Genealogists trace families through history
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Westminster residents Natalie and Dick Thomas review some of the material they have collected while researching her genealogy.

Westminster resident Natalie Thomas has spent a variety of time over the last 50 years researching her family's genealogy.

She started when her grandmother gave her a list of 22 generations of her family's history and can trace her father's family back to their immigration to the United States, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636.

"I got into it and I've been going ever since," Thomas said. "Every generation you find two more people to trace."

She has compiled her research into a series of computer files, photo albums, and files of original documents.

Natalie and her husband, Dick Thomas, are members of the Central Massachusetts Genealogical Society, which is a group that helps local residents and members research their families' histories.

The group's goals are to "promote an interest in genealogy and family history;" "serve as a resource for the exchange of genealogical information;" "promote the maintenance of quality genealogical standards and documentation;" "help preserve public and private records and artifacts and work to ensure their accessibility for historical and genealogical purposes;" and to "publish genealogical and historical information in our newsletter," according to the society's Web site.

The Central Massachusetts Genealogical Society meets once a month - the fourth Tuesday - and is comprised of a variety of men and women at varying stages of their genealogical research.

"Doing the research is fun and exciting," said Carol McNeil Bosworth, the club's president. "But sometimes you just need some help or support. For many of the members that have done their research and have been doing it for years, they are able to help you over that stumbling point."

Bosworth, who is now the society's president, is one of the 50 original members. The group was founded in June 1993.

"I was actually in one of the first two meetings and joined," she said.

Dick Thomas said he started to work on his history after watching his wife do hers.

"I guess it hits you. I think that you catch it after awhile," he said. "It's interesting and it's fun, until you are backed into some corner."

It's that corner or that brick wall where the society can be of great help. They can help show different means of doing research or just provide encouragement, he said.

The society is about bringing interesting pieces of history to life as well as about the support that others can offer during the search through history.

"What can we do to help you with your brick wall," Bosworth said. "It is the networking. It is being part of the organization that helps educates other genealogists. That networking is just invaluable."

Bosworth has family that has lived in Massachusetts and isn't confined to the central part of the state, but still finds the society useful. Her husband's family, though, is spread throughout the area and there are about five cousins that are very distantly related to him in the society.

Bosworth said genealogy is becoming a bigger focus in the schools, as well, and there is more of a focus on family medical histories, so knowing genealogy will help with that focus.

Bosworth agrees that sometimes there just has to be that hook to get people interested in the work. She said her mother wasn't interested until "the stories started coming."

"The skeletons that you find in your closet are really fun," Bosworth said. "We probably have much more relations with infamous then someone famous."

Dick Thomas said that his family has always told the story that they are related to John Marshall, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but through his research he's found out that Marshall was an uncle instead of a great-grandfather.

"He was still part of the family, though," Dick Thomas said.

The connection to American history is also something that doing the research helps people with, the members agree.

"It brings a sense of awareness of how you are and where you have come from," Bosworth said. "History takes a very different perspective when you see where you connected to it."

She said she has found out that her mother's great-great-grandfather had served in the United States Navy for 20 years and retired just after the Civil War. Through her research she has found out that he retained his Spanish citizen ship during that time.

There are also other connections in the more recent past, said Bosworth.

"My stepfather and his brother were in Normandy (on D-Day during World War II)," she said. "And my uncle (her father's brother) actually parachuted behind the lines."

All of these genealogists say research needs to start with what the researchers knows. They say the first step is to have conversations with those who are still living, review family papers and then start to look for documentation that will prove the stories and send research on to the next step.

"Start with those closest to you and then work your way back," Bosworth said.

Bosworth said start with the death records because many times they will show the dates of births and parents' names, as well as the cause of death and the place of burial. She said there is also a way to get marriage and birth records.

"I knew (my grandmother) had one sister, I knew there was a brother," Bosworth said. "In the census, I found an aunt I never knew about. I can go and get her death records, find out where she died, where she is buried and then I can go do cemetery records."

New England Regional Genealogical Conference is one of the major events that the CMGS has participated over the past 14 years. The local group helps to organize the conference that occurs every 18 months to two years.

The next conference is in April of 2009.

The Central Massachusetts Genealogical Society meets at 7 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of the month, except for December, at the American Legion Hall in Gardner on Elm Street. The meetings are open to the public and there is a $2 guest charge, or those who are interested in going the annual dues are $12 a year.

The October program will be a presentation by the Gravestone Girls, who are from Worcester and research various cemeteries and the gravestone markings and tell people how to do research on those markings.

For more information, please contact Mary Hasselmann at (978) 297-4484 or cmgssecretary@hotmail.com or write to C.M.G.S., Inc., P. O. Box 811, Westminster, MA 01473-0811. Check out the group's Web site at www.cmgs-inc.org.