Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
Eden Prairie woman keeps Svenskarnas Dag traditions strong. Page 3
Family Heritage
December 18, 2015
December Issue
BY SUE WEBBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Don Thompson of Burnsville has co mpany while he searches for his family’s origins. He has been a member of the Genealogy Club at the Edina Senior Center for at least 10 years, he said. The club meets f rom 9:30-11 a.m. o n the first and third Tuesday of the month at the center, 5280 Grandview Square. “Most of us are doing our searches online, but a few do hands-on searches, such as going to the Minnesota Historical Society,” Thompson said. His ancestors are not in M innesota, Thompson said. “I’m a Heinz 57 person,” he said. “My surname is English, and I’ve found relatives in G ermany, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. My mother’s side is Dutch, Czechoslovakian, Irish, English and German.” He hasn’t done too much work yet on his wife’s side of the family, he said. “I got some information from my wife’s cousin about her side of the family.” Thompson, who has five children, seven grandchildren and a s oon-to-be great-grandchild, said he’s doing the search for his own benefit. “But I started too late,” he said. “My parents are gone.” Thompson cautions that people using the Internet for genealogical searches have to be careful. “You don’t know how accurate the information is; you can get inaccurate information quite easily,” he said. “I plug into a computer program a couple of times a week to try to find new information. You’re never really done. You can always find new information. One of my friends has 50,000 na mes in his database. I’ve only got a few hundred.” He noted that when 1940 census information became available, he lo oked up his fa ther’s name and found a brother that Thompson never had, listed under his fa mily’s name. “I was b orn on Halloween, and my parents didn’t have another child until my sister was born 12 years later,” he said.
From left, Gary Sampson, Ellen Kortz, Marna Garrett and Carel Greseteh meet bi-monthly for Edina Senior Citizens Genealogy Club. (Photo by Sean Plemmons – Sun Current Newspapers)
When the Genealogy Club gathers twice a mo nth, Thompson said, members compare notes on their work and talk about books they may be assembling for their families. Some members photograph family headstones at cemeteries. Others travel to the countries of their family’s origin. Some people hire a p rofessional genealogist to assist them with their search, Thompson said. “The work can be time-consuming and costly,” said Thompson, who limits his research to work he can do locally online. “There are lots of books available. You can spend years, and all kinds o f money. My Scotch background keeps me from wanting to spend that money.”
To anyone just starting a family tree search, Thompson said he would advise becoming familiar with an online genealogy program. “I’ve used Family Tree Maker, but I’ve tried different programs, such as Ancestr y.com,” he said. “Right now I’m using Roots Magic. Those two are very good. Family Tree Maker can take your information and write a book for you.” A native of Nebraska, Thompson served in the Korean War and then went to college. He taught industrial arts at the junior high level for 10 years before switching to a 27year career with Tandy Leather. GENEALOGY CLUB - TO PAGE 3