Tag Archive for: #genealogy

TownTalk: Geneaology Basics, Pt. 2

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There is so much information at our fingertips in the 21st century world of genealogy, but people who want to learn more about their ancestors still have to use those tried-and-true research to obtain the most accurate results.

Bill Harris and Mark Pace, North Carolina Room Specialist at Oxford’s Thornton Library discussed different types of records, from family Bibles to courthouse files in Thursday’s tri-weekly history segment of TownTalk.

Before the days of online subscriptions that help individuals fill in family tree information, genealogists had to go to the source; oftentimes, that was the local courthouse.

“The court was all powerful back in the day,” Pace said, adding that you can find “all sorts of crazy records,” from the usual wills and deeds, to the bounty that someone was paid for bringing in a wolf hide.

Court records are considered “primary sources,” Pace said, as are family Bibles, tombstones and church records.

“Secondary sources are a little trickier to document,” he continued. A secondary source may be something like a newspaper article or obituary and books on local history, all of which technically contain second-hand information.

Of course, there are many books that chronicle the history of a place or a family that are considered very reliable and upon which many genealogists rely for information.

Pace said in his 40-plus years of researching history of some sort or another, he said it’s always gratifying to find that bit of missing information that had previously eluded him.

“You’ll hear a ‘whoopee’ in a quiet library,” he said, and it’s a sure sign that another researcher has found an elusive tidbit as well. “They’ve found what they’re looking for,” he said. “It‘s very rewarding.”

 

 

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TownTalk: Basic Genealogy

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Today’s genealogy enthusiasts have a multitude of online resources, from databases that help create family trees to digitized newspapers from bygone eras.

Whether you’ve been at it a long time, like Mark Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris have, or whether you’re just getting started, there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind as you ferret our tidbits of information.

In their tri-weekly history segment on Thursday’s TownTalk, the two history buffs discussed the basic nuts and bolts of genealogy – call it Genealogy 101.

Pace, North Carolina Room specialist at Oxford’s Thornton Library, has been doing research on his family for half a century. Harris, for about the past 25 years.

Harris reminds others to talk in person with the oldest family member you can to find out information. “But there’s so much more,” he said, from family Bibles to web-based resources.

Pace said a family’s oldest living relative is a “wonderful resource” to start with, whose basic knowledge can be verified – or disproven – by checking against other sources.

“If you start with what you know,” Harris said, such as talking with a grandparent or other older relative, to gain information, “you can plug it in and then…slowly start working backwards” to fill in the gaps.

It’s important to determine what information is relevant to your search to avoid getting distracted. “Don’t let it overwhelm you,” Harris continued.

Libraries and courthouses are familiar places to many seasoned genealogists. But there is so much information available at your fingertips – online databases and archived documents make it easier for genealogists to find information in far-flung places.

Most places have a local history library, Pace said, and he constantly receives calls from people who are doing just that – checking sources.

“North Carolina was one of the very last states to mandate by law that you have a birth certificate or death certificate,” he said. That law took effect in 1913.

Before then, births may have been recorded in family Bibles and deaths verified in wills or estate records.

Wills and estates, however, were used by those who owned property. The lives and deaths of individuals who didn’t own property could easily have fallen through the cracks and lost forever, Pace noted.

Case in point, a branch of Pace’s own family. “All they did was grow tobacco and go to church,” Pace quipped, adding that there is scant information available about that part of his own kin.

Not surprisingly, when recorded information was done by hand and not by keystrokes on a computer, errors were much more common.

That’s just one reason why genealogists should always have multiple sources for their information

“Question everything,” Pace advised, adding that genealogists often have to be part sleuth to uncover information that may be difficult to prove.

For years, telephone books served the vital purpose of listing numbers of individuals and businesses. Those thick paperback behemoths are obsolete today, but the old ones that are still around can help genealogists confirm information, Pace said.

Documents as mundane as phone books help to place a person in a certain time period at a certain place. They are “fabulous” resources, Pace said.

He fielded a query once from someone who wanted to know the phone number for a family member who lived in Oxford at the beginning of the 20th century, when the town had its own self-contained telephone system. Pace located a 1903 phone book and found the phone number.

What was that phone number, you ask? 1.

 

 

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TownTalk: Trials And Tribulations Of Genealogy

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Lots of people dabble in genealogy in their quest to fill out a family tree, but Kim Knight has taken it to a whole different level.

Knight has a college degree in archival management and genealogical research from Brigham Young University and she’s been a genealogy professional for more than 20 years.

What began as research on her father’s side of the family has blossomed into a business that helps others find their ancestors. But the work is so much more for Knight, she told WIZS’s Bill Harris and guest host Phyllis Maynard on Thursday’s Town Talk.

