Odds & Ends

The Library of Congress has a new photostream at Flickr to highlight some of the newspaper supplements in their Chronicling America collection. Chronicling America has digital images of newspaper pages from eleven states plus the District of Columbia for the years 1880-1910. They also have a directory which includes newspapers published from 1690 to the present.

Nicole Engard found a Today Show video about the importance of libraries in these tough economic times.

Europeana is in beta. There are 4 million items in the collection. It contains images, sounds, text, and video. A search for "genealogy" does return hits. Check it out.

I've been adding to this post all day so it's time to post it!

Saving Jefferson County, Indiana History

Many of you know that the Jefferson County, Indiana courthouse went up in flames last month. The local genealogical society is collecting signatures on a petition to get the attention of county leaders about the need to preserve the records that can be salvaged.

Adventures in Flying

I spent the latter part of the morning in the Springfield, Missouri airport doing some last minute visiting with conference friends who were also heading out before catching my late morning flight. As we were sitting in the terminal, we watched a bird flying around INSIDE the terminal. Alison tried to get a picture, but I'm not sure she ever succeeded in getting one that is recognizable. However, there were plenty of us there to witness it!

I discovered that one of my fellow librarians from the conference was actually my seat-mate on the first leg of my flight. The flight from Springfield to Memphis was uneventful; however, I did have a very tight connection. We landed about 12:30 in Memphis, and according to my boarding pass, my flight to Atlanta left at 12:50. I raced my way through one terminal and way down into the next to try to catch the flight before it left. I discovered that the departure time had been misprinted on my boarding pass at the Springfield airport, and that I actually had about 30 minutes until the plane departed. I decided that I had enough time to go back to Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue and grab a sandwich before boarding. By the time I got back to the gate, they were boarding so I ate the sandwich on the plane. Yes, it's as good as all the hype you get from the Food Network!

I witnessed something I'd never seen on a plane before on the flight from Memphis to Atlanta. A guy got the little phone/microphone from the flight attendant and asked everyone to direct their attention to the front of the cabin. This was highly irregular at that point in the flight so we assumed it was the pilot or co-pilot at first. Instead it was a guy who was proposing to his girlfriend of 5 years. He got down on his knees and asked her to marry him. We all applauded when she accepted. A plane is certainly not a very romantic setting, but perhaps they'd met on a Memphis to Atlanta flight or something. At the end of the flight, the flight attendant said that if anyone else wanted to propose that she was single and available. Most everyone laughed.

I had a much more comfortable connection in Atlanta. Our plane arrived all the way at the end of one terminal, and my next gate was two terminals away. I had plenty of time to get there. The Atlanta to Asheville leg was pretty uneventful. I was ready to go grab my bag and hit the road. As I waited for my bag to make its way onto the carousel, suddenly the attendant said, "That's it. That's all the bags." There were still about 6 of us awaiting luggage. We had to follow him to the check-in counters. The agent said that my bag was in Atlanta. She said that they would deliver it to my house. She verified my address and phone number and gave me claim information. I went on and took my carry-on and headed back across the mountain into Tennessee. I've been checking the bag status all night at the web site. I get a message that my bag has still not been located. That's kind of scary when I'd been told that it was in Atlanta. I just assumed that it would make it on the next flight to Asheville and that I'd get the bag later in the night or tomorrow. (I'd heard of people getting their luggage between 2 and 4 a.m. sometimes.) The web site, however, states that they don't make residential deliveries after 10 p.m. It also says that if the delivery service is UPS ground that no weekend deliveries are made. I certainly hope that my luggage makes it here before Monday or Tuesday! If I'd known all of this, I think I would have offered to stay in Asheville until the next flight arrived from Atlanta or had them send it to Tri-Cities or Knoxville if it could have made it to one of those in a timely fashion.

I guess I've been really lucky over the years. This is the first luggage incident that I've had. I've had lots of tight connections before, but this is the first delayed or lost bag I've ever had. I'm just thankful that I'm home now where I do have other clothes I can wear. I'm praying that my luggage will arrive tomorrow! I'd even drive back to Asheville to pick it up! (Of course, they are planning to deliver it. I just don't want to wait until next week because it interferes with other plans.)

UPDATE: I just checked after I posted this. My luggage is now in Asheville!

FamilyTreeDNA Special

I recently assumed duties as administrator of the Thornton DNA project. Today I received a notice that between June 9 and June 24 that FamilyTreeDNA will be offering a special pricing for new participants to the project. For only $119, persons will receive the 37 marker Y-DNA test AND the mtDNA testing! That's less than half price! If you've been thinking about joining one of the surname projects, now is the time to join!

5 Year Blogiversary

Would you believe that this blog is 5 years old today? I actually created the first post in a workshop on blogging at the Association of Christian Librarians' annual conference. It is appropriate that this year's ACL conference begins this evening. I eventually decided to broaden the scope of my blog a bit, but genealogy has always been a big part of the blog.

