Aunt Donna Knows

Donna Lannigan Robinson

One of the best resources for family genealogy is older family members who have a treasure trove of memories to share. It's even better if that person has been committed to researching family history. We have one of those treasures in our family - Donna Lannigan Robinson. She's been our go-to person for family history questions for years. Recently, I had a conversation with Aunt Donna and asked her to tell us about her passion for genealogy -- and how she managed all the research for our family tree through the years with no available Internet. Thank you, Aunt Donna, for sharing this story.

At first, I just wrote down all the personal information I had for my immediate family and husband's family including full names, birth dates and places, wedding dates, and any deaths. When I think back, I got further involved when we were living in Soap Lake, Washington and the Ephrata newspaper had an article about the Grant County Historical Society starting a weekly evening genealogy class. I started attending it. First thing they said is you need a system. They had lots of resources and I ordered my printed family group sheets from Everton Publishers in Logan, Utah. Then I filled in a group sheet for each marriage.

Next came questions to family members still alive. If they couldn't answer all the questions, they would refer me to cousins or other family members who had kept family records or had family Bibles. I wrote LOTS of letters (U.S. Mail) and always sent a stamped self-addressed envelope for the reply. I would include a piece of paper with the info I was seeking so all they did was fill in the blanks. I wasn't rich enough to make many phone calls, but did some of those. I probably spent more money on postage than paying for death certificates, military records and other copies of records.

I also bought history books from countries where relatives lived, mainly of my husband's Robinson side. Those ran anywhere from $15 to $85. The first one I ever saw was on Linn County Kansas in the Spokane City Library in the Genealogy Section. Out of curiosity, I opened the book and checked the index and found on page 49 and 50 several paragraphs on Dr. Barton Robinson, my husband's (Lee) great-grandfather. The book also mentioned all three of his sons. They had moved to Kansas in 1859 from Illinois. Later, I joined the Linn County, KS historical society and bought a copy of the book for $25. Later, after finding a first cousin once removed of Lee's, she gave me an 1878 original copy of the History of Logan County, Illinois mentioning Dr. Barton.

If you are starting out to trace your ancestors, I would recommend taking a class to get you started. Junior colleges often offer these classes or join up with a local genealogical or historical society. Often the local Mormon Family History Library will offer classes, too.

If you know of any family members living in an area you are researching, pay them to go to cemeteries and get pictures of headstones. I also found several Robinson family branches by going to the City Library and looking in Gales Directories for newspapers in the area where they lived. You have to pay to put an ad in the newspaper, but I wrote a letter to the editor for free explaining I was doing research and asking if anyone knew of anyone in the area of the family I was researching. That way I only had to pay for the stamp to mail the letter to the editor.

You can join historical or genealogical societies in the area you're researching and volunteers there will often do research for you and you only pay for any copies they make for you. Computers probably now have all that information and you only need to know the website.

I did volumes of census research and had to order in the films and read them on the readers at the Mormon Family History Library. Also, libraries will have the old local newspapers you can read from film if you have dates and are looking for obituaries or other records.

I also visited many cemeteries, mostly in Kansas where my husband's Dad was born and both of my parents were born. In September, 1999 I was led by Divine Intervention to a cemetery in middle of nowhere Kansas. A pickup drove into the cemetery at the same time we did. We got out to walk to the grave of my great-grandmother so I could get pictures. The fellow from the pickup said he was looking for his great-grandmother. He said his cousin had sent him a picture of her four months before. He asked who I was looking for and I told him. He said that was the name on the headstone he was looking for. After taking pictures, we went back to the car and I got out my genealogy book and showed him a picture of my great-grandmother. He said: "That's the same picture my cousin sent me!" He put me in touch with that cousin and I filled out a whole new line of family group sheets.

The more ancestors and answers you find, the more questions that will be generated and you have the genealogy pox for which there is no cure! Be Warned! However, a birth certificate shows you were born. A death certificate shows you died, but family history shows you lived!

Happy Hunting - Donna