Genealogists Turning to Computers for Searches
By Clint Cooper, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
May 29–Helen Poole Lillard of Ooltewah said the computer has helped her family expand.
In researching her Rhea County roots online, she found “lots of cousins” and two years ago came across an even closer relative.
“I received an e-mail from a girl in Canada,” Ms. Lillard said. “She was looking for her father, which happened to be my brother who had died over 10 years ago. We made the connection, and she came to see me and stayed a few months.”
Although city directories, telephone books, American Indian rolls, court records, Social Security death indices, tax rolls, deeds, pension applications, military records, cemeteries and libraries are still valuable tools for genealogical research, experts say computers have made searches easier.
“In years past,” said Susan Kendall, 46, of Harrison, “researching your family’s history meant you had to take the time to travel and visit libraries or courthouses in other cities, counties and states. This often involved many hours of poring through books and documents to find the information you were searching for. Now, it can be as easy as pressing a key on the computer.”
Aileen Bennett, who has made inquiries in Chattanooga about her great-great-great grandfather, Moses Humphreys, who lived in Monroe County, Tenn., said her genealogy search began at the Fort Wayne, Ind., library, which she said has one of the best genealogical research libraries in the country.
“When I got a computer, I was elated that you could find so much on the Web,” she said. “Ancestry.com is a good place to start; however, it is rather expensive.”
Ms. Bennett, 73, said a simple starting point is to key in “genealogy research” in a search engine. Many of the results will have have specific county sites, which in turn would offer cemetery records and census data to examine, she said.
Melissa Condra, 21, of Soddy-Daisy, who is searching for information about her grandfather, Thomas Orr, said she believes Ancestry.com might be the most helpful site for her.
However, “so far I haven’t had any luck because with every Web site you have to pay money, and I don’t have money to pay.”
Ms. Lillard, 68, said her research improved when she purchased a computer.
At GenForum (http://genforum.genealogy.com), she said, users type in a name, view the results, ask questions and add their names.
“From there, people can get in touch with you,” Ms. Lillard said. “This site has state and county (pages) where you can check obituaries, births, deaths and marriages.”
She also purchased a Family Tree Maker software program, completed as much of the tree as she could and posted it on the Web.
“When people check their names, they find my site and contact me,” Ms. Lillard said. “Then we prove family connections, and you can add their files to yours.”
Debbie Woolf of Eagle Point, Ore., who has attempted to search for her Southern roots with inquiries in Chattanooga, said the federal archives is a good place to get U.S. Census records but not the only place.
However, she said, “I like to use the computer to locate those I can access easily at home. I use Google to locate them.”
For additional help, Mrs. Woolf suggests www.rootsweb.com for records and family names, state and county Web sites and state libraries such as the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
When using Google to find information on family names, she said, “be creative (and) look for others that were in the family, not just direct lines.”
In addition, Mrs. Woolf said, researchers should try using the traditional first name and then the surname, the surname and then the first name, and even initials with the surname.
“You never know what combo will find information,” she said.
Ms. Kendall said Rootsweb.com has various mailing lists genealogists can join that allow the sharing of information with others researching the same surname or same county. She also said www.usgenweb.org has links to Web sites for nearly every county in the United States. Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com), she said, offers links for people researching outside the United States.
Even online news sources provide information, said former Chattanoogan Mary Hixon-Huffman of Palm City, Fla.
During the winter, she read a Chattanooga obituary notice for Mack Weathers, a nephew to her Grandmother Hixon for whom she is seeking additional information.
“I contacted his family with my condolences and got a bit of info from them on my grandmother,” said Ms. Huffman-Hixon, 55. “It’s only a little bit, but I’ll take it.”
Joyce Bailey Kent of Rossville said the computer is a valuable source for information, but users should check and double-check their information.
“One has to be careful and not take all the information as true,” she said. “There is one entry about our grandfather, James Alexander Owens, that is not true, and I am not able to convince the person who entered it to correct the site.”
Mrs. Woolf agreed.
“Genealogy is a long-term project that has to be verified, studied and examined for possible flaws and errors,” she said, “and research has to be done by interested parties or it is not valid. Taking information from the Net, books or other sources and claiming to have done genealogy is not truly so.”
E-mail Clint Cooper at ccooper@timesfreepress.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
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