As amazing as the Internet is as a research tool, it's most powerful when used in conjunction with other traditional research tools. The tools genealogists have always used-family history centers, genealogical societies, and libraries-remain the foundation of successful research. Adding the Internet to this mix of research tools only increases the chances of success.

Using a mix of traditional tools and the Internet, some perplexing research problems can be solved quickly. I encountered certain research problems while researching ancestors in Wales, and I found using this "mixed" approach extremely helpful. The Internet's ability to overcome the barrier of distance in genealogical research became quite evident.

Traditional Tool #1: The Family History Center
My second great-grandmother, Ellen, immigrated from Wales to the United States in 1881. Her maiden name was Deere, a relatively uncommon surname in Wales. Her baptism record had been extracted onto the International Genealogical Index™, which gave her parish as Penmark, Glamorgan. Penmark is a small village a few miles west of Cardiff. The Family History Library has filmed the Bishop's Transcripts of the Penmark parish registers. These Bishop's Transcripts were copies of the actual registers made twice yearly and sent from each parish to its bishop. The Family History Library did not have the actual parish registers themselves filmed.

The film of the Penmark Bishop's Transcripts were duly ordered from my local family history center and researched. Various siblings were discovered, Ellen's parents were located, and Ellen's grandparents' marriage record was found.

On a single line, in terrible handwriting, the transcripts revealed that Morgan Deere had married Jennet Llewelyn on 3 November 1796. No other information was given. There was no baptism record for Morgan Deere, and there didn't appear to be any connection back past Morgan and Jennet's marriage to any other Deeres in the Bishop's Transcripts. A Morgan Deere-relation unknown-had married a Catherine Thomas in 1775, and the couple had produced various offspring. However, it did not appear that the Morgan Deere married in 1775 was either the father of the Morgan Deere married in 1796 or otherwise related. The Deere hunter had seemingly lost the trail.

Knowing that the Bishop's Transcripts were only copies of the original registers for Penmark, I realized it was possible that the actual registers might contain more information for this marriage-information such as the bride and groom's home parishes if they were not native to Penmark. Such additional information might help push the Deere research back another generation past the apparent dead end in the Penmark records. But how to locate the actual registers? The Family History Library didn't have them filmed. The answer came from that other cornerstone of family history research, the local genealogical society.

Traditional Tool #2: The Glamorgan Family History Society
The Glamorgan Family History Society has a long tradition of transcribing local records. I had become a member in early 1997 when I realized that I'd be doing a lot of my Welsh research in Glamorgan. Contacting the society was simple, since they have a Web site on the Internet.

The GFHS Web site includes a list of parish registers which the society has transcribed and offers for sale. I ordered the society's transcription of the Penmark parish registers by "snail mail" and waited. When the transcription finally arrived, I quickly found the marriage record of Morgan Deere and Jennet Llewelyn. The information matched that of the Bishop's Transcript, with no additional information given. There was, however, a note alongside the entry stating that the original entry in the parish register contains "personal details such as status, occupation, or an exact address" which were not included in the GFHS transcription. Now I knew that there was more information on the original registers, but I still didn't have access to them. This information could be very useful in my research, or it could turn out to be nothing more than the bride and groom's status of "spinster" and "bachelor." There was no way to know which without obtaining the record itself.

I consulted a copy of Phillimore's Atlas and Index of Parish Registers and found that the original Penmark registers had been deposited at both the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, Dyfed and at the Glamorgan Record Office in Cardiff, Glamorgan. It would be a number of years in the future before I could ever hope of traveling to Wales to follow up on this lead.

Internet Tool #1: The Glamorgan Genealogy Mailing List
Thinking it was best to inquire closest to the source of the original registers, I began my Internet hunt with Glamorgan resources online. While the Glamorgan Record Office had a Web site, their Web site did not provide information on how to contact them by e-mail.

This lack of contact information didn't stop me. I knew that there was a genealogy mailing list on the Internet for research in the county of Glamorgan. Many counties and areas in the United Kingdom have genealogy-specific mailing lists. A Web-based list of them can be found at http://www.genuki.org.uk/indexes/MailingLists.html.

Mailing lists allow you to send an electronic mail message to the mailing list's e-mail address; then the mailing list software automatically "echoes" your message to all the other subscribers to that mailing list. Both the posting of messages and subscribing to the mailing lists are free of charge. A query sent to a genealogical mailing list has the potential of being read by dozens or thousands of other subscribers, depending on the size of the list.

I composed a polite message asking if "some kind soul" with access to the Glamorgan Record Office could stop in and do a quick look-up for me. For the marriage record I was seeking, I knew the exact date for the exact event in the exact place in Glamorgan. This detailed information would reduce the burden on any nice person over in Wales who might volunteer.

