06/01/2001

Family Tree Making

Ursula McCafferty, friend and fellow writer, spent many hours tracing her ancestry on the Internet, as well as via family interviews and slogging through printed records. Her description of the process is fascinating. I hope those of you who have done genealogical research online will share some of your discoveries for the benefit of others in the SNET community. Sometimes finding a lost relative is like searching for that proverbial "needle in the haystack."

A Gift of Heritage
By Ursula McCafferty

How often have you wondered just what to give your grown children or grandchildren for birthdays or other special occasions? Gift certificates are always appreciated but they are not a lasting gift. On the other hand-how about giving a "Family Tree"? There is no greater sense of self than knowing who and what you are and from whom you have descended. A family tree gives all the recipients a lasting sense of their heritage.

But how does one begin?

The first step is simple enough. Talk to relatives. Ask questions of your parents, grandparents, the oldest aunts and uncles, your cousins and any other family member or friend. Once you have a few dates and places from which to start, the search begins in earnest.

You must really want to do this, because it is time-consuming and at times frustrating. However, with each new ancestor you find, your sense of accomplishment will grow in geometric proportions.

Unless your forefathers were native Americans, Canadian, Mexican or Latin American they undoubtedly arrived on these shores by ship. A good place to start your search is the National Archives, where passenger lists are available that give names, dates, point of embarkation and port of arrival.

There are branches of the National Archives in many states. To find the branch closest to you go to: http://www.nara.gov. Many of the large office supply stores or computer stores carry software to help you in setting up a family tree. These programs vary in price with some being more elaborate than others. Unless you feel that you want all the "bells and whistles," a basic program is probably the best way to start.

The Mormon Church (Church of the Latter Day Saints) has a comprehensive program available. The information is available on their web site. Link.

There is also an excellent commercial program by Broederbund called The Family Tree Maker. Their basic program is the one I use and find very helpful. Link

If you have a scanner or access to one, the whole project becomes even more exciting. Dig out some of those old family photos, get the older members of the family to identify and possibly date those pictures and incorporate them into your family tree.

In some locations local records are not readily available to you unless you are a member of a genealogical society. Membership in the Connecticut Genealogical Society costs $35.00 annually. That membership card is honored in every state in the Union. If your trace goes back to the 1800s in America it might be well worth joining a Society, because the card opens doors to records that are not always available otherwise.

Once you start you will become engrossed in this project and will find great satisfaction in every bit of history you uncover.

There are several gaps in the Family Tree I am creating for my grandchildren. In an effort to fill the blanks I visited http://www.Ancestry.com.

For the last week I have been trying to track my maternal grandparents and my husband's fraternal grandparents. I mentioned frustration in my last article and that is exactly what I have been feeling.

After I logged on to the Ancestry web I signed up for a free Newsletter. I then entered the name of my grandmother and got absolutely nowhere. However, there is a message board available where you can post a query. If anyone answers your question you will be notified that a reply has been posted.

I followed the same procedure looking for John McCaffery & Helen Fitzpatrick. Please note that the name was spelled McCaffery without the "t." On my father-in-law's birth certificate his name is spelled with the "t" on one line and without it on another. These little idiosyncrasies create stumbling blocks.

My husband's ancestry is Irish. Getting information out of Ireland is difficult at best. If you know the exact area from which your Irish forefathers came, you would do well to look for a home page for that community. MAYBE you will get lucky. I logged on to the Clones web site (Clones is a town in Ireland), wrote letters, sent email and got absolutely nowhere. As yet, Ancestry.com does not have a page for Ireland.

Attending to the nuts and bolts of genealogical research takes patience, patience, and more patience. Now that I have posted messages on two message boards I simply have to wait and hope for a reply to my questions.

If your search is primarily within the United States you have a far better chance of connecting with information. The Ancestry web site has access to a database of over 500 million names. You can become a member for under $5.00 a month (based on an annual fee of $59.95). The local genealogical societies keep excellent records and the annual membership is only $35.00.

I was fortunate that my uncle did all our family research, which has been passed on to us. He was able to obtain portraits of ten of our ancestors, and I have copies of all ten.

A basic fact of genealogical research is that women didn't count! A wife will be named, but more often than not, her family is not explored.

There is a particular exception in my own family history, however. One of the ten portraits I have is of a woman. The reason is simple -- she brought a lot of money into the family. This woman was born on October 10, 1650 and she died on May 12, 1726. That is a surprisingly long life for someone born in the 1600s.

I also visited the genealogy site for the Church of the Latter Day Saints (http://www.familysearch.com) and found a tax list for Ireland but the McCaffery name was not on it. There were several Fitzpatricks, but that will take some further research. I'm not sure that the tax list deals with the area around Clones. With the family moving to Scotland, the only information I have is from my father-in-law's birth certificate, which mentions his father's and mother's marriage in Clones, Ireland.

I would be interested in hearing about your efforts and successes at tracking your history. In spite of occasional frustrations, this can be a very rewarding project.

If any of you have had luck using message boards, please let me know!

Additional web sites where genealogical data is available:

http://www.MyFamily.com

http://www.FamilyHistory.com

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.