President's Perspective

by Jeffrey A. Bockman

Originally published in various DuPage County Genealogical Society's REVIEW

Issue #145 - March 1999

"Genealogy", I did that a while ago, I am all done!" Don't laugh, I have heard it, along with "Found it all on the Internet." For those of us who are not done, now is the time to start planning our next research trip. If a vacation or trip is already planned, "Are there any relatives on the way?" give or take a few hundred miles. If you can go wherever you want, you need to narrow down the list of elusive ancestors and concentrate on a specific area or at least follow a migration route. You may also want to start thinking about the following year as well.

Like the "Fly Northwest to Florida" advertisements a while back I am already planning to "Go west to Slovenia." Slovenia is the northernmost country of the former Yugoslavia. It was part of the Hapsburg's Austria/Hungry Empire when my grandmother Katherine Kaps left there in 1910. A few years ago one of my US cousins visited the relatives still living in the house where my grandmother was born. He also visited the nearby church to see the records but they only had them for the past 150 years. It listed her parents but had no information we didn't already know. While I was looking at the FHC Locality file I found that microfilms of the prior 150 years of church records for Stari Trg ob Kolpe were in Salt Lake City having been filmed in Graz, Austria. I am planning on visiting SLC this summer and at least go through the marriage indexes so that I can jump back and forth between films for the various families and new lines. I can then order the christening and death records I didn't have time to see after I get home. I want to see the people and countryside when I am in Austria and Slovenia. If something needs to be checked I can go and quickly see the exact records.

A little planning guide:

- Pick a Problem, Area, or Person to research.
- Review everything that you already know.
- Figure out what you really need.
- Figure out where you can get it.
- Put together your TODO list.
- Do all you can before going there.
- Find out the hours that places are open.
- Plan your travel, research, and sunshine time.
- Enjoy and good luck.

Remember "A straight line is the shortest distance between two points" but it is not always the easiest or quickest.

Issue #144 - January 1999

Thanksgiving, two simple words, put together, to form a word that creates a variety of complex emotions. Everyone had different things to be thankful for, unfortunately, many are taken for granted until they are missing. These can include food, health, loved ones, memory, and even life. Shared experiences are what really bond people together from: just being together without saying a word, fun or thrilling experiences, a truly horrible meal, a cheep motel with a hard bed and three mosquitoes, or struggling through a hardship or loss. No matter how much you try to explain to others the situation and why it was funny, sad, thrilling, or just gave you a good feeling the other person just won?t ?get it.? You had to be there! Be thankful for the memories of those moments and enjoy the company or memory of those you shared them with.

It is possible to experience similar situations and have empathy for others. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving my oldest son loaded up his car with all the worldly possessions we could cram into it and headed off to California. How did Mr. and Mrs. Henry Long feel in 1842 when their oldest daughter and her husband Henry Johnson loaded up a wagon in Xenia, OH. and headed off to western Illinois. Day, weeks, months before they received a letter or word of mouth as to their condition. Fortunately today we have cellular phones, voice mail, answering machines, and the good old telephone to stay in touch and get progress reports, even while going 80 MPH. How many of you ancestors after a few years moved to the same location as one of their children? Were they waiting for them to get settled? Did they miss them so much they moved? Or did it take them that long to sort through, organize, and dispose of all the items left by the children when they moved?

I would like to thank all the people that really make DCGS work: The board members, committee chairpersons and their volunteers, especially the workshop and publication committees, all the project volunteers and the special interest group leaders and members. It is these ?shared experiences? that help make life memorable. How else can you explain 5 or 6 workshop committee members laughing hysterically when a new member admitted they she was an only child. You had to be there.

Don?t just read about life, history, or research techniques, get out ad share experiences, create or at least preserve history, and start using those techniques or resources the you learned at the last workshop or class. Share your research with relatives and share your techniques with other members.

Have a Happy Holiday season and see you in 1999.

PS: Be thankful that none of your ancestors had a headache on that particular night.

