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Show So Ymi W small T Discoveir Win Yni Are? By Margaret VanNoy Profile! Writer A new addiction b sweeping America from coast to coast. The habit! more rewarding and entertaining than Jet setting, more widespread than disco bopping, and more popular than Jogging. The disease arises from what Alei Haley called a hunger, marrow-deeto know. . . who we are and where we have come from. WITH T1IE publishing of the best seller Roots" and the subsequent television movie, more and more Americans are "turning on" to genealogy, the study of ancestry, to assuage a "vacuum, an emptiness, and the most ing loneliness." People of all ages have caught the bug. Visit your nearest library, particularly one that specializes in genealogy, and you will find everyone from tots, whose feet reach only to the first rung on a chair, to octogenarians who can barely totter to the stacks and back to the table. -- p dis-qu- et DISEASE HITS ALL Economics b no indication of who has the fever either. The disease seems to strike rich and poor alike. And across the nation, professional genealogical research has become big business. The malady may strike like lightning or creep up a symptom at a time. You are not safe even in your own home. You may be sitting on the sofa, lazily looking through the family album during the commercial and ZONK! It hits you. Suddenly you feel a nostalgic overpowering urge to know who all these people are in the strange looking CANT REST Or you could be contentedly munching popcorn at the movies. In the middle of a spy thriller, the scenario switches to a village in Holland with its bright flowers and clean streets, and suddenly it hits you. "Hey! My grandmother came from Rotterdam. And there you are, you can't rest: you have got to know more. Perhaps you are in a crowded elevator, and you hear someone speaking with a foreign, yet somehow familiar, accent. Suddenly, a picture of your long since gone, comes to mind, and you hear his voice speaking in that same accent. You never cared before, but now the "disease" b on you, you've got to find out where his "roots" lie. Once you are hooked on the ancestor chase, youll find yourself in the grasp of a fascinating pursuit, for genealogy b more gripping than a best seller. Its like being in the middle of a detective story with you in the role of sleuth, searching for clues. DISCOVERIES The chase can take you all over the world, but if you are "in" to genealogy and don't know where to start, you will be comforted to know that you dont have to leave home. In fact, that b the best place to start at home with r, - yourself. Sit down and take a sheet of paper or better still get a large notebook; you will need one eventually to keep a record of all you discover and where (your sources). Write your fathers name plus where he lived as a child, or if you are sure, where he was bom and hb marriage date. Do the same for your mother. You may have to get down the family bible. Co as far as you can on your own. Maybe you have all that information dose at hand on a death certificate or a marriage license or perhaps you are lucky enough to have a birth certificate for your parents, but more than likely not. ALL RESOURCES Now the search begins in earnest. Use all the resources you have at home: newspaper dippings, dd diaries, letters, wills, deeds and land records. There maybe valuable information in scrapbooks, biographies, medical and money records, school records, discharge papers or other military records. Look in trunks, attics, drawers, old suitcases or cardboard storage boxes. Dont forget Aunt Harriet and Cousin Jake. Talk or write to the oldest living relatives. They can help you in many ways such as identifying faces, reading illegible place names, and establishing relationships. They also can direct you to cemeteries where relatives lare buried. DETECTIVE WORK You will now begin to find that your detective work b paying off as pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together. For instance, you may know only your grandmother's first name, but in an old letter to your mother a relative says, "Im sending you a recipe for onion soup that your grandmother brought with her when she came from Nice. and VOILAt There you are - one more piece - Creat Crandma was from France! Or a letter writer may mention in passing that a progenitor heard from "so and so" from Fort Sumter, and you know be was probably in the military fighting on the Southern side. Anyway, it b a lead. When you have tned all your own re- xxintt, it is time to move out to puli- he sources such as local courthouses, libraries, archives and historical societ- if you are tooling for an ancestor in the United States. Rememlier to leep log as you go. You will undoulitedly find conflicting data and spellings etc, and additions to families that you did not find on other records. Your own comity courthouse is a treasury of information in birth, death, and marriage dates as well as such records as wills, deeds, and proliate rec- I male-wor- projects during the k Depression of the 3k. lamk in area telejhone directories for your family name. You may discov-ie- s er a distant relative with information, Or advertise in newspapers or a genea-- a kitfcal Imlletin. NATION LARCHIES on, the federal government took a census. The National Ar- chives has the originals and copies are at various libraries arowid the country. Many state censuses may lie available at State Libraries and historical socieords. ties. After 183) the census gives the the head, and names, ages and TELL A TALE The Genealogical Society of I'tah occupations of all memliers of the household at that time. gives these suggestions: To olitain availThe National Archives, address able birth, marriage, divorce and death records outside your areas, many librar(CSA) Washington. D.C. 2fiW has miliies have a copy of Where to Write tary records (service pension, liountv. pamphlets available, or write to the land). They also have Emigration and Superintendent of Documents, CPO. Immigration information such as passengcr and ship lists. Washington, D.C. 20402, or write diDo not forget Naturalization inforrectly to the Department of Health at the state capitol or county courthouse mation as well as that found on tax as where the event occurred. Church records are very helpful, if you have an idea what church your ancestors lielonged to. Write to the local congregation or to the denomination national archives for dates of christenings, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, funerals and burials. LOCAL LIBRARY Check newspaper obituaries and news articles. State historical libraries and archives have copies of family histories and vital statistics that were copl- Fmm 17W) ad-dre- s, sessment. school and cemetery records. Mint libraries have books which list libraries, societies and archives and their addresses. FIND YOUR PLACE So there you have it just a few cafabulous a to how of hints begin reer. (X all the addictions known to man, ancestor hunting b one of the most wholesome and rewarding. Be prepared to lie swept into unceasing activity with exciting adventure on every hand as well as disappointments and side