“I haven’t found the first Luther Holferty [seven generations back] in the United States yet … he lived in McClain County, Illinois, and was a British soldier,” he says. “I did find one of his sons in Pennsylvania, in a 1780 census.”
Detective skills and patience required
According to Holforty, delving into your family history is not easy.
“Sometimes handwriting [on various documents] is hard to read … they used to write with quill pens,” he says. In years past, he has taken a two- or three-hour trip to a specific library, gone through all the books, asked librarians for assistance, and then come up empty-handed.
“It can get frustrating,” he admits.
Between the group’s genealogy meetings, many of its members visit the computer lab on campus to search for records.
Holforty says the Internet is very helpful as a resource for finding information.
“Every ten years you can find the new census online if you join as a member of ancestry.com or a similar website,” he says. According to their website, ancestry.com is “the world’s largest family history website,” where people can “start a family tree, browse census records, and more.”
Libraries are also good resources. “There are books that list all of the available genealogy libraries and county libraries,” Holforty says. “You can write them a letter and find out if they have what you’re looking for to track people.”
Documents such as birth and death certificates are useful when tracing your family tree.
Five-hundred pages and counting
Holforty says he shares any information he finds with his relatives. Over the years, he has amassed a sizeable genealogy document.
“It takes a full ream of paper to print it,” he says. “I’ve sent copies of the printing to libraries in Dublin, London, Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City.” Once received, the library staff binds the genealogy, and it then becomes available for the public to read.
The Holfortys have donated 85 various genealogy CDs to the group at Fox Run.
He says he will keep doing the research until he finds what he is looking for.
“I’ve spent so much time doing this that now it’s difficult to find something new,” he says.
So far, Holforty says he hasn’t discovered anything shocking in his ancestry.
“Everything was pretty much normal,” he says. “It’s interesting though.”
Interview relatives to create your family tree
Expert gives tips on questions to ask
By Laura Hipshire
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
According to Kimberly Powell, an expert in genealogy and author of Everything Family Tree, “A great way to uncover clues to your family history is a family interview. By asking the right open-ended questions, you’re sure to collect a wealth of family tales.”
Gathering with family this holiday season is a perfect opportunity to conduct a family interview if you’re researching your family tree.
Here are a few sample questions from Powell’s article “Fifty Questions for Family History Interviews: What to Ask the Relatives:”
■ What is your full name? Why did your parents select this name for you? Did you have a nickname?
■ When and where were you born?
■ How did your family come to live there?
■ Were there other family members in the area? Who?
■ What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones?
■ Were there any special items in the house that you remember?
■ What is your earliest childhood memory?
■ Describe the personalities of your family members.
■ What kinds of games did you play growing up?
■ What was your favorite toy and why?
“Use this list of family history interview questions to help you get started, but be sure to personalize the interview with your own questions as well,” Powell advises. Happy interviewing!