I'm not really up at 3:01 a.m. (At least I hope I'm not.) I made this a scheduled post so that I wouldn't forget to mark this blogiversary which I'm very likely to have done since I'll be in Springfield, Missouri at the time it is posted.

P.S. "Blogiversary" is the correct spelling. Several have been spelling the term differently lately, but the official spelling is parallel to the word anniversary.

Laundry & Packing

That's what has to be done the day before a trip. It's almost time for the Association of Christian Librarians annual conference. I will be flying to Springfield, Missouri tomorrow. If my friend is tied up with a meeting on Monday, I may have some time to kill. I decided to glance at the few Missouri branches I have and then to check the Springfield-Greene County Library to see if they had anything that would match my needs. I estimate that I could peruse the relevant resources in less than 30 minutes there. My branches were too far north to match the genealogical collection scope.

My great-great grandfather lived in Johnson County Missouri for about 3 years in the 1880s. There was nothing in their collection that was late enough to even make it worth searching for him or for the brother of my great grandfather who would have also been there with his father.

The other potential line was in Saline County. It's not my direct line, but DNA has shown that this group is related to my ancestors. There were a couple of books of records -- one of deeds and one of marriages -- that showed potential. They had a history of the county that had biographies, but that work is available on Internet Archive. There is one page of relevance specifically to the family besides the general county history which is also useful. However, there is no need to use that work in the library since I have access from the comfort of home!

I'm not really sure it is worth the trip to the library because the sources available there will be available elsewhere that would have a larger collection for Saline County. I'll probably just go explore a cemetery for a genealogy fix if my friend is tied up in a meeting.

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens

Amy Kime Arner posted a link on Facebook today to an Associated Press article about the slave cabins on Magnolia Plantation. That reminded me of my visit to that plantation about four years ago. When I discovered that I had not placed pictures of my visit online, I decided that it was time to place a few on the blog.

Above: This is one of the slave cabins. I would love to see the restoration that they mentioned. Perhaps I'll be able to do that when NGS visits Charleston in 2011 if I don't make it there before then. More information is available on the Slave Cabin Restoration Project.
This is the plantation house. It was built before the Revolutionary War, according to the Web site. I don't recall how many prior houses the tour guides told us there had been, and I did not see that information on the Web site.
This was a swampy area that I seem to remember being near the slave cabins. It was beautiful. There were alligators sunning themselves on specially placed boards in the midst of these swampy spots.
This is along the Ashley River which borders the property. It's one of my favorite photos from the trip.
Since Magnolia Plantations has absolutely gorgeous gardens, I would be remiss not including a photo of some of the beautiful plants. I chose these lovely blooms.

What $550 Bought in 1828

I'm in the midst of analyzing a lot of records for a report. I came across an interesting chattel deed from 1828. Here's a list of what $550 could buy in 1828 in northeast Mississippi:

• negro boy Harry (age 24)
• one sorrell horse
• one clock
• two feather beds and furniture
• 8 head of cattle
• 30 head of hogs
• one woman’s saddle
• one man’s saddle
• 8 chairs
• 2 pots
• 2 ovens
• one skillet
• 3 pails
• one washing tub
• 3 tin pans
• 2 tin buckets
• 12 plates
• one desk
• one set of tea cups and saucers
• 2 glass pitchers
• one trunk
• one band box
• one sugar box
• one looking glass
• one set of knives and forks
• one loom
• 3 bedsteads
• one table
• one spinning wheel
• one pair cotton cards
• 2 bottles

Southern Capitals

For your reading pleasure, hop on over to Southern Byways and read about the world capitals in the south. I must confess that I have no idea why any place would pride itself in being the fruitcake capital of the world, and apparently there are two which claim this title.

Musings Monday

from Boston Bibliophile: How much time (or how many pages) do you give a book that you aren't really enjoying before you'll set it aside? If you're reading it for a book group discussion, or for review, will you give it more of a chance then, say, a book you're reading for your own interest? Why, or why not?


It's been awhile since I've participated in one of the book memes. That's partly because I've been so busy with other things that I've had less time to read. In fact, I've sometimes been way behind on blog reading and have just skimmed blogs when I've had a chance to do so. Many times it would be much later in the week before I got to a meme such as "Musings Monday" which was intended for a certain day. This one caught my attention, and I'm seeing it on Monday morning, so I'm going to attempt to answer it.

I will always try to read at least 50 pages, but I'm really far more generous and usually "grin and bear it" for over 100 pages before completely setting a book aside. If I'm supposed to write a review, I will often attempt to "skim" or "speed read" the rest of the book to the best of my ability so that I can fulfill my duties.

