The first place many people begin looking for their family’s history is in a Bible, and I’m not talking about Adam and Eve or all those begets.  If we’re lucky, one of our ancestors started a tradition of writing their family’s marriage, birth and death records in their Bible.  If we’re even luckier, we know where that Bible is today.  If we’re Lotto-winner lucky, the information is correct.

That’s right.  Just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s true.  If the records were recorded as they happened, then they’re usually right.  But if someone entered the who, what and when in hindsight, then Heaven help the person who relies on those names and dates to be facts.  I did that and wasted nine months researching the wrong names. 

How can you know if the information in your Family Bible is accurate?  Verify it.  Check the data with county and state records the same way you’d look for any vital statistic.  And right there is the biggest problem with many Family Bibles.  A lot of people didn’t record where the events happened.  To overcome this problem, start with the latest dates in the Bible and work your way backward through the names, the same as with any family history.

What if you don’t have a Bible filled with generations of invaluable facts? Try looking online to see if there is a Bible out there for your family.  The Internet is filled with websites where lovely people have taken the time to list the family records from Bibles in their possession.  Remember, though, this data still needs to be verified.

Many libraries, museums or archives, historical and genealogical societies, colleges and universities have Family Bibles in their collections.  While some have websites listing their holdings, only a few have online Bible databases.  Do not write these institutions asking if they have your family’s Bible if they have online catalog access.  Check their holdings to see if they have Bibles.  Verify the catalog to see if they have a Bible with your surname.  Call the library’s assistance number to ask how you can access the family record information in that Bible, either via interlibrary loan of a microfilmed copy of the Bible or photocopies of the pertinent pages.  If by photocopy, you’ll want the Title Page, Copywrite Page, and all the Family History Pages; plus any extras inserted or written in the Bible, such as personal notes, newspaper clippings, etc.

If the repository does not have online resources, such as a historical or genealogy society in the area you’re researching, write and ask if they have any Family Bibles in their collection.  Give the surname you’re researching and, if known, the wife’s surname before marriage.  If you know the exact area where the family lived and the time period, include that.  Keep your letter short and professional.  Include your email address, phone number and a self-addressed stamped envelope to give them a choice in responding.

eBay is a good place to look for lost Bibles, though it would be a miracle to find one for your own family.  Also antique stores and flea markets located near your ancestors’ old homestead. Can’t travel to the area you’re researching?  Check online for regional antique stores.  Rescuing a lost Bible, even though not your own, from a seller and donating it to a preservation facility like those listed above would certainly assure a researcher a place in Genealogy Heaven. 

Once you’ve found a Family Bible with the same surname as yours, how do you know if it’s your family?

1.     Verify that the information in the Bible is correct. 

2.     Try to link the names in the Bible to the people in your Family File.  Compare names, marriage dates, etc.  

3.     You don’t find any links.  What is the reason?

a.     If the life spans for the Bible names are during the period your Family File covers, this isn’t your family.  It may, however, be an aunt, uncle or cousin’s line you haven’t yet discovered.  Consider saving the names in case a connection is found later. 

b.     If the life spans for the Bible names are older than the period your Family File covers, save the Bible names until you grow your family tree higher.  Then try to connect to it again.

You may never find a Bible for your family.  Don’t sweat it.  You can live a full, healthy genealogical life without it.  Having one, however, is one of those wish-come-true things every genealogist dreams of . . . I wish I had a faster Internet connection, I wish I’d inherited the Getty fortune, I wish I had an accurate Family Bible.  We can’t all be born lucky, but now we all know where to look for lost Bible records.  Until next time, remember to verify your Family Bible!

©2010 Genealogy Help and Hints. All Rights Reserved.

I love computer Genealogy Programs.  I think they are the most useful invention since home computers and certainly the best reason to own a computer.  Why?  I don’t like getting organized.  But genealogy requires organization and Genealogy Programs are a great solution to the problem.

These lovely programs allow you to simply fill in the blanks with all the facts that you’ve collected in your research and add the sources for those facts.  Just like that, you’re organized.   See how easy that was?   Then, with a click of the mouse, the computer’s little microchip brain starts linking all those facts together and spewing out detailed reports and charts about your ancestors that you’ll be proud to show off to everyone at the next family reunion.  What could be more useful than that?  Not even Tupperware.

There are a number of Genealogy Programs you can buy, but the biggest and best are Reunion and Family Tree Maker.  I’ve used them both and prefer Reunion, which today is only released for Macintosh computers.  It is an easy-to-use program, making it perfect for beginners, yet it offers everything a professional genealogist requires. Many people have switched to Macs just so they can use Reunion. 

You don’t have to buy a program to have the luxury of using one.  The LDS (Latter Day Saints) have a free Genealogy Program that you can download called Personal Ancestral File, which runs on Windows.  I’ve not used this program, but my cousin has used it and said it is adequate for his uncomplicated needs.  This is all I know about it. A company called MyHeritage also has a free program called Family Tree Builder that appears to be very detailed.  I’ve only seen one review for this program and it was very complimentary.  Again, this is all I know about this program.  I am not recommending either, I am simply making you aware that there are free programs available.  Search the internet to see if others are available.

