And just like that, 39,460 names have been added to the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project’s database incorporating the late Dr. Jane Underwood’s work. The database was gifted to Dr. Gary Heathcote (retired UOG Anthropologists professor) and Dr. Vince P. Diego (assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). In turn, they gifted it to me to add to the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project. Dr. Heathcote writes, “I can't help but think about how pleased Jane would be that her records have found another good home! No, an EXCELLENT home!! “
Since I received the data, I burnt the midnight oil converting some of the data to make it available to subscribers as soon as I could. Because of that there are limitations to the data. The individuals do not link to families…yet. I am working on recoding and creating new family ID numbers because that data field needs to be numerical. Jane’s data had alpha-numeric characters so I was not able immediately convert that data. However, and for the interim, I have used Jane’s individual ID data as “Nicknames,” so that will be the key to searching and identifying parents within the database.
The way Jane maintained her data was ingeniously unique. Therefore, some individuals will have their first name listed with their mother’s paternal and maternal surname (i.e. eustaqui andersonpereda Punzalan). Note that when Jane listed paternal and maternal surnames, she used lower casing on all names and did not provide any spacing between names. I have chosen to leave that intact, because it provides for better research potential when researching the maternal lineage of an individual. The surnames are the only names that begin with a capital letter, because that is my addition to the database and rather than reflecting a paternal-maternal surname.
The birth years within the database range from 1808-1941. She did phenomenal job at developing and sustaining it!
I hope to write more about Jane's work later, but I am still learning about her. I was first introduced to her index cards at the Micronesian Area Research Center by fellow genealogist Jillette Leon-Guerrero and Omaira Perry-Brunel, but had no idea at the time that Jane had maintained a database in Microsoft Access.
God bless Jane for blessing us!
Sidebar ---- I'm still in shock about this birthday wish coming true. Gary was my anthropology professor at the University of Guam back in the 90's (Yeah I'm a late college bloomer. lol). It was so ironic with timing that he reached out to me by connecting with me on Linkedin. From there the collaborative communication exchange began and a few more emails later he sends me the data! How amazing is that?!