Issue #143 - November 1998

Governor Edgar proclaimed October 1998 as Genealogy Month in Illinois in recognition of the 30th Anniversary of the Illinois State Genealogy Society and the "greatly increasing numbers of citizens and scholars are devoting themselves to the research and study of family history in Illinois and elsewhere.." With the number workshops and meetings with nationally known speakers in the area this past month it truly has been "Genealogy Month." Dr. George Schweitzer was in Bureau county. Barb and my mother both enjoyed him even though they could care less about genealogy. Dr Philip Colletta was the featured speaker at the ISGS Conference. Both are excellent speaker and gave me lots of ideas in my "Where's Alvar" quest.

After listening to them there is no question that there is a lot more to genealogy than the names, dates and places. Like a small child you need to be asking questions, such as: Why did they leave there?, Why did they move to that particular place?, How did they get there?, What was going on at that time?, Who did they travel/move with?, What records might have been created?, Where could the records be now?, etc. In order to answer some of these questions you will need to look into religious, political, and military history, migration patterns, geography, transportation history, climate and historical weather conditions (floods, droughts, storms, etc.) all in an attempt to better understand why they did what they did or might have done.

Dr. Schwitzer described three stages of genealogy:

The Intentional Stage - getting started, going through available records, first few generations fairly easy to find, become an addict, then things get tougher.

The Accidental Stage - using land, church, tax records to see if they accidentally mention a parent's name. Then comes

The Desperation Stage - need to use obscure sources, have to look for a family history of every known descendant to possibly find a mention of a great grandparent. The Newberry Index and NUCMC - National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collection can be a help.

Dr. Colletta told the story of a poor husband of a French genealogist in his dining room after his wife had just turned off the stove and cleared the table to meet with John and his brother. He was just standing there with his held down, shoulders slouched and a forlorned look. When politely asked if he was interested in genealogy he basically said "My goodness NO - It is a drug."

While we can only make educated guesses as to why our ancestors did what they did, we can still ask questions of our living relatives. In the near future DCGS will be sending out a survey to get ideas of you areas of interest and learn how the society can better serve you. Remember even addicted desperation stage genealogists can control the habit with planning, structured research techniques and continually learning about new sources, indexes, etc. The real question is if you actually go out and use the new source and apply the newfound techniques. You can then go out and get others addicted.

To help yourself better understand life a hundred years ago you could contact our editor and volunteer to help extract stories from the local newspapers for the Review. Come and visit the CIG, GRG, and WIG - you may be addicted but at least you have company.

Issue #142 - September 1998

Hopefully you had a good summer finding that elusive record or relative, visiting you ancestor's "stomping ground", or just getting away from it all, including genealogy. Barb and I did a 4,000 km, 2,400 mile "Tour de France" and enjoyed driving past Hotels de Ville (City Halls), and cimetiere (cemeteries) stopping only for ancient towns, beaches, food and wine.

Whether it is to: Learn for the first time, Remember what you've heard before, or to convince yourself that you know a lot more than you thought, this fall offers a large number of lectures, seminars, and workshops within a 100 mile radius. See the calendar for a detailed list..

The ISGS fall conference will be held in the Chicago area for the first time in about 8 - 10 years. Downstate attendance has been fairly low the past few years. Let's show them how much interest and support there is in the Chicagoland area or it will never be in the area again. Oct. 23 & 24 with good lectures and a large vendor selection.

Keep an open mind. Just because a lecture is about a single state or country where you do not have any known ancestors does not mean that the techniques being taught cannot be applied to other locations. There are probably similar resources to cover your location of interest. For those that would like to influence or determine the topics and speakers at the 1999 DCGS Annual Workshop you can come and join the Workshop Committee. Contact Nancy Houston (nhouston@anet-chi.com) for details.

CLASSES For those of you just starting out with family research or those who are tired of learning from their mistakes DCGS and the Wheaton Public Library will be offering a beginning class that meets on 5 Thursday nights (Sept. 2 & Oct. 8 - 29). The classes cover Forms, Home Sources, Oral Interviews, Vital Records, Cemetery Records, Using the Census, Library, Newspapers, Federal Military, Land, Probate, and Court resources and records. It also includes tips on planning a research trip and organizing your records. Register at the reference desk at WPL.

