Today's Research

Today I used Google books and found a couple of resources that were extremely useful to me on my Rathbun/Rathbone ancestors who lived on Block Island (which appears to be threatened by Hurricane Kyle at the present moment). I found a published listing of those buried on the island. I also found a transcription of a Bible record for the family. The Bible originally belonged to my 6th great grand uncle. It was passed down through several generations before being published in the Register. I did notice something I didn't expect. A search by surname on the Register at the New England Ancestors web site did not produce a hit on this Bible. I was fortunate to locate the entry in the April 1913 issue through Google books. I think the moral of the story is that indexes are not always complete. If you have an opportunity to check another index or do a full text search, do so. You might come up with a "hit" that you would have otherwise missed.