Genealogy
Comes of Age
The study
of genealogy has come a long way since Cochran first began seriously
pursuing his family history.
“When
I started doing genealogy in the 1960s, the only way to get information
was to write lots of letters and physically go places,”
Cochran explains. “Today people do most of their research
on the Internet, at sites such as ancestry.com. When I started,
you had to throw yourself at the mercy of the people who responded
to requests.”
One of
the first places Cochran went to do research was at the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Family History Library in
Salt Lake City. He would spend 13-hour days at the library going
through the genealogical microfilm collection—a resource
that to this day is one of the most important for people digging
into family history.
“I
didn’t have much money in those days, and I’d take
the cross-town bus from the YMCA where I was staying to the library,”
Cochran remembers. “I was in absolute ecstasy over so much
information in one place.”
Today,
at familysearch.org the LDS Church offers the Personal Ancestry
File, a free, downloadable software program to help people track
their family history (Cochran first loaded his on an old Commodore
64 computer). Another feature of the site is a database of millions
of names to aide researchers. The church also was instrumental
in establishing a standard format for digital genealogical files,
GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication), which allows information
to be shared between various computer programs.
Cochran’s
Victorian-style house just off the Ferris State campus reflects
both the old and new faces of genealogy. A portrait of Guy Cochran,
the older half-brother of Cochran’s grandfather, is one
of many photos of ancestors that grace the living room walls and
a small den whose shelves hold 16th century first-edition books
written by ancestors 14 generations removed. In the attic, remodeled
into an airy work area, there are two computers (one with a wireless
Internet connection), which help Cochran keep track of genealogical
records for more than 127,000 individuals that are slowly being
transferred to his Web site cochranfamily.net.
Bringing
History Home
Beyond
finding out such juicy details as being 14th cousin to
the Queen of Denmark (“Queen Marguerite hasn’t invited
me to
a family picnic, or anything”), Cochran finds the greatest
satisfaction is being able to put his family history into the
larger context of world history, politics and culture.
Take the
story of his great-grandfather’s sister, Katerina Tsilka.
Tsilka
and her husband, Gregory Tsilka, had returned to Albania after
spending a number of years in the United States, due to Gregory’s
call to head a parsonage here. In September of 1901, returning
to their home after a trip to visit Katerina’s parents,
their group was set upon by Macedonian revolutionaries fighting
for independence following the Russo-Turkish War. The revolutionaries
kidnapped their intended target, American missionary Ellen Stone,
but also abducted Katerina (who, unbeknownst to her captors was
pregnant, and would give birth before being released). It’s
a piece of Cochran family history that touches upon political
tensions that exist to this day.
“It’s
a well-known story. The Yugoslavs made a motion picture about
it in 1958,” Cochran says. “Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Teresa Carpenter is writing a comprehensive biography of
Ellen Stone and the kidnapping to be published this year by Simon
and Shuster.” Carpenter tracked down Cochran thanks to a
footnote in a previously published thesis on the kidnapping and
traveled to Big Rapids to do research.
“She
left with 12 pounds of photocopied material,” Cochran marvels.
“It will be interesting to see how she handles it.”
Spreading
the Word
According
to the National Genealogical Society, family history is second
only to gardening in its popularity as an avocation.
Cochran
has helped many people grow their family trees—including
Ferris State President William Sederburg. Through both online
and other resources available at FLITE, Sederburg is discovering
family history that until now has kept its secrets—including
the family name itself.
“There
has always been a mystery about where the family actually came
from in Sweden and what their name was,” explains Sederburg.
Tracing
back this mystery points out some of the challenges of genealogy,
even in the digital age. In Sweden, until about the last hundred
years or so, it was common for each generation to use a patronymic
as its last name. Johansson, for example, literally meant “Johan’s
son.” (In some cases where the mother hailed from a more
important clan, they would then use the matronymic, such as “Sigridsson.”).
This meant that the last name changed with every new generation.
By matching
up birth dates with church records, Sederburg has been able to
determine that his great-grandfather actually was born a Jansson.
His great-great-grandmother, Myra Greta, appears on the register
of those emigrating from Sweden as Myra Greta Jansdötter.
To complicate
matters, the parish in Sweden where Sederburg ancestors emigrated
from changed names in 1966.
“Rich
Cochran discovered the re-organization that caused the change,”
Sederburg explains, “so we were able to track all that down.”
In addition to the help of the library dean, Sederburg has made
use of other FLITE resources, such as inter-library loan, which
netted him a copy of an 1878 atlas of Warren County, Penn., where
some of his ancestors first settled, as well as databases such
as Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw, which stores information about court
cases.
Growing
Down
It was
through these databases that Cochran solved one of his own family’s
mysteries: how his great-grandfather lost four fingers on his
left hand.
Family
lore had it that he had perhaps lost the fingers while working
as a tailor early in life. The legal case of Laverick vs. H.P.
Underwood, et. al., however, documents that it was while working
as a carpenter that the accident occurred. Perhaps more importantly,
the records help put Cochran’s family in one of those places
where the context of history comes through more clearly than in
any textbook.
“It
makes you understand that an immigrant from Russia living in Philadelphia
had equal footing with the legal system,” Cochran explains.
“That in itself is a civics lesson about America, which
is one of the unexpected outcomes of genealogy.”
Sederburg
puts the search in even broader terms. In the eulogy he delivered
for his father who passed away last year, he quoted the writer,
philosopher and theologian James Hamilton.
“Hamilton
talks about ‘growing down’ as well as ‘growing
up,’” Sederburg says. “I love that concept.
As a society we need to grow up and do things, but we also need
to grow down and understand our roots, where we come from. In
my own case, that’s what I find so fascinating.”
Just as
it’s always been hard to find excuses for not growing up,
with all the resources available to would-be genealogists, it’s
now just as hard to find reasons for not growing down.
