The Librarian and the Genealogist Should Be Friends

1
The Librarian and the Genealogist Should Be
Friends

• Presented by Jean Cooper
• At the Virginia Library Association Annual
  Conference
• 10/20/2005

2
The problem with genealogists

• Are not our primary constituency
• They are not doing real research
• They have to be taught how to do research
• They need to be taught how to use the library,
  and library equipment
• Information they need is not packaged neatly
• Sometimes there is simply no answer to a
  genealogists question

3
And the 1 complaint is

• Genealogists always insist on telling me about
  their family tree!

4
Percentage of Americans Interested in Genealogy
5
The problem with librarians

• Librarians are too busy
• Librarians know nothing about genealogy
• Librarians dont like to help genealogists
• Librarians can never answer my questions
• Librarians scare me.

6
ARL Reference Transactions
7
Why Genealogy?

• To satisfy your curiosity about yourself and your
  roots.
• To provide your children with a sense of who
  their ancestors were, where they came from and
  how they lived their lives. 
• To preserve family cultural and ethnic traditions
  for future generations.
• To compile a medical family history to give
  family members an advantage in the battle against
  inherited diseases or defects.
• To qualify for a lineage or heritage society.
• To assemble and publish a family history book,
  whether for family members or for profit.
• To discover facts that others have overlooked and
  solve the puzzle of a lifetime.

8
Who are genealogists?

• In 2000, 72 female 31 in their 50s, 25 over
  65 79 married.
• 33.7 use public libraries for genealogical
  purposes monthly.
• 47.2 use public libraries for non-genealogical
  purposes monthly, compared to 25 of the general
  adult population who use the library more than
  eleven times per year.
• Most genealogists are self-taught.
• (Sources ALA Library Fact Sheet 6 Public
  Library Use,
• 2002 Drake, 2001 Sinko Peters, 1983.)

9
What are they looking for?

• Recorded evidence of the existence of a person
  (related to them or not), and facts about the
  person and that persons relationship(s) with
  others.

10

• A genealogist may take months or years to find
  the information that they are seeking (or they
  may never find it), therefore, their satisfaction
  must come from the act of research itself, rather
  than finding the answer.

11
Selected Bibliography

• ALA Library Fact Sheet 6 Public Library Use.
  2002. http//www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Sectionlibr
  aryfactsheetTemplate/ContentManagement/ContentDi
  splay.cfmContentID101864
• Billeter, Anne, Why dont librarians like
  genealogists? Beginning genealogy for
  librarians. OLA Quarterly, 2001 (Winter), p.
  2-6.
• Drake, Pamela J., Findings from the Fullerton
  Genealogy Study. California State University,
  Fullerton, 2001. http//psych.fullerton.edu/geneal
  ogy/
• Sinko, P. S. Peters, Survey of genealogists at
  the Newberry Library. Library Trends, 1983
  (Summer), p. 97-109.

12
Books

• Everton, George S. The handy book for
  genealogists. (2005)
• McGinnis, Carole. Virginia genealogy sources
  resources. (1993)
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Evidence! Citation
  Analysis for the Family Historian. (2000)
• Mills, Elizabeth Shown. Professional Genealogy
  A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors,
  Lecturers, and Librarians. (2001)
• Rose, James M. Black genesis a resource book
  for African-American genealogy. (2003)

13
Great Moments in Genealogy

• 1632 General Assembly of Virginia requires
  ministers to keep and report vital records.
• 1783 Society of the Cincinnati organized
  membership limited by ancestry.
• 1845 - New England Historic Genealogical Society
  (oldest of its kind) chartered.
• 1969 ARPANET created.
• 1977 First airing of Alex Haleys Roots on
  television.
• 1996 Cyndi Howells sets up her webpage linking
  to genealogical websites.

14
Laws of Genealogy

• No one in your family tree ever did anything
  noteworthy, always rented property, was not sued,
  and was never named in wills.
• The 37-volume, sixteen-thousand-page history of
  your country of origin is not indexed.
• The keeper of the vital records you need will
  just have been insulted by another genealogist.

15
Genealogical Resources at the University of
Virginia

• http//www.lib.virginia.edu/genealogy/
• Revised and updated version of Virginia
  Genealogy (1983)

16
Primary Sources

• U.S. Census
• Birth, marriage, death records
• Newspapers
• Court records
• Land records and maps
• Medical records

17
Major Websites Containing Genealogical Information

• Cyndis List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet -
  http//www.cyndislist.com/
• USGenWeb Project - http//www.usgenweb.org/
• RootsWeb.com - http//www.rootsweb.com/
• Ancestry.com http//www.ancestry.com
• FamilySearch (LDS Genealogy website) -
  http//www.familysearch.org/

18
How to Begin

• Start with you your parents grandparents
• date and place of birth
• names of parents
• date and place of marriage
• names of children
• date and place of death
• Record everything, even if you dont think you
  will need it. Get photocopies if possible.

19
How to Record Information

• Charts
• Family Group Sheet
• Pedigree Chart
• http//www.ancestry.com/save/charts/ancchart.htm

20
Terminology

• Paternal / Maternal
• Ancestors / Descendants
• Pedigree / Family tree
• Family history / Local history
• Lineal / Collateral / Half / Step
• Relationships chart-http//genealogy.about.com/lib
  rary/nrelationshipchart.htm

21
Choosing Genealogical Software

• http//genealogy.about.com/library/onestop/
• bl_software.htm
• Family Tree Maker
• Family Origins
• Brothers Keeper
• Personal Ancestral File (PAF)
• Cumberland Family Software