No matter what Genealogy Program you use, there’s one thing that’s vitally important for you to do.  Backup your file every day.  Back it up more than once just in case the first backup fails.  And don’t take the chance of losing both your computer and your backup.  Keep a copy of the backup someplace other than where your computer is located in case of fire or theft.

Now for the part I’ve been avoiding during this entire post—and from looking around at my desk, apparently for several months.  Filing.  Even if you have the best Genealogy Program in the world, at some point you’re going to have to do some manual filing.  Document collection is inevitable in genealogy research and those documents have to go somewhere other than in stacks around your computer screen and keyboard.

Here’s my method.  First I scan everything into my computer.  (Reunion allows me to drag a link from iPhoto, my image-storage program, and drop it in the file of the person it relates to, which is really cool.)  Back to the filing.  I have a folder for each surname.  I put Jones stuff in the Jones file, Pauley stuff in the Pauley file, etc.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s it, except I put precious, irreplaceable documents inside archival-quality plastic sheets.  Job done. 

You can get as detailed with filing your documents as you like.  Each person might have their own file folder with another folder just for the surname to use for family items.  You could organize everything into notebooks or sorted in boxes.  Some people make heirloom scrapbooks with their documents, but I don’t think you should glue anything irreplaceable to anything even if it is acid free.  Some people throw everything away after it’s scanned, but those people are crazy.

Each of us has to find our own way to store documents, just as we each have to choose which Genealogy Program to use.  Whatever method you decide on, start getting organized today!

©2010 Genealogy Help and Hints. All Rights Reserved.

To begin, start with yourself. Your name, birth date, where you were born.  Now you have your first person in your family file. That was pretty easy.  Next step, your parents and grandparents.

Maybe you don’t know your grandparents’ names.  Don’t be embarrassed.  I thought I knew my grandmother’s name until the day I was hunting through a birth register in a courthouse in WV and came across her birth record.  She had a different first name! Not Elva, as the entire family knew her as and is even on her tombstone.  Her real name was Elvira.  When I told my mother this shocking fact, she laughed and said that explained why whenever her father wanted to aggravate her mother, he would call her Elvira.  Apparently Grandma didn’t like her real name, but the fact remains that her actual name was Elvira and that’s what I had to list her under in my genealogy file.  However, I put her preferred name of Elva right beside it. I do this with all nicknames and it’s something you should do, too.  Many people are only referred to by a nickname even in legal papers.  Listing them only by their actual name in your family file may cause you to miss vital information in your research.

If you don’t know your grandparent’s name, look on your parent’s birth certificate. If you don’t have a copy, order it from the courthouse in the county where your parent was born. Google the courthouse or call to ask what information is required to order a copy.  And remember, the people at the courthouse don’t want to know about your genealogy quest.  Ask your question, be polite and thank them for their time.  If they ask what the certificate is for, I tell them it’s for my family file, which is true.  Everyone should have copies of their family’s vital certificates.

Birth certificates contain all kinds of lovely information. Place of birth, date of birth, and—best of all—the names of the parents. Sometimes, in those special moments that genealogists love and long for, it might even tell you where they were born.  Once you know your grandparents’ names, if you find out where they were born you can contact that county courthouse and request their birth certificates, which will then give your great-grandparents’ names.  If not, then you’ll have to start looking for death certificates—if your grandparents are dead.  Their death certificates should have their parents’ names.  You can request the death certificate the same way you did the birth certificate. 

Now you can see the pattern to follow.  Find the birth or death location and date, request the appropriate certificate, obtain information needed and keep requesting certificates as far back as possible.  This easy quest will end the year the state required births and deaths be officially reported, usually in the early 1900’s.  Before that date it takes a little more creativity to find vital information.  I’ll discuss this in other posts.

In genealogy, everything depends on knowledge. Knowing where something occurred.  Knowing when it happened.  So start asking questions. Ask everyone in your family.  Ask family friends.  Ask old neighbors.  Look for family records.  Check family Bibles.  Look for papers stored in old shoeboxes.  Look for obituaries, which people are constantly cutting out of newspapers without supplying dates and locations, but may have the name of a funeral home you can contact.  You have to be a detective. 

After all the digging, when you put together the bits and pieces of information and complete your family history, what a treasure you’ll have!  There’s nothing more valuable.  Okay, gold and diamonds would be great to find in that old shoebox on the top shelf of your grandpa’s closet, but that’s pretty unlikely so I’d settle for my gr-gr-gr-great-grandpa Jones’ name and history.  You try researching the name Jones in Virginia in the late 1700’s and you’ll see what I’m up against.  Until next time, start spelunking through your family’s closets and see what you find in those old shoeboxes!

©2010 Genealogy Help and Hints. All Rights Reserved.