Guideposts to past offered in conference on genealogy By J. TAYLOR RUSHING Advocate staff writer It was the kind of crowd that knew as a matter of fact that the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed by fire and that 19th century courthouse records in Georgia often don’t exist. And that the bottom drawer of a file cabinet or the end of a roll of microfilm is always where the best information awaits. It was a crowd of about 75 amateur and experienced genealogists who showed up at Bluebonnet Regional Branch Library on Saturday for an annual genealogy conference. They swapped stories, absorbed advice and took notes for three hours. And they found it easy to describe the appeal of what they do. "Everybody loves a mystery, and everybody loves solving a mystery," said Jeanell Strickland, head of the library’s genealogy department and a genealogist since 1987. "And when it’s your own family, it’s close to home. What could be more intriguing than solving a mystery about your family?" The Bluebonnet library, 9200 Bluebonnet Blvd., has been holding the conference almost every year since the mid-1980s. This year’s speakers focused on how to use the Internet. Lorraine Moore of Baton Rouge led one seminar on online resources. She has been a genealogist since 1987. "Twenty-five years ago, people who did genealogy had to visit courthouses, archives, cemeteries and churches," Moore said. "Now they can do a lot of that through the Internet. "I don’t see how anyone doing it today could get by without a computer. You can almost get overwhelmed by it. There’s everything you ever wanted to know, and it just takes a few minutes." Moore said the best online genealogy sites are ancestry.com, cyndislist.com, familysearch.com, rootsweb.com and usgenweb.com. All are free, and provide links to other sites. The East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Courts Office Web site (http://www.ebrclerkofcourt.org) also has genealogy links. Strickland said there are countless stories of people finding distant family members over the Internet and of total strangers discovering they have common ancestors. "So many records are now available from peoples’ homes," she said. "You always have to watch for misinformation, so you use it as a guide. But you can strike up friendships and pool resources." Strickland also said there are also plenty of genealogy computer programs available on the Internet, some of which can be downloaded for free. Online resources can sometimes help with traditional hurdles, she said, such as that courthouses in Southern states were often burned by Union armies during the Civil War. Strickland said she developed an interest in genealogy after taking over the department in 1987. She has traced her father’s family to the 1500s and her mother’s line to around 1820. She acknowledges her share of frustrations. "You never know if it’s going to be impossible to find out something or if you’re about to turn over a leaf," she said. "When you hit a dead end, you just work on another relative and hope something loosens up." Barbara Comeaux Strickland of Baton Rouge has been tracing her family since the early 1960s. She said the appeal of genealogy is in the "unanswered questions" it poses. She was in the audience Saturday hunting for tips on how to fill in a blank on her father’s side of her family. She has traced the family back four generations but has been frustrated for years by a lack of information about a woman named Anne Catherine Busch. "Whenever I get to heaven, I’m going to ask Anne Catherine Busch, ‘What was the deal?’" she said. "But (genealogy) is still a good diversion. When life gets on top of me, it’s a good place to go."