Researching your family is certainly not new. Thousands of people are motivated for a broad spectrum of reasons: Heritage, family secrets, rumors, lost cousins, buried treasure, famous ancestors and the list goes on and on.
Interest is piqued by the apparent ease of going online, tapping a few keys in a search page and expecting our pedigree to appear on a computer screen. Listening to the advertisements might have you believe that it’s as easy as that. High expectations often lead to crushing disappointment. Don’t despair!
Certainly, in the 21st century there are dozens of websites that can provide much needed assistance in answering those questions of “Where am I from” or “Who are my ancestors” and others.
The challenge is to manage your expectations. There are certainly billions of records accessible. The challenge is which site and what strategy is the most productive.
Problem number one is simple. Of all the available information to family researchers, only an estimated 10 to 15% is accessible through the internet.
Let me explain: First, trillions of documents exist worldwide, but not all of them are available to the public. There are many laws and policies that preclude access for a variety of reasons.
Second, in order for the available records to be accessible, they have to be photographed or “digitized.” Once they’re digitized, they can be uploaded to a genealogy website such as MyHeritage.com, Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org and many others.
But how can you access a record that you need? That takes us to problem number three.
We’re all familiar with an index. In a standard text such as an encyclopedia or a history book, you would flip immediately to the back where you would normally find an alphabetically arranged list to tell you which page you need to access the data. Digitized documents don’t come with alphabetical lists and page numbers for locations of the data! There’s no way to find a specific name or location or event because these digital images must be indexed. How does that happen?
Thousands of genealogists around the world will volunteer to “index” the collections.
For example, FamilySearch.org is the website of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. An indexer, with minimal training, can download an un-indexed document. A blank form comes with it that asks for specific information. It’s the job of the indexer to read the digitized image and fill in the requisite information: names, dates, locations, etc.
Reading the ancient handwriting can often be a challenge so each document is indexed by two separate individuals. Discrepancies are turned over to an arbitrator who makes the final decision on issues such as “Is that a 5 or an 8?” Or, “Is that name David or “Daniel?” Transcribing handwritten 17th-, 18th- or 19th-century documents requires patience and experience. Once the arbitrator makes the decision, the document can be released for you to find.
Next month, I’ll talk about a few very simple search strategies to help you with online searches. I’ll also provide you with multiple resources for offline research when what you need is simply not available at any website.
Dave Robison, of Springfield, is an avid genealogist and history docent at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History. He is the president of the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium which will be holding a conference in Springfield in 2021. An affiliate of the Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society and the New England chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, he teaches workshops in family history. He may be reached via his website, oldbones.info or email to dave@oldbones.info. His column will appear monthly.