I knew that following my family history would lead to England and Switzerland, but despite learning about Adam and Eve in Sunday school and viewing old bones in Archaeology 101, I never dreamt my very own roots could actually be traced back 60,000 years to a cave in southern Africa.
Now that's lineage, but not to brag, it's your lineage too, and the lineage of every human alive today according to geneticist Spencer Wells. He and like-minded colleagues claim science has proved that our mutual ancient grandfather was one man whose descendants looked beyond the horizon, gradually moved out of Africa, and thus began the evolution of every modern human - race, color, and creed.
It all has to do with advances in genetics and traceable markings on the "Y" or male chromosome. It's technical but fascinating stuff masterfully documented by Wells as he followed the migration of that sturdy strand of DNA to all corners of the globe. The resulting book and film is Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey (Princeton University Press, US$29.95).
Science being what it is, the hypothesis is open to debate like other studies that identified an earlier ancestral "Eve" as the mother of all Homo sapiens. Scientific and biblical theories aside, the Journey of Man is still an enthralling saga.
Watching the film on PBS television reinforced one essential truth that just began dawning on me the last few years: I live only because my ancestors survived long enough to procreate regardless of every trial by fire, famine, ice, drought, flood, disease, and war – from the very beginning of mankind, generation after generation, eon after eon.
This was quite a revelation for one who hadn't before paid much attention to known relatives never mind those long gone.
How annoyed I am, now it's too late, that I never cared enough to ask my father about those Swiss relatives in his photo album, or why his father went to Brazil.
Now, I am hooked and ready to follow my ancestral trail. Too bad I gave up on genetics after first year college, but even if I haven't the skills to follow the lead of Spencer Wells, at least there are tools at my disposal, at home and abroad, to help me journey into my own epic past.
Poking about in libraries, poring over old documents, probably wouldn't be on many lists of fun holiday ideas, but it sure beats sitting alone on the beach, if you ask me. For many solos curious about their recent and distant history, genealogy is an absorbing and rewarding pastime. The quest may begin as an at-home study then branch out to visit old family haunts both near and far.
I sometimes wondered about my mother's maiden name: Routledge? Hardly English sounding, I thought, not like Brown, or Jones, or Smith, though I knew the family roots were in England. But where did a name like "Routledge" come from and what did it mean? With time to kill one rainy Sunday afternoon I got on the Internet and idly typed possible phrases into one of the search engines: "Routledge surname origin."
After wading through a number of irrelevant documents, I came across this clue: "These people were border reivers."
Turns out the word "reiver" is an old term for bandit. No kings or queens on this family tree. But at least they were a feisty lot, and some of them must have escaped the mayhem and the hangman's noose, or I wouldn't be around. I won't bore you with the details, except to say that the Routledge clan and about 75 other families that inhabited the Scottish/English border lands during the 13th to 16th centuries were a pretty tough bunch. Intrigued with that dubious information, I soon got hooked on establishing links between those Routledges and mine.
So far I've only got back five generations (1773), and I've turned up a few other juicy tidbits along with more questions than answers. Next I'll go to England to see what I can dig up at the source and walk where my relatives walked. After that I'll tackle those Swiss relatives - harder because of language difficulties - then I might have to go to Brazil, and after that, who knows where my ancestral trail might lead?
Getting relatives to talk is one thing, but getting them to write details down or go rummaging in the attic for family documents may be tiresome. The easiest way to get the job done is for the self-appointed family historian to personally do the jotting down and participate in sorting through papers, photos, bibles, journals, clippings, souvenirs, anything and everything that might piece together a credible historical documentation. That means getting in the car, or on a plane, train, or bus, and going visiting - neat solo travel plan - pen/computer, questionnaire, and briefcase in hand.
Research worksheets, pedigree charts, and family group forms are still widely used to record and organize information, but computer aids have virtually revolutionized genealogy research within the last few years.
I use Personal Ancestral File (PAF 5.2 US$8.25), a computer software program published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. PAF organizes individual and family records and photos, and produces, either on screen or on paper, pedigree charts, family group records, individual notes, and official sources.
Tracking down pertinent records is quite a daunting task at the beginning, rather like learning golf - wild swings, missed shots, and many out-of-the-way forays. Practice helps, and so does taking beginner lessons.
Any local library either stocks or can supply numerous how-to genealogy guides and history books useful for organizing a plan, and providing contacts for country specific resources, such as genealogy and history societies, national registers and archives. These are some of the records you will be looking for:
Without traveling directly to the originating archive, the single most comprehensive center for researching ancestry is the Family History Library operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Genealogy is central to the Mormon faith, and the church has been collecting, copying, and storing family related documents at its Salt Lake City Utah headquarters for decades. All of the stored records are available for public viewing, free of charge, at the main library in Salt Lake City.
Additionally, the Family History Library catalogues and various indexes may be accessed via more than 3,400 Family History Centers placed in cities all over the world. At these centers, microfilmed copies of specific documents can be ordered up from Salt Lake City for a small shipping fee. Also available at the centers is FamilySearch™ a huge Internet based resource that contains millions of indexed names and sources along with the complete 1880 USA Census and 1881 returns for Britain and Canada.
With your own computer and Internet access, you may use FamilySearch™ to your heart's content. www.familysearch.org
That's how I found (1881 British Census) my grandfather Henry C (age 1) listed along with his parents, siblings, and the names of a visitor and a servant living with them. But that was just the beginning. In fact, I found hundreds of thousands of web pages devoted to every aspect of genealogy: individual family histories, services offered by national and regional archives, regional genealogy societies, volunteer projects, and commercial enterprises.
These few are good starter sites:
One of these days we'll all be able to match our own roots back through the eons with mass genetic testing of y-chromosome (male) lineage and mitochondrial DNA (female) lineage. It's happening right now. Check out the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation. www.smgf.org.
"For the 350 years leading up to the end of the 16th century, what are now Northumberland, Cumbria, the Scottish Borders, and Dumfries & Galloway rang to the clash of steel and the thunder of hooves. Robbery and blackmail were everyday professions; raiding, arson, kidnaping, murder, and extortion an accepted part of the social system.
"While the monarchs of England and Scotland ruled the comparatively secure hearts of their kingdoms, the narrow hill land between was dominated by the lance and the sword. The tribal leaders from their towers, the broken men and outlaws of the mosses, the ordinary peasants of the valleys, in their own phrase, 'shook loose the Border.' They continued to shake it as long as it was political reality, practicing systematic robbery and destruction on each other. History has christened them the Border Reivers. They gave (the words) blackmail and bereaved to the English language.
"The stamp of the Reivers is still to be seen on the Border Lands - in it's architecture, culture, and people. From the secretive fortified towns and farms to names that once struck fear into men's hearts, the legacy of the Reivers remains." www.reivers.com.
Archbold, Armstrong, Beattie, Bell, Burns, Carleton, Carlisle, Carnaby, Carrs, Carruthers, Chamberlain, Charlton, Collingwood, Crisp, Crozier, Cuthbert, Dacre, Davison, Dixon, Dodd, Douglas, Dunne, Elliot, Fenwick, Forster, Graham, Gray, Hall, Hedley, Henderson, Heron, Hetherington, Hume, Irvine, Irving, Johnstone, Kerr, Laidlaw, Little, Lowther, Maxwell, Milburn, Musgrove, Nixon, Noble, Ogle, Oliver, Potts, Pringle, Radcliffe, Reade, Ridley, Robson, Routledge, Rutherford, Salkeld, Scott, Selby, Shaftoe, Storey, Simpson, Tait, Taylor, Trotter, Turnbull, Wake, Watson, Wilson, Woodrington, Young.