Genealogy Jottings

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Every genealogist works with a lot of death information. We review death certificates and wills. We visit cemeteries. All this drives home the point that none of us will get off the Earth alive. We, too, will pass away. What will become of all our research once we are gone?

In my early years of genealogy, everyone sought to compile a volume of family history to preserve their information. Colleagues published beautiful books telling their family stories in text and photographs. A distant cousin of mine even prepared such a book as part of his PhD work. I thought that I, too, would write genealogies someday. I even did a trial run on my Riddle family during the Millennium, Olive Dunbar Riddle and Her Descendants.

After that, the Digital Age took center stage in the genealogy world. We embraced it by using ever-more-complicated genealogy software programs and using newly-available genealogy databases. We created a website to display our family tree.

The website got us thinking. Why put in the effort and expense of preparing a book when all our data is already available in real time on the website? We delayed plans for any books and concentrated on doing more research instead. Our web tree now holds thousands of names and sources.

Maintaining the web tree, however, requires, well, maintenance. Who will do that when we are gone? Not my kids! Knowing this, should I begin a book right away to preserve my family information?

Another choice exists. This week we learned about it at the monthly meeting of the Computer Interest Group of the Colorado Genealogical Society. The tireless Barb Price gave a presentation on the Family Tree feature now available on Family Search (http://www.familysearch.org). The creators of this site envision collecting research information, organizing it into one world family tree, and maintaining it in perpetuity.

This idea appeals to us, and my husband/tech advisor was all set to submit his data right away. Then he realized that unlike several other genealogy programs, The Master Genealogist (TMG) software we use cannot export to Family Tree. He contacted TMG and was disappointed to learn they have no plans for an upgrade.

What to do? We have not decided yet. We could undertake the huge job of re-entering all our data into Family Tree. We could purchase a new software program that does export to Family Tree, and then use a GedCom to transport our data from TMG into the new program and finally upload it from there. Both of these options would take a lot of time.

Maybe we will wait to see if the folks at TMG change their minds about enabling a data transfer. Are there any other TMG users out there who wish they could preserve their data on Family Tree? Maybe if more of us contacted the company, they would take some action.

I am nearing the end of my cemetery marker project. Now I ask myself, was it worth the time it took away from my research? Was it helpful to anyone?

For myself, I can say I am glad I took the time to do this. Once I had a box of photos that I had to sift through every time I wanted to look at one. Now I have all the cemetery marker snapshots neatly arranged in an archival-quality album. I also have digital images of all these and more, both in a Picasa album and as exhibits in The Master Genealogist. It will be simple for me to maintain this system.

For the greater genealogical community, I have posted over 50 new photos on the FindAGrave site, http://www.findagrave.com. This free site contains memorials and family links for decedents worldwide. Memorials for many of my ancestors already existed, especially in heavily-researched states like Massachusetts. But I posted numerous photos and built pages for 50 or so residents of rural communities in Illinois, Missouri, and Montana.

I have just a few photos left to do. We have some people buried in Nevada, Virginia, and Wyoming. When I finish those, I will have time yet this year to process more of the information I gathered in Norway this summer. Too bad we found no family gravesites there. My cemetery marker database will remain all-American.

At the beginning of the year, I stated my goal of getting all my photos of cemetery markers under control. After a huge segue trip to Norway this summer that took me away from my original task for weeks, I am finally working on the photos again. My project had four steps:

• Design a process for filing, digitizing, and publishing my pictures. I attended a couple of informative sessions offered by the Computer Interest Group of the Colorado Genealogical Society to learn ways to do this.
• Scan all my photos and place them in digital folders organized by state, cemetery, and name. Put the prints into an archival album.
• Copy all the cemetery marker images and store them as exhibits in my genealogy database, The Master Genealogist.
• Upload my images and build memorials on http://www.findagrave.com.

This week I began the fourth step. I uploaded all my Colorado photos and built memorials for Ruth Anna Hansen Reed Brown and Ralph Willard Odom, both buried at Boulder’s Green Mountain Cemetery. Someone else had already built memorials for my other family members in that cemetery, Dean Reed and the Towers–Hazel, Walter, and Josephine. Memorials for family members at Ft. Logan (Robert Lloyd Reed) and Fountain (Robert H. Reed) had already been created as well. I had earlier put up a memorial for Thomas and Henrietta Reed, buried in Cañon City, right after I visited that cemetery a couple of years ago.

Now I am moving ahead to my Illinois photos. My father took these many years ago at Ashmore, Enon, and Reed cemeteries in Coles County. Our family pioneered in Illinois in the 1820’s, so there are a lot of these photos, and they will take some time.

I hope to finish uploading the photos and building memorials by the end of October. It feels good to know that whenever I visit another cemetery, I have a system in place for saving the images of the cemetery markers.