Genealogy is her go-to activity when she needs to take a break from the trials of everyday life. It’s a therapy of sorts for Knight, who deals each day with the effects of traumatic brain injury. And with a cancer diagnosis.

Maynard and Harris conducted the second part of an interview with Knight as part of a regular segment called “Former Active Duty” Still Boots on the Ground” that checks in with former service members who remain active in their community to help others.

There are many available computer-based platforms to entice an amateur genealogist, but Knight said she would choose https://www.familysearch.org/.

“It’s free, easy to use and has a tremendous database already behind it,” she said.

Other free sites include https://www.findagrave.com/ and https://www.cyndislist.com/us/.

While the amateur genealogist may enjoy poring over documents in search of family history, a professional genealogist has gone through rigorous training and certification to conduct research.

It’s reading ancient documents, learning how to pick through information and collect more than just dates of birth and death that intrigue Knight.

“It’s like painting the picture of the person’s life you’re researching,” she said.

For instance, she recently helped a young Black man with some research and she found some interesting information.  “I found that his great-great-great grandmother in the 1880’s went to college, earned her degree and went on to be a teacher – that was an amazing find for this young man,” she said.

Before all the online resources became available, genealogy fieldwork involved visits to courthouse, registers of deeds, and combing through lots of documents by hand. Now, clicks of the mouse and a few keystrokes can open up whole worlds of information to genealogists.

Knight cautions anyone doing family research to take care – misinformation abounds, and it’s vitally important to make sure the data is correct before adding it to your own family history.

For Knight, that’s part of the game with genealogy.

“It’s part of the fun, actually,” she said. “It’s a kick. I really enjoy genealogy.”

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TownTalk 2-4-21: Genealogy & History With Shannon Christmas and Mark Pace

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The way Shannon Christmas sees it, the reason genealogists should use new-fangled science in conjunction with old-fangled documentary research to complete their family tree is simple: DNA does not lie, he said. Sometimes, people do.

Christmas spoke with Bill Harris and Mark Pace on Thursday’s Town Talk about how genetic testing can confirm family histories that often are passed down through man-made documents. But DNA can also throw genealogists a curve ball, he said, when test results don’t match up to what family members have known, or been told, for years.

The noted genetic genealogist paid a return visit to Town Talk and encouraged all levels of genealogists to really understand the value of both science and old-fashioned research to have as complete a family tree as possible. “We have a real problem now,” Christmas said, that individuals think that “all they need to do to learn about their family history is just to take a DNA test and nothing else.” DNA test results can yield information about previously-unknown branches of a family tree, but documentary research – combing through court records or family papers, for example – “can provide the same sort of shocking info, the same sort of revelation,” Christmas said. It is important, he added, to do both of them together when working to fill in the family tree.

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A DNA test is “a great resource for confirming one’s own ancestry and also for extending your family tree,” he said. Knowing the different types of tests and their particular strength is helpful, too, he added. Autosomal DNA testing and X-chromosome DNA testing are used to predict relationships and assign kinship, he said. Sometimes, a family tree’s branches are gnarly, such as when families have double-first cousins or half siblings. That’s when genealogical DNA tests can help. The Y DNA is passed from father to son, and mitochondrial DNA, which males and females both have, is only passed down from mothers.

Christmas decided to delve into his own ancestral lineage when his nephews were born.

“In 2009, I recognized that my position within my family had changed. I was no longer the oldest member of the youngest generation,” he explained. “I became an uncle and I wanted to document my family’s history for the next generation – For my nephews – and their children. “ Although that was his prime motivation, he confessed: “I also enjoy the intellectual stimulation that comes from doing genealogy and genetic genealogy in particular.”

Here’s just a snippet of what he’s learned about Erasmus Christmas, his paternal 2x great-grandfather: He was born enslaved in 1830 in Warren County. Through the family’s oral history, he had been told that his biological father was also the slave owner and his mother was an enslaved woman on the plantation. “DNA was able to provide evidence that supported the oral history,” Christmas said. Y-DNA test results showed that he, indeed, had traits that were of European origin. “That was a crucial piece of information that confirmed the oral history; in addition, the autosomal DNA matched me to other descendants of the slave owner’s parents.

He predicts the future of DNA testing will come to include complete genomic mapping, which, in addition to artificial intelligence and automation, can help speed up the whole process. More cataloging of more DNA segments is one thing, Christmas said, but “artificial intelligence is, well artificial.” No algorithm in the world can take the place of the human eye when it comes to noticing errors, he said. Genealogists must continue to do research manually and continue “to vet every source and every record” for accuracy.

For now, Christmas said, “it’s more important to get your DNA into each of the autosomal DNA databases. There might be a relative in one database and not in the others, and those relatives might have the answers you’re looking for.”

Take the case of King Richard III, for example. The British monarch’s remains were positively identified in 2013 using DNA from living descendants. The king died in 1485. That’s 528 years, folks.