The last Grandma Told Me session of the semester educated attendees what online sources are best for ancestry research and answered any final questions at Booth Library Monday night.

Booth Library retiree Lois Dickenson wrapped up the Grandma Told Me workshop by going over final research tips and assisting people looking up ancestry information individually.

Education alumnus Terry Smith said he discovered old photographs of his family and other facts about his ancestors he never knew about until he found documents online.

“Right now I’m looking up the Daughters of the American Revolution site, (and) then I come across that I had an ancestor who served in the Revolutionary War,” he said.

One picture Smith said he found was of his great, great, great grandfather, Zachariah Albright, who was born in 1796 and died in 1889.

The way Smith said he found these initial documents was through the free Family Search website that Dickenson recommended, and he thinks it is a good starting point for anyone interested in researching their ancestry.

Before going online to do the research, Smith said he would advise people to contact their family members for any information they might have.

“Talk to your peers, talk to your grandparents, talk to your uncles, your extended family and let them know that you’re interested,” he said. “Some oldsters are probably willing to share some of those old stories or would love to share some of those old stories; they just need to be asked.”

Elementary education alumna Sonja Jones said she had an initial interest to dive deeper into her family’s history, and attending the Grandma Told Me sessions was helpful.

Something interesting Jones said she found was her parents’ marriage license; the license itself looked normal, with the exception of her mother’s name.

“I found my parents’ marriage license,” she said. “My mother’s name was Vera Jane Allen, but on her marriage license she evidently told them it was ‘Jane Vera’ because she hated that name. So, I think she reversed it when she was 20 years old.”

Another surprising thing Jones said she found was the WWI draft registration of her grandfather on her mother’s side.

“I didn’t even think about him registering for the draft,” she said.

Jones said hearing an oral family history from fellow family members is important to understanding more about one’s ancestry and how to research it online.

Jones said she is also excited to tell her children what she found out about her family’s history.

“I just think (ancestry) is interesting. I’m not sure my children do, but I’m going to be sharing with them what I find whether they’re interested or not,” she said.

Eastern alumna Gloria Summers said she has been trying to find new information about her grandmother who attended Eastern in 1909, but has not found anything yet.

Summers said there are many online sites geared towards ancestry research, but not many have aided her the way Family Search has.

“There are many different sites to search, but some of them are better than others, and I had previously gone to ancestry.com … I haven’t gotten very far with (ancestry.com) because

immediately you’re faced with (signing) up and (paying) to learn more,” she said. “(Family Search) really opens up a lot of doors to finding out more about family history.”

Summers said her grandfather created a genealogy that she has read extensively, and now she is using the information she has learned from that to cater her research.

For those interested in learning more about their ancestries, Summers said she would advise them to attend the next Grandma Told Me session in February 2019 or to start their free search on Family Search.

All in all, Summers said researching her family history and being advised by Dickenson at the Grandma Told Me workshop has been a rewarding experience.

“I think it’s really interesting to see where your ancestry originally came from,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.