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Graveyard hunt
Ida Baker photographs grave markers at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery with her digital camera recently. Baker is one of many locals who have discovered an interest in their ancestors through genealogy studies.
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ENLARGE
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Dead shot
Ida Baker photographs headstones and places them on a Web site to help out people researching their family's genealogy.
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As a girl, Ellnora Young was always intrigued by her grandfather's tales of his relatives.
She remembers rolling out a piece of butcher paper to start sketching her family tree.
Today's methods of tracking family history are a bit more technologically savvy.
"It's just something that people sort of get hooked on," said Young, now a volunteer librarian for the Douglas County Genealogical Society, which operates a library in the county courthouse that provides online access to track down family; local marriage licenses and death certificates; information on those buried in county cemeteries, as well as those throughout the United States and even in some foreign countries.
"It's just like being an amateur detective because you get clues from different things," said Young, 66.
Ida Baker, a recent convert to the genealogy trend, spends her free time surfing the Web, looking for links to ancestors.
"Some of our friends think we're nuts," she said of the time she and a co-worker dedicate to the hobby.
But Baker, 53, believes the information will be dearly valued by her three grandchildren, and she intends to give them a copy of a thick book -- still in the works -- that records their family history.
Since March, the Winston resident has perused popular Web sites to aid people in tracking down distant relations. She's met with an aunt to find everything she could about her relatives. She's ordered marriage and death certificates and searched cemeteries.
She's one of many in the county addicted to genealogy.
<b>LOGGING ON</b>
Over the years, technology has made the link easier between past and present.
"I believe that the Internet is just really making the world smaller in a way because it's easy to contact people ... all over the world," said Patricia Gausnell, a volunteer at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Center in Roseburg, which also offers genealogy resources.
The Mormon church operates one of several Web sites -- familysearch.org, designed specifically for tracking ancestors. The church Family History Center in Roseburg also offers free access to ancestry.com.
She remembers rolling out a piece of butcher paper to start sketching her family tree.
Today's methods of tracking family history are a bit more technologically savvy.
"It's just something that people sort of get hooked on," said Young, now a volunteer librarian for the Douglas County Genealogical Society, which operates a library in the county courthouse that provides online access to track down family; local marriage licenses and death certificates; information on those buried in county cemeteries, as well as those throughout the United States and even in some foreign countries.
"It's just like being an amateur detective because you get clues from different things," said Young, 66.
Ida Baker, a recent convert to the genealogy trend, spends her free time surfing the Web, looking for links to ancestors.
"Some of our friends think we're nuts," she said of the time she and a co-worker dedicate to the hobby.
But Baker, 53, believes the information will be dearly valued by her three grandchildren, and she intends to give them a copy of a thick book -- still in the works -- that records their family history.
Since March, the Winston resident has perused popular Web sites to aid people in tracking down distant relations. She's met with an aunt to find everything she could about her relatives. She's ordered marriage and death certificates and searched cemeteries.
She's one of many in the county addicted to genealogy.
<b>LOGGING ON</b>
Over the years, technology has made the link easier between past and present.
"I believe that the Internet is just really making the world smaller in a way because it's easy to contact people ... all over the world," said Patricia Gausnell, a volunteer at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family History Center in Roseburg, which also offers genealogy resources.
The Mormon church operates one of several Web sites -- familysearch.org, designed specifically for tracking ancestors. The church Family History Center in Roseburg also offers free access to ancestry.com.
Online searchers can access 19th- and 20th-century censuses; birth, marriage and death certificates; immigration records and more. Web sites prompt searchers for information, such as the person's name, birthplace and year, immigration year and relations to the head of households.
Gausnell will teach a class on online genealogy through Umpqua Community College this winter at the center, and she encourages anyone to come, no matter their religion. She said it's also a great opportunity for people to learn to navigate the Internet.
Gausnell is motivated to help others find their ancestors because of a higher calling.
According to the Mormon religion, finding ancestors and performing baptisms and other ceremonies on their behalf helps unite families in heaven.
"We believe that we wouldn't want to be in heaven without our beloved spouse and our beloved children," she said. "... We wouldn't be able to have the highest degree of glory."
The goal for Mormons, she said, is to encourage everyone in the world to connect with their ancestors.
<b>MAKING CONNECTIONS</b>
The desire for people to know where they've come from motivates most to research their ancestry.
"We have people come from all over the United States that have had relatives that were here 50 or 100 years ago or longer," Young said.
Baker expanded her hobby to help others track down their past.
She got hooked when a co-worker at Profit Systems Software in Roseburg told her about the genealogy Web sites. The two make weekend day trips a couple times a month to area cemeteries, taking photos of the headstones there and spending the following weeks scanning them on findagrave.com.
Cemeteries in Scottsburg, Canyonville and Myrtle Creek are a few of the spots they have hit so far.
