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Elda Gallear, an Anchorage Genealogical Society member and volunteer librarian at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Center in Anchorage, demonstrates how visitors of www.familysearch.org can create a pedigree chart.
STAR PHOTO BY KATE TRACY
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Local historians and budding genealogists who have had success uprooting their own family trees say the hobby is growing in popularity and are eager to share tales and offer tips for digging up the past.
Judy White, regent of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, said genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in the United States.
Bonnie Jack, founding member and publicity editor for the Anchorage Genealogical Society, said genealogy is also one of the fastest growing hobbies and offered one possible reason for why that might be especially true in Alaska.
"People want to know where they came from," she said. "People who live up here are farther away from their families, and I think doing genealogy helps them connect to their relatives and their families and makes the bond stronger."
Jack helped found the AGS in 1981. Back then, she said, the group consisted of a small group of people who met at the museum and later worked on recording cemetery grave markers in Anchorage.
Since then, she said membership has grown to about 100 members, including five from Chugiak-Eagle River, many of whom will go off and continue their research on their own after about a year.
Eagle River resident Elda Gallear, 69, a member of the AGS for about two years, said she's worked independently on her own family history for the past 20 years.
"It's one of my loves," she said of genealogy.
Gallear had some help discovering two lines of her family dating back to 1600, one in England and one in France, as well as other branches she discovered strictly on her own.
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Elda Gallear holds a letter written Feb. 6, 1950, by her great-uncle Francis Bodine, where he penned his agreement with Mark Twain that "a person who went in too heavily in genealogy was 'like a turnip - the best part of him was underground.' " Bodine also stated his impressions of genealogists are that they lean "heavily toward the respectable side" and detour "the unsavory but possibly more interesting details of one's predecessors."
STAR PHOTO BY KATE TRACY
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With limited information to begin with and the absence of living family members to offer clues into her family's past, Gallear said getting to know her ancestors hasn't been easy.
"You start with yourself," she said. "You get a pedigree chart. You put yourself, and then you list your parents, and then their parents. You work your way back."
Gallear, who is a volunteer librarian at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Center in Anchorage, urges others to gather information from living relatives before it's too late.
It was only through letters inherited from her mother, also named Elda, that Gallear was able to get to know her great uncle, Francis Bodine.
She said Bodine was an ambulance driver in WWI who corresponded with her mother quite a bit.
"Uncle Fran had very strong opinions politically and was quite a character," Gallear said. "He mentioned that he had written a book about his experiences in World War I, but none of his family was interested in it, so he got mad and destroyed all the copy."
She also recommends labeling photographs so that 100 years from now, ancestors will also have clues to the past.
As for ancestors she's found and the others yet to be discovered, Gallear said, "I look forward to meeting them all one day when I get to the other side."
She said the Family History Center, which offers free access to Web sites such as www.familysearch.org and Ancestry.com, is open to anyone who wants to come in. The center also offers classes on the fourth Saturday of every month.
Eagle River resident and AGS member John Landis, 56, said the Family History Center proved to be a good source of information for his research.
"It's been rumored in my family that we have a family member that was a signer of the Declaration of Independence," said Landis. "My focus is just to prove or disprove that."
That signer is Robert Morris, who was born in Lancashire, England Jan. 20, 1734, and represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress when the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4, 1776.
Landis said searching for a possible connection on his father's side to the historical figure 230 years later is a little bit like detective work, but with a personal connection, which also makes it fun.
Another Eagle River resident Connie Fordham, a current member and former AGS president, said she began research in 2000 to look into stories about her family's origin.
So far, the 38-year-old said she's come across a "broad cross section" of ancestors including those with German, Scottish, Irish, English and possibly Indian roots.
"History is fascinating now, and it's personal because I have that connection," she said.
Fordham recommends going through a virtual treasure trove of family documents.
"Many people have documents that they don't think about as being part of genealogy documents," she said. "They'll have copies of letters or obituaries that they've kept."
But first and foremost Fordham said people should begin by talking to family members.
"Until you think to ask the question, you're not going to get the answer. Go call that aunt," she said. "I don't care if you haven't talked to her in five years."
"Some people think genealogy is just a gathering of names and dates and it's really not. You need to flush out that information with the stories of people's lives. That's really what makes it more interesting," Fordham added.
Reach the reporter at kate.tracy@alaskastar.com.
