Genealogy and the World Wide Web
Charles Hughes Discusses Using the Internet for Biography Research
Professional genealogist Charles Hughes gave Suite 101 an interview to discuss the place of the internet in genealogy research.
For any night time writers the internet is an invaluable research tool but when researching the life of a biography subject can the internet really provide everything?
Suite 101 discussed this with genealogy expert Charles Hughes.
Suite 101: What first inspired your unique service?
- I am a professional historian for over twenty years and lately I have been involved with genealogy and family history. As first a historian and second a genealogist, I felt that more could be done to provide our clients with a more well rounded depiction of their family story.Although names, dates and places are tremendously important, it does not tell the whole story about a family. Interviews of older family members can provide many important details that are often lost, forgotten, or in many cases never even known. We, as children, do not know much about our parents (even less of our grandparents) before we were born.
- The in depth oral interview (8 – 12 hours in length) can provide a wonderful look into the lives of those ancestors that have passed on. By interviewing a grandparent today we can offer the generations to come, a look back on a life that in most cases will be completely gone 50 – 75 years from now. For many of us, it is inconceivable to understand a world with no TV, airplanes, IPODS, cell phones. I recently interviewed a woman who was 83 years old and she showed pictures of her great grandmother (born in 1843) who she remembered. Civil War, WWI, and WWII memories can be collected.
Suite 101: How important or useful is the internet in genealogy research?
- The internet is a primary tool in doing genealogical research. Everyday more and more resources are made available online. The Family History Library (FHL) owned and operated by the LDS (Mormon) Church has over 3 million rolls of microfilm. They are currently working on a project to digitize and make available on the internet all 3 million rolls of film (a ten year project). It was been said that the number one use of the internet is pornography and that genealogy is a close second. In America the Library of Congress (LOC) is working on putting its entire photograph and map collection online.
Suite 101: Can everything be researched online now or are there still times when researching in person is needed?
- There are many reasons to research onsite. Cemeteries, county courthouses, and local historical societies are a few examples of why onsite work is still necessary. If the goal is to create a family history (narrative) writers/researchers often need to visit the actual site where a family lived in order to understand the full family story.Family homes might still be standing, the farms are still in production, or schools and local stores might still be operating. These resources along with local libraries and historical societies can round out the family story and provide detail that can not be found online.
Charles “Chip” Hughes, M.A. is a full time professional genealogist in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is also a professional geanealogist with "ProGenealogists", an online service which offers professional help to anyone doing genealogy research.
Suite 101 also interviewed Charles on his own work as a genealogist.
The copyright of the article Genealogy and the World Wide Web in Newsmaker Interviews is owned by Dulcinea Norton-Smith. Permission to republish Genealogy and the World Wide Web in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