Learning From Our Mistakes

This week's genealogy blogging prompt is "Lessons Learned. Fess up to your research mistakes so others may learn from them."

1. Order pension files for all the brothers in a family, not just one. You never know which one of them may lead you to the clues that you so desperately need to make that big breakthrough. I made the mistake of ordering only the file for my direct line ancestor. The 200 page file provided a wealth of information, but I finally got around to ordering the files of the widow and mother of his brothers. One of them answered a question that had gone unanswered for years.
2. Research the neighbors and associates. If I'd done this when I first began researching years ago, I wouldn't have to revisit some of my research quite so often. Once I discovered that most of the neighbors of one of my ancestors were also his neighbors in a previous location, I realized the importance of this.
3. Use a good genealogy software program. The first one I used was a shareware or freeware program that was completely inadequate. It had places for Birth, Christening, Marriage, Death, and LDS ordinances (which was not really of importance to me), but it only had 10 lines of notes. The notes had to be used for notes and for citation. I'm still fixing problems in my current database from this first software program I used.
4. Organize your research in a meaningful way. I made the mistake filing most research in surname folders for years. I would just "stuff" materials into these folders. For the big surnames on which I was working, I would have 5 or 6 very thick folders to go through when I was looking for a specific piece of information. Things didn't often fit well, because some documents might fit multiple families, and I would just file it in one of the surname folders. My main filing system is now location-based. I put the copies of deeds, wills, etc. in the a folder that begins with a state abbreviation, then county, then document type in the order in which they would appear in the county records. This new system works well for me. The records are already cited in my database, so they are easy to locate when I need them again, no matter which name on that page I'm seeking.
5. Don't rely too much on your genealogy software. Write up your research in a narrative form with footnotes. It helps you see where the holes are in your research. I could go into far greater depth on this one, but I'll leave it at this simple word of caution.

Special Guests at Church

We had some special visitors at church today. They came all the way from New Zealand. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd never seen a wallaby in church before today. We had not one, but two baby wallabies on hand to drum up support for our Vacation Bible School that begins one week from tomorrow. This year's VBS has an Australian theme, so we just had to pretend the wallabies came from Australia instead of New Zealand. They actually spent most of their time in children's church, but they came and made an appearance at the end of the worship service. They were cute. You could tell that each one had a different personality too. One of them was looking at everything. The other was more introverted. I mentioned it to a friend of mine who thought that someone should write a song along the lines of "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" about the wallabies. I'm not in my creative mode this evening, so I'll leave that for someone else to write.

Record Loss: Is Your County Prepared?

We lost another courthouse this week . . . Jefferson County, Indiana. This was a county that had previously suffered no major record losses. According to news reports, fire broke out about 6 p.m. Wednesday. The facade of the building was spared, but preliminary reports indicate that there was major record loss due to the fire, smoke, and water damage. (One genealogist on Facebook observed that the county officials seemed more elated that the courthouse could be rebuilt with existing facade than they were troubled by the loss of records.) They expect to discover that most vital records and deeds were lost. When I heard about this tragic situation via Facebook, one of my first reactions was to see what sort of records would be available for the county via the Family History Library and Family History Centers. As I began to search, I noted that only deeds through 1891 had been microfilmed. Marriage records were among those which had been microfilmed, but even then they were filmed only through 1923. One of the articles mentioned death certificates. I saw no microfilming of records in this category. Records of adoptions and divorces are also mentioned as being probable losses in another article. When one clicks on court records in the Family History Catalog for Jefferson County, Indiana, there are only two entries which span 1811-1819 -- less than a decade. Probate records have been microfilmed through 1940. These were not mentioned in the articles as possible losses. I don't know if these were in the courthouse or if there might have been an annex. Tax records for only one year (1827) are available on microfilm. Birth records for 1882-1907 and for 1941-1970 have been filmed.

A quick search of the Indiana State Library reveals that few abstracts exist, and these are fall in categories that have been filmed. I saw very few county records described on the state archives site. I was unable to locate a Web site for the county government to determine if digital records were accessible online. I can only conclude that the record loss, particularly for future historians and genealogists, is very tragic because this county was not prepared for such a devastating loss. Even on the state archives site, there was a link to a microfilming service which could have been utilized by the county. I know that we live in tough economic times, but preserving the records of the past should be a high priority. Routine preservation of records, whether digital or by microfilm, with off-site storage of a complete set is something that should be done by all record keepers. We need to ask our county officials what they are doing to minimize record loss should such a tragedy strike our county. We need to encourage them to partner with state libraries or others who provide microfilm and digitization services to make sure that records will be available in the future if a disaster occurs.

