LIBRARIES

When you finally start, the best place to get information is the library. Most Libraries offer some kind of genealogy programs. It is worth getting a library card so that you can start your reach, and there might be a person there that can help you it you need assistance. So what can you find in a library? Also everything!

Genealogy programs

They will have several programs that you can choose from.

Ancestry

Family Search

My Heritage

Find My Past

Telephone books

Local phone books will have family members listed, if this is the place where they lived. Some libraries will have books from other states.

Maps

Maps from surrounding areas will help you find out where your family members lived.  Boundaries - where are the railroad tracks, Good part of town vs. Bad part of town.

Weather reports

What was the weather like when your relatives lived in the area. Did it flood, was there a dust storm, hurricane, drought. Where they farmers?

Cemeteries

Local cemeteries are easy to find if they have been there for years. But there could be some that are not in existence anymore. Your library might be able to help you find out where they are.

Businesses

Seeing what kind of business will help you get a feel of what was going on in the area. Look for old pictures of the area. What did items cost during that time?

Schools

Old yearbooks will hold pictures of past family members. It will let you see what there dreams where, and where they might be going.

IT'S ALL IN THE GENES

Did you ever notice your parents and grandparents stop a conversation when you walked into the room?

Now remember, most of them did not have phones or televisions, but they did have history (gossip). Those family stories that morphed into something else. Those stories that talked about that family member that no one knew about, but a small group of people.

Now to every story, there is a small amount of truth. The one that I what to talk about here is surnames. 

Remember when you were in school, and you came across someone with the same last name as yours. Of course, you were excited, because you thought that you had a family member that would have your back. When you got home and told your parents or grandparents, they look at you sadly and said, "No we are not related to that group of Cunningham's." Your bubble was busted, but should it have been?

Where in the world are you going with this, you want me to get to the point right? 

O.K. here it goes. You probably are related. Let's look at my family. The Cunningham's. This is what I know so far. We come from Greenville, South Carolina, but when I was doing my search, I noticed several Cunningham's from North Carolina. So, what does this have to do with a bag of chips. Only this. The person or persons that had us enslaved, had family members that lived in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tenn. Slaves were given to children as property. When a female married, her slaves went with her, and her husband to another state. 

Our ancestors were separated because of a will, a gift, or a business deal. It would not be uncommon for them to have been taken crossing state lines. So, all of those Cunningham's that are and were in the Old 96, and the states that are surrounding South Carolina are probably my relatives.

THE GREAT MIGRATION

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines movement as: the act or process of moving. ESPECIALLY: change of place or position or posture. 

Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. As the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war.

As we know, the Proclamation declared that all persons that were captive slaves, within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free.

We know that slavery ended in 1865, and some states did not get the information until later in 1866. The results of this news, started The Great Migration. Massive amounts of freed enslaved people moved north. But what did they use for transportation? I used to think that ex-slaves traveled by horse and carriage. This may have been true for some, but not for others. Some walked to where they had to go, others stayed put for fear of the unknown.

For my family and others, they took the train. 

I have done some detective work and found out the route that my Sanders family took to get to Arkansas. From Greensville, South Carolina the families took the Seaboard Air Line (This was the name of the train line, not an airport.) The Seaboard traveled from Greensville, South Carolina, Atlanta, Ga., Birmingham, Alabama, to Memphis, Tenn. They would have had to change trains. The second part of the journey was on the Frisco Line, which ran from Memphis, Tenn. up through Arkansas by way of Plumberville, Morrilton, Germantown, and Atkins, Arkansas.

Later, The Frisco Line would become what we know as The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railway

WHAT'S IN A NAME

 When you are engrossed in finding family members, do you ever run into several family members with the same name?

I was doing research on one of my great, great uncles, when I did a search in Ancestry, I received eleven results of the same name. As I search, I noticed that they were all members of my family, but not the one that I was looking for. So, what do you do? These cues my help.

• Check to see if they are Juniors. Not all parents list sons as Juniors. (To keep you from listing the wrong family members together this is an important step. Even if the parents did not list them as such, you need to.)
• Pay close attention to birthdays. This will be the key to you keeping different section of your family separated.
• Middle names will help you keep the right person with the right family.
• How far back does the name go. Remember if they come from al large family, and that family had for example, twelve children, you might see several sisters and brothers using a sibling name more than one time. I give you an example, I had a family member that was born in 1860's, he had six brothers and six sisters, each of these siblings had kids and out of the eleven siblings, there were eleven children with that name.)
• SO, WHAT'S IN A NAME.......

EVERYTHING!

NEWSPAPERS

Detective work is fascinating. One of the characteristics about this line of work is, that you must be patient. You have to stand back and look at all of the evidence. Once this is done you can pull all of the information together and start putting it in order.

Newspaper articles are a great source for feeling in time slots that you cannot find records for. Most of the information that you will find will have to do with obituaries, but every now and then, you will be surprised by the information that is brought before you. 

SCHOOL YEARBOOKS

For most of us school yearbooks are a source that we would like to forget. Oh! the pictures that we wish would burn into thin air.

O.K., so I regressed for a minute.

Genealogy and yearbooks go hand in hand. This is really a good resource. You learn what your relatives were interested in. This is helpful because you can now build a profile and back history. By doing this it will give other family members fun fact that they did not know. And you might find out why you are doing some of the things that you do. It is in the genes.

TELEPHONE BOOKS

Years ago, the best way to find someone was to look them up in the phone book. To be more accurate, the WHITE PAGES. And depending on where you lived, the book could be very small or very large. 

Now, I know that this is not exciting for some of you, but for us aging dinosaurs, getting the phone book was big news. It only came once a year and would give you updates like new families, change of address and phone number. (Remember, we did not have internet or computers, and not all people had phones or television. I know, blows your mind, right.)

In the early 1930's phone prefixes where used, like DR3-1234 (Drexel), and WA1-2345 (Walnut). So, when you looked for relatives you would see letters listed first then the numbers. Phone books usually gave the males last name, first name and wife would be listed in parentheses, address, and sometime the job they had. For single females the same would apply. The last name is the key, so all person with that surname would be listed, you would just need to know the first name or initial. So, if you were looking for a Smith every Smith in the area would be listed. If you did not want your number to be listed, no number would be next to you name.

Some libraries still have old telephone books that you can access. You need to know the city of the family member you are looking for.