Offline Resources for Genealogy Research

For those of us who use the internet frequently, it is a quietly accepted reality to be inundated with spam or pop-up messages promoting web-based search services for family history and genealogical research.

This is all fine and well, especially for folks who may be looking to dig up family roots in places they cannot readily access - for example, family records located on the other side of the country.

But what of local resources that aren't entirely available on the web?

"Interactive" Resources

Despite triumphant claims to the achievement of easy access to information through the internet, there are troves of family history treasure defiantly residing off-line. These are less formal resources which demand that you leave the cozy confines of home and hit the streets in search of a truly "interactive experience" - one that features real human beings.

This said, these are the kinds of offline resources you may consult on your journey.

Locale-Based Resources

Given that fact that families need a place to live lends to the idea that certain locations may have exclusive offline family history records which you may peruse.

These locale-based resources may exist not only at the city level, but may also include townships and even neighborhoods inhabiting the older residents and the descendent members of local families. In an effort to preserve and pass on this history, many times these smaller communities develop and maintain traditions and activities supporting the continuance of the histories of families who live in the area.

By participating in some of these traditions and activities, you may have access to family members who serve as living records of family history and genealogy not accessible at other times.

Prominent Older Family Resources

Of something that can be said about prominent older families, some of them are in the money. With this comes an almost given guarantee that the family in question at some time or other had dedicated some effort towards the preservation of their family in the form of recorded history.

Assuming the family would base the historical value of its more prominent (and affluent) members within the context of other historical figures, it is likely they have also retained an assemblage of the histories of contemporaries and peers.

Provided these prominent figures may have had something in common with your ancestor - such as a common place of employment or residence - there is a chance that there may be some information that could help you on your search.

Theme-Based Activities as Resources

Case Study: Every year the historic town of Irvington (Indianapolis) features any number of activities to celebrate the rites of Halloween. Activities are based on themes, and Halloween seems to be the prominent one.

A headless horseman rides through the middle of town on a real horse (not much seen in the larger towns in the continent), and, starting in the chill of midnight, volunteers lead throngs of bundled-for-winter listeners on a guided tour throughout the township. Their aim? To visit the houses of known and suspected criminals, mass murderers, and their victims - all in a manner of celebration of a more creepy time of year.

Theme based activities such as these may not only provide historical content on specific activities in which your ancestors may have had a hand, they also may offer some inroads to the very people with whom you need to speak - people who may provide you with access to resources you would otherwise not have on your search.

Society-Based Resources

People associate themselves with one another through all manner of media and idea. Figuring among these are the actual societies with which individuals associate themselves, and they range in scope and number as the stars in the heavens.

These society-based resources may include:

* Military societies - Military and war memorial groups and affiliations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) are rich treasure troves of family and genealogical history through the oral history that their members may offer.

* Religious societies - Societies such as the Knights of Columbus (K of C) have both military and religious ties to history, but factor in eventually as religious societies in the sense that their members wish to take part in philanthropic events and other charitable activities mandated through religious doctrine (in this case, charity).

Likewise, fully recognized religious entities such as the Mormon Church (aka Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS) take their family history recordkeeping very seriously - to the tune of more than 3,400 branch libraries spanning the globe in service to the main library based out of Utah.

Other churches operating on a more localized basis may be able to provide records of family activity through records of activities such as births, baptisms, rites-of-passage, marriage and funerals.

Genealogical Societies

Perhaps you may have found easily accessible resources like public libraries or county records. But the kind of help you would get on any given day may depend upon the mood of the overworked individual standing on the other side of the service desk.

While loads of other information may be available offline, actually knowing where it is and getting access to such information may be challenges unto themselves.

Likewise, what if you had heard that a certain affluent - yet highly inaccessible (see the Prominent Family section above) - individual had a private library containing records that may yield a breakthrough in your family history search? Wouldn't it be nice to know someone who could give you that much needed foot-in-the-door?

Private Researchers

In cases like this, it may be advantageous to consult with the unsung heroes of genealogical research - private researchers. Many of these folks have a leg up on the local family history scene by the fact that they aren't being paid to do their work: they do it because they love it.

Where to find these lovers of family history? Look up locale-based genealogical societies to start, and make your further connections from there.

Happy hunting... For your ancestors, that is!

- John

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