Help Wanted: GRG chairperson (see article). Every committee could use some assistance. If you have an area of interest (within reason) we can probably find a way for you to utilize it.

Issue #141 - July 1998

IS THERE LIFE DURING GENEALOGY?

It seams like only yesterday that Barb and I returned from a non-stop, connect the dots trip visiting courthouses, libraries, cemeteries, historical societies and museums throughout Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and Ohio again. It felt more like a business, sales, political barnstorming trip than a vacation. Within a few days of returning we agreed that next year we would have a "Vacation." By the time you read this we will unfortunately be back from our drive yourself "Tour de France." Spend a few nights in the same place, no research, only one day with over 200 miles (328 km), soak up the sun and the culture, and avoid the World Cup crowds.

Thanks to the rule "work from known to unknown" we can blissfully cruise past Charlemagne's haunts (800s) and those of the old French Kings, that I used to be related to before I started genealogy. Seeing 2000 year old aqueducts (that were as old to Charlemagne and he is to us) and driving through Perigords where the Cro-Magnon man lived in prehistoric times sort of makes our Mayflower ancestors seam like "Newbies." You wonder why some of our ancestors left the burgher houses on the city places to live in stick homes in a wilderness. There is more to genealogy than just the facts: Names (who), Events (what), Places (where), and Dates (when). The Why and How allow you to use a combination of history, geographical, and psychological research along with your imagination to guess why they did what they did. I may even help you take a wild leap (educated guess) and to turn an unknown into a known. There is a real life out there, take a break. Sometimes you can actually see the trees better if you get out of the forest.

I would like to thank everyone who helped make the past year a successful one for DCGS. We had the fall lecture series (know of any other speakers coming to the area? let me know), informative and well attended general meetings with more socializing, a successful workshop, beginner classes, the new review, marriage and probate projects nearing completion, etc. This is all done by volunteers, many who would also like to take a break and lead a life. DCGS needs some new blood to get involved and help bring in some new ideas. If you are interested in helping with any committee or project, please give me a call or send an e-mail.

Have a great summer for research or fun. See you at the general meeting with Paul Milner in September. Please contact Betty Rae to volunteer to bring some homemade, gooey, fattening snacks to one of the meetings.

Issue #140 - May 1998

There is a current saying that "The only thing that is constant is change." Your mother probably told you that it is "better to give then to receive." It is especially true with change. DCGS held two vision conferences to help anticipate necessary changes and take steps to manage them. We need to continue to look closely at "What we do", "Why we do it", "How we do it", "Where we do it", and Who we do it for."

One of the identified changes was to better serve our "remote" members. We made changes to combine the Review and Newsletter, a year ago, and now you are reading the "new" Review. We are getting more submissions from members and encourage you to submit articles, stories, experiences, and photographs for inclusion in the Review. There are two articles from DCGS members being reprinted from recent FGS Forums. They show how much of an impact change can have on people. One of the reasons many of our ancestors came to this country was for "freedom of the press." Read them both carefully, once emotionally and then again objectively.

We are evaluating a proposed project that will be done "backwards" compared to traditional methods. We are looking to post scanned images of DuPage County funeral home records on the internet, have internet volunteers transcribe them, post the transcriptions on the web so that they could be text searchable, and eventually publish them in book form. The data will be available to the "world" from the first scanned image until it is completed, rather than waiting several years until a project can be completed. Volunteers can come from anywhere and the work done at their convenience.

One thing that we do very well is our Annual Conference. We continue to improve the operations from year to year and this shows in the evaluation forms. As much as we try we cannot please everyone all of the time, but your suggestions are considered. There are some people that do not care for the workshop facility and while it is not the ideal location it is the only affordable location that can handle the 250 - 350 attendees and vendors. If you know of a better location send the rental information to the workshop committee.

We are not the only ones changing.

