(Reprinted from Mature Lifestyles, October 1998)
What is the only type of tree in the world that never dies, but only gets larger and stronger with time?
The answer to that would be a family tree, the most universally recognized format one uses to document their ancestry. By using this type of format, one can easilyt identify the descent of their family and learn more about their background.
Much like any tree, proper maintenance is essential. Each new branch that grows must be documented with this record: births, deaths, marriages; even divorces. After all, an accurate and complete history can be a great gift to pass on to future generations.
However, this is not always as easy as it sounds. Much like a tree gets chopped down, family members emigrate and, over time, can lose touch with their roots. If your family is the first generation to live in Canada, it may be a difficult process to trigger.
Where does one begin? Quite simply, it is always best to start with yourself. While you may not consider your immediate family to be of great interest, it's the easiest way to begin with an untarnished, firsthand accounting of your family's past.
Once you have compiled as much information you can get from your primary family, it's time to start your research. The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), which boasts almost 30 chapters in Ontario, has been providing people with expert advice on how to trace their roots for over 25 years.
"What we do is hold regular meeting, issue publications that are genealogically relevant and teach courses on how to research family history," says Cliff Collier of the OGS Toronto chapter.
"We try, in our courses, to get people on the right track. At the beginner level, we teach a generic course showing people research methodology and how to organize and maintain records. At the intermediate level, we teach the more complex research strategies."
Sound easy? Well, it's not quite as simple as taking a course. Finding several branches of your tree may prove to be challenging, especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. For instance, many European immigrants came to North America around the turn of the century and would have their names 'Americanized'. Stefan Pryzybarski may have become Stanley Price after immigrations officers finished with them. Changes in surnames can definitely pose a problem in your search.
One organization which is well-known for specialization in such research is The Church Of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Working under the ideology that family preservation is of the utmost importance, the LDS works from an international database which records information from old church registers and traces the descendants from there.
Over 3,000 people are said to visit their resource library in Salt Lake City, Utah each day, with hundreds of thousands more borrowing from their extensive microfilm collection via an interlibrary loan service.
Another common tool for tree restoration would have to be census reports. For many European nations, as well as the United States and Canada, such records may date back to the early 1800's. While not the most accurate source, censuses can point you in the right direction. An American census from 1790, for example, only shows that the head of the household was alive and over the age of 16. It would also reveal the number of males in the household, if they were over or under the age of 16, and the number of females in the house. As censuses evolved over the years, they came to include statistics on names, occupations and birthplaces.
There are other public records at your disposal as well. While it may prove an exhausting task to find such documents from certain nations, records you may want to check include: marriage bonds and licenses, adoption records, religious registers, death certificates and cemetery records, land or estate records, military and naval records, wills, immigration records, passenger lists (from voyages during immigration) and even archives from community newspapers. Many of these sources can be accessed through libraries, courthouses and record halls across the world.
If you're comfortable with the information highway, be prepared for a virtual cornucopia of leads through the Internet. Just for beginners, you may want to set your browser to The Ontario Genealogical Society (www.interlog.com/~dreed/ogs), the Genealogy Home Page (http:/ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/genealogy.html), or a site dedicated to genealogical books (www.genealogy.com/blairs).
While on the subject of technology, there are many tremendous software programs available to record your family tree. Some allow for scanned-in photos, some arrange by order of descendancy, some cross-reference the information in a multitude of formats - it all depends on what you're looking for. A trip to your local software dealer may be a great investment in helping you organize your family tree.
Finally, there is one method of tree-repair which is relatively inexpensive, yet is the single most commonly used: your family. Relatives living near you and far away, can often provide the best information imaginable, giving you names, places and leads that you may have never got otherwise. Do not overlook these valuable resources, as they can sometimes be more knowledgable and insightful than any record you come across in your travels.
After all, while the roots of a tree may be severed, the branches may allow you to plant new seeds and restore it.
