A Look at the Future of Genealogy

Forgetting about the limousine call I entered my wife's maiden name to see what would happen. Up came a list of people with the same first and last names sorted by state followed by a list of people with the same first and maiden name sorted by their last names followed by state and their spouse's name. Looking down the list, sure enough, there was my name. I touched her name and up came another screen.

I touched "Locate Phone" and a map came up showing the location of our house. I then chose Personal Information. I was told to put my thumb on the small panel below and look into the soft red light to the side. After a second I heard "Welcome Jeffrey". Looking back to the screen I saw a familiar looking family group sheet that included small pictures of everyone. There was also a list showing her sister and brother and their pictures. I thought that this was pretty neat.

I asked myself "What about documentation and sources?" I touched our marriage date and up came a copy of our marriage certificate. I touched her birth date and then saw her birth certificate. Wow, pretty impressive, I thought. I noticed something new, "Parent Type." Touching it brought a drop-down list that included: Biological, Adoptive, Clone, Donor, Surrogate, Step, and Unknown. It also showed a DNA Compatibility percentage and listed the blood type. There was a button for "Ancestors," so I pressed it. A completed 5 gen. chart filled the screen. Now I was a little concerned since just two nights before I had been at the library working until 11:00 p.m. looking for several of these heretofore unknown people. Touching the new Great Great Grandfather I then saw his completed five generation chart. Well, so much for searching for the dates and places of births, marriages, deaths, etc. I always told my genealogy students that it is much more than dates and places anyway. Finding out what they were doing and why they were doing it gives you a much better feel for the person.

There was a Migration button that I curiously touched. Up came a map of the eastern US with a red dot in PA. At the bottom it showed the year and had VCR type buttons. I then pressed the play button and the year started to increase and other solid red dots began appearing and moving westward leaving a dashed line trail. Some dots turned black presumably indicating that they had died. At the bottom were counts for living descendants and spouses. The state and county boundaries also changed with time. This was pretty neat.

I then touched the "Events" button and was presented with a Basic Chronological List of key events including the familiar birth, marriage, children's births, census, death, burial. It also included several "Moved To and the address" and "Lived at the address." I touched the 1850 census entry and up came the image of the census page with his name highlighted. Then I thought birth, what could they show for a birth that old? I touched birth and a family bible page image appeared with a note showing that it had been transcribed and verified. I wondered what else this thing could do so I touched an Include button which brought up a screen with check boxes for Automotive, Church, Court, Credit, Education, Employment, Land, Medical, Press, Taxes, Transportation, Utilities, and Voting. I decided to look at the entry for our home in Indiana. Up came a topographical map with our property outlined on one side and the dates and names of prior owners on the other. I clicked on the first owner and the land patent was displayed.

My name was listed under "Prior People" at the bottom so I touched it and I was returned to my Basic Chronological List. I touched Credit and was presented with a list that included the hotel charges and book purchases from earlier that day at FGS. I quickly switched back to my wife to see what she had spent while I was away. Good, nothing to really panic about.

I was seeing my hobby quickly fading away. I then thought photographs. I can still look for and document photographs. After all, photos make the names and numbers come alive. Getting both mad and nervous, I wondered if this thing also had more than the thumbnail photos on the charts. Sarcastically I said "Show me the photos." Up came a list of dates and captions on one side and a baby picture of my wife on the other. I touched an entry captioned 8th Grade. It showed her class photo with a circle around her picture. I touched the face of a classmate and a bubble caption appeared giving their name. The real estate listing and photos were available for the homes that we had purchased.

About the only thing left is family and personal stories. I then asked for Stories. Up came a short list that included articles from school papers, newspapers and organizational publications covering topics from school sports to genealogy. At the bottom of the screen was an option to "Record Personal Memories." What now I wondered? I pressed the button and up came a script of questions to answer. The unit then said "To record verbal memories please contact from a quieter location."

Thinking that I really have not had that much time over the past year to do any personal research anyway I will see what is going on with the Genealogical Societies. I then said "Start Over, Subject Genealogy." Up came a detailed description for Geneology talking about the study of genes, gene splicing, clones, creation of altered life forms. It was followed by Obsolete: Genealogy: A widely popular study of Family History or Finding Ones Roots. The Government determined that so much time and so many resources were being spent that it would be more cost effective to tie the various database systems together and create "The List."

Is this really what I wanted in my article "Why Should A Genealogical Society Give Records Away" in the Winter 1997 FGS Forum? Not exactly. I want to return to the old way. Return to the old way. Return your trays and seat backs to their full and upright positions. When the flight attendant asked me to pull the seat forward I realized that I had been dreaming and that genealogy was still alive and well!

At the FGS banquet, Mary L. Bowman gave a hilarious look about how life was simpler before genealogy, but not as much fun. My look at the future also showed that life after genealogy would also be simpler but not as much fun. The pleasure from genealogical research comes from learning about sources, finding and then putting pieces of evidence together to prove a relationship, locate a person, or verify a fact. In genealogy as with life on earth, getting to the end is not he goal. All of the fun is in the journey.

While we probably do not want or need every aspect of our life cross-indexed and instantly available there is plenty of room to let technology help us plan, locate, record, organize, and share research data. Some ideas:

• • The first priority should be in digitizing and then preserving old and fragile records. This would protect them from being handled and the electronic format would be more widely accessible. Many archives have already begun this process. County and Historical Society records may need assistance. The electronic images could immediately be made available to the public via Internet, where they could be indexed, transcribed and verified. The images and text would be immediately available to researchers rather than waiting years for a project to be completed and published.

  • Standardization of data storage is a major obstacle to sharing and retrieving data. Each system and person stores information in a format that is convenient for themselves. GEDCOM only helps to move data from one system or format to another. People should be able to enter comments and link to conflicting or supporting information.

  • A major coordinated effort is needed to help standardize access to both original records, official indexes, and to make images or transcriptions of the data available to the public. Access to portions of Federal records could possibly be allowed electronically without disclosing confidential information depending upon the requestor's relationship to the persons in the data.

Appendix

The following was not included in the HQ article.

The basic technology for "The List" exists today (then 1988).