tracks. - It will keep you young and alert. It will give you a sense of history and of destiny, a valuable perspective of your place in time. And it will introduce you to hundreds of interesting people along the way both living and dead. Be prepared to gain a feeling of belonging and Identity you never knew before. iN Jus Talkin PJ by Margaret VanNoy i. 4 f f W Hurrah for Alex Haley! Thanks to him, many people have become interested in their ancestors. Because of Alex Haley, thousands of people have started searching for their "roots, and thousands more have realized how important one generation is to the next. My father died recently. I have many choice memories of him, but the tears really began to flow as friends came to express condolences, for each one had a special memory to share. I wept not only for my memories of him but for this part of him that I did not share. As I searched for information for his obituary, I came across histories of my fathers father and his father and his fathers father. What an exciting adventure it was to meet them. I MET one grandfather who loved adventure and set out for the gold fields of California at the tender age of 16. He found plenty of adventure, but no gold. He was shot in an Indian raid on a wagon train. His place was taken by his beautiful young sweetheart whose own life was saved when she held a book in front of her face. The books pages were pierced almost through by an arrow. After seeking his fortune. Grandpa returned home in rags. He later became the mayor of his city, performed in the Salt Lake Theatres, and was the confidant of several of Utahs political and religious leaders. At his death, a special train came from Salt Lake carrying dignitaries to honor him. What a fascinating grandfather! AS MY YOUNG friend, Lorene, said, Everybody needs a grandpa. I agree, but many of us never had the privilege of knowing our grandparents, nor they us. Thanks to Alex Haley, and his Roots, many now have the desire to search. I MET ANOTHER grandfather, who traveled six weeks by boat to get here' from Elngland. Then he traveled by train to the jumping off place for the wild, wild west. He was afraid of Indians, for he had heard many terrible tales of what happened to travelers on the prairies of the West. He expected nothing less than savages with war paint, headdress and tomahawks. n Instead, he saw a group of all them of their ponies, riding dressed in stovepipe-hat- s and -tailed coats which someone had given them. WHAT FUN getting to know the grandpa who was also an accomplished musician and who had played at Queen Victorias receptions. Another grandfather I met was beheaded in 1716 for his devotion to Catholicism. He had much wealth and power but refused to relinquish red-me- swallow- his religion. Another one was the leading physician of his day founding the library of a famous college. WHAT interesting grandpas I have! Each one is unique just as every person bom on the earth is unique. Each has his place in history; each has an interesting tale to tell. , How about you? Although you may not think so, your life is as full of drama as anyone elses. HAVE YOU written your history so that coming generations can get acquainted with you? What a loss to your family, known and yet unborn, if you leave no record. I had another grandpa who died when his children were young. If he left a record, it has long since been lost. This grandpa was a Spiritulaist. You know, he was always studying the occult, and involved in holding seances. Ill never know if he was successful in calling up any spirits, or if he had any spooky experiences. It is from this grandpa that the artists and writers come. How I would like to meet him. I have a thousand questions to ask. If you havent started your his- tory, start today. What was the world , like when you were a child? Did you live through a depression? a war? floods or famine? Your grandchildren would love to know how you made it through these experiences. BELIEVE ME, this is one time you can say now when I was a boy. . . and find a listening ear. If your life covers the period of time from horse and buggy to men on the moon, you have much to tell your posterity. What were schools like? Did you play tricks on your teachers? What about your courtship? How did you meet? How did you pop the question How did you make a living for your family? HOW DID it feel to hold your firstborn in your arms? What were your family traditions? Did you gather your family around you each night? Or did you all work together? Grandchildren like to know how you felt about the things that happened to you as well as what you did about them. What did you do when one of your children fell out of a tree and broke an arm? How did you cope with the death of a mate or a child? How did you deal with heartaches and happiness? Good times and bad? Its always exciting to discover a grandpa with the same interests you have. I found a namesake who was a famous actress in her day. How Is your grandpa in this picture? Worlds Largest Genealogy Library Is In Salt Lake thrilled your grandchildren would be to find that you loved hunting and fishing or that you liked to invent things, too. I GUESS it boils down to letting your grandchildren know that you are a human being just as they are. That though times change, people dont. We all have the same needs and desires. We all make mistakes. We all have moments we are proud of and those we are ashamed of. Get them down on paper or on tape. Remember, everybody needs a grandpa and a grandma. Dont miss your opportunity to be a link with generations to come. No one else can do it for you. Start right now with Who are these people wearing the Now, when I was a boy. . . strange looking clothes? J2. JL The Genealogical Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints located in Salt Lake City, is recognized as the largest genealogical library in the world and attracts reds of thousands of visitors annually. The library and its facilities are available to the general public. Nearly one million rolls of microfilm of documents such as family and local histories, parish registers, civil registrations, military and property, wills and probate records are being microfilmed daily throughout the world by the ; church. According to library sources, there are nearly one million rolls of microfilm accumulated thus far, with several thousand new rolls being processed each month. This is equivalent to nearmillion printed ly four and one-havolume of 300 pages each. lf There are approximately 157,000 volumes in open stacks available to patrons. Included are a collection of the worlds genealogies, past and current genealogy periodicals, and published and manuscript histories of many town, counties, state and countries. Over 400 new volumes are added genealogical monthly. In addition there are 280 branch libraries located throughout the United States and in six foreign countries with an average of fifty new ones established each year, which offers microfilm and books borrowed from the main office for use. The genealogical office gives assistance with consultants on hand in various parts of the library. Or write to 50 East North Temple St., Salt Lake City 84150. |