Genealogy research
Two years ago, Jessica Dulis came across a box of her deceased uncle’s letters and other memorabilia. What made this discovery so special was the fact her father rarely talked about his family. It didn’t take much to get her on the genealogy research track.
She managed to find out her father came from a large family. Through further investigation, and research, she was able to make contact with her second cousin. Interestingly enough, her second cousin is a genealogist.
“Everyone just scattered,” remarked Dulis while discussing her family.
Dulis also discovered the obituary of her granduncle, which led to more family information. Though she enjoys her genealogy research, it can be difficult and time-consuming. “It’s been like reinventing the wheel,” she said.
Her children gave her a subscription to the website ancestory.com for Christmas in 2013, but Dulis hasn’t limited herself to her own family. She answers grave photo requests on findagrave.com by taking pictures of graves at Washington Cemetery and posting them on the website. There are about 200 requests for photos of graves in Washington Cemetery. Many people don’t have much information about their family plot, making some graves more difficult to find. Dulis successfully found and photographed about 65 graves as requested on findagrave.com. Dulis said sizing her pictures, labeling them and posting them is “a process in itself.”
When asked how people can research their own genealogy, Dulis said, “The more information you have, the more it can be narrowed down, (and) the more information you find, the more information you can get.” She related her personal experience about finding information of a few particular family members through reading an old diary. By using the limited names she had, she could make inferences about relations (a father and daughter, for instance) and try to find out more about them.
Researching graves in local cemeteries can reveal interesting information, as well, Dulis said.
Dulis said there is a grave in Washington Cemetery of a friend of former U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant. The man started a school, Trinity Hall Military Academy, which eventually became Trinity High School. His son, Ulysses S. Grant Smith, was involved in diplomatic affairs in and around World War I. One Washington Cemetery gravestone is made out of a boulder thought to have come from Canada to Ithaca, N.Y., by way of the Great Continental Glacier. Also in Washington Cemetery is a memorial for a man who is buried in Beirut.
Dulis said grave styles changed over the years. She remarked the limestone graves wore away quickly, making it difficult to decipher them. She briefly discussed the job of gravestone rubbing, which some experts use to clean graves. Washington Cemetery even contains graves of people born in the late 18th century.
Dulis said researching genealogy can help show “the realities of life.” She commented on how many children did not survive in previous years and the way people today are not used to so much death. Even so, “they had to deal with a lot of issues that we think are unique to our generation.”
One thing about genealogy is that it is open to anyone with interest in the field. “You can do it to the extent you want to do it,” said Dulis.
The information genealogy research provides isn’t completely separated from everyday life, though. As Dulis observed, “It helps put history into context.”