Earlier this week, I wrote of mysterious symbols we found in a 1771 Norwegian marriage record from Hordaland. I vowed to find out more about them. I soon learned that they are known as Bumerker.

Norwegians used these family symbols to identify and mark their property. Those who could not read and write also used them to sign documents. The markings may have been derived from runic alphabets or pagan symbols, but by 1771 they had no such meaning. Instead, they were more like the cattle brands used in the American West.

How did I get my answer so quickly? I felt that someone in the genealogical community must know about these symbols, so I just put my question “out there” via my blog, Twitter, and the Hordaland message board on Ancestry. By the next morning, I received responses to my question. One pointed me to a good article about Bumerker on the Norway Heritage website (http://www.norwayheritage.com/Property-Marks-in-Rural-Norway.htm).

In the end, nothing mysterious was going on here. Instead, I learned something new and took another step in my ongoing genealogical education. Thanks to everyone who helped me along.

Imagine our surprise when we unearthed a Church of Norway (Lutheran) marriage record decorated with pagan-like symbols. The record comes from the Voss, Hordaland Ministerialbok, 1731-1773. On page 148 we found my ancestors, Mons Eriksen and Brita Christoffersdatter, wed in 1771. Every entry on the page includes a couple of tiny, mysterious drawings.

In the words of Martin Luther, “What Does This Mean?” We do not really know, but we would love to find out. Do the symbols apply to the bride and groom? Their families or best men? The farms where they lived?

I have learned that the Voss area was Christianized late and forcibly so by St. Olaf. Perhaps these symbols date from Norway’s pagan era. But why add them to a Christian marriage record? Someone must have an answer, and I need to begin searching for the person who can explain.

The State of Colorado celebrates its birthday today—Colorado Day. The Centennial State achieved statehood 137 years ago on August 1, 1876.

None of my family lived here then. The Reeds came later, well into the twentieth century. But came they did. These folks made their way into the same state where I, too, settled. Today I am thinking of my Reed predecessors who came to Colorado:

• Robert Morton Reed, my great-uncle, worked as a railroad telegrapher in Denver in 1917. He registered for the WWI draft there. He had a long career with the railroad, serving in both Colorado and Wyoming. The Broomfield [CO] Depot Museum is currently documenting the service of all the men, including Robert Morton Reed, who served as station agents there. Uncle Mort, as we knew him, retired to Delta, CO. He and his wife Alta are buried in Delta.
• Grace Reed, my grandmother, moved her family to Loveland from Wyoming in 1936. My grandfather, a truck driver, had died in an accident near Brighton, CO the previous year. Wyoming had virtually no benefits for widows and orphans during those Depression years, but Colorado was more generous. Uncle Mort found a place for my grandfather’s family to live. Grandma is buried in the Loveland cemetery. Her second son, named Robert after Uncle Mort, is buried at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver.
• Dean Reed, the American Rebel and my third cousin, was born in Denver in 1938. After a colorful singing career in Hollywood and behind the Iron Curtain, Dean died under mysterious circumstances in East Germany. His is buried in Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder.
• Thomas Aaron Reed was my great-uncle and younger brother of Robert Morton Reed. He retired to Cañon City in the 1960’s. He and his wife Hettie are buried there.

Today many of their descendants call Colorado home. We enjoy living in the beautiful Centennial State. Happy birthday, Colorado!

People used to joke about when they would be “done” with their genealogy. The historical answer was “never” because you never run out of ancestors. Recently, though, I have found myself thinking about all the changes in the genealogy and family history world in recent years. Where will this technology-driven environment take us? Could genealogy be “done” in my lifetime?

I learned to do genealogy the old way. We joined local societies to learn how to do genealogical research. We kept voluminous notebooks of family group sheets and exhorted ourselves to write at least a letter per week soliciting information from relatives and vital records offices. We ordered microfilmed records from the Family History Center and occasionally drove over to Salt Lake City to use the huge genealogy library there. I felt blessed to live in the greater Denver area with its easy access to the wonderful Denver Public Library and branches of the BLM and the National Archives. Our goal was to produce a beautifully-bound book on our lineage. It took a lifetime to gather the information.

Nowadays, I keep my genealogical records electronically, and probably I will never write that book. I rarely visit the local repositories because I can find so much information online. The same goes for genealogy meetings. Instead of gleaning tips from speakers at the monthly meeting, I learn to do genealogy by attending seminars and conferences, or using the helpful materials on the LDS website https://familysearch.org/.

A huge genealogy industry has sprung up in recent years. Professional speakers traverse the country and vast websites offer valuable collections online. We even have genealogy television shows. Anyone willing to pay all the fees can reap a bonanza of records, educational materials and DNA results. Instead of compiling genealogy books, thousands of people use this largesse to add family lines to the collective world family tree.

