Tracing your roots

Many Las Vegans do it to baptize the dead. Others do it for fun.

Linking yourself to Adam; locating a black sheep in your family -- only to find he was lynched without a trial for alleged horse beating in Nebraska; or just wanting to know who in your family survived the Holocaust are all reasons people trace their roots.

Researching one's family history can lead to many answers and surprising stories, local genealogists say.

October is Family History Month and the Clark County Nevada Genealogical Society is presenting free "Introduction to Genealogy" classes at public libraries and senior centers. As a result, many locals are getting their feet wet tracing their roots.

Starting simply with grandmothers and grandfathers has led some to a lifelong inquiry. Some area residents say that after searching for 20 years, they've traced their lineage to the 1500s -- and they're still searching.

"When you think you're done, you find out that you're further behind than when you started," Melvin Sommers, Las Vegas Family History Center associate director, said.

The center, at 509 S. Ninth St., is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There genealogists can search through 15,000 rolls of microfilm containing U.S. Census, land, birth, marriage, death and burial records as well as passenger lists from boats filled with U.S. immigrants. This information extends to other countries as well.

The center attracts around 2,000 people a month -- a third are non-Mormons and many are regulars.

Local genealogists say it's difficult to do research without passing through the center. And if what is needed isn't there, then it can be ordered from the Family History Center in Salt Lake City, one of the largest genealogical libraries in the world.

The Mormon church recently released two CD-ROMs containing the North American Vital Records Index and the British Isles Vital Records Index containing records from the United States, Canada and Great Britain.

Deon Sanders, the center's director, said genealogy is an important part of the Mormon church, which since 1832 has been baptizing members' ancestors by proxy -- a way of sealing the ancestors into the Mormon church.

Sanders' own grandson was a proxy for an ancestor whom Sanders said was the king of Wales in the year 589.

Going back 1,400 years is not out of the ordinary, Sanders said. "Some have traced their history back to Adam."

In a room near the back of the center hangs a laminated poster listing "The Royal Line." The handwritten pedigree traces 150 generations of ancestors from Adam. If you can date your ancestry to the bottom name, you're immediately connected to the first man on Earth, Sanders said.

"I'm not interested in getting back to Adam," Ceora Foster, a volunteer at the center, said. "I don't believe my family had royalty."

Having a family of royal blood is essential to tracing beyond the 1500s, she added, explaining that records usually weren't kept for peasants.

However, Foster's family had a pirate: the second Henry Morgan, who lived in the 1800s, she said.

"It's something you have to accept," she said. "It's something you can't go back and erase."

Foster, who has been researching her ancestry on and off for 20 years, knows exactly what resources to use.

"Everybody has a paper trail. We don't realize what a paper trail we leave ... deeds, voter registrations and federal censuses."

Her family's paper trail led her to the estate of the earl of Cowders, where her family lived and worked for 300 years, she said.

"I'm just happy to find them. It's a great joy to nail someone down that I was looking for. It's like solving a mystery."

Having a mystery to solve is the addictive ingredient in genealogy, said Las Vegas resident Bonnie Rams, one of many local genealogists who traveled abroad searching through musty old churches and ancient cemeteries for names or any other clues to the missing branches in a family tree.

Rams, who said she has been researching her genealogy for 22 years, spent two weeks in Ireland and two weeks in England going through old records.

It didn't matter that Bunratty Castle was a few miles away, she said. Seeing the sites would have to wait until next time. "When you reduce it down to what it is ... it's just fun for people."

For others, it's a medical or legal quest. Rams said some people search for ancestral death records looking for genetic health problems.

"But death records, as well as other records are not always accurate," she said.

"You have to be careful of everything you read or look at. There is a general rule: Try to get three verifications. If they coincide, then you're pretty sure they're accurate."

Primary sources include birth and death certificates and marriage licenses. Secondary sources are indexes to marriage records, statistics, birth and death records, newspaper articles and obituaries.

Rams, who is a member of the local genealogical society, said the organization receives calls from area residents who need the proof that will allow them to join the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Sanders said some people come to the Family History Center looking for proof that they have enough Indian blood to entitle them to federal benefits.

Genealogy for blacks can be more difficult since most slaves took on the names of their owners. An attendant at the Family History Center said the state of Mississippi conducted a study of slaves. Its documents state whom the slaves were owned by as well as where they went when they were freed.

Rose Turner, president of the local genealogical society which boasts 250 members, said another good resource is the Nevada State Library and Archives in Carson City. The Regional National Archives are in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Researchers need to keep an eye out for misspelled names and other inaccuracies, Turner said. While tracing her family line, she found her grandfather's name spelled eight ways.

Genealogists also are turning to the Internet in search of roots. It has changed the way people are doing genealogy, Turner said.

"All you have to do is punch in genealogy on a search and hundreds of sites pop up, many of which have query searches where families can find other family members."

Carole Montello, president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Southern Nevada-West, said she has used the Internet to locate relatives living in Argentina and other countries -- relatives who may have a missing piece of the puzzle. "With the Internet and e-mail ... this is connecting a lot of long-lost families," she said.

Montello's research, however, isn't always as easy as pulling up records on the Internet. Some of the information she needs is in repositories in Russia and other former Soviet-bloc countries. She has to send for the information by mail and sometimes pays a high price.

"It's just a matter of finding where the repositories are. If you know where the records are probably located, it can be done by mail."

Sometimes it takes months to receive the requested records. She said, however, that it's worth the wait.

"I'm at the point where I can't find more in the United States," she said. "Although (the Mormons) have gone in and done a lot of filming in the repositories, Jewish records are not high on their list."

Montello said the collapse of the Soviet Union has generated more interest in Jewish communities searching for ancestors.

"When the Communists were in power, they didn't want people to have a past. The Soviets for so long wanted this information suppressed."

Turner said when the Berlin Wall went down, the first people to enter East Germany were Mormon missionaries looking for genealogical records.

Since the local Jewish Genealogy Society was re-established in February, it has grown from 10 to 48 members. The program has mentors walk the "newbies" through the Family History Center, making tracing roots that much easier. The mentors not only take newcomers through the process step by step, they are available to answer questions and help skirt roadblocks.

A common surname can be a major discouragement for some considering or just starting genealogy research, Montello said.

"It's more of a challenge with a common name but it doesn't mean you can't find anything," she said. "You just have to be more diligent and you will find them.

"With Jewish people, so many lost their lives in the Holocaust, but so many did not. It's almost like a rebirth to say we're still here and not all of us were annihilated."

Montello said her attraction to genealogy stems from a desire to know more about her ancestors.

"It makes me feel proud that somehow, someway, my ancestors have survived," she said. "It gives me a sense of placement. I know where I am in the scheme of things. I'm not just a name. It's really a powerful feeling."

Fast facts: The Las Vegas Family History Center, at 509 S. Ninth St., is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The center has 15,000 rolls of microfilm containing U.S. Census, land, birth, marriage, death and burial records as well as passenger lists from boats filled with immigrants arriving in America. The center attracts around 2,000 people a month -- a third are non-Mormons and many are regulars. Call 382-9695.

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