Libraries are now providing internet access to millions of people. They are also contending with censorship issues such as limiting internet access to "objectionable" sites.

Clark Co. Nevada (Las Vegas) put their 1984 - present marriage index online.

Info: http://www.co.clark.nv.us/recorder/mar_disc.htm

Search: http://www.co.clark.nv.us/recorder/mar_srch.htm

This is an exciting time. Far fetched ideas are a reality in a year or two. Interest in family history, genealogy, photo preservation, memories, or whatever you want to call it is at an all time high. We need to continue to provide resources and training to researchers and help each other. Get involved with the various interest groups, propose to start a new one, join one of the committees, volunteer to chair a committee or be president. If you have been sitting around all winter, now is the time to change. Spring ahead - spring into action.

Issue #139 - March 1998

Thanks, Thanks, Thanks ...

I would like to thank everyone who worked very very hard to help make DCGS's 23rd Annual Conference a success. Without the committees, workers and attendees there could not be a conference. All of the surveys returned had an overall rating of Good or Very Good.

Barb and I would like to thanks everyone for their cards and thoughts following the complications with her Friday the 13th surgery. She is back home and doing well, just need to build up her strength. Spending some of the time organizing current family photos.

I would also like to thank Todd Bolen, Judy Gaddess, and Dave Beckwith for "volunteering" to serve on the nominating committee. After two years as president it is time for someone else to lead DCGS up to or into the 21st century. This will allow me a little more time to work on projects, GenWeb, and maybe even my own family research.

I would finally like to thank my cousins for giving me two boxes of my Grandmother Stevenson's genealogical research material which included: Pages from the West Family Bible - Mayflower tie, Documented photographs of 4th Great Grandparents and others, copies of vital records (some of which I had previously purchased), and letters between family members. It turns out that in 1917 Great Grandfather Granville Johnston was working on the same Virginia problems that I am trying to solve. For those that have taken my class it turns out that Grandmother was a better researcher than I may have given her credit for. The Magna Carta line still cannot be proven but she did cite her sources, kept good information in archival quality materials, and even kept copies of every Newberry Library call slip to document what books she reviewed. (There is still a use for carbon paper!)

PS: History Buffs, German Researchers, all round friendly researchers come to the German Research Group next month and help us continue to build a Time Line of events that shaped the world causing our ancestors to pack it all up and come to America. Be thankful that they did.

Issue #138 - January 1998

New Year's Resolution Time (Pick any that apply)

- I will city my sources.
- I will not claim any doubtful, undocumented relatives?
- I will come to all of the DCGS meetings
- I will not eat all the shortbread at the DCGS meetings.
- I will get involved with DCGS.
- Use soft pencil to document photos - write on the back edges.

More and more of the society workload is falling on fewer and fewer people. Everyone enjoys and benefits from the workshop, lectures, classes, the Review, general meetings, library helpers, special projects, and publications. This is a really good chance to get to meet other members and to help the society. There are lots of things that can be done to help, from bring goodies, greeting people at meetings, proofreading, writing articles, helping at the conference that do not take a major time commitment and would help to spread the workload around. Some of the workerbees do have other commitments like jobs, other societies, family, and even their own genealogy upon which they would like to occasionally work.

The nominating committee for the 1998-99 year will be appointing within the next month or two. If you have an interest in serving as an officer or board member they will be looking for volunteers before they start the draft process. Sorry but no signing bonuses. Time to start thinking!

Photographs help again. Have been looking for the parents of Nettie Gard in OH and had two good candidates. Over the holidays my mother-in-law came with a photo with the following written on the back.

Timothy Gard - Grandfather, Mom's Mothers Father - written by wife's grandmother.

The census records did have a Nellie listed about the correct age.

Make sure your descendents know who are in your photographs. Remember the Who, What, Where, When, Why rule.

It helps if you identify specific facts, rather than just relationships. Wouldn't it be nice if it said: "Timothy Gard, age 75, father of Nettie Gard, taken in 1921, Dayton, OH."}

Let's all have a Happy New Year. See you at the meetings. Leave the shortbread for me.