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Overseas Search Starts With You

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By SHARON TATE MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 15, 2009

People often begin their genealogical quests wondering, "Where did my ancestors come from?"

The question is so vague that many get discouraged and give up before ever experiencing the fun of the search. Finding immigrant ancestors - and answering that first question - is all about setting reasonable goals.

To identify the men and women in your lines who first set foot on American soil, begin with you and your parents. Genealogical research moves backward in time from the known to the unknown. So your first genealogical quest isn't about a distant ancestor at all. It's about you.

The most important thing every researcher must remember is to prove every relationship and piece of information before you enter it into your family's history. Since your genealogy begins with you, first prove who you are. Now that may sound ridiculous, but if nothing else, it is good practice for your journey up the family tree.

Sit down and write a little story about yourself: When and where you were born, who your parents are, the places you've lived, where you went to school, your profession or occupation, your marriage, your children, and interesting things you've done. Now prove each of the things you said in the story.

You will do this with birth certificates, baptismal records, marriage licenses, the family Bible, school records, perhaps newspaper clippings, photographs and maps, etc.

You will repeat this process with each generation of grandparents you discover. It will get more challenging the farther back you go in time, because our ancestors didn't create the paper trails we do today.

Your research, then, will involve setting hundreds or even thousands of logical goals as you focus on one ancestor at a time.

Let's look at a hypothetical family. Peter Stanford, 40, and his wife, Mary (nee Brighton), 38, had five children: Herman, 17; Wallace, 15; William, 13; Mary, 4; and Elizabeth, 2, in 1857 when Peter died in Hamilton County, Tenn. It is natural to theorize that Mary remarried. This is the time to set a simple goal: "Determine whether Mary remarried after the death of her husband."

Next, devise a research plan. The first logical step is to check Hamilton County marriage records beginning in 1857 for Mary. Since Molly is a common nickname for Mary, check that name also, and look for Mary or Molly Brighton as well. Don't assume your ancestor mourned her husband for a year or two. Reality set in quickly when a man or woman was left alone to raise and support children and put food on the table.

A check of county records through 1900 finds no marriage record for Mary. The next step might be to check the census for 1860.

You enter Mary Stanford into an online census search engine, but get no hits. It is likely that her children, Herman and Wallace, were out of her household in 1860. William, Mary and Elizabeth probably still lived with her.

Enter the name "William Stanford" in the search engine. You find William, age 16, in the Marion County household of Jeremiah Johnson and his wife, Molly, 41. Also in the household are Mary, 7, and Elizabeth, 5. Bingo! There can be little doubt you've found the correct family.

Marion County is adjacent to Hamilton County. It's a logical place to search records for a marriage of Mary Stanford to Jeremiah Johnson. You find it! You met that goal.

Now you set another goal and devise a plan to meet it. You may not reach each goal so easily. Sometimes you'll have to regroup and reset your goals, but you will have enough successes to keep moving forward - or, more accurately, backward.

Trilby Homecoming

If you have roots in Trilby, it's time for you to go home. The old community will host its fourth annual homecoming on March 21 with a covered-dish dinner at Charlotte Tomkow Whittington's home at 36315 Tomkow Lane.

Bring a dish, your lawn chair, any old photographs and your family stories. The fun starts at 10 a.m. with dinner at noon. For directions, call Honorary Dade City Mayor Scott Black at (352) 567-2260 or e-mail him at trilbyboy@earthlink.net.

Trilby, in eastern Pasco County, dates to 1896. Railroad magnate H. B. Plant is said to have been reading the George Dumaurier novel "Trilby" when it came time to name the town. Streets in the town are named after characters in the novel.

Black has sent out a call for old Trilby photographs and oral histories, which he eventually hopes to put into book form.

DNA Price Break

Those who have hesitated to undergo DNA testing because of the cost, there's good news from Ancestry. The company has cut the cost of its 33-marker paternal lineage test from $149 to $79.

The test analyzes the DNA in the Y chromosome, which passes virtually unchanged through males in a direct line. To learn more about the tests available at Ancestry, go to www.dna.ancestry.com.

Sharon Tate Moody is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Send your genealogy questions and event announcements to her in care of Getaway, The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa FL 33606 or stmoody0720@ mac.com. She regrets

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