Ancestry Magazine

Genealogical and local historical societies have preserved, published, indexed, and abstracted millions of items of genealogical significance over the past 150 years. Now they are available for researchers.

The “Research Cornerstones” described in earlier columns have been original records of various types—records that provide the foundation on which you can base sound genealogical conclusions. This issue’s topic, however, describes not records but organizations—the genealogical and local historical societies that have preserved, published, indexed, and abstracted literally millions of items of genealogical significance over the past 150 years, and now make them available for use by researchers. Although these sources are secondary or compiled sources, they give indispensable clues to finding original records, and sometimes they must substitute for lost originals.

The first such organization was the venerable New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, familiarly called the HistGen, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary year. It was followed nearly a quarter of a century later by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the G&B, which celebrated its 125th anniversary last year. Both are established libraries whose extensive genealogical collections are now among the foremost in the country. HistGen members can borrow books from its library by mail, with some restrictions.

Soon after their founding, the two societies al so began publishing quarterly journals. The journals, now in their second century, are still going strong—the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (or the Register) and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (the Record). The two publications pioneered the standard systems used in the United States for numbering individuals in genealogies, although the Record has since abandoned its own system for that of the Register. (The principal difference is that the Register system assigns consecutive individual numbers only to persons whose lines are carried forward; the Record modified the system to give every person a consecutive number, using a plus (+) sign to indicate that those individuals whose lines are continued.)

In the years since 1870, many other genealogical societies have been organized with a regional, state, or county focus. In 1903 the National Genealogical Society (NGS) was founded. It has a national perspective and enrolls members throughout the country. Like the HistGen and the G&B, it has an extensive library from which members can borrow books by mail. Since 1912 its National Genealogical Society Quarterly has been one of the most respected American genealogical publications; it continues to use the modified Register genealogical numbering system pioneered in the Record.

Local and regional societies came together in 1975 to organize the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), giving a collective voice to continuing the interest in preserving historic records that had grown out of the national Bicentennial observance. Its informative newsletter, the Forum, is available to members of its member societies at a 40% discount from its regular $15 subscription price.

The FGS also administers the Malcolm H. Stern National Archives Gift Fund and solicits contributions through its member societies. The fund provides money for the National Archiv es to pursue projects that serve genealogists but which cannot be performed within the limits of available government funding. In the current climate for further reductions in government spending, this area of need is likely to grow.

I recommend to students in my classes that they join three genealogical societies—one in the area they are researching, one in the are where they live, and, finally, the National Genealogical Society. The reason for joining the genealogical society that covers the area you’re interested in is self-evident—you hope it will provide material that will be useful in your own research. Active societies exist in most areas of the United States, especially in the Atlantic and Gulf Coast states, through which many families’ forebears migrated.

Typical tools that local genealogical societies may provide include indexes to or abstracts of newspaper birth, death, and marriage notices; card indexes to poorly indexed old county histories; lists of members interested in the same surnames; and research services in their own or other local libraries. Many societies also publish newsletters or journals that are full of valuable information about sources available for their areas. Some genealogical societies cooperate with local historical libraries to provide tools of particular use to genealogists.

The reasons for joining the society that serves the area where you live, even if you are a newcomer with no ancestors from the area, are both altruistic and selfish. By volunteering on its projects, you can help the society give others the kind of help you hope to receive from your distant society of interest. From a personal standpoint, you gain the opportunity to meet other family historians, to hear speakers at society meetings, and discuss problems with others who may have had similar experiences.

You may even meet someone who is interested in your own family lines. Several years ago our local society had a holiday social meeting at which everyone wore cards around their necks listing names of their ancestral families. Two people whom I’d known for some time turned out to be distant cousins (seventh or eighth, several times removed) descended from Hudson River Valley ancestors of my mother.

Finally, you should consider joining the National Genealogical Society, 4527 17th Street North, Arlington, VA 22207-2399. Dues are $35 annually for the rest of this year; they will be raised to $40 on 1 January 1996. Membership includes mail use of the society library and a subscription to its quarterly Journal, whose carefully researched articles often feature innovative approaches to difficult problems, often in the area of ethnic research or for localities where records were destroyed or poorly kept.

The NGS and the FGS actively cooperate on matters of nationwide interest. Their Committee on Records Preservation and Access, for example, recently found that the Railroad Retirement Board had begun to destroy individual claim files, in accordance with a schedule approved years ago, 40 years after the claimant’s death and/or the final claim payment.

The committee brought to the attention of the National Archives the fact that these files contain information that is not available elsewhere, and that these records are important not only for genealogy but also for local economic and cultural history studies. As a result, the National Archives halted further destruction of the records and is now undertaking a study of all government agency personnel files and other records that contain personal information to determine the extent to which the information in them warrants permanent retention, as is already done for military service and veterans’ records.

Another cooperative entity of the two organizations is the Ethics Committee, which recently completed a detailed report on deceptive advertising by sellers of surname products—”family books,” surname histories, and heraldic products. The results of its findings on recent practices of the Numa/Halbert’s firm, which had already agreed to Postal Service consent orders in response to earlier complaints, ahs been turned over to the Postal Inspection Service.

Another area now being promoted by the National Genealogical Society is family health history, a subject that is becoming familiar to many people as various medical problems are found to have genetic components. Knowing that a particular disease occurred in your family may help your doctor arrive at an earlier diagnosis and treatment of a condition, such as adult-onset diabetes, than might otherwise be possible. Among health problems now known to have some genetic or hereditary basis are many forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease, two of the leading causes of death, and also mood and psychotic disorders and many immune system disorders ranging from allergic asthma to Von Willebrand disease. A family health history could be the most useful product of your overall family history study, and should be kept in mind at every stage of your research.

Another new initiative of the NGS is a support service for teachers whose school curriculums include units on family history or genealogy.

Your support for local genealogical societies, both where you live and where you live and where your research is concentrated, is vital to their continuing service to genealogical organizations, either directly or through a local society, is vital to their effective voice in addressing critical issues on a nationwide basis.

Donn Devine, CG, CGI, is a genealogical consultant from Wilmingon, Deleware. He is a practicing attorney and archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, and is active in a number of genealogical organizations, both local and national.