Growing Your Family Tree

Growing up in eastern Tennessee, Alice Wilkinson liked nothing better than listening to her grandmother talk about the family's past. Little did she imagine that this childhood fascination would lead to a 17-year quest for her roots and the discovery that she is related to Revolutionary War soldiers as well as fighters on both sides in the Civil War, and that she shares ancestors with former pro quarterback Terry Bradshaw, Senator Strom Thurmond and Elvis Presley. "All of a sudden I have connections to all this American history," marvels the 62-year-old retired schoolteacher. Looking at the boxes of deeds, wills, marriage and birth certificates going back 11 generations that fill her Houston apartment, she says, "Once you start doing something very simple, the bug bites."

Millions of other Americans are getting bitten as well and, like Wilkinson, are poring over courthouse documents, library books and archives in search of their heritage. A 1995 study by Maritz Marketing Research found that 45% of adults in the U.S. declared they were at least somewhat interested in genealogy, and of those ages 45 to 64, half were actively pursuing it in some way.

Behind the heritage hoopla is the newfound ease with which family connections can be traced, often with the aid of computers. Millions of federal records can be found in Washington's National Archives and Records Administration and its 13 regional branches. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, contains billions of names, with thousands more added each month by 75 research teams microfilming records all over the world. In 2000, visitors to Ellis Island will have computer access to all passenger lists of ships bringing immigrants to New York Harbor from 1890 through 1924. State and local archives are expanding and collecting information about the latest wave of immigrants. The Denver Public Library takes pride in its wealth of Hispanic genealogical material, and, says director James Jeffrey, "because of our Western History Collection, we have a lot of information about Asians who migrated to Hawaii and then to the mainland. But we are searching for other sources."

Another reason for the explosion is the need baby boomers have to look back and understand where they've come from. This is especially so in light of the fragmentation of families. Genealogical pursuit, says Ralph Crandall, director of Boston's New England Historic Genealogical Society, "is an attempt to reconstitute the family, at least symbolically." Shirley Wilcox, president of the National Genealogical Society in Arlington, Va., acknowledges that "computers and the Internet are also responsible for fueling interest." Masses of material can be organized more efficiently with software programs such as Family Tree Maker, the Master Genealogist, Ultimate Family Tree, Family Origins and Personal Ancestral File.