Busy Week

I, like many others who attended the NGS Conference in Raleigh, have been playing catch-up this week. I was unable to keep up with e-mail, blog reading, and many other things, and it took a few days to catch up on the backlog. I also followed up on a few new items on my agenda after the Raleigh conference. You'll probably be hearing the results of one of those after a few more details are ironed out. My main focus this week has been to get my presentations for a conference that begins June 8 in order and to write an article to accompany one of those. I was able to get the article written and have gone through and edited it a couple of times. The PowerPoint for the one presentation is done. The second presentation will be more use of a live Internet connection than PowerPoint, although I do plan to do quite a few screen captures just in case the connection goes down. I'm feeling much better about those presentations. I also got a book review written that needed to be done for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I'm presently trying to get the one done for the LibraryThing Member Giveaway because I have two books on the way from Tennessee Library Association to review for their publication Tennessee Libraries. One of the deadlines is in July; the other is in September on those. Both titles will be nice additions to my personal library for historical research. The other thing I hope to accomplish today and tomorrow is to make some progress on a couple of genealogical reports that need to be written. I need to write one which will eventually become an article so that I can spot any holes in the research. The other needs to be written before I make another on-site visit to obtain more records. I have that visit scheduled for the last part of June. Writing it up will help me spot any records that I may be missing from the first visit before moving on to the next county to obtain more records.

NGS Reflections: Part III - Friday and Saturday

Friday was the day in which I had the most free time. I began the day monitoring Craig Scott's "Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestor" session at 8 a.m. Craig is a perfect 8 a.m. choice because he is so entertaining! I'm not sure how I got so lucky to be assigned that session, but I'm glad that I had something to keep me awake! I made a quick trip into the exhibit area during the next time slot, although I just "looked" at that time slot. I did find a couple of products that were somewhat interesting. I may do the 30 day trial of one of those soon to see if it will match the needs of a project that I may undertake with the assistance of another genealogist. If I do try it, I'm sure I'll blog about it later. After that, I went to Mark Lowe's "Kentucky: Records of the Bluegrass State." I really don't have a lot of Kentucky ancestry, but I do have a line from Wayne County. I actually made three notes to myself of records that I thought might have something I had not yet discovered on the two families in that area with very common surnames. I went to Sam and Wally's for lunch. I spent the afternoon in the exhibit hall. I ended up buying only a few things, but the things I did get were things that were really worthwhile purchases. I went with some friends over to the Marriott to change, and we came back for the NGS Banquet. I know that one of the bloggers has already mentioned that J. Mark Lowe's "Lessons Learned from a Carolina Traveler" was a tribute to Helen Leary. Let's just say that you all don't know what all went into trying to hide Helen's sons from her in that banquet room until the right moment in Mark's talk. There were a few moments that we had to get creative to make sure she didn't see them. Helen was very surprised to find herself the subject of Mark's talk and was even more surprised to see her sons.

Saturday was another busy day. I began by monitoring Mark Lowe's "Circuit Riders and the Early Methodist Church." I got a couple of ideas about places to look for additional information on Ashley Aldridge during this session. He wasn't really a circuit rider, but he was a leader in the local church who is sometimes called a "minister." Mark covered that aspect as well as the more prolific records of those who were ordained. I worked the APG booth after I got out of that session until about 10:30 when I needed to leave to get ready to monitor my next session. I had another one of those serendipitous moments during this time. Many of you know that I've had my brother's DNA tested on the Thornton line. We matched with what is called the "South Carolina Thornton group." Most of us are brickwalled in the Carolinas, and none of us can find our common ancestor. We have a few clues. There is one participant who had identified an individual he believed to be the common ancestor. There are a couple of "jumps" in his research so that I'm not completely comfortable with his conclusions. While I was working at the APG booth, a professional genealogist who had been hired by an individual descended from one of the other lines which matched us on DNA came up. We spent most of the time chatting about our Thornton research, the research that had been done by others, the Thornton DNA project and the problems with that project since the loss of the online trees after changing project administrators, and a few other related things. We began to talk about directions that needed to be taken in the research. I'm delighted to have made this connection, and the two of us believe that two heads will be better than one. One interesting thing she said to me was that this is the worst line she's ever researched. (Of course, I'm thinking, "Tell me something I don't already know.") I am excited about this serendipitous moment and hope that through collaboration we'll be able to break through some of the brick walls. I monitored "Overlooked Military Records in the National Archives" at 11 a.m. The presenter was Marie Melchiori, and this was in the BCG Skillbuilding track. I spent lunch time eating and talking with other genealogists in the back of the exhibit hall. We had a nice visit. At 2:30, I was the monitor for Julie Miller's "Make the Census Work for You!" It was also on the BCG Skillbuilding track. At 4:00 I introduced Monica Hopkins who spoke on "Finding Your Way Around the Georgia Archives." Several of us went to the Oakwood Cafe, which is a wonderful Cuban and Argentinian restaurant, after the conference was over. We had a nice visit.

This year's conference was a memorable