Passing It On

Saving the seeds of your family tree

It’s the ultimate backup: a three-room condo dug 400 feet deep into the permafrost of a Norwegian mountain, its steel and concrete design engineered to withstand earthquakes and a direct nuclear strike.

It’s the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a modern-day Noah’s Ark, intended to be a backup for the world’s 1,400 seed banks. With a capacity of 4.5 million seeds, Svalbard can keep seeds for 1,000 years in its subzero vaults. Even if the power fails, seeds stored there should be viable for two centuries.

Svalbard was inaugurated this week, too late to save the seed banks wiped out by war in Iraq and Afghanistan or by a typhoon in the Philippines.

Reading about the Svalbard project got me thinking about how I save the seeds of my own family’s history. We all know the value of backing up our electronic files, but how many of us actually do it? Just as the death of a loved one robs us of an opportunity to tap into their wealth of family knowledge, the crash of a hard drive could wipe out decades of work in an instant.

Take a few minutes to consider how you protect your precious files. Satisfied? If not, you might want to consider using an online storage site (for a fee) or an online e-mail site like Gmail or Yahoo (free). Other options can be found on my earlier post on the subject.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Photo of entrance to Svalbard Global Seed Vault courtesy of sophsrome.

The mass media are your friends

The mass media are good friends of genealogists and personal historians. Newspapers, in particular, are rich sources of information because of their role in recording history, especially local history.

It was as a newspaper reporter that I came to appreciate the value of the stories of ordinary people. As I’ve pointed out in presentations, I have had the privilege of interviewing many luminaries in their field, from baseball stars Hank Aaron and Bob Feller to tennis star Ivan Lendl to country music maverick Waylon Jennings to rock and roll legend Dion DiMucci. But it was the stories of people whose names you wouldn’t recognize that stuck with me.

Newspapers and magazines are full of fascinating stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Thanks to their efforts, virtually every aspect of American culture has been preserved at a stunning breadth and depth.

But relatively few papers take on the subjects of genealogy or family history directly. You’ll find a few “Remember When?” or “On This Date” kind of pieces, but little direct discussion of what is proclaimed America’s No. 2 hobby – researching family history.

One such paper is the Albuquerque Tribune, which has featured the work of Mary Penner in her Lineage Lessons column. Until this week, that is.

The Tribune, like many afternoon papers, found it difficult to survive in the modern 24-hour news cycle world. Staffers at the E.W. Scripps paper were told this week that the paper would cease publication after its Feb. 23 edition.

Penner can still be found at her personal web site, but I’m certain many of her print readers will be disappointed by the move. On the other hand, the Vancouver (B.C.) Sun is soliciting brief family histories for publication. (Disclaimer: Newspaper links are notoriously fickle. Check them out soon before they disappear.)

What’s it like in your part of the world? Does your local newspaper have a regular genealogy or family history presence? I look forward to your comments.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of SnapShot1951.

FWOOOM: How do you handle a blast of family history?

In my role as personal historian, I have the privilege of hearing lots of family stories from lots of interesting people. Of course, we personal historians believe everyone’s story is interesting and worth saving for future generations.

Most of the stories I collect from people cover about five generations, ranging from grandchildren to grandparents, though it occasionally goes an additional generation or two. Only one of my interview subjects has had personal stories to share of relatives who were living as far back as the Civil War years. Good genealogical research can help fill in a family’s history far beyond grandparents and great grandparents.

I’ve posted before on the difference between genealogy and family history, describing family history as putting some fruit on the family tree. In my effort to expand my genealogical skills, I’ve recently started working on my own family by using the Family Tree Maker 2008 program.

Seeking data on the Internet was once described to me as trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant. Modern genealogical research is much the same. There’s so much data available that sorting through it all to find what one is looking for is a challenge.

I’ve already traced my paternal grandmother’s family to 17th century England and Ireland with a reasonable amount of confidence. Real genealogists (just like real journalists) don’t accept things at face value. They dig until they have sufficient evidence that what they believe to be true is, in fact, the real deal.

