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Was it Genealogy or Family History?

December 28th, 2007
Posted in General

ge·ne·al·o·gy  (jclip_image001clip_image002nclip_image001[1]-clip_image003lclip_image004clip_image005-jclip_image001[2], -clip_image006lclip_image004[1]-, jclip_image007nclip_image002[1]clip_image001[3]-)

n. pl. ge·ne·al·o·gies

1. A record or table of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree.

2. Direct descent from an ancestor; lineage or pedigree.

3. The study or investigation of ancestry and family histories.

[Middle English genealogie, from Old French, from Late Latin geneclip_image008logia, from Greek geneclip_image008[1]logiclip_image008[2] : geneclip_image008[3], family; see genclip_image005[1]- in Indo-European roots + -logiclip_image008[4], -logy.]

geclip_image002[2]ne·a·logclip_image004[2]i·cal (-clip_image005[2]-lclip_image003[1]jclip_image004[3]clip_image009-kclip_image005[3]l) adj.

geclip_image002[3]ne·a·logclip_image004[4]i·cal·ly adv.

geclip_image002[4]ne·alclip_image004[5]o·gist n.

Hmm…that’s a big word. As a kid I always had a hard time saying it. I still have a hard time spelling it! If you feel uncomfortable with that big word but you still want to do the work—try this pronunciation:

fam·i·ly his·to·ry

Yup, they’re the same thing! But seriously, if you want to start working on your personal family history, now is a great time to start! It has never been easier to find information on ancestors. {you know, those people who originally bought that interesting plate that has been handed down for generations} Thanks to the Internet (lets all sing Hallelujah!) you have so much information at your fingertips! Can you feel the power yet?

Still stumped as how to start? Well, lets start with numero uno (as my dad would say). Meaning you!

1. What is your name?

2. What is your birthday

3. Where were you born?

4. Who are your parents?

For some individuals, #’s 3 and 4 could pose problems. That’s when you start exploring your options:

1. Get a copy of your birth certificate

Or

2. Start bribing your parents friend and/or siblings with obscene amounts of money, chocolate, your firstborn—whatever it takes—for information.

*personally I would recommend option #1, although #2 could be much more interesting.

If you’ve flown thru the first 4 steps easy peasy, then find out all that same information for each of your parents and keep going back until you can go no farther—and you’ve run out of people who are alive to get information out of. This process is also called: Compiling a Pedigree Chart—yup, just like if you were a prized racehorse! And of course being the modern internet savvy people that we are—you can easily do a Google search for specific people. Say you found that you have a Gr-Gr-Grandmother named Bridie O’Malley who was born around 1857—just type in that name and the year in and you’d be surprised at how much information you come across. Of course there are lots genealogy/family history companies out there just waiting to help you—so if you have some time, take a tour through a handful of sites—see what you find.

www.genealogylocator.com

www.genealogy.com

www.ancestry.com

www.genealogy.org

www.familysearch.org

www.genealogy.about.com

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