News Highlights

MSU expo provides tips for genealogy enthusiasts

Tracing the family tree

2006-04-09

By Nicole Christiansen, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato]

Photo by Luke Gronneberg

Jessica Potter tells people about the right way to preserve family documents and photographs Saturday at the South Central Minnesota Genealogy Expo. "Everyone is a family historian in some way," said Potter, who is the collections manager for the Blue Earth County Historical Society.

MANKATO — While researching her family's history, Mary Joyce of Janesville found her own name on a family tree.

A distant relative in California had put the line of genealogy together, but Joyce noticed a little mistake in the research.

"I'm not married to the guy that she said I am," she said.

Joyce was one of at least 60 people Saturday who attended the fourth annual South Central Minnesota Genealogy Expo, co-sponsored by the Blue Earth County Historical Society and Minnesota State University.

The expo offered 19 different sessions on genealogy, including classes on cemetery research, genealogy on the Internet, translating German documents, conducting oral histories, scrapbooking family histories and quilting with family photos.

Joyce sat in on a class - or rather a group discussion - led by MSU Reference Librarian JoAnne Griebel on how to conduct research using more than just records of birth dates and death dates.

Griebel had to "shush" a few people in the back row of her session because they couldn't stop discussing their ideas and findings.

Church and cemetery records can show where people lived or where they were buried, Griebel said.

Old city and county directories, newspaper gossip col-umns and community anniversary books can provide a little more background on what people were like. She said going through atlases and the archives at historical societies can be helpful, too.

People just have to get creative in their search.

"You never know what you're going to find," genealogist Barbara DeZuani said.

Griebel passed out a packet of genealogy Web sites and a warning about Internet research.

"You can find so much information, but that doesn't mean that it's accurate," she said.

Just ask Joyce. But if you catch a mistake, you should document it and keep track of where you found the correct information, Griebel said.

Most of the people in her class weren't beginners at tracking down little bits of family information. Joyce, for instance, has been working at it for 10 years.

Genealogy was once her hobby, but now it's more of a lifestyle, she said. Joyce even takes vacations to places where she knows she'll be able to do more family research.

"If you like a good mystery, then you'll be hooked," she said.

And DeZuani said a good genealogist will keep asking questions. Write letters to ask for information, she said, and getting a "no" would be the worst that could happen.

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