Self Help

As you build a network of contacts with relatives while tracing your family history, ask them for copies of any genealogical notes or manuscripts they may possess. Many families have at least one family member who, during the past three or four generations, has undertaken some research or composed some kind of family memoir. Such data can exist in almost any form: a file of genealogical charts and random notes; a short filial biography never intended for publication; or a massive compilation filling several boxes and representing years of effort.

Make every effort to locate these genealogical manuscripts. Perhaps they are tucked away in some corner of a relative’s closet or attic. Another good place to look is the local historical society or public library, or one of the country’s major genealogical repositories such as the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston or the library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.

Family associations also may be helpful in finding genealogical manuscripts. (Family associations bring together people descended from a common ancestor. There are several hundred such associations in the United States.) Through various publications, a newsletter, an annual report, or even a compiled genealogy - they often serve as major clearing-houses for information on almost any American surname. To determine which family associations might be pertinent to your research, contact the reference department of a library with major genealogical collections or consult the newsletters of local societies.

Finally, you might advertise your search for family manuscripts in the query columns of several genealogical magazines. The query might be worded as follows: “Wanted: information on the Albert C. Jones family of Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1800-1850. Especially interested in genealogical manuscripts compiled by members of this family.” You may also place ads in local periodicals, such as county historical society newsletters.

While looking for genealogical manuscripts, do not ignore other sources of family history. In addition to inherited furniture, silver, and portraits, many American families possess Bibles, heirlooms, letters, diaries, wills, deeds, photographs, and military papers. How much of this material your relatives own depends on many circumstances: when your family’s American experience began, how wealthy it became, how frequently it moved, and how much it valued a sense of history.

If your family was here by 1800 - and probably one hundred million living Americans are descended from the twenty-five thousand New Englanders of 1620 to 1650 alone - it may have made and lost several fortunes, moved far from its ancestral home, and become widely scattered in the past two centuries. For such “pioneer” families, many recent photographs are likely to have survived, but little or nothing may exist from the period before the Civil War. You may belong to one of those rare American families who have lived in the same New England town or Virginia parish for a dozen generations. Or you may be the fourth or fifth generation of a 19th century immigrant family, your great-great-grandparents among the millions of Europeans who came here after the Civil War in search of freedom and work in the New World.