tree.

I hope this inspires you to start your family tree. During the last 4 weeks I was able to gather 5 generations of information, including a couple of photos of great-grandparents, all from Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and some online history books found through Google's archived book project. They came together to present a story of her ancestor's migration in Europe, to different areas in the United States, and connecting in Arkansas. It consumed a great number of hours - but it was a great diversion and focus for my mind - similar to puzzle building. Now my aunt will know much more about her heritage, as well as, spur on her memories to perhaps fill holes yet uncovered and be recorded by her and immediate families members.

Enjoy whatever puzzle you work on today. Wishing you good health.