Residents interested in mapping out their family histories were able to meet at the Irene Ingle Public Library Saturday morning and afternoon for a pair of introductory genealogy sessions.
Semi-retired schoolteacher Teresa Campbell of Juneau was invited by the library to lead the sessions, meant to point a person in the right direction to find useful data. In the morning presentation, nine participants got an overview of different research sources and records commonly available.
These can include the various milestone documentation people tend to accumulate, from birth and death certificates to marriage licenses.
Civil documentation at the township, county, state and federal levels are also useful place markers. Tax lists, voting rosters, Bureau of Indian Affairs registers, records of property and military service, and educational degrees can be useful in setting a relative into a specific time and place. Newspapers can also be a useful record; locally, back issues of the Sentinel are available at the library by request on microfiche.
In the afternoon session, Campbell showed participants how to access and navigate government census records. In the United States a census has been recorded every decade since 1790, and in 1900 the state of Alaska held its first census.
More than mere names and dates, a genealogical study can enrich a person’s understanding of their own family background by highlighting the context of their ancestors’ lives. The U.S. Census in particular has recorded the birthplace, address, education, family status, parental birthplaces, property ownership, health and occupation since 1880. This wealth of information can help connect subjects to other documentation and develop a more complex view of their lives.
“I understand my parents better, I understand my grandparents better,” Campbell explained. “I think it teaches us about history in a more personal way. For me it brings history alive.”
Though history was not a particularly favored subject, she began assembling her first family tree in junior high school and has more or less kept up an interest in it since.
Genealogy can be a challenge as well: “I really enjoy the problem-solving of it, the puzzle part of it,” Campbell commented.
For instance, as one goes further back, obstacles to following a family line appear in the way societies reckoned themselves. Non-owners of property and the birth surnames of women may be omitted from documentation, and before 1840 census data only recorded the heads of households.
“You can come across it at any time in history,” Campbell said of these roadblocks.
An amateur genealogist can suffer from too much data, as well. Quite often, close branches of a family may share many of the same names, and it can become difficult to discern one person from another. And while the Internet has sped up some aspects of the research process, it can just as speedily perpetuate misinformation when people fail to check original sources. Campbell pointed out one of the primary challenges can be knowing how to focus one’s attentions.
“You can spend hours and hours going in circles,” she said.
Campbell said the best way to begin is to speak with one’s relatives and family elders.
“That’s really the important starting place.” She said they would likely remember names and how people are related, and provide a historical context to start with.
Online, two of the biggest genealogical sites she suggested are FamilySearch.org, a free non-profit; and Ancestry.com, a paid-for site.
Campbell’s course was sponsored by the Friends of the Library, which head librarian Margaret Villarma explained funds extra-budgeted events such as this. A video-conferenced legal clinic aimed at advising the elderly was sponsored by the Friends last Tuesday, for instance. Raising money for future activities, the group is currently holding its annual Alaska Airlines ticket raffle through next month, with the drawing to be held on Nov. 25.
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