Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Cambridge Bay (Apr 23/01) - All good detective work takes perseverance, creativity and a pile of luck.
In that genealogy -- the search into one's family tree -- is all about following leads and unearthing new details, those skills are crucial.
That's according to George Bohlender, a Cambridge Bay resident seriously immersed in the study of genealogy.
As well as digging into his own roots, Bohlender has a Web site (www.rootsweb.com/~cannt) designed to assist Northerners find out about their own families.
"We post any information that's helpful to people doing family research in the NWT or Nunavut," said Bohlender.
That information includes access to sources of records like departments of vital statistics in the North and the south, and Internet links to sites where Northerners can access various archives.
Specifically, Bohlender said the site led curious folk to the archives at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, to the Hudson Bay Company archives and to the NWT Genealogical Society.
Needed in Nunavut
To date, a similar genealogical society does not exist in Nunavut, although Bohlender said the opportunity existed for an energetic soul to start one.
He added that the person who undertook the task would come face-to-face with the problems associated with doing genealogy in the North.
"They'll be getting confronted fairly quickly with some of the problems facing people trying to research their family trees in Nunavut," said Bohlender.
"The population is primarily Inuit and the history has largely been oral," he explained.
"Written records weren't really kept until the churches, the Hudson Bay Company ... and the government came along," he said.
That means written data didn't exist on a common scale until some 50 or 60 years ago. People digging up the past must, he said, turn to elders to begin documenting their families.
"They have to begin asking questions about who they're related to," he said.
That information must then be written down.
"If they can ask the elders and start recording it on paper, at least it's a start," said Bohlender.
The next step was to supplement the oral data by digging into the scant records that do exist.
Networking is key
Answers can also be found by networking with other family members or like-minded people.
"Networking is crucial. We all have one part of the puzzle. Sometimes the info we find is complimentary and sometimes it may correct the information we already have," he said.
Another obstacle many Nunavummiut can expect is the spelling of names. Under Operation Surname, a government initiative that assigned Inuit family names, many names were misspelled.
Bohlender said the variations made for a more difficult search, but one that had to be attempted if a complete family picture was to be painted.
"You have to cover all the bases. You have to research all the different spellings and different variations."
Inuit also have to follow the migration of different family members to different communities -- a task that is often quite elaborate and time-consuming.
Final words of advice Bohlender offered to residents looking to find family members was to be patient.
"What started out as a family tree can quickly become a family jungle," he said.
