Beginning my Family Genealogy for the Last Time

In the last thirty years I've started my genealogy research at least four times. And for the umpteenth time I’m starting again, but this time I'm planning ahead and organizing as I go.  I'm sure there are myriad ways of doing this but I've found one that works for me. 

Managing a Genealogical Project by William Dollarhide is the step-by-step, practical guide I needed years ago.  This book, along with Genealogy Starter Kit by Dollarhide, is extremely useful for forms, instructions, and research suggestions.

All too often I know I have unique family records....somewhere.

With Dollarhide's suggestions I am organizing those records so I CAN find them when I want them and then easily return them to where they belong.

Not only does Dollarhide's Manage book explain the different types of genealogy projects that can be done; it gives sample forms for each. The most helpful part of the book for me was Section 2: Collecting References and Solving the Paper-collecting Problem. From Dollarhide’s suggestions I created a personalized pre-printed form for every piece of evidence supporting my family research.  I now have a notebook for every family surname and within that the names are sorted by place. Every page has an index number using the Ahnentafel Numbering system (German for ancestor table.) 

I use a pedigree chart with me as #1, my dad is #2, and mom is #3. I then number their parents in the same fashion starting with dad's dad as #4, dad's mom is #5, mom's dad is #6, mom's mom is #7 and so on back through the years. This forms the basis for my Ahnentafel Numbering system for indexing. 

For now, that's enough to get me going again on my family history. If you're stuck or starting over, I highly recommend William Dollarhide's down-to-earth booklets on Managing a Genealogical Project and Genealogy Starter Kit. I found them through my local library.

Use Mid-Continent Public Library's forms

I also recommend downloading Mid-Continent Public Library's genealogy forms.  I've used several different forms through the years but MCPL’s seem the most practical to me.  Download yours free by going to http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy/family-history-forms.  With Dollarhide’s advice and MCPL’s forms your family research just got easier.

A Generation Gone with the Death of America’s last World War I soldier

 

Frank Buckles, America’s last WWI soldier, died February 27^th at age 110. He came to my notice on a trip to the National World War I Museum in Kansas City. While there chaperoning a high school history class, I was totally impressed with the remodeled museum’s posters, photos, displays and multi-media exhibits that grabbed the students’ attention and held it.

 

One of those terrific exhibits, an ambulance, also displayed a photo of a Missouri boy who drove a similar vehicle in Europe in WWI. Mr. Buckles’ picture had been taken beside the truck when he toured the museum as the honored guest on Memorial Day earlier that year. Later, in the gift shop I spied and purchased a “Welcome Home Frank W. Buckles, Memorial Day 2008, National World War I Museum” t-shirt and my fascination with the last American veteran of WWI began.

 

As a child in the early 60s I had known a WWI veteran. My tall, thin, quiet Great-Uncle Chester who created wooden toys for us had been gassed in the trenches and re-assigned as a convoy escort. He crossed the Atlantic many times on troop ships. As an adult in the 80s I witnessed two area men attending a Veterans’ Memorial dedication and was told they were the last of the local WWI vets. But here two decades later I discovered 107-year-old Frank Buckles had been to the Liberty Memorial just months earlier representing all the long gone men who fought the “War to End All Wars.”

 

Through sheer longevity Frank Buckles permitted us to touch distant family, distant memories and a distant past for longer than we could have imagined. Because of this, his death is much more than the loss of an individual. His death means we have lost those people and that generation with a weighted finality. 

 

Uncle Chester, Frank Buckles, and all those who endured WWI: Thank you and farewell.