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It takes details to bring your ancestors to life

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By SHARON TATE MOODY

Tribune correspondent

Published: May 24, 2009

People new to genealogy often are surprised to learn they can't "do their family history" on the Internet in a weekend. In fact, those of us who have been working on our families for 30 or 40 years know it might take more than one lifetime to get it all done.

The main reason it takes so long is that the records we need to prove activities and relationships were never created or have been destroyed.

The government didn't always require birth and death certificates. Doctors and midwives delivered children in the mother's home without creating any legal record of the event.

When a family member died, often the women washed the body and laid it out on a table for neighbors to pay their respects. Then they buried the deceased on the family farm, perhaps with a piece of wood to mark the spot. No death certificate and a rotted grave marker equal no records.

Marriage records were created with regularity, but most researchers aren't surprised when they can't find one for an ancestor. Even when documents were created, they disappeared in courthouse fires or were tossed when the clerk ran out of room for new ones.

Despite the obstacles, most of us manage to piece together the born, married, died and begats of our ancestors.

There's a real reason, though, that I'll probably never get all my ancestors tracked down. I get sidetracked by the ancestors themselves and become obsessed with learning about what life was like for them.

I'm not satisfied to learn the Civil War battles where each of my ancestors fought. I get bogged down in the details: What was the weather like? What did they do between battles? What did they eat? The questions never stop and the genealogical research halts while I explore social and cultural atmospheres, geography, and countless other fascinating aspects of my ancestors' lives.

I found a newspaper article written in 1900. The paper's editor interviewed who he identified as the heads of the first five families to settle in the area more than a half-century earlier. Among them was my ancestor.

If you take the romantic view, you might see him as a leading citizen, riding around town in a fine carriage and going home to a fancy house.

I went to read dairies, newspapers, history books, court records: anything that might give me insight into the everyday life of my 1840s north Georgia ancestor.

I learned the fancy house probably was a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor and no windows. Residents of great-great-Grandpa's little community took an entire day to walk to town and another to walk home. They ate what they killed or grew from the rocky ground.

Even if I could find all the relevant official records digitized on the Internet, would that be enough? No! Conducting genealogical research isn't just getting the dates and places and full names for vital events; it's about the quest and the thrill of "the find."

I want to walk the fields my ancestors plowed (assuming they haven't been paved). I want to spend time sitting under a tree at the edge of a battlefield where my ancestor fought and perhaps died. I want to spend time at the cemetery, taking a moment to appreciate the lives of those who put loved ones in the ground there.

I swear I am not a romantic about this. Learning about reality is much more powerful and moving. So take my advice, don't get wrapped up in how many names you collect for your database. Take the time to make some real discoveries: the awe and appreciation for lives that led to you.

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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