Tracing a family tree
NOT EVERYONE CAN search genealogy
online. For instance, Elle Andra-Warner’s
parents, both deceased, were from
Estonia, and many Estonian family
records were destroyed during World War
II. Plus, few of the surviving records have
been placed online. However, many
American, Canadian and British marriage,
birth and death certificates are online, as
is a wealth of census information.
Even with online information,
researching family histories can be like
looking for needles in a haystack.
Genealogists recommend that family-history detectives follow a process that
includes off-line and online work:
1. List all of your known relatives.
2. Interview your relatives, beginning
with the eldest, and collect the names of
all of their known relatives and places of
birth and death.
3. Conduct research into family
names on the Internet (see the sidebar
“Start your search online”).
4. Use Internet genealogy message
boards to connect with others tracing
similar family names.
5. If family information is not online,
review records in church parishes located
where relatives were born, married and/
or died.
6. Document and organize what
you find.
A lot of information is available
online, but it can be difficult to find data
directly related to your family. For
instance, there are many Smiths and
Joneses, but they might not all be related
to you. At the same time, your last name
might be Smith, but distant relatives
might have spelled their last name
“Smythe,” so you should look for family-tree relationship clues to help you establish connections.
To keep yourself organized as you
gather information, use genealogy software to assemble and organize family
data, produce family-tree reports and
charts, and exchange information and
files with other relatives who may also
be creating family trees.—PL
American, Canadian and British marriage,
Discover your roots
Going online to trace
your family tree
COPYRIGHT 2006 CYNTHIA JAN DESIGNS, LLC
By Paul Lima
GLENN ANDRA;WARNER would not have
known that his ancestors lived on an estate
beside Sir Walter Raleigh if Glenn’s wife, Elle,
had not started to research his family tree. He
also would not have known that a fifth cousin
lived two blocks away from the Andra-Warner
house in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
A freelance writer, Elle, 63, was researching a book about the Hudson’s Bay Company
and found a wealth of ancestral records online
about Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des
Groseilliers, the explorers who inspired
Charles II, king of England, to grant a charter
founding the fur-trading company. That got
her thinking about tracing the roots of her
husband’s family.
Glenn had been told that ancestors on his
mother’s side had come to Canada from
England, via the United States, and had been
early pioneers in Ontario. However, he had no
real information on this branch of his family
tree. All he had was an old family Bible with
the names of three ancestors—Albert James
Cook, Peter Trowern and Henry George—
and a few dates. “Nothing more,” says Elle.
Armed with that information, “the online
historical sleuthing began,” she says.
Using a variety of genealogy Web sites
that let her track marriage, birth and death
certificates, residences and the movement of
her husbands’ relatives, Elle traced her husband’s family tree to the 1400s in England. She
found family connections to Roger Conant,
the founder of Salem, Massachusetts; Levi
Annis, a famous early resident of Scarborough,
Ontario, who built the corduroy road from
Toronto to Oshawa; and Rhoda Randall, a
prominent Oshawa, Ontario, pioneer.
“The Roger Conant connection was
amazing,” she says. Conant was baptized in
East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, in 1592
and immigrated to Plymouth, Massachusetts,
with his wife, Sarah, in 1623. Uncomfortable
with the strict Puritan society in Plymouth,
he moved his family to Nantasket in 1624
and then, in 1626, led a group of people to
Naumkeag, now Salem, where he served as
governor. In addition, Elle discovered that the
Conant family estate in Devonshire was
located beside Sir Walter Raleigh’s estate.
There is a great deal of valuable genealogy
information online, Elle says. However, there
The Costco Connection
Costco warehouses and Costco.com have
several items to help chronicle your family’s
history for future generations, such as photo
albums, scrapbooks, and scrapbooking tools
and kits. Costco and Costco.com also carry
Family Tree Maker 2009 Deluxe, software
that can help you build your family tree,
gather stories and photos, and create
charts and books to share with your family.
