By Kathy Cook Hunter
Ever wondered where your ancestors came from, what they looked like and what they did for a living? Tracing your genealogy may be a way to solve the mystery.
A year ago, the Silver Falls Library in Silverton offered a class called “Genealogy 101,” and from it sprang a club, “Ancestry Detectives.” Lynn Williams of Silverton, started the group and acts as the facilitator.
Williams said the class was a popular one. “So many attended and showed interest,” she said. “If there’s community interest, a group is good. You help each other (find information) and encourage each other. It’s that community thing again – I like being in a community.”
The group is composed of about 15 members whose expertise range from beginner to longtime genealogist.
Silverton resident Roxanne Walstrom arranges programs for the Ancestry Detectives, which meets from 10 a.m. to noon the second Tuesday of every month at the library. The group recently toured the Salem Family History Center.
Walstrom, who’s had the genealogy “bug” for five years, said she was hooked after taking one college-level course in Utah. Her research found her spending nearly every day at the Mormon church library. “Usually Latter-day Saints churches have an area set aside for genealogy,” Walstrom said. “You can’t check out books or microfilms, so you end up staying all day.”
Walstrom said LDS church members have a tradition of keeping track of their family members as well as the history of other families.
“In Salt Lake City, the Family History Center has 14 floors of genealogy records,” she said. “This library is owned by the church, but it’s open to the public.
“LDS has gone to towns and cities everywhere, all over the world and filmed vital records and preserved them in a mountain in Utah. This includes births, deaths, marriages, lands, military records from wars before World War I and census records.”
The Ancestry Detectives club is planning a trip to Salt Lake City in September to conduct some research. However, Walstrom said, using the Internet makes access much easier than it used to be.
“(The made-for-TV film) Roots seemed to incite interest in our ancestors, and right now genealogy is the number-one hobby in the country,” Walstrom said. “If you google ‘genealogy,’ you’ll find more pages about it than any other hobby.”
The purpose of the club is to help one another with research as well as learn from guest speakers, some of whom are LDS Church members or who have toured the Salt Lake City history center.
“In April, our speaker will show software from Family Tree Maker, a genealogy program,” Walstrom said. “In May, it’s about researching military records and how to acquire them, and in June we’re taking a trip to the Oregon State Archives and library, both in Salem. The Oregon State Library has one floor of genealogy.”
Start with a just a pencil and a form. “You begin by filling out a pedigree chart or family tree, starting with yourself, and you go from you to your parents,” she said.
Then collect in a large box anything that relates to your family history, including photographs, birth and marriage certificates, school records, land deeds, baby books, diaries, family Bibles and whatever else can be found. Next, ask relatives for photos and documents, copy and return them. Third, organize all the materials into labeled files.
One need not be computer literate, although it helps. “Take that collection of information and go into a computer program,” Walstrom said. “We can organize it all and help you with the program.”
She says the four best sources of information are birth, death, marriage and census records, followed by land, military, church and probate records.
Census records are kept from the public eye for 72 years, making the 1930 U.S. census the most recent available. “Unfortunately, things happen such as fires and the Civil War. The 1890 census burned in a fire and is not available. Not all records are available – that’s why you look in other places,” she said.
Researching one’s genealogy can be expensive but need not be. “If you want to get official documents, yes, you can spend a lot of money,” she said, “and you can have a firm do it and pay for their services. But if you want to do the legwork and be patient, you can get a lot of information free. It doesn’t have to be that expensive at all.”
Walstrom, who has researched her side of the family to 1790, says the most interesting find is a relative from Ohio who was a Union soldier in the Eagle Regiment, which kept a pet eagle even in battle and was asked to participate in official ceremonies.
Williams says it is interesting to her that on her mother’s side the Sears and the Allens lived in the American colonies. “Just recently the Allens (history) opened up to me,” she said. “I had put a message on a message board and in six weeks someone responded.”
She hasn’t found out any embarrassing surprises. “So far, no one is buried in a debtors’ cemetery or potters’ field,” she said.
Genealogy is more a part of life than we may realize. “I would say everyone does genealogy in their own way,” Walstrom said, “whether it’s a family picnic at the beach or scrapbooking or some family tradition of some sort. Or you can actually do your family history by tracing your ancestors.”
