THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 29, 1994 TAG: 9408270058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE GATEWAY
SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
DICK MIALE of Chesapeake has found more than new friends in his travels in cyberspace. He's found his family.
A distant cousin from Washington state; another from Massachusetts. He's even traced his maternal grandparents back to 1646, and if his luck holds, he plans to track back further.
Miale isn't bumping into ghosts as he e-mails his way around the globe but into other researchers who, like him, are using on-line sources to delve into their past.
``It's nice to know where you came from,'' says Miale, a government employee who travels cyberspace from a cozy office in his garage-turned-den in Chesapeake.
He started searching for his roots five years ago with two names: his grandmother and grandfather. For the first six months, he researched using traditional means - writing for birth, death and marriage certificates to his native Rhode Island, perusing documents from the Family History Center that the Morman Church operates. Then he found a local bulletin board service called The Skeleton's Closet that offered discussion groups about genealogy and access through FidoNet to other genealogical resources.
Today, he subscribes to Selective Source, a local bulletin board that brings in Internet Usenet groups and offers FidoNet access for a monthly fee.
But travelers with direct Internet access have additional resources. They can visit the two Usenet groups dedicated to genealogy, alt.genealogy and soc.roots; sign up for the listserver, ROOTS-L, or gopher to the University of Michigan's genealogy gopher and access its network of files and other research documents (host: Vienna.-hh.lib.Umich.edu. Path: 1/libraries/genealogy).
Using cyberspace to track your past makes sense from a time and economic standpoint, says Miale.
His on-line conversations with people in France or Canada, from which his ancestors originated, led to their visiting crumbling church yards and musty town records offices to look up the original documents he needed to chart his ancestry. He does the same for people needing information from Virginia.
But you don't have to be a genealogist to learn something. Just lurk for a while and see what interesting tidbits you may pick up about your own past.
For instance, do you know how to tell what degree of cousin someone is to you?
``Todd'' had the answer on soc.-roots: Count the number of generations between person number one and the common ancestor (not counting the common ancestor or person number one) and between number two and the common ancestor. Whichever number is smaller is the degree of cousinhood (i.e. five equals fifth cousin), and the difference between the two is the number of times removed. Thus if the number of generations were three and five, you would have third cousins twice removed.
Or, you could take the easy way and input the names into a software program called ``Brother's Keeper,'' suggested another person. It automatically figures it out.
One man in Cambridge was checking out a rumor that his great-grandfather had been dishonorably discharged from the Navy for, among other things, being underage. A helpful researcher told him that records on former Navy enlisted personnel discharged after 1885 could be found in the National Personnel Records Center. He even told him what government form he'd need to request copies.
But my personal favorite (given my husband's birthplace of Glasgow, Scotland) was from Kellie, whose half-Scottish fiance wanted to be married in a kilt but didn't know which tartan to buy for the clan name Lowry.
``The clan colours for Lawrie are white with pink polka dots,'' joked ``Stephen.''
``Bob'' said Kellie's fiance could be either clan MacLauren or clan Gordon (!) and urged him to pick MacLauren so he could join the Clan MacLauren Society of North America.
I, however, given my own married surname, was silently rooting for clan Gordon, which, for the record, has a very lovely green formal tartan. MEMO: The Skeleton's Closet can be reached via modem at 671-8547. Selective
Source can be reached at 471-6776. To question Dick Miale about his
genealogical exploits, message him at dick.miale(AT)sourcebbs.com. If
you have any ideas or comments for The Gateway, contact Rob Morris,
robm(AT)infi.net or call 446-2362.
by CNB