Digging into genealogy: Family histories tell more than names

All you really need is a whiff of curiosity, a couple of documents and an ample supply of patience. According to some armchair genealogists, a little bit of madness doesn’t hurt, either.

It’s an addictive hobby and one that frequently turns in to an obsession.

"I was just going to make a simple chart, just to see how it looked, and it grew into a lifelong endeavor," said Wayne Wright, associate director of the research library at the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown. "I’ve been doing it a long time. I was one of the ones who started when I was young, when my grandparents were still alive. I think because our family lived in the area a long time and liked to talk about the past."

Wright offers workshops in digging up one’s roots for the organization. But for the past 30 years, he’s also been available to help searchers track down information that may be in the library’s resources. Even after three decades, parts of his vocation still surprise him.

"I think it’s surprising how much you can learn about someone just by learning about their past," he said.

Also surprising "are the number of errors that are found in old records _ different birth dates, different facts. You just have to sort out. The more records that you find for something, the closer you get to the truth."

While most people are motivated to track their family histories simply because they are curious, some have more practical reasons, such as joining a group like the Daughters of the American Revolution or finding scholarship opportunities for specific ethnicities. But there are other reasons, too.

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"It’s good to know family trends," said Sarah Livingston, the librarian who runs the New York State History Room at the Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta.

"There are people who are researching their name for medical reasons in order to find out patterns of how people died. They’ll get the death certificate and (discover) so-and-so died of this disease a few generations ago," she said.

Livingston, who has been in this position at the library for three years, spends a majority of her time indexing records, such as obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, and local articles and maps. The library also offers classes in the fall and spring. The next one is on Wednesday and will cover immigration records.

According to Livingston, "The old adage proves true, which is that it’s a retired person’s profession.

"It’s very time-consuming," she said. "There’ve been a few young people who started in their teens and have been doing it all along. But you need to have time to be able to travel places and to see what’s actually there."

No matter what your age, however, Livingston said, "Checking out your local library is a good start. There are books about how to begin you research. As far as vital records go, start in your own home, in basements and attics, looking at the records that you have and recording them."

East Springfield’s Suzanne Goodrich, who has been working on her family history for decades, agreed with Livingston.

"The older you get, the more you want to know before you die, I guess," she said with a laugh. "I think I’m doing this because it wasn’t done for our generation. I want to be able to leave it for my grandchildren. They won’t be interested in it until I’m buried, but I know that some day they will be, just as my children are getting to be."

Goodrich said she can’t resist the appeal of finding new information about her family’s heritage. She does wish, however, that she had asked more focused questions when her ancestors were still around, she said.

"I started when my grandmother was still alive, so that was in the 1970s. But that’s when I was young and I didn’t have the time to do this. Would that she were alive today, that I could have asked her the questions I should have asked her but I didn’t know that I should," Goodrich said.

Local libraries such as Huntington have several books that outline what you should be asking family members and lists of documents that you should find copies of if you would also like to be an armchair detective, Livingston says. Goodrich points out that a genealogist needs to have more skills than just being able to find pieces of paper.

"You have to have a sense of curiosity and a sense of being a detective," she said, "and the joy when you find something is just so incredible."

The joy of discovery infects the librarians as well.

"The staff here gets excited helping others find something," said Joan Bruneau, a librarian at the Family History Center in West Oneonta.

Family History Centers are global branches of the Family History Library, which was founded to help Mormons trace their ancestry. This library, whose main branch is in Salt Lake City, has the largest collection of genealogical records in the world, most of which are stored on microfilm.

You don’t have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to view this information, nor do you have to travel to Utah. All you really need to do is stop by the Family History Center in West Oneonta. The New York State History Room at Huntington Library is also a Family History Center.

"We have access to order any film that isn’t restricted," Bruneau says. "And we have microfiche on file also."

Visitors to the West Oneonta center come from all walks of life, according to Bruneau. "There is a whole gamut of people. We have from people from 12 years old to 80 years old at the center _ cemetery caretakers, teachers, insurance agents, students," she said.

Bruneau found her way into this vocation through sheer curiosity, she said.

"I have worked on my history for about 40 years," she said. "I enjoy just finding out things about people _ not just the dates, but about their lives, what they actually did."

That may be what keeps these armchair detectives hooked. Once you know how to look, the information that you find is more than dry facts. You find information about how people lived their lives and how those lives affected your present.

Or, as Wright said, "I think it’s surprising how much you can learn about someone just by learning about their past."