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Do you know who you are?
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 7:27 pm
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Do you know who you are?
By EVE RUOTSINOJA
Staff Writer

WASECA — Genealogy is becoming a little more glamorous, thanks to NBC’s new celebrity show “Who do you think you are?” but for genealogists like Linda Taylor at the Bailey-Lewer House of the Waseca County Historical Society, it’s a way of life.

With summer just around the bend, Taylor said it may also be an inspiration for your next family vacation.

“We get people from all over [during the summer],” said Taylor. “A couple came from Pennsylvania ... I can think of a lady who came from Madison, Wisconsin. And there was a lady here during the fair last year who was from California.”

The Bailey-Lewer House, across the street from the Waseca Historical Society on Second Avenue, is home to hundreds of records used for researching family history and ancestry, such as county and family histories, church records, photographs, and indexed cemeteries. It is also a branch library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints family search library out of Salt Lake City, Utah, a global family research library, which also has a free online search engine called FamilySearch.org.

How to get started

To begin the process of researching family ancestry, Taylor recommends that you start with what you know about yourself.

Family group sheets and pedigree charts help organize basic vital information, including when relatives were born, married, and died. Throughout the process, researchers need to keep track of which information came from which resource.

“Documentation is very important in family history,” said Taylor. The Bailey-Lewer House can provide charts; there are also various family charts available online.

“Family history is more than names and dates,” said Taylor. “Some people are interested in going straight back as far as they can go, but to me, family history is not only going straight back in an ancestral line, it’s going sideways. Many times we have to go sideways — research brothers and sisters — in order to go straight back and learn more about the immigrant ancestor who came to America.”

One of the best recourses to access are the federal and state censuses. A census helps track family growth and mobility. The federal census began in 1790 and the Minnesota census in 1857. The two alternate every five years, allowing for a convenient timeline for those researching in Minnesota.

Inside the Bailey-Lewer House

The Bailey-Lewer House holds the Waseca courthouse probates through 1980 and the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Waseca, New Richland, and Janesville, which show when different buildings and homes were built.

“[The maps show] how a town developed through the years,” said Taylor. Newspapers are also useful resources that provide obituaries, births, and town gossip in addition to the context provided by articles.

There are also online search engines such as HeritageQuest.com and Ancestry.com, which usually require a subscription payment. However, many libraries may have subscriptions to these Web sites. The Waseca Historical Society also has a Web site that includes documented photos and audio histories.

Taylor recommends that for those researching in Waseca County, becoming a member of the historical society is probably the most cost-effective way to research. Non-members are charged a five dollar a day library fee that otherwise would be included in a membership. Members are also given access to the society’s Web site.

An emotional addiction

Researching family genealogy becomes useful on many levels. Family histories can give insight not only to personal questions but also medical histories and in some cases, answer questions that have not yet been asked.

“One time, there was a gentleman from North Dakota researching his family,” said Taylor. “We found a great-great grandmother who had come from Ireland and died here. He didn’t know that she had even come over and he cried ... He was so emotional ... It is emotional finding these ancestors; it means so much to them.”

The interest in genealogies may be distinctly American, having to do with immigrating across a vast ocean and spreading out across a vast country. This mobility has only increased as technology has developed. But not only is it easier than ever to get away, it’s easier than ever to be found. In some ways, social media Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are extensions of genealogical research.

For Taylor, researching family history is a healthy addiction, the most rewarding of which is being able to help others make connections.

“We want people to know we’re here for that reason; that they can call or send us an e-mail or come on in and we’re willing to help them.”

For more information about the Waseca County Historical Society, call 835-7700, visit them at 315 Second Avenue Northeast in Waseca, or visit their Web site at www.historical.waseca.mn.us.

Eve Ruotsinoja can be reached at 837-5453 or eruotsinoja@wasecacountynews.com.
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Member Opinions:
By: gamegram on 3/17/10
Superbly written article, and so informative about the genealogical resources at the Bailey-Lewer House. Thanks to the generosity of interested citizens and local government, Waseca has another wonderful resource to draw in visitors! Staff foresight and dedication has put this historical research site at the top of the list.


 
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