People from Washington, Idaho, New Jersey and elsewhere have found deceased relatives through Baker.
The first ancestors Baker tracked down were her great-great-grandparents who moved to Scottsburg in 1880 from Illinois.
First she found out their last name -- Patterson -- from an aunt in Coos Bay. But Illinois death-certificate and grave searches led to nothing.
Gausnell will teach a class on online genealogy through Umpqua Community College this winter at the center, and she encourages anyone to come, no matter their religion. She said it's also a great opportunity for people to learn to navigate the Internet.
Gausnell is motivated to help others find their ancestors because of a higher calling.
According to the Mormon religion, finding ancestors and performing baptisms and other ceremonies on their behalf helps unite families in heaven.
"We believe that we wouldn't want to be in heaven without our beloved spouse and our beloved children," she said. "... We wouldn't be able to have the highest degree of glory."
The goal for Mormons, she said, is to encourage everyone in the world to connect with their ancestors.
<b>MAKING CONNECTIONS</b>
The desire for people to know where they've come from motivates most to research their ancestry.
"We have people come from all over the United States that have had relatives that were here 50 or 100 years ago or longer," Young said.
Baker expanded her hobby to help others track down their past.
She got hooked when a co-worker at Profit Systems Software in Roseburg told her about the genealogy Web sites. The two make weekend day trips a couple times a month to area cemeteries, taking photos of the headstones there and spending the following weeks scanning them on findagrave.com.
Cemeteries in Scottsburg, Canyonville and Myrtle Creek are a few of the spots they have hit so far.
People from Washington, Idaho, New Jersey and elsewhere have found deceased relatives through Baker.
The first ancestors Baker tracked down were her great-great-grandparents who moved to Scottsburg in 1880 from Illinois.
First she found out their last name -- Patterson -- from an aunt in Coos Bay. But Illinois death-certificate and grave searches led to nothing.
Getting started on geneology
<b>WHAT:</b> An online genealogy class offered by Patricia Gausnell, who helps run the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-day Saints Church Family History Center
<b>WHEN: </b>6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, from Jan. 18 to Feb. 8 <b>WHERE:</b> Family History Center, 2001 Bertha Ave., Roseburg, off of Harvard Avenue <b>COST: </b>$10 <b>INFORMATION: </b>496-3594 <b>OTHER RESOURCES:</b> • The Family History Center also offers free computer access for family searches <b>Hours:</b> 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday; by appointment on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. <b>Information:</b> 672-1237 • Douglas County Genealogical Society, Douglas County Courthouse Room 216 <b>Hours:</b> 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. the first Tuesday of the month <b>Annual membership cost</b>: $15 for one publication; $20 for two publications. Families add $5. Life membership: $225 single; $300 family. <b>Information:</b> 440-6178 • The following Web sites are good starting points: www.ancestry.com www.findagrave.com familysearch.org |
Her aunt knew the Pattersons' daughter -- Baker's great-grandmother -- lived in Scottsburg. A trip to the Scottsburg cemetery confirmed her great-grandparents had moved there in 1880.
Further hunting has led to the discovery that one of Baker's great-grandfathers immigrated to the United States from Sweden.
"You find out a lot of interesting things," she said.
But even with instant access, attempts can still lead to dead ends.
Divorces, deaths and second spouses can throw investigators off track. Baker frequently found that people seemed to lie about their ages. She'd discover that when the birth year on death certificates didn't match up with other information.
"When you get back to the 1820s and 1840s, it really gets confusing," she said. Census information recorded only the name of the head of the household and the ages of the others in the family.
Baker is stumped at 1822.
She was able to retrieve a death certificate for her great-great-grandfather, but the document doesn't list his parents' names.
But she's going to keep looking -- the same advice she gives to others who've reached a dead end.
"Just keep searching and find as many as you can that match up to what was going on in the family," she said.
* You can reach reporter Diane Huber at 957-4218 or by e-mail at dhuber@newsreview.info.
Further hunting has led to the discovery that one of Baker's great-grandfathers immigrated to the United States from Sweden.
"You find out a lot of interesting things," she said.
But even with instant access, attempts can still lead to dead ends.
Divorces, deaths and second spouses can throw investigators off track. Baker frequently found that people seemed to lie about their ages. She'd discover that when the birth year on death certificates didn't match up with other information.
"When you get back to the 1820s and 1840s, it really gets confusing," she said. Census information recorded only the name of the head of the household and the ages of the others in the family.
Baker is stumped at 1822.
She was able to retrieve a death certificate for her great-great-grandfather, but the document doesn't list his parents' names.
But she's going to keep looking -- the same advice she gives to others who've reached a dead end.
"Just keep searching and find as many as you can that match up to what was going on in the family," she said.
* You can reach reporter Diane Huber at 957-4218 or by e-mail at dhuber@newsreview.info.
