“Go Ask Bubbe” is my way of helping others engage in my greatest passion: genealogy. My own practice of genealogy has four major components. Using this four-step method, I have been able to get far enough into my own family’s background that I’ve been able to tell my grandparents things they didn’t know about their own histories.
1) Go ask Bubbe! This is perhaps the most critical step in your research journey. Interview your oldest living relatives – your grandparents, great-grandparents, their siblings, cousins, and so on. This should be your first step, but don’t stop there – it is an ongoing process. Keep talking. Ask every question you can think of. Don’t just ask for names and dates – ask for stories. Ask about prior generations. Ask about people’s personalities. Ask about stories their own grandparents told to them. Get every bit of information you can, because you won’t be lucky enough to have these folks in your lives forever. Treasure them while they are here and make sure their memories live on.
2) Follow the paper trail. Obtain copies of vital records, ship logs, censuses, burial records. You can piece together a powerful story just from the information you are able to extract from the historical record. In a couple of cases I’ve actually found an FBI docket!
3) Dig into your genetic past. Ancestral DNA is among the weaker genealogy tools, but it can bring you closer to other folks with a common background who are also researching their roots. Testing multiple relatives is critical.
4) Use social networking to fill in the blanks. One of the added perks to doing genealogy research for your own knowledge is that along the way you may find relatives you never knew you had. The world is more digitally connected now than it ever has been, and increasingly people are developing a desire to uncover their roots. Whether you’re searching for your long-lost first cousin or stumbling across your fourth cousin twice removed, your genealogical research can open doors to the discovery of countless new relatives who share your recent ancestry. You may well find that some of those folks have done research of their own and can provide you with valuable information about your mutual ancestors. You might even make some friends along the way!
Leave a Reply