For the Family History Researcher the question that is always present is whether some other person has already done the research on the family you are studying, and how can you find out about that work so as to minimize the new research that must be done.
This will summarize the ways in which the researcher can find out what has already been done on a family thru information available at the Heritage Library.
Of course, the purist will quickly point out that published genealogical work is not to be accepted without verification because it frequently contains errors or worse, fabrications. Still there is always some truth in what has been done and it is always much easier to verify a fact than it is to discover it.
The principal sources of pedigree information available at the Heritage Library are:
· The 83 or so World and European Family Tree CD ROM's published by Broderbund
· The Family History Resource-Family Search LDS CD # 001 (40 Discs), Pedigree Resource File (Master Index Included) published by the Latter Day Saints
· The book collection of the Library, especially the Family History Section
· The CD ROM collection of the Library, especially the Broderbund CD's devoted to genealogy
· The Vertical Files of the Library, especially the Caldwell and Peoples collections
· The Heritage Quest paid subscription web site giving access to 25,000 searchable publications
· The Roots Web site linked on the Library's computers
· The LDS Family Search web site linked on the Library's computers
· The Global Tree site consists of over 90 million ancestors submitted to gencircles.com by users.
· The Genealogical Library Master Catalog is available as a link on the Ancestry.com website available on all our computers.
· The Files of Periodicals at the Library
These highlighted sources will be discussed in sequence below with the purpose of telling the researcher "How To" make use of them.
World and European Family Tree CD ROM's
Each of these 83 or so CD's contain millions of entries of individuals within thousands of Pedigrees. They consist of raw, unconfirmed data submitted by patrons of Broderbund who in general have used the Family Tree Maker program to organize their researched family history information and who have at some time submitted it to Broderbund. Obviously some submittals are more responsibly compiled than others. Moreover there are unnoted duplications in the data with unresolved conflicts between them.
Each CD contains a master index for the whole disk, making it relatively easy to look for a person's name. There is an important caution to be observed when searching these disks. Each pedigree recorded within a disk has its own index, which is in addition to the master index for the disk. The researcher should not get trapped into the error of going from looking at an individual to looking at the index for that particular pedigree, without realizing that the index he will then see is not the master index for the whole disk. If he does that he will miss out on a proper search of the entire CD.
The searching of these CD's requires an organized effort. The latest issues do not incorporate earlier information so that all of the CD's must be viewed for a complete search. There may be duplications in that pedigrees submitted at a later date may correct earlier submittals, without the earlier less complete information being withdrawn. From this it would appear advantageous to start with the later, higher numbered disks on the presumption that a submitter would know the procedure and perhaps be aware of the earlier submittal.
LDS CD # 001 (40 Discs), Pedigree Resource File
These disks are a compilation of the same information that the LDS posts on their Family Search web site. They are a more convenient way to search this data, but have the disadvantage of being dated as of the date of issue.
They can be viewed on certain computers at the Heritage Library that have the viewer installed. Ask a Librarian if you need assistance.
Book Collection and CD ROM Collection
By using the catalog search programs, books and CD's that contain family histories can be identified and the list browsed. Putting in the Keyword "Family History" brings up 367 entries. Most of these are in the Family History section of the shelves, but some are scattered among the other sections. The CD ROMs are identified and contain many pedigrees. Using other Keywords in the catalog search brings up new sets of entries- for example "Families" brings up 92 and "Pedigrees" brings up 8.
It is very important to be aware that there is a very great difference in the completeness of the search for a certain family name or references thereto when the catalog search engine is used, as compared with searching the index of the individual books. Many family name references contained in a book do not make there way into the catalog listing for that book. On the other hand, some of the powerful search engines, such as the one used by Heritage Quest as discussed in that Section of this ‘How To” book, do provide a means of reaching every name that is mentioned in a book. Without such a mechanism, the researcher must revert to looking at the indexes for most of the books that are in the area of potential interest. The CD ROMs containing pedigrees are in general completely indexed and searchable within their own indexes.
Vertical Files
This term is given to the collection of unbound papers and pamphlets on a variety of subjects that have been acquired by the library. An index is maintained in a notebook for finding material in these files. This index is also to be found on the web site.
In general the Vertical files are organized under the main headings: Family Surnames, Church/Civil Immigration Records, Misc. Genealogical Materials, U.S.-States, U.S. History and Foreign Countries.
Heritage Quest
This web site is accessed thru a paid subscription. It is in two parts, Census and Publications. The directions for using the Census portion are contained in the Census section of the “How To Use Library Resources” book and the Publication section directions are in a Heritage Quest section of this same “How To” book.
While the Publications are not specifically devoted to Pedigrees, they may contain them. Heritage Quest’s powerful search engine for these publications facilitates getting to the information about any family contained therein.
Roots Web
This web site is devoted to helping you find your ancestors by Birth, Marriage or Death Records. It contains some 324 million names, most of which are linked as pedigrees. Searching thru the search engines provided is straightforward and of significant use in determining what others have found for a given family.
LDS Family Search
The home page of the LDS Family Search site, for which there is a link on our Library’s Intranet and Internet Home pages, is divided into four columns. The second column from the left invites “search for your ancestors in our vast record collection”. Clicking this brings up a search window and this leads to records of individuals in several kinds of databases: Ancestral File, Census Records, International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, Social Security Death Index and Web sites. By clicking on underlined names, further information is reached which often consists of a pedigree chart and a family group sheet.
The Global Tree site
The Global Tree, for which there is a link on our Library’s Internet Home page, presently consists of over 90 million ancestors submitted by users. The Global Tree is a new ambitious project to build a searchable database of genealogical data. It is different from other "world" tree type web sites because it allows the user to interact with his data and with other genealogists..
Genealogical Library Master Catalog
Access to 200,000 of the references in this catalog is available through a searchable link on the Ancestry.com website available on all our computers. Inserting a family name into the Search window seems to bring up works by authors of that name. Inserting a family name into the Keyword window seems to bring up highlighted references to that name in the description or title of the book. You are then referred to libraries holding that publication so that you can avail yourself of whatever services that library offers in looking up pages and sending them to you. This then is a way of finding publications rather than finding specific people.
Periodicals
Depending upon the publication and the issue, many pedigrees can be found in various periodicals. The ones for which an index is issued periodically, are the most useful. Generally, finding such indexes requires searching thru the collection because there is no catalog of indexing.
Notable examples of useful indexes are the ones issued by the South Carolina Historical Society for their quarterly issues, and the comprehensive Virginia publications index book know as “Swem”, which comes out of the William and Mary University library and encompasses many years of indexing. We have the SCHS index books and a copy of Swem is also shelved at the Library.
