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Family Research Assignment

Social/Cultural History of Your Family/Kinship Group

PHASE 1 - Search for knowledge, fact, explanations, story and history

Initial stage of the research will be collect and organize as much information about your ancestors and relatives as you can. Private information should be respected. There is no necessity to be looking into matters that your family would like to keep within. But given that restriction, do search diligently for your history and the history of your family.

For as many of your relatives as you possibly can find out

Birthday
Birthplace
Parents
Christening - name, godparents, church, religion
Health matters - birth conditions, childhood illnesses, operations, hospitalizations, injuries,
Education - what school, how many years, when graduated, major, extra curricular activity
Marriage info - to whom, where, when, how many kids, names of kids
Occupation(s) - kind of work, expertise and skills, companies worked for
Military experience
Significant life events, memorable stories
Date, place, circumstances of death.

If possible, copy or scan, old family photos and documents - identify the document, caption every photo ("Uncle Bill is little boy on left, Grandpop with the fishing pole. This picture taken in the 1950's at Lake Lenape")

Keep all you information organized - use file folders for different parts of your family, or for different decades. Or use a computer program (FamilyTreeMaker or such) which does that job of keeping info organized if you type it in, or scan it in.

Do not be discouraged, if you can not nail down everything. What stories you do get written down will grow more valuable as years go along. Your own grandkids will be glad you did this project when they discover it in your attic 40 years from now.

PHASE 2 - work the knowledge into a form that can be communicated and preserved

Write it up. Organize all the info that you found, and prepare a report, present the data, print out photos, scans of documents, charts/graphs if you have any, make a family tree, make a map of family movements etc.
Describe your research question and how you tried to find an answer, state your conclusions.
Type a list of the people and organizations and books that were your resources (reference section or bibliography),
Format and organize all of your report. Make an original copy for yourself, and get it bound.
Submit a copy (not your original file) to Ferry one week before the semester ends. This copy will be read and graded, but not returned - do not have it bound, except by a staple, and make sure no original documents are submitted (photos, marriage certificates etc) with it.

Genealogical Research Sources

Best resources for finding out about your family and ancestors are your own relatives; and if your family has lived in the same place for a long time then neighbors, schools, church members might have stories and information that you would want to collect and preserve.

Below are some resources that might be useful in searching for information about your family: Most of these are web sites, but, if you have a chance, check out the Family History Centers that are located in eastern PA. In addition to freely available records, they have staff that can give good advice and leads about searching for family information.

Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the entry point for millions of immigrants that came to America from Europe. Every passenger on every ship that landed their up until 1924 is listed at this web site. All the information is free. http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp

USGenWeb - this is a free site. Good for finding info about ancestors and relatives in the United States - especially if you know what state and county your folks were from. Especially down south, they have collected marriage, birth, baptism records from many churches and small town record's offices.

GenForum - http://genforum.genealogy.com/ is an interesting (free) site. Go there and type in your surname or the surname of the relative you are researching. You will get a listing of everybody that is doing family tree research on your name. If your name is common (Smith) there will be thousands, if your name is uncommon, you may run across a cousin (I did), if your name is very rare, then there may be no one sharing info.

The Mormon Church has collected records of billions of people, and they make those records available free, mostly over the internet. An immense resource for searching for ancestors and relatives.Try Family Search

Mormons also have Family History offices/centers where you can go and get help with family researching. Closest to us are:

2076 Red Lion Rd
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
Phone: 215-673-2770
Hours: W 9am-3pm; Th 6pm-9pm; F 9am-3pm; Sat 9am-2pm.

Corner of Chapman & Ferry Road
Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States
Phone: 215-348-0645
Hours: T-Th 9:30am-1pm, 7pm-9pm; Sat 9:30am-1pm

721 Paxon Hollow Road
Broomall, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States
Phone: 610-356-8507
Hours: T,W,Th 9:30am-1:30pm, 7pm-9pm; Sat 9:30am-2:30pm

Social Security Death Index - The Social Security Administration keeps a record of everyone's death (everyone with a social security number). Private companies have put all this info online. Some charge to search, some are free. The link above is to one of the free sites.

United States Census Bureau - This site is actually not hard to use. It is useful for finding out information on family data from more than 60 years ago - statistical data but not private info is available for more recent census material.

Cyndi's List - extensive list of resources for anyone interested in Genealogy.

RootsWeb is a site at which you can find a lot of information without cost, but many of the sites that it is linked to are commercial ($) databases.

Geni - work out family tree cooperatively with your relatives.