Tree seminar: Family tree, that is
by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com
Maybe it’s easy to think that genealogy – the study of one’s ancestry – doesn’t change much from year to year. After all, there’s only so much that can be learned about relatives who weren’t famous, right?
Wrong, says local resident Tom Bocek.
“There’s all kinds of stuff going on. You can learn a lot.”
And Bocek should know. As a genealogist himself, and one of the speakers at the upcoming Family History and Genealogy Workshop, he makes it his business to keep up on new developments and technologies in the trade.
The workshop, planned for Saturday, Sept. 8, will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Church of Latter Day Saints in Essex. It is free and open to the public, and is presented by the Baltimore Family History Center and the Baltimore, Maryland Stake.
And this year, said Bocek, there is more than ever to learn.
One of the new developments on the genealogy front has been the fact that military records are now available to the public.
“Army, Navy, all military records,” says Bocek. “They go all the way back to the Civil War.”
Know what else that means? It means that anyone looking for the grave of a long-lost soldier relative is going to be able to find it.
“They have all the information on the military cemeteries and where people are buried,” said Bocek. “If you lost someone, and he was in the military, now you can find them.”
The availability of records in general “just keeps getting easier and just keeps getting better,” he says.
In fact, one of the sessions to be presented is entitled, “Beyond Belief: A Wealth of Historical and Genealogy Societies.” And according to Bocek, that pretty much sums up how quickly things are changing.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Joshua Taylor, will present a session entitled, “Family History: What the Future Holds.” And so far, according to Bocek, the future looks exciting for genealogists.
The Church of Latter Day Saints, he says, is undertaking the process of digitizing all church records (note: all church records, not just LDS members).
“You’ll be able to find out much more than you ever could. For example, it used to be that you could travel somewhere and you would want to see the records in a church so that you could look up your family, and you might not be allowed to. The church might not let you. But the Church of Latter Day Saints is making a photographic record of all those books and they’ll be able to make them available.”
The project might see completion in as soon as two years from now, he added.
The day-long seminar has a variety of sessions, for those just starting to climb the family tree, to those who think they have explored everything it has to offer.
There are sessions on topics including using various genealogy websites, looking up the records of relatives who were indentured servants, accessing and using Maryland church records and Civil War draft records and even setting up websites for a family tree.
There are also sessions specific to looking up information on various ethnic groups, including Swedish, Irish, German, Italian and Polish.
“If you talk about Irish, German and Polish genealogy, you’re talking about 90 per cent of Highlandtown,” Bocek laughs.
There are also the popular “brick wall” sessions, where individuals can present seemingly dead-end research problems to skilled genealogists, who can help them review the options for furthering their search.
“If you show up and you don’t know anything about genealogy, we can get you started,” said Bocek. “If you know some things already, we’ll be glad to help you learn more. And if you think you’re an expert, we have enough here to surprise you.”
Note: The Family History and Genealogy Workshop is held on Saturday, Sept. 8, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 120 Stemmers Run Rd. in Essex. Water will be provided but participants should bring a bag lunch.
Information on all classes is available at www.BaltimoreFamilyHistoryWorkshop.org.
September 1st, 2007 at 10:40 am
I’ve written op-eds for the Baltimore Sun, so I share the following with the participants who will be attending the genealogy workshops.
Financial Times FT.comHOME UK
Pearl Duncan - ‘My Scottish ancestors were heroes’
By Sarah Ebner
Published: August 18 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 18 2007 03:00
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d64cd9f6-4d22-11dc-a51d-0000779fd2ac.html
When I started to look into my family tree, I couldn’t have imagined the conflict it would cause. I spent 10 years researching my ancestors, and a lot of people didn’t like what I had to say at the end of it. I’d tracked the cultural history that shaped my DNA in America, Europe and Africa, and discovered that not all white men in the British colonies who fathered children with black women in the 18th century were evil slavers. I found at least one ancestor who was an abolitionist and who did not abandon his children.
My family emigrated from Jamaica to New York when I was young, and I was always fascinated by where I had come from. My parents told me we were descended from the Maroons, or runaway slaves. Years later, when I went to our old family graves just outside Kingston, Jamaica, I couldn’t believe it when I found our birth and baptismal records dating back to the 1700s.
I now know that my roots are incredibly diverse: I am descended from slaves; from free people who worked and bought their freedom; from Maroon warriors who waged military rebellions in Jamaica against slavery; also from British merchants, and European and African nobility.
My Jamaican grandmother’s name was Rebecca Smellie and her ancestor was John Smellie, a Scottish merchant. In 1726 in Jamaica he had a child, George, with a “free negro” whose name was Ann Roberts. Even though there were penalties at that time - huge fines, deportation, imprisonment - for keeping records of black children, John Smellie left birth and baptism records with George’s name on them.
Three of John Smellie’s Scottish descendants settled in Jamaica on land he left them. One of them was called William Smellie and he died in 1800. He was an abolitionist, and when I found his will it showed that he left the maximum amount allowed under the slavery laws to his mixed-race children and their mother. Finding out about both these men changed everything for me. I had thought I was learning about the awful people who owned slaves, but instead I was discovering heroism, and people who stood up for what they thought was right.
I followed up these discoveries with research in Scotland, hiring Scottish genealogists and local historians. It turned out that John Smellie was of noble birth. I sent the records to the Court of The Lord Lyon, the heraldic authority for Scotland, which said I qualified for a coat of arms. I now have one that reflects the diversity of my ancestry.
My research also took me to Ghana. I tracked down dozens of ancestors and collected DNA from Ghanaian families whose names matched nicknames still used in my family. I spent a lot of time on the linguistic research, and DNA confirmed the connection. As far as I know, I was one of the first people in the world to use DNA in this way.
I’ve written a book about my research but publishers seem to think it’s too contentious to publish. Talking about black ancestors who rebelled apparently goes against how Americans see these people - slaves were victims, not rebels. Editors are happy to accept stories about slaves who escaped one at a time, but they don’t like the idea that they grouped together and stood up for themselves. That’s too threatening.
I’ve also learned that many black Americans are afraid, as I was initially, of finding a slave trader in their family tree, so they don’t really want to talk about their European ancestors. I got into trouble with my black friends for saying that John Smellie was a more caring man than many other colonials because he left a record of his child.
When you start looking into your genealogy, you have to come to terms with admirable and despicable behaviour, and that’s what I’ve done.
As told to Sarah Ebner.
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