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by David W Brown Middletown RI April 2018
A backward look can be interesting and informative!
Genealogical discoveries no longer have to entail dreary searches in dusty archives. There’s lots on line that you can explore for free. You do have to be careful to sort out solid sources from the sloppy. But to find out more about your forebears and their times can be instructive as well as great fun … sort of like being your own detective, instead of watching TV or reading mysteries!
An important first-step is to get your parents and grandparents to tell about, or jot down, all that they know about your roots. Another is to bring together family photos, birth and marriage certificates, and other materials from those earlier times.
It helps to have genealogy software to tie your family tree and related information together. I use RootsMagic, which has links to the careful genealogical work of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church, and its free FamilySearch resources, and is not highly commercial. For reviews of similar software, see (among others): http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/home/best-genealogy-software/ and https://genealogy-software.no1reviews.com
Locally we have the Newport County Genealogical Society. This is a friendly smallish group that readily shares its members’ insights. Newcomers are welcomed. If you contact me at 401-848-9427 or djbrown2d@yahoo.com, I’ll pass word along when the next NCGS meeting is announced.
Here are some examples from my own dabbles.
These have built especially on genealogical work by my Grandfather Rev. David Lovett, and Cousins Enid Brand and Grahame Smallwood Jr., about our New England Anglo-Scot roots. And on Brown family notes about our Anglo-German roots in eastern Pennsylvania.
Some non-relatives who live in Vermont have found these photos from the early 1900s to be interesting. The Lovetts’ Vermont Homeland
More and more, my family history diggings stem from topics and people of special interest to my kids and grandkids. As with this about Abolitionists in our family histories
Here’s one that was geared to a Salem, Massachusetts visit of my young granddaughters — probably too academic-sounding. But this bit of family history did spur their interest in the sad history of prosecuting “witches” near there. Susannah Rootes, an ancestor of ours who was accused of being a witch
Some of our forebears may not have been entirely virtuous. Yet learning about them and their times can surface lessons learned of value to us now. For example… King Philip’s War and our honorable(?) ancestors
Some searches for a possible ancestor lead to several branches and have dead-ends. In this case, it led me to do more reading and reflection about John Brown, the militant abolitionist. Benjamin Brown, possible links to John Brown
It doesn’t have to be dull! A 6th great grandfather on my mom’s side was Hercules Mooney, a teacher and local leader in New Hampshire. Among other things, he commanded a militia unit that was near here in Rhode Island during the Revolutionary War, hoping somehow to recapture Newport from the British. Earlier, while retreating from Fort Ticonderoga, he had lost his horse, uniform, and equipment. His affidavit seeking compensation can be seen on line. He lived to a ripe old age. But a blizzard and tipped-over sledge led to his unplanned burial some distance from his family graveyard. In 2016, my daughter and I had fun seeking out where he is, which turns out to be near the scenic lake where the movie, On Golden Pond, was made. And this spurred us to learn other interesting things about the vicinity and the offspring of Lt Col Mooney.
