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Show Genealogy begins with U Editor's note: Thirty-year-old Michael Cunningham Cun-ningham of Gilmer is the author of our newest column, introduced here. A native of Washington D.C., he was graduated from East Texas State University in 1973 with majors in geography and sociology. There comes a time in almost everyone's life where they become interested in-terested in finding out where they came from. Genealogy is the study of who our relatives are and where they came from. Today, this has become the most widespread hobby in the United States with over 50 million Americans reportedly doing some sort of research on their relatives. With our rapid, developing technology making information available at our fingertips all a person has to do is obtain a desire to start his research. Remember back in history class reading about all those people and dates in those real big, boring books? You could fall asleep reading. Many times their descriptions seemed to make them out to appear like flat, one-dimensional characters. I bet you might even remember Lord Orville Cromwell of England. I remember him to be a man who looked very serious at all times. He was also very despised by his enemies. Here recently, I discovered his daughter, Elizabeth, was married to my distant uncle John Claypoole. Now, all of a sudden, they have become real, three dimensional people. Studying about them and the rest of my family has become fun. Successful . genealogical research begins with you. In order to insure your successful research, I have developed a plan called, "12 principles of Genealogy." Now, through this plan a person develops the ability to locate, establish relationships and obtain birth, marriage and death records and locations of relatives. Over the course of the next several weeks I will share with you these principles. The purpose of this column will be to help you do genealogical research. If you have any questions and queries on your relatives please write them to me in care of the Iron County Record. We will publish all queries in the area you are trying to find out about. I am looking forward to working with all of you. Starting next week, we will discuss the first principle of genealogy-organization. genealogy-organization. ANCESTOR LINE Mrs. John M. Irvin, Treasurer Wisconsin StateGenealogical Society, 2109 Twentieth Ave. Monroe, Wis. 53566, tells us, "I've been reading your column in the Saturday Monroe Evening Times with interest. Certainly you must be reaching many persons who are intersted in genealogy, but who are not well informed on the procedures and are not aware of the existence of genealogical societies. I would strongly suggest that your readers consider con-sider joining a genealogical society. The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society invites yo to join with its members in the search for those fascinating people, your ancestors." The Wisconsin Genealogical Society offers many books for sale. To obtain a list of book titles you may contact Mrs. John R. Miller, 465 Charles Lane, Madison, Wisconsin 53711. "Ancestor Line" is presented here as a public service by the Iron County Record. If you have a question or comment contact us at The Ancestor Line, c-o The Iron County Record, P.O. Box 1568, Cedar City, Utah 84720. |