I sent my message to the mailing list and received a reply the next day. A local Cardiff lady was scheduled to visit the GRO next Tuesday and would be glad to look up the marriage for me! I replied directly to her e-mail address with a profusion of thanks and more details on what, exactly, I was hoping to learn from the original records. I explained that the GFHS transcription had indicated that there was further information available on the marriage record itself. I made clear that it was this further information I was after.

The day after Tuesday, a message from this kind Cardiff lady arrived in my e-mail box. In part, the message read:

"There was no other information given, just their names and the date. I notice on the Glamorgan Marriage Index that it states (LP) which, as you know, means 'marriage by licence and personal details,' but they certainly weren't entered in the Register, so I asked the assistant at the Record Office and was informed that the Licences for Penmark for the 1790s are held at Aberystwyth."

More profuse thanks were returned to this kind lady in my reply to her. Although I had not gotten the actual parish register entry, I had been given yet another sign to follow on the trail of my Deeres.

Internet Tool #2: The National Library of Wales Web Site
I had no prior experience with using the resources of the National Library in Aberystwyth. I was aware that they were a central repository of many records for Welsh family history. Beginning with their front Web page (and using their thoughtfully provided English language links and descriptions, as I am not bilingual in Welsh!), I visited the Web page for their Department of Manuscripts and Records. A helpful guide to their collections is provided, and I quickly verified that they hold selected parish registers and marriage bonds. On their "Using the Collections" page, I found the following statement:

"In response to postal enquiries, the Department will provide information as to sources held by the Department, except where lengthy searches of catalogues and indexes are necessary, and verification of a single entry from documents or records where precise references and details are provided by the enquirer."

Their definition of "a verification of a single entry . . . where precise references and details are provided by the enquirer" matched the state of my Deere hunt exactly. I knew the names, date, and place of the event, but required further details from the original record.

Hoping that their policy on postal enquiries would be applied to e-mail inquiries as well, I used their "How to contact the Library" Web page to find the e-mail address (http://www.ymh.lc@llgc.org.uk) for the Department of Manuscripts and Records. Composing a politely worded inquiry, I included what information I already knew about the marriage record, where the information had been obtained, and what I was hoping to learn from a check of the original record. I sent my e-mail to the library with thanks in advance and waited. Five days later, I received the following reply:

Dear Mr. Howells:
I write in reply to your e-mail message of 22 October 1997, relating to the marriage by licence of Morgan Deere and Jennet Llewelyn. The original parish registers of Pen-marc are held by the Glamorgan Archive Service, County Hall, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF1 3NE. However, inspection of a facsimile copy of Pen-marc parish register has revealed the following entry: "Marriage of Morgan Deere, widower, and Jennet Llewellin, spinster, both of Pen-marc, on 3 Nov. 1796, witnessed by John Llewellyn and George Morgan."

The Library also holds a marriage bond, dated 1 Nov. 1796 (ref. LL/82/135), which gives no additional information other than that Morgan Deere was aged 21 or over. If you should require a photocopy of the bond, we would need your correct postal address in order to send you application and pre-payment forms. There is a minimum charge of £5 for orders despatched by post, payable in sterling or US dollars drawn on a British bank.

Yours sincerely,
H. A. Peters
Cataloguing Assistant
Department of Manuscripts and Records

Here then, finally, was the additional information from the original parish record! It arrived by e-mail only ten days after I had posted my original query on the Glamorgan genealogy mailing list!

My Morgan Deere was a widower when he married Jennet Llewelyn. Perhaps he was the same Morgan Deere who had married Catherine Thomas twenty-one years prior? When I consulted the Glamorgan Family History Society's transcripts for Penmark again, I noted a Catherine Deere who was buried on 15 August 1791, which would make her Morgan a widower who was available to marry Jennet Llewelyn five years later. Tantalizing speculation, which may still provide more trails to follow in chasing the Deeres.

The Right Combination of Tools
This story is just one example of combining traditional research sources with new Internet resource methods to solve a genealogical research problem. Without the use of traditional sources, I wouldn't have known what questions to ask on the Internet. Without the Internet, I wouldn't have obtained a transcript of the original record in ten days' time.

It would have been possible to obtain the same result by using "snail mail" from the National Library, by hiring a professional researcher in Wales, or by traveling to Wales myself. Most research problems lend themselves to either an all-traditional approach or to the combination of research tools described above. However, my Deere ancestors have been as quick at moving between locations and as clever at concealing their presence as their namesake fauna. The speed of the Internet in overcoming the distances involved in genealogical research has provided this Deere hunter with a decided advantage over his quarry.

Mark Howells pursues his Welsh ancestry from Washington State. His writings have appeared in Computer Interest Group Digest, Computers in Genealogy, and Genealogical Computing. His e-mail address is markhow@oz.net.