Genealogical Research

Denise Lincoln uses her laptop when doing research March 22, 2018 in the Kirby Genealogy Room at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Fred Lynch ~ Southeast Missourian

Local resources help connect Southeast Missouri residents to their roots

Marilyn Hutchings, reference associate at the Cape Girardeau Public Library, was in junior high school when she first began researching her family’s history. Her friend’s English teacher tasked her class with creating their family tree, and even though Hutchings wasn’t in the same English class, she decided she wanted to create her own family’s tree, too.

So, she went home and referenced her mother’s family Bible. It contained information about four or five generations of Hutchings’ ancestors, right there inside the front cover.

She was hooked.

Denise Lincoln sits at a microfilm viewer in the Kirby Genealogy Room March 22, 2018 at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com

“It was instant gratification,” Hutchings says of the experience. “Then I kind of bits and pieced [my family’s history] together as I learned more over the years.”

Hutchings has learned that her family, whom she describes as “just general folks,” came to America in the mid-1700s. They came from all over Europe and were mostly farmers and carpenters.

“I guess they had wanderlust,” Hutchings says.

The Process

Doing genealogical research is a bit like being a detective, says Barbara Rexroat, president of the Butler County Genealogical Society.

“You start looking at it — it’s a bug, you catch it,” Rexroat says.

There are many different methods by which people piece together their family’s history. Some researchers use websites such as ancestry.com and newspapers.com to read old newspaper articles. Some search local courthouse and archive birth, marriage, land and death records. Some people travel to the locations where their ancestors lived to search records, places and cemeteries that are not archived online.

Facebook genealogical pages can be a helpful reference, too, a place where people from all over the world post information and offer help. Census records are also helpful in the hunt for clues to one’s family heritage.

The best way to begin research, says Rexroat, is to talk with people who have done genealogical research before, and also to talk with older relatives, asking them every question that could lead to a deeper understanding of family ancestry. Recording these relatives as they speak can also be helpful, so that what they say is preserved for the future.

“You start with what you know, and you work your way back,” Hutchings says of the process.

Local Resources

There are many local resources that can help Southeast Missouri residents get started on their own journey of discovering their heritage.

Cape Girardeau Public Library has electronic subscriptions to ancestry.com and heritagequest.com that patrons of the library can use in their research. Library card holders can also reference heritagequest.com from their homes.

The Cape library also has a genealogy room where researchers can read records and do research in a quiet area. The room contains print books on marriage, birth and death records from Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky. It also houses the Southeast Missourian newspaper on microfilm, from its inception in 1918 to the present. The Southeast Missourian newspaper’s predecessors, the Cape Girardeau Republican and the Cape Girardeau Democrat — dating from 1900 to 1918 — can also be read at the genealogy room.

Occasionally the Cape Girardeau Public Library holds workshops in which they teach patrons how to begin researching their family trees. Librarians are also available to point researchers in the right direction, or to assist patrons in contacting the Cape County Archives or the Cape Girardeau Genealogical Society.

Most counties in Southeastern Missouri have a genealogical society where people interested in genealogy can meet with other locals to learn a variety of research methods. Many of these societies often bring in speakers to teach about the county’s history or the process of genealogical research.

Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, Mississippi, Perry and Stoddard counties all have genealogical societies. These groups can help in connecting researchers with the resources they need to discover more about their lineage.

“From my perspective, if you know where your people came from and the hardships and decisions they made, you can better understand how you are where you are today,” says Joyce Drew, Butler County Archives consultant. “What you’re doing right now may very well be something someone is looking at in the future.”

Want to learn more about your ancestors? Most county’s genealogical societies have Facebook pages. Here are a few additional links to get you started:

The State Historical Society of Missouri

https://shsmo.org/about/capegirardeau/

Perry County Historical Society

https://perrycountyhistoricalsociety.org

Bollinger Co. Archives and Genealogical Center

http://bocoarchives.org

Mississippi County Historical Society

http://www.misscohistoricalsociety.org