Although I haven’t reached that level of expertise yet, I’ve spotted a few errors in some other people’s work. One fairly elaborate tree, for example, gave my grandmother a non-existent brother. I’m not certain how important my grandmother figures into that family’s history, but that would be a major mistake in my own family’s lineage. On the other hand, I’m struggling to find a woman my grandmother insisted was a sister to her dad’s mother.

I have a lot to learn, but one lesson is very clear: it’s wise to exercise a good bit of caution and skepticism when venturing into the unknown.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people write their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of Joseph Robertson.

How about some stories with that dinner?

Dinner time is story time in America. At least it used to be.

There was a time in our not-so-distant past that families would gather at the dinner table each night to share their experiences of the day while dining. While family dinners are far less common today, a 2005 study by Emory University showed that they’re no less important in developing valuable, strong family ties.

So, it should come as no surprise that the 41st Carnival of Genealogy that focused on family dinners drew a huge response. The carnival topic was: If you could have dinner with four of your ancestors who would they be and why? Most of the bloggers who took part are well steeped in genealogical knowledge and it shows as their dream dinner often includes ancestors of far-flung and disparate branches of their family tree.

I didn’t participate, even though I thought it was a great topic. My guests would have been a bit closer to home – my grandparents. Although I have vivid memories of each, they are almost exclusively about my relationships with them. The questions I would ask today are much different from those I asked when I had the opportunity. One dinner would barely scratch the surface.

As you ponder who would be on your guest list, you might want to check out what Carnival participants said about their fantasy meals.

Have you seen the PBS program “African American Lives 2” that’s currently airing? After catching the first two parts of this four-part series this week, I wonder how I missed the original show, which aired in 2006. Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., researchers dig into the past of a dozen African Americans, including Chris Rock, Tina Turner and Morgan Freeman, and usually come up with some obscure, educational, entertaining facts about 19th century ancestors. It’s a generous contribution to Black History Month.

Thanks to Nicholas Osborn at the ever-fascinating Square America site you can view an eclectic collection of snapshots of the Africa-American experience. Just click on the “Current Exbibitions” photo. Warning: This site is highly addictive!

For those among us who are old enough to remember the manipulative campaign that Dick Clark foisted upon America’s teenagers a half century go involving a 15-year-old “singer” who was known by a single name, please note that Fabian Forte turned 65 this week. Sigh!

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of animefx.

Should your family information be a secret?

You know what they say about the best-laid plans going awry? My genealogical plans seem to be plagued by a chronic affliction called Murphy’s Law.

Twice in the past few months, I’ve signed up for an introductory class on genealogy with a local school system. Twice it’s been canceled because of a lack of interest. What’s up with that? I keep telling people how popular researching family history is and we can’t even convene a quorum of genealogical wannabes?

Fortunately, the Iowa Genealogical Society has a 2-hour beginners’ session coming up. I’ve been waiting to unwrap and install my new Family Tree Maker 2008 until my class began, but I guess I’ll plunge ahead on my own. Thanks to all the great genealogy bloggers out there, I feel like someone’s got my back on this one.

So, instead of writing about my hopes for my new class, I’ve decided to take on the sensitive topic of privacy vs. access. Although this has long been a topic of interest to genealogists, the rhetoric has sharpened in recent years because of the proliferation of identity theft and tighter governmental restrictions on data in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

It wasn’t that long ago that we shared our Social Security numbers with virtually anyone who asked. I remember when I first opted to leave my SSAN off my driver’s license about 30 years ago. It was a novelty then; it’s the law now.

Access to vital records is the lifeblood of genealogical research. Although the explosive growth of the Internet has been matched or exceeded by  easy access to these records, many genealogists feel threatened by the new trends. It’s not just government records, either. What about all those personal history sites that have popped up? When is it OK to list information about a family member?

Here’s a news account about twins who were separated at birth, met as adults, fell in love and married. The marriage was annulled when their true relationship was discovered and a discussion has begun on what public information may have prevented this. You can also read Janice Brown’s post at her Cow Hampshire blog on the whole privacy/genealogy issue.

How have you come to grips with this vexing problem?

