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| The Future Genealogist |
It was 1976, a heady time to be contemplating family history. Yep, I'm a Bicentennial baby, when it comes to genealogy research. Who remembers the Freedom Train which traversed the country with artifacts from America's first 200 years? I do! Not only was the United States celebrating its independence from England, but the publication of Alex Haley's Roots was also gripping readers for its depiction of the experiences of generations of an African-American family from slavery to freedom.
I have written about some elements of how I became interested in family history previously, but to recap I was interested in genealogy long before I understood there was a word for venerating your ancestors. In my case, it arrived in the form of photographs in an old suitcase at my grandmother's house which I regularly perused.
Eventually – fed up with my many questions most likely – my grandmother suggested I write to her brother Ralph and ask him for additional information. At first, I thought I was hearing things. Write to Uncle Ralph!? Are you kidding me? The same Uncle Ralph who was the childhood nemesis in many of my grandmother's stories? The brother closest in age to her, and therefore each other's biggest tormenter? That Uncle Ralph?
Once I realized she was serious, I did as she suggested and my great-uncle wrote back with many details, and more importantly, a pedigree chart he had hand-sketched that I would study over the coming the years with great intensity. As I was then in sixth grade, I didn't have many opportunities to pursue some of these details further until I was older but it was always there in the back of my mind. I listened intently for any new detail mentioned in the stories my grandparents, aunts, and uncles told. Like a squirrel hoarding its acorns, I filed away all these little nuggets of information until the time was right for me to pick up that pedigree chart again in earnest! Thank you, Uncle Ralph, for that wonderful start. Maybe brothers aren't always so bad, after all!
Inspired by those tantalizing details from my great uncle and wanting to know more, I remember reading my first genealogy how-to book, Jeane Eddy Westin's Finding Your Roots, published in 1977. I learned all kinds of new things like how some surnames were based in historical occupations and how to fill out a pedigree chart. I also learned about how different cultures have traditional naming patterns and starting with "attic archeology" to gather was information you already have.
I read about the mysterious Family History Library, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and their vast collection of microfilm. At the time I couldn't even fathom what that meant or how invaluable it would come to be to my research. By today's standards the book now seems both quaint and antiquated, but at the time it was my first glimpse into the world of genealogy. My 12-year-old self was poised with her nose pressed to the glass just burning with anticipation waiting for the virtual door to the past to open!
I read about the mysterious Family History Library, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and their vast collection of microfilm. At the time I couldn't even fathom what that meant or how invaluable it would come to be to my research. By today's standards the book now seems both quaint and antiquated, but at the time it was my first glimpse into the world of genealogy. My 12-year-old self was poised with her nose pressed to the glass just burning with anticipation waiting for the virtual door to the past to open!
References:
A later edition of Finding Your Roots is available from Internet Archive if you want to remind yourself – or learn! – what genealogy research was like before the World Wide Web and mass digitization!
Copyright 2019 by Lisa A. Oberg, GeneaGator: Vignettes of Yesteryear. All Rights Reserved.
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