By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Betty Wnek has been working on her family’s genealogy “on and off” for quite a while, trying to fill in the missing links.
That’s why the Lawrence resident turned out Sunday afternoon for a special program aimed at helping amateur genealogists in their quest for information, held at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library.
”My cousins and I have been trying to reconstruct our family tree,” Ms. Wnek said. “At the same time, we want to go forward. We feel like we are going to be the ancestors and people will be looking for us.”
Gathering that information isn’t as daunting a task as one would think, genealogist Catherine “Casey” Zahn told Ms. Wnek and the two dozen members of the audience at the library.
The key is setting a goal — how many generations back do you want to research — and then determining what information you already have, said Ms. Zahn, whose presentation was co-sponsored by the Lawrence Historical Society and the Friends of the Lawrence Library.
”I really love family history,” Ms. Zahn said. “How did I get started? In 1987, my father had a heart attack. I realized I may not have him for too much time, and my daughter needed to know (about her family). She was 5 years old.”
So Ms. Zahn launched into researching her family’s background.
Based on her own experience, Ms. Zahn suggested to the audience that they check with family members to find birth, marriage and death records. Some of that information may be contained in the family Bible or church records. Obituary notices or memorial cards may be useful, she said.
Family collections, such as old letters or postcards and naturalization or a ship’s passenger lists can shed light on the family’s background, Ms. Zahn said. Letters and postcards may offer clues as to where family members lived, and then point the researcher in that direction, she added.
Ms. Zahn said would-be family historians should visit other family members to find out what records or other information they may have. Family members may be reluctant to allow material to leave their possession, so carrying a digital camera to take a photograph of that record is a good idea, she said.
”Trust me, there is a lot of stuff out there,” Ms. Zahn said.
Ms. Zahn cautioned the audience members not to expect to be able to get certified copies of original documents — birth or marriage or death certificates, for example — that are 200 years old. Those documents are generally not available from municipalities, she said.
Original documents have only been kept since about 1900, she said. When the Social Security program was enacted in the 1930s, government officials realized the value of those documents, rather than relying on verbal representations of a claimant’s age, she said.
However, some of those documents may be available on microfilm at the New Jersey Archives in Trenton, Ms. Zahn said. Some birth, marriage and death certificates dating from the 1800s are available on microfilm, she said.
In the days before the telephone, city directories were issued that listed the names of businesses and residents, Ms. Zahn said. City directories for New York City and Philadelphia date to the 1700s, she said. Many times, city directories are available at the local library.
”It’s a cool way to place your family in a place and time,” Ms. Zahn said.
The U.S. Census records are another tool, she said. The federal government compiles information every 10 years on who lives in the United States. For a short time in the early 1900s, New Jersey created a state census that was updated every five years.
It is not always necessary to travel to another community or state to find out information on one’s ancestors, Ms. Zahn said. Much information is available on-line at Web sites — some of which are free, and some which require a user to pay a fee.
One of the most popular Web sites is www.ancestry.com, she said. It contains U.S. Census data and birth, marriage and death records. Immigration records also are available on the Web site.
Other popular Web sites are www.archives.gov, www.rootsweb.com and www.footnotes.com. The first Web site connects visitors to the National Archives, which is reputed to have enough documents to wrap around the earth 54 times, she said. The third Web site, which was launched about a year ago, contains pension records for veterans of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, she said.
At the Lawrence Branch, visitors can access several databases — Heritage Quest, which includes U.S. Census, books and select Revolutionary War documents, and Ancestry Library, which also includes U.S. Census data, military records and world vital records.
Heritage Quest can be accessed from one’s home computer by calling up the library’s Web site at www.mcl.org and looking under “electronic resources.” The Ancestry Library data base can only be used in the library.
There are two special collections at the Lawrence Branch — the New Jersey Room, which has many New Jersey resources, including family histories, marriage records and town histories.
The Nash Room contains the Lawrence Township historian’s collection of local historical documents and artifacts. Items can be viewed on an appointment-only basis by e-mailing “Webmaster at thelhs.org” — the Lawrence Historical Society’s Web site — or by calling 989-6922.
So what did Ms. Wnek learn?
”There are a lot of things on pieces of paper,” she said. “It’s as hard as I thought. You have to be patient and willing to dig.”
