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| Sleuth finds facts in the family tree |
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Nicole Patterson, genealogy and local history librarian at the Oshawa Public Library, lends a hand to those researching their family trees. |
By Jessica Verge The Oshawa Express Nicole Patterson is a detective of a different kind. Instead of fingerprint powder and a badge, Patterson uses microfilm and census data to uncover unknown facts in the family tree. This sleuth is Oshawa’s resident genealogy expert. “The thrill is what keeps people in it,” says Patterson, the Oshawa Public Library’s genealogy and local history librarian for the past two years of the activity.“It’s like detective work.” When it comes to her own family, a former colleague discovered a possible link between Patterson’s father and a 12th century King of England through one of the ruler’s illegitimate children. While she takes the finding with a grain of salt and encourages researchers to validate their facts, Patterson says it’s that kind of information that draws people in. Patterson, who runs weekly drop-in sessions at the McLaughlin Branch to help people looking to build their family tree or find something out about their ancestry, says amateur researchers get pulled in by curiosity that comes with finding out unknown facts about the past. While she says people take up genealogy for a variety of reasons— some are spurred by the death of a relative, the discovery of old photographs and documents or have a keen interest in a time period or war and want to know where their family fits into that era—it isn’t long before they’re bitten by the genealogy bug.“It’s a really interesting pursuit for most people,” says Patterson. “They want to know their identity.” The search for an identity through family history can be an arduous process but it is one Patterson aims to make a little easier. When starting out, Patterson has people fill out a basic family free to find out how much they know about their family history. From there, she directs people to the library’s stock of census reports and obituaries, often found in newspapers kept on microfilm. And how difficult the search becomes depends on the family.“Sometimes it’s really easy for people,” says Patterson. |
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“Often it’s a little far
flung.”
People with ancestors in the United
Kingdom—for the exception of Ireland,
where records were claimed by fire—usually
have an easier time find their relatives
than people from Eastern Europe or the
Middle East where boundaries have
changed significantly over time.
Another hurdle is surnames. According
to Patterson, someone with a common last
name will usually have a more difficult
time locating relatives than someone with
an unusual name, especially if they’re
searching for someone with a common first
name as well.
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