| SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series: Geneology
My Family Tree is Important to Me
( 50 articles in this series )
Searching
for Family: Unions and Organizations
Researching the branches of your family tree
can be a complex and time-consuming process. Sometimes you
may feel like you have reached a dead end and not know where
else you can look. That’s when it’s time to think like your
ancestors and look for them in unexpected places. Perhaps
they were a member of a church, a professional organization,
or
a civic organization. These organizations often create and
store records of their own, in which you might find vital information
on your family members.
Your ancestors, like most Americans, were most
likely members of a church of synagogue, which might still have records of
baptisms, first communions, confirmation, bar or bas mitzvahs,
marriages, or deaths of their members. Organizations within
the church may also have kept their own records that you can
research. Baptism records may provide evidence of your ancestors’
parents, their residence at the time, their date of birth,
and the names of friends or relatives who acted as their Godparents.
Confirmation records, which are usually kept for adults, may
provide clues to childhood activities or spouses. Burial
records may have information on spouses and direct descendants and
act as a supplement for or in lieu of a death certificate.
Marriage records vary in detail, possibly containing the names,
ages, residences, and parentage of a couple in addition to
their occupations, educational history, and the name and locations
of their witnesses. In order to find church records, you must
first find the congregations of which your ancestors were a
member. Be careful not to assume that all family members went
to the same church. Different family members can be different
religions. Also some denominations have changed their names
over time. Memorabilia, such as family bibles; newspaper articles
and obituaries; death certificates and funeral home records;
marriage records; and census records could provide you with
clues to your ancestor’s church membership. Once you locate
the church, check their records first, if they have any. Later
you can solicit information about records from church or clergy
members or at local history libraries. Churches that no longer
exist may have records at affiliated churches nearby, in the
church denomination’s archives, or in local libraries or museums.
School
and universities also may keep records, such as enrollment
records and transcripts, and the local or state government
may keep records on students as well for tax or census purposes.
Different college keep records differently, however, and, for
the sake of privacy, most make it difficult, if not impossible,
to obtain transcripts for students within the past seventy
years. Depending on the state, if you request a transcript
for an ancestor who attended school there great than seventy
years ago and can prove that you are related, you might not
have a problem, though. Besides transcripts, you could also
look in alumni association or university archives for student
directories, yearbooks, literary journals, newspapers, and
scrapbooks. Sororities and fraternities, honor societies, and
other service organizations may also keep their own records.
Public libraries and museums may keep yearbooks or other school
publication, particularly for school that closed down. Finally,
local newspapers may contain information on students or school
events.
After school is thoroughly searched, comes work, and if you
can identify your ancestor’s occupation using other records,
such as census records, you can usually find employee records
of unions and other organizations. Employment records for early
railroad workers and early employees of the federal government
are available in publications in history libraries. Different
organizations also exist for businessmen and other professionals,
such as engineers, teachers, doctors, and even dairymen and
morticians. These organizations often have their own publications,
which may contain biographical information, such as birth date,
education, residence, and death date. Publications about members
of the clergy can also be found in church archives.
Finally, if you can identify and civic or fraternal organizations
to which your relatives belonged, you can seek out any records
they may have kept. The Mason, for example, keep very good
records. Libraries, archives and museums may also contain organizational
records. The Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum
of American History, possesses extensive archives containing
manuscripts and publications of professional organizations.
If your great-grandpa worked in advertising, for example, their
collection of advertising materials may be the place to look. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
> Home > Geneology
Articles : Main Page
|
