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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Supervised Undergraduate Student Research Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects and Creative Work Summer 8-2001 Genealogy in the twenty-first century: How have innovations in Technology and Interactivity Helped Researchers? Mary Beth Compton University of Tennessee-Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj Recommended Citation Compton, Mary Beth, "Genealogy in the twenty-first century: How have innovations in Technology and Interactivity Helped Researchers?" (2001). Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/453 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Supervised Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Work at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM SENIOR PROJECT - APPROVAL Name: Mo..fj COfvrp+o f"\ College: G M",", \)1\ \ G~-h D l'I S Department: AJvv-\-,S'f)5 Faculty Mentor: Dr. Lo r r ~ (1--\ ove. r PROJECT TITLE: G-ef\e~loJ j X eseC\.('C:,~ '" -R,~?t .. + U n~r~ ~ H01.0 1",,, ovu..+'" "S ;", Tech" b\O~'1 ~d I have reviewed this completed senior honors thesis with this student and certify that it is a project commens with honors level undergraduate research in this field. ffi~ed:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Facul~~entor Date: 3 Atyu. t. 200, Comments (Optional): -- ".,......-. -- - - ..... GENEALOGY IN THE TwENTY-FIRST CENTURY: How Have Innovations in Technology and Interactivity Helped Researchers? Mary Compton August 6, 2001 "In all of us is a hunger, marrow/deep, to know our heritage .., to know who we are, and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning." -Alex Haley This project is dedicated to Laverne Compton and Dr. Lorri Glover. Laverne's love and curiosity provided the seeds for the project and Dr. Glover's inteUigence and generosity helped it flourish. Table Of Contents Part I: Genealogy Research Methods Page 1 Part II: Research on the Compton Family Page 8 Outline of the Compton Family's Page 17 Route Across the South Compton Family Tree Page 18 Appendix - A Census Records Page 19 Appendix - B E-mail Correspondence Page 23 Appendix - C Land Patents Page 32 Introduction 244,780,659 people (Anderson 16). Over the years, the census has charted This project examines how the demographic changes that have people are searching for their ancestors shaped the U.S. More than simply a in today's technologically advanced population count, the information that society. While it is evident that the the census provides has evolved with Internet has transformed genealogical time and with the needs of a growing research, this project will show how nation. more traditional resources still play an In Who Counts? a book about the important role. politics surrounding the evolution of the The first part of the project is an census, authors Margo J. Anderson and evaluation of traditional resources and Stephen E. Fienberg outline major Internet genealogy sites. Criteria like events in the census' history.} In 1790, the availability of records, searchable when U.S. marshals conducted the first databases, and overall organization were census, only six questions were asked used to critique the sites. The Internet about the number of free whites, free sites and the resources they offer were blacks and slaves. By 1840, the number compared to traditional resources found of questions rose to seventy, but the in public and genealogical libraries and census still used the family as the unit of county courthouses. The project measure. The census only noted the concludes with a discussion of the merits head of household's name, the wife's of both types of resources and how the age and the ages of any children. Internet positively and negatively In 1850, census law was changed impacts genealogical research. so that individuals would be used as the In the second part of this project, unit of measure. This change was a using both types of resources, I result of controversy between Northern researched the Compton family back to and Southern states surrounding the the early nineteenth century. This census process. Since the 1840 census section of the project chronicles this noted if individuals were insane or research and gives descriptions of the idiotic, Southern states were using the records that were utilized. census figures to show that free slaves in the North were being driven insane by Part I: Genealogy Research Methods their freedom. The 1850 census "restored confidence in the census Census Records process" because the census bureau reevaluated its process and made needed The first u.s. census was changes such as increasing its workforce conducted in 1790 to enumerate the and counting individuals not families. country's popUlation. A census was Accurately counting the U.s. required by the Constitution to population bec~e very pertinent during determine how many representatives the time surrounding the Civil War. As each state could appoint to Congress. free Northern states grew faster than The results were used to divide slave states in the South, Southerners legislative power among the states based on their populations. Since that initial I Anderson, Margo. 2000. Who Counts? The count, the U.S. population increased by Politics ofCensus-taking in contemporary America. New York: Sage Foundatioo. 2 grew wary of a government dominated facts such as the ages of their ancestors, by representatives from Northern states. where they were born, and where they Despite the war, the U.S. census was lived. After 1840, census questions that taken in 1860 and afterwards in 1870. It inquired about the occupation of the is now known that census counts in the male head of household and the value of South in 1870 were not very accurate. any owned or rented real estate helps The aftermath of the Civil War made it researchers analyze the socio-economic difficult for census enumerators to make status of their ancestors. Since accurate counts of the Southern genealogical research is an ongoing population. process, census records are valuable Census records from 1790 to because one entry can lead to the 1920 are available to the public. The generations before and after it. 1930 and later censuses are not available Census information is one of the for public use because of a statutory 72- easiest, most reliable, and most widely year restriction on access for privacy available methods of research. The reasons. Available records are found at census is reliable because it is a public and genealogical libraries and at government administered count. state archives. Most census records a re Though public opinion of the census has available on microfilm. Since these are changed throughout U.S. history, its pictures of the original records, they are important purpose lends credibility to handwritten. The handwriting can be the process. Every census has a number difficult to read and the markings to of indexes that aid in the research. Thus, indicate education or sanity can be half of the work is done for researchers indistinguishable. before they start perusing census files. With the growth of the Internet, Additionally, a system has been created census records are being made available to further aid researchers in finding online. Some services are free listings of surnames. The Soundex is a coded last census indexes. A recent project, name index based on the way a name W\V\v.us-census.org, is a volunteer effort sounds rather than the way it is spelled. to publish all census records online. Surnames that sound the same, but are Other sites, usually commercial ones spelled differently, like SMITH and such as, Ancestry.com, offer customers SMYTH, have the same code and are the options of buying CD's with census filed together. The Soundex coding information or purchasing online access system was developed so that the to view photographs of census files. researcher can find a surname even This service can be very helpful if local though it may have been recorded under libraries do not contain complete census various spellings (National Archives and information from all states. It is Records Administration). Finally, the preferable to view the actual census records can be accessed for free in a records than to examine a retyped number of locations such as libraries, version because the aforementioned state archives, and Internet sites. illegibility of the records may lead to mistakes. Marriage Records Census information remains a viable part of genealogical research Marriage records offer because it provides researchers with researchers another way to track their 3 ancestors' lives. While they do not and sent to the researcher. Records at provide the depth of information that a county courthouses can be difficult to census record can, marriage records research because each courthouse has its offer a valuable name that census own method for storing and organizing records omit: a wife's maiden name. the information. Researching a married woman's Recently, the Internet has genealogy can be difficult without her become one of the best ways to search maiden name. A marriage record or for land records. At "bond" assists in this search by showing v{\vw. glorecords.bim .go\' , researchers more information about the woman and can search land patents from thirty-one her family. Marriage bonds that were states. These states were once public issued to couples that were under the lands and when the government sold legal age required consent. If the parts of this land to individuals, they consent was given by the bride's mother issued a land patent.

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