Larry Lehmer, founder and president of When Words Matter, is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of jaki good.

Halloween and the darker side of family history

Which of these more closely describes your Halloweens as a child:

Trick or treating. Bobbing for apples. Telling ghost stories around a bonfire.

Or, soaping windows. Spinning a black cat by its tail. Overturning porta-potties.

Your answer might very well depend on your audience. Our “G-rated” stories flow freely when we share our experiences with our kids and grandkids while the conversation often spins into “R” territory when comparing notes with our peers.

For many of us, Halloween behavior is something of an aberration, anyway. It’s the one holiday where we’re encouraged to leave our everyday self behind and assume an alternative identity for a few hours. Still, behind the mask and trappings of our alter ego, we remain us at the core. But what about those relatives from our family tree for whom Halloween is like every other day? We often call them black sheep or “the skeletons in our closet.”

Every family has them and every family has a different way of dealing with them. The Yorkshire Post has reported the chances of finding a convicted criminal or secret adoption in your own lineage. “Relative” over at Family Skeletons shows how solid genealogical research can often debunk a family legend that has survived generations. PixelPi on her Motes blog nicely illustrates the mental grappling we exercise when addressing these knots on our family trees.

Personally, I like country singer John Anderson’s take on the subject. This video combines clever visuals with Anderson’s  funny words and catchy tune.

Just for fun. Check out Terry Thornton’s post on Halloween-related names, Janice Brown’s fascinating post about New Hampshire body-snatching and grave-sitters or Jasia’s comments about dressing up the family pooch for the occasion.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. For more information, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of white_shadow_photog.

Start raking in those fall memories

 

I had the good fortune to make a presentation Saturday at the annual conference of the Iowa Genealogical Society in Marshalltown, about 60 miles from my home.

As I made the drive on a gorgeous (if a bit warm!) early fall day, I was reminded of the beauty of our state. True, Iowa doesn’t have mountains or oceans, but the rolling countryside nestled between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers has a timeless beauty of its own.

With each change of the seasons, the landscape takes on a distinctively new appearance. For many of us, fall is the best season. Although it’s a bit soon for the foliage to explode into its transitional autumnal overcoat of yellows, oranges, browns and reds, there are other memories many of us associate with the season.

After months of nurturing, it’s time for the land to give up its bounty. Fall harvest is critical for farmers and often means long, dirty days in the fields. For city gardeners, it’s a bittersweet time of savoring the final vine-ripened, home-grown tomatoes while covering delicate perennial beds and returning vines, stalks and leaves to the soil from which they sprouted just a few short months ago.

For many of us, our memory banks are personal highlight reels of baseball and football seasons past. It’s time for the major league baseball playoffs and the college football season is already half over. Hockey season is just beginning, despite early season calamities as we had in Des Moines this week where a game had to be stopped because high humidity created an indoor fog.

It’s a time better spent outdoors, anyway. As Humphrey Bogart said: “A hot dog at the ball park is better than steak at the Ritz.”

What are your favorite fall memories? Put them down on paper and include them in your family history project.

And to Marilyn, Lois, Eileen, Carolyn and the others who attended my presentation in Marshalltown, a big thank you. You were a great audience. Although I didn’t get to catch all of her presentations, keynoter Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak did a great presentation on some of the difficult cases she’s tackled in her duties at ancestry.com. An expert in using DNA in family research, she also spoke on that topic. Check out her blog.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, check out his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo, Fall Colors in Iowa , courtesy of kellyjamesallen.

October: Time for brats, beer and family history

October is one of my favorite months. The weather is usually great here in the Midwest – not too hot, not too cold – and there’s plenty to do outside before we’re mostly chased inside to wait out winter.

It’s also family history month, a time for celebrating the lives of those closest to us, present and past. The Iowa Genealogical Society will be holding its annual state conference this Friday and Saturday in Marshalltown. Genealogical superstar Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak of ancestry.com will be this year’s headliner. At 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, I’ll be presenting a one-hour workshop on putting some fruit on those family trees by saving family stories.

October is also German-American Heritage Month, which explains the proliferation of Oktoberfests in recent years. It’s also Polish American Heritage Month, Celebrate Sun Dried Tomatoes Month, Go Hog Wild-Eat Country Ham Month and National Cookie Month, in case you were looking for reasons to overeat. On the other hand, October is Spinach Lovers Month and Vegetarian Month.

You may have heard that Planet Earth is bursting at its seasons with people. It’s true that the planet’s population has topped six billion, but some of the other claims about that number are over the top. For the past 30 years, there’s been a persistent rumor that up to 75 percent of the people who over roamed the earth are here right now.

Not true, says demographer Carl Haub, who’s brought a little scientific discipline to bear on the situation. Using a baseline of two humans – one man, one woman – who started populating the earth some 50,000 years ago, Haub estimates that 106 billion people have lived on the planet since. That means the current population is roughly six percent of the cumulative total, a far cry from 75 percent.

Quote of the day: "If you don't know your history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree." – writer Michael Crichton.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family stories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of jcbehm

Who were you named for?

Names, names, names.

Names are the name of the game in genealogical research. They are the connectors and identifiers of our family trees. A misspelling, misjudgment or incorrect reference can send a family historian leaf-hopping to another, totally unrelated tree. Accuracy is critical in genealogical research.

As a family historian and biographer, I’m more interested in the stories behind the names. That includes their origins.

The influence of famous people extends well beyond their own family tree. They may have towns, buildings, streets or sandwiches named after them. They may even spark a surge of namesakes beyond their own families. My oldest son Aaron Guthrie, for example, is named after a favorite baseball player (Hank Aaron) and folk singer (Woody Guthrie).

But many of the names on our family trees are influenced more by those family members who came before. When my daughter was born, my wife, Linda, vowed that she would have a more unique name. There were many Lindas around during my wife’s childhood so she opted for the nice-sounding name of Meghan that she picked from a TV commercial. Unfortunately, that was about the same time that “The Thornbirds” was a best-selling novel with a Megan as a major character. All of a sudden, Megans were as common as Lindas were a decade earlier.

The name of our youngest boy, Bret Darby, is a nod to Linda’s father’s Irish roots.

What about your family? Do you know the stories behind the names in your own family tree?

Myra Vanderpool Gormley at Ancestry Magazine has written an interesting piece about how names were picked in her family and Chris Dunham, who has a knack for finding the offbeat over at The Genealogue, writes about a tennis star named Tennys, the real identity of Superman and a tale of using e-mail symbols to name your child.

To learn about one of the unexpected consequences of naming a child for a relative, check out this bookxo post. Or read my earlier post on names.

Larry Lehmer is a personal biographer who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or e-mail him.

Flickr photo courtesy of joeforan1972.

Cousins: A world of complexity and intrigue

As a personal historian, I make a distinction between what I do and genealogy. While a genealogist’s primary motive is creating an accurate, comprehensive family tree, I’m more interested in putting some fruit on those trees through the stories and memories of family members.

Genealogy and family history are, to me, close cousins of the same family. As I considered the relationships among cousins, it occurred to me that among the more interesting discoveries as one traces its family back through the generations is the not-all-that-unusual occurrence of intermarriage within a family, usually involving cousins of a certain distance.

To one who was raised in a state where marriage between first cousins is prohibited and who was taught that such unions would likely produce a generation of genetic misfits, I was surprised to learn that a minority of states actually prohibit such marriages. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia allow first-cousin marriages without restrictions and six states allow them with some restrictions. Still, only an estimated one in 5,000 American marriages is between first or second cousins.

The term for intermarriage is consanguinity and it’s much more common in other parts of the world. In southern Saudi Arabia, for example, the rate of marriage among blood relatives is as high as 70 percent.

Cousin is such a simple word. But understanding the many types of cousins is complex. Here’s a guide that even explains double cousins, who may not marry in North Carolina where first cousins are allowed to tie the knot.

Check out this informative site to learn more about Cousin Couples.

Larry Lehmer is a personal biographer who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or e-mail him.

Flickr photo courtesy of Trip Print Press.