Researching one's genealogy has taken on a new dimension with the advent of the Internet and the vast resources found there in databases, digitized publications, online places to communicate your family tree, and so forth.
Now a debate is brewing between the older, more traditional genealogists who have been in the field for decades, and the newer, Internet-only researchers.
The traditional ones value trips to courthouses and archives, and the use of books and research methodology, as well as attending lectures sponsored by genealogical societies. While they don't deny the importance and necessity of the new ways to find information, they feel that knowing how to research and evaluate sources is still important.
An article in the November/December issue of "Family Chronicle" magazine summarized this as "Classical vs. Modern Genealogy." The article quotes many leaders in the field who lament, as do many of my own friends, that relatives are certain they can find it all on the Internet without having to darken the doors of a courthouse or a library. We all wonder what they will do when they get to the end of their search of online materials, an amount of material that is immense by anyone's standards, and realize that they will have to do some real digging. The article includes a debate over whether to post all of your genealogy research online -- where many people and websites have merged incorrect information and where one may lose the attribution and control of their own findings. No solution is at hand, just the hope that there will be a meeting of the two types so that future genealogical research and writing will be as accurate as possible.
"Tape is not your friend'
Tina Seetoo, conservator at the Georgia Archives, will speak at noon, Dec. 9, at the last Lunch and Learn for 2010. In her talk, entitled "Tape Is Not Your Friend: The Care of Historical Records," she will give advice for caring for your records and discuss some special projects the Archives is undertaking. Free, bring your own lunch. For information, call 678-364-3730 or see www.GeorgiaArchives.org. Co-sponsored by the Friends of Georgia Archives and History.
Ellis Island oral histories
Nearly 2,000 immigrants' stories -- part of the Ellis Island Oral Histories, 1893-1976 database -- can now be heard at www.ancestry.com/immigration. This is just part of the vast and growing amount of material about immigrants Ancestry.com offers on the site. The stories are the same ones available to visitors to the Ellis Island Historic Site in New York.
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