So what happens when the world family tree is more or less done? What becomes of the genealogy hobby then? Will new genealogists spend most of their time verifying the work of others or collaborating to break down the remaining brick walls? Will people do genealogy at all if it means simply plugging oneself into the world tree developed by others?

Digitization of records and sharing of family information continues at breakneck speed. Most people can look at the compiled world tree and find some of their ancestors already listed. I think I will see the day when we have a complete database, at least for Americans. Will the world still need genealogists then?

Since our return from our trip to Norway we have heard the same question asked: Did you look up your relatives? The short answer is “No”. Even though we might have been interested in doing so, we did not even try.

For many reasons, we do not know the names of any of our Norwegian cousins or where they might live:

• Our great-grandparents emigrated with their extended families. Any people who remained behind were their cousins, meaning that relatives alive today are quite remote to us, fourth cousins or so. The American and Norwegian families have not been in touch since our great-grandparents died in the early-to-mid twentieth century. We have no contact information for any relatives residing in Norway today.
• Our families left when Norway still used the patronymic system based on the given name of one’s father. No one had a surname that we can trace. That changed in Norway only about 1920, long after our families had left. We do not know what names the Norway families chose as surnames. They may not call themselves the same names chosen by those who emigrated—Hjelmstad and Walstad (chosen from farm names in Norway) or Bentsen (chosen from the patronymic of one immigrant’s grandfather).
• Although my husband/tech advisor could have distant relatives remaining in the same Ringsaker region where his family always lived, I do not know where to begin looking for mine. They lived in fishing villages on the numerous islands of Lofoten and Vesterålen. Today, the Norwegian government pays residents to leave these small, remote islands. Where would I look now for relatives?
• Our website displays our family tree back to the 1600’s on many Norwegian lines. No descendants living in Norway have ever contacted us.

That said, I must confess that several Norwegians we encountered on our trip asked us whether we planned to visit relatives. “They would want to meet you!” they said. When we explained we did not know of any relatives, they said that is no excuse.

One shopkeeper strongly advised us to visit the local record repository. He claimed they would identify and locate all our relatives for us within the hour. Really?

We did not try it because we had a tight schedule. Not wanting to miss out on seeing some of the sites on our itinerary, we opted to continue with our trip as planned. But if anyone else in the family visits Norway, it might be fun to try looking up the relatives. They would want to meet you!

I think I knew that church membership played an important role in the lives of our ancestors. As a product of the American system of a separated church and state, I just did not appreciate how extensive a role it played for these people. Recently, as I entered a lot of data derived from Church of Norway documents into my computer program, I came to realize how fully the Scandinavians in the 18^th and 19^th centuries entwined church life and everyday life.

They marked their rites of passage in Lutheran religious ceremonies—baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial. The church carefully recorded these important occasions, and we can view the records today, hundreds of years later. In addition to facts about the event, the records also provide information on names of an ancestor’s parents and the places they lived. They even reveal the name of the father if a child was illegitimate.

Yet the church affected more than just the individual behavior reflected in the records. It was the reason for some modern reforms in Scandinavian society. For example, Norway in the 1700’s instituted a nationwide push for literacy. Why? So the people could pass the 700-question confirmation test. The pastor recorded their scores for posterity—not so good, good, or very good.

Why would a young Norwegian, or anyone, want to take and pass this difficult confirmation test? Because you could not get married in Norway unless you did. Every parish pastor asked for confirmation date and place before performing a marriage ceremony. That information, along with information pertinent to the marriage, is recorded on the nuptial record.

Even today, although most Norwegians claim they are not religious, the Church of Norway retains its official state status. It receives its financial support from the state. All clergy are state employees. The King of Norway is required to be Lutheran. The Church still has its role there, affecting the everyday lives of most Norwegians.

A couple of weeks ago I stated my intention to organize my computer bookmarks. Since then, I have worked on doing that. I maintain a “Genealogy Research” folder in my bookmark list, and it contains subfolders for various geographic locations.

This week I cleaned up my “Norway” folder. I find these sites helpful for finding and analyzing Norwegian records:

• The Digital Archives of Norway (http://arkivverket.no/eng/content/view/full/629)
• Norwegian words used in genealogical records (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~norway/na17.html#F)
• Norwegian parish information with links to translations of parish record column headings (http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~norway/na20.html
• A database covering volumes 1-17 of Oluf Rygh’s list of Norwegian Farm Names (http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html)
• Common Norwegian occupations (https://www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Norway_Occupations)

The ability to analyze records from another time and place does not come easily. Keeping a list of sources and translation information in handy bookmarks can make the process much smoother. It takes time to create and organize your bookmarks, but it really does save time in the long run.