By James W. Warren and Paula Stuart Warren
You've got questions about discovering, preserving and celebrating your family history; our experts have the answers.
Q. I'm fortunate to have a family Bible that
contains several pages of information about my
Noland ancestors. However, in the middle of all the
relevant information about births, marriages, etc.,
there is an entire page of entries for people with
the surname Coleman, along with a large handwritten
notation that "these people are not related to the
Nolands."
I have absolutely no idea who they are, or why
their important dates were entered in the Bible of
another family. Maybe they were in-laws or neighbors. It bothers me that I could
be sitting on information that could be a missing link
for some Coleman researcher out there.
What is the best method or site for posting this
information? I would like for it to be easily
found by anyone who may be looking for it.
A. It's great that you're anxious to share the
Coleman family information that was included in your
Noland family Bible. From what you described,
it sounds likely that the Colemans lived in the
same area as your Noland family in the years
covered by the Bible entries. We're assuming you've
identified what those localities are.
We would suggest providing copies and transcripts
of the Bible record (along with basic information
on your Noland family) to local genealogical and
historical societies in those geographic areas.
You might request that they publish a story in their
newsletter and make it accessible in family
files in their library.
An excellent way to share the information online
is through the US GenWeb county and state sites
for the area at <www.usgenweb.org>.
Also check RootsWeb at <lists.rootsweb.com>
to see whether a Coleman mailing list is among the
hundreds of surname interest lists that researchers
utilize to share information. Also search for a Coleman group on Facebook. Posting a message to
such a site might be a way to make connections to
a Coleman with a specific interest in that Bible record.
In addition to those electronic resources,
you may also be able to identify a print publication
or a surname organization for Coleman researchers.
Start by doing a web search and checking a book such as Elizabeth Petty Bentley's
Directory of Family Organizations.
There are other places to share that
information in the hopes that present
or future Coleman researchers will be able
to find it. For example, the
National Genealogical
Society has a Bible Records collection to which
you might donate the information, and you could submit it to a site such as
BibleRecords.com. And you've
already made many researchers aware of the
existence of this information by submitting your
question to
Family Tree Magazine.