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BOOT CAMP 173 (03/05//01)
TRACING YOUR ANCESTRY, part 1
Imagine an enormous jigsaw puzzle, you have three or four
pieces but you have absolutely no idea how big it is or what the overall picture
looks like. That's what it's like to research your family tree. It sounds
hopeless but it's not, there is an excellent chance that there are lots of
people with those missing pieces who are only too willing to share them with
you, or able to tell you where to look for more.
Until fairly recently researching your ancestry required
determination and specialist knowledge. It could be a time-consuming and
frustrating business involving a fair amount of searching through dusty
archives. Nowadays, with the help of personal computers, the Internet and email
it has been transformed into an absorbing and rewarding hobby that anyone can
enjoy. Who knows what you'll turn up, noble or royal blood, a title, a family
crest or maybe even a long-lost legacy?
This week we'll be considering some of the ways the Internet
can help you to trace your family history, next week we'll focus on how your PC
can be used to collect and collate information and construct a family tree.
The Internet opens up several highly productive avenues of
research. It gives you more or less instant access to archives and databases
around the world; some of them are vast containing tens of millions of birth,
death records dating back several hundred years. There are tens of thousands of
web sites devoted to genealogical research and family history, countless
newsgroups where information can be sought and exchanged and most important of
all, email, which allows you to communicate directly with other members of your
family.
Time to make a start, the simplest method is to begin with
the pieces of the jigsaw that you have to hand, namely yourself and if possible,
names and dates for your immediate relatives, which would be parents and
grandparents. Normally it is easier to start off by researching the paternal
line but there's nothing to stop you tracing your mother's family, or even
working sideways, as it were, looking for living relatives amongst cousins,
aunts and uncles. However, it is a good idea to stick with one line of research
initially, otherwise you will quickly get bogged down. A maps is essential, have
at least a country map to hand so you can plot family hot spots and clusters,
and if one particular locality is important to your family's history it's useful
to have a large-scale map of that area as well.
Next type your surname, or the name you are researching into
a search engine, followed by the words 'family tree', 'ancestry', 'genealogy' or
'home page'. If the name is relatively unusual name you may be lucky and get
only a few hundred 'hits', more common names may well yield thousands but the
first few dozen should lead you quickly to specialist sites and individuals with
the same name, some of whom may have compiled a family tree that you can check,
to see if there are any obvious links to your own family.
This may well lead you to a number of newsgroups, forums and
message boards and these can be particularly fruitful. Here you will find
dozens, possibly hundred of 'postings' from other researchers seeking or
offering information. It's well worth spending some time working your way
through them, looking for any likely connections. You can usually reply or add
to any message 'threads' by clicking on a button on the page or you can respond
directly to an individual by clicking on the senders underlined email address.
Alternatively you may want to post your own message but be as specific as
possible and include as many dates and places as you can. Be patient, you may
strike lucky and get a response quickly but it is far more likely that you'll
hear nothing for several weeks.
Having got your feet wet you are now ready to visit to the
world's largest database of family histories containing records of more than 200
million births deaths and marriages. It's the International Genealogical Index
or IGI (see 'familysearch' under Links), created by The Church of Latter Day
Saints (aka the Mormons) whose members are committed to research their own
family histories. The IGI database has been built up from information sourced
from public records, church and parish registers in Great Britain and the US and
over 40 other countries.
In spite of its size the IGI is surprisingly easy to use but
you can speed things up considerably if you have accurate names and dates and
can reduce the size of the geographical search area to a particular country.
The British are famous for centuries of diligent
record-keeping and several large Government archives have web sites though the
main repository, The Public Record Office (see Links), does not have direct
access to documents but it does provide a number of useful on-line catalogue
search facilities, a great deal of helpful advice and links to other Government
departments. These include the Office for National Statistics, Probate Registry
and Ministry of Defence. Another valuable source of information for those with
family members who served in the armed forces is the Commonwealth War Graves
Commission (see Links), which maintains a very detailed register of cemeteries
and memorials in over 150 countries.
Sooner or later you will come across the mother lode of
genealogical web sites and that is Cyndi's List (see Links). It boasts an
incredible 95,500 links to genealogical resources on the Internet and recently
notched up its 20 millionth visitor. The site is vast, so save it for a wet
weekend, unless you are fairly sure you know what you are looking for!
USEFUL LINKS
http://www.cyndislist.com/
http://www.familysearch.org/
www.pro.gov.uk
www.cwgc.org/cwgchome.htm
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Next week – PCs and family trees, part 2
JARGON FILTER
NEWSGROUP
Public notice boards on the Internet where like-minded net
users can post e-mail messages, articles or announcements for others to read and
respond to.
SEARCH ENGINE
Internet sites that seek out information, by topic, keyword
or name. Good places to start a name search are: www.google.com, www.yahoo.com
www.lycos.com and www.altavista.com
THREAD
Messages in a newsgroup, forum or on a bulletin board linked
by a common theme
TOP TIP
Display Properties is one of the most frequently used items
in Control Panel, so why is it so difficult to get at? Here's a way to open it
with a single click from your desktop or Quick Launch toolbar, and you can even
specify which tab it opens on, so you could go directly to the Settings or
Screensaver page. Here's how. Right-click on the desktop and select New then
Shortcut. In the Command Line type in 'control desk.cpl' (without the quotes),
click Next and give it a name. To make it open on a particular tab add two
commas and then a number from 0 to 5 (i.e. 'control desk.cpl,,1' for the
Screensaver tab, 'control desk.cpl,,3' for Settings etc.). You can leave the
shortcut where it is on the desktop or drag it into the Quick Launch toolbar. If
you want to change the opening tab just right-click on the shortcut and select
Properties and change the command in the 'Target' line.
NEXT
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