Genealogy in nibbles not gulps

By Nancy Battick

We all will miss Nina Brawn, my predecessor, who wrote this column for many years. Nina’s joy and love of genealogy shone in each word on the page and I know all of her readers wish her the very best and thank her for sharing her life with us. I’m honored to be chosen to carry on Nina’s efforts.

For those of you who don’t know me I am a native of Dover-Foxcroft, graduate of Foxcroft Academy, and hold an M.A. in history from the University of Maine. I’m Past President of the Maine Genealogical Society and the Wassebec Genealogical Society and have taught genealogy in Bangor and Dover-Foxcroft. My involvement with genealogy also includes authoring articles and assisting other researchers.

My own love of genealogy began with the accidental discovery of a tintype in a box in our attic. It pictured two teenaged men dressed in Federal Civil War uniforms. As an avid Civil War buff, I asked my mother if she knew who they were. Her answer was electrifying:  they were her mother’s uncles in the Civil War.

Mom couldn’t recall the uncles’ names and thus began a quest to identify the men. I eventually did and discovered five other uncles and one great-grandfather who fought on the Union side;  most of whom died from wounds or disease during the War.

In the process of my researching I “caught the virus” which infects all genealogists. That was in the 1980’s and I’ve been researching ever since.

I’ve learned much the hard way, made a lot of mistakes, taken a couple of wrong paths, and found that in genealogy you never stop learning. If in this column I can help you avoid some of the pitfalls I encountered I will be happy.

In my columns I will try to aid you in your search to learn more about your family and touch on resources that may help you learn more about your family tree. While much is on the Internet these day not everything is, so I will try to refer you to resources online as well as off.

So many times I have had students in my classes or would-be genealogists tell me they just don’t have time to find out about their family history much as they’d like to. In this fast-paced, hectic, sometimes frantic world we live in I know it is hard to try to balance all the demands on our lives: work, family, home, volunteer groups, etc. It’s no wonder we struggle to find a few moments to try to relax much less take on what many feel is a daunting and seemingly overwhelming research project.

However, it is possible to do some family research in small increments of time. You don’t have to put in eight hours of research a day to begin working on your tree. Try approaching genealogy in nibbles instead of gulps.

Here are some suggestions that might work for you: rise a half hour earlier when the house is quiet, skip TV one night a week or every other week to put in a couple of hours of research time; block out one afternoon each month as “me time” to visit a library, archives, or the Family History Center. These don’t have to be engraven in stone.  You can be flexible to meet whatever conflicting obligation you may have or if you are just too tired or ill to work.

Many genealogists can only devote a few minutes a week to our hobby but even those few minutes can help you do an online search, organize your files, enter data in your genealogical software, or interview older family members for their memories and go over their photo albums.

I urge each of you not to abandon the idea of starting or working on your family tree because you think it will be too hard, take too much time, or frustrate you. Remember the race between the tortoise and the hare? Small steps, taken slowly, can help you reach your goal just as much as spending every waking hour on genealogy.

Save the date: On Oct. 3rd the Wassebec Genealogical Society in Dover-Foxcroft will sponsor a half-day free workshop titled “History and Mystery: Exploring Your Family’s Stories”. The workshop will run from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and is being presented by Dale Mower, current president of the Penobscot Genealogical Society, past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, and a dynamic speaker. The workshop will be held in the combined Borestone and Sebec rooms at Mayo Hospital and is open to all at no cost.

For more information visit the website at www.wassebec.maineroots.org or call 564-3576.

Nancy Battick is a Dover-Foxcroft native who has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft.  Nancy holds a MA in History from UM and lives in DF with her husband, Jack, another avid genealogist.  You can contact Nancy at nbattick@roadrunner.com.