This post is a response to a private message Clopin sent me. I've been writing a history of my family from 1657 and he asked me how to obtain genealogical data from previous centuries. My response was too long for another private message (as with my family history, there were too many characters) so I asked if he would mind my posting publicly. He didn't have a problem, so here it is. If anyone wants to discuss genealogy beyond this, that's fine. If not, that's cool, too.
The answer is that you have to access surviving documents; for really early lives (Clopin actually asked about the 17th and 18th centuries) you may have to rely on Parish Registers, family Bibles (where life events were often recorded), or whatever has survived in government archives. 17th century military records are poor for the New World, but the 18th century is somewhat better. A law passed in the early 18th century allowed the aging and often indigent veterans of the American Revolution to apply for pensions if they could prove they really served. The result is a large, surviving body of petitions documenting service records. These were usually written by advocates in legalese, but they often contain written or dictated statements from the old soldiers and people they fought with. It can be quite moving to hear the voices of an ancestor from so long ago. And mind blowing. I was completely unprepared for the things I found. You (Clopin) may want to see if there was a Canadian equivalent to this.
By the 19th century there is extensive census data and much better military records. The Internet gives you powerful resources to do access the information. It also allows you to contact other researchers with interests and families that overlap yours. These folks are known as "cousins." They are not hard to find, and they are sometimes extremely helpful (a cousin whose website I wrote to sent me an unpublished family memoir and dozens of of civil war era letters). But cousins will not do your research for you. It's kind of like having a study partner at school. As long as you pull your own weight, there are mutual benefits. Otherwise they will drop you like a stone. That's definitely part of the subculture.
To do your research well (in my opinion) you need to use one of three websites. But there is also this background:
In the first decade of the 21st century there was a robust community of genealogists on a site called Genealogy. Everybody's cousins were there and everyone wanted to share resources. It was all free. But over the last few years, a relatively expensive pay site called Ancestry destroyed the Genealogy community by buying the site and freezing its message board. (They also bought out almost everyone else, which is why they're so expensive). This has caused a sea change in online genealogical culture. Instead of treating resources as something to be shared, many now see them as commodities to be hoarded or sold dear. To Ancestry's credit, they preserve the old Genealogy archives and let people read it for free. It can be mined for all kinds of information (including the email addresses of cousins--some of which are still valid). But it's a dead board. You can't have conversations or ask questions for your own research. The selfish yuppy community that succeeded it is on the Ancestry site, and that you have to pay for.
Ancestry.com
Genealogy.com
Ancestry itself is a really great site, though. It has the biggest (and still growing) database of old records on the net. In addition to that (and the message board) you get access to a library of family photographs (yes, yours are there), in depth access to military records (for a mark up), and access to newspaper articles and obituaries. They also sell a DNA test that's sort of interesting (my brother gave it to me for Christmas--it was fun). Personally I refuse to subscribe to any money pit (meaning any subscription service), but you may want to consider it. It's definitely the best choice if you don't mind paying.
But Ancestry is only one of three major sites. The other two are free, but each has its limitations. The one I use is called FamilySearch. It also has a massive database of records--and some relationship or other with Ancestry. The reason Ancestry can't close them down is that they are owned by the super rich Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints--the Mormons. The LDS has apparently been keeping extensive genealogical records on everybody since the 19th century. I've heard this is because of a doctrine that souls who go to hell can get out if Mormons pray for them enough (apparently it takes a lot of prayers). And Mormons get bonus Heaven points for doing this--or something. Anyway, these records were available only to Mormons for more than a century, but in our times they have been opened up to everybody. So if you can deal with the LDS aspect--and I have no problem with them--it's something of an opportunity.
FamilySearch.com
Another helpful feature of FamilySearch is a software package for creating trees. A lot of people think making a family tree is the goal of genealogy, but in the computer age, the trees are mostly already written. You record a generation or two of your family and the tree will grow, sometimes going back hundreds of years. Trees give you the alł-important names and dates of your forgotten ancestors, making documentary research possible at all. They are also a useful graphic for the chronology you are using to reconstruct the actual story you are trying to tell. So trees are invaluable, but they are just the first step. (I hear Ancestry has good tree software, too, by the way--I've just never used it).
The downside of the FamilySearch tree feature--sort of--is that it is a wiki document. It's not just yours; others can add to it (which can be great) or obliterate your work--potentially cutting off branches that go back for hundreds of years. There are also roving LDS elder's who act as referees. They pass by occasionally, and they will get rid of anything that isn't referenced to a valid record. I've only seen this happen a few times and to be honest the result was always a better and more realistic chronology. You just have to understand that it is not your document exclusively. And because it is a wiki, its information is not perfectly reliable. I've definitely seen some mistakes. LDS, by the way, provides good security for personal data. No information on living people is given on any shared document. It appears only on your own screen and only if you put it there.
There are other features, too, but they are not as effective. Sometimes you get photographs and biographical information--sometimes you even run into cousins--but those things are rare in my experience. Also I have never found FamilySearch to be a community as Genealogy was and Ancestry presumably is now. FamilySearch is really just a research tool. But I've had good results with it--and the price is right. There are some free tutorials for it on YouTube if you are interested.
The third major way to access records and build trees is a free site called Wikitree. This is sort of an anti-Ancestry site. They make a big deal about being free, worldwide community. I've never been too interested. They have an honor code you have to sign on to--mostly just saying that you are going to cite sources--but they also have too many rules for me. If you want to work with someone else you have to apply for trust status and they have to approve you--or something. I'd rather just work with FamilySearch's data and trees and reach out to cousins as I find them on their own websites. I hear they do have a nice community, though. They're supposed to be into sharing photographs and information. But some of the results I've seen from them--for my family anyway--are appallingly bad. I suspect that quality assurance is a big problem on that site. But I don't have much experience with them.
Wikitree.com
One other site deserves mention, even though it's not a massive data records site like the other three. Find A Grave (which uses the unfortunate acronym "F*G" ) is a "virtual shrine" site (people keep pages honoring dead relatives or ancestors or sometimes even strangers). A page may include a photograph of the gravestone or sometimes (if you are lucky) a photograph of an ancestor you never thought you'd get to see. Most pages don't have ancestor photographs, but there enough that rambling through Find A Grave is worthwhile--a bit like fishing for pictures. The shrines have a text section, too, which may have newspaper articles or obituaries. Spouses, siblings, and children are hyperlinked (which makes for better fishing). And since you can write to the shrines' hosts, it's a great way to meet cousins. Some of my best contacts have been Find A Grave hosts. The downside is that there is zero quality assurance on the information given in the text section. And some of the hosts truly don't know what they are talking about. Find A Grave is a great site, only a quasi-reliable source. Suspect any tree that cites it.
Findagrave.com
That, I guess, is what I had to say to Clopin.
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Originally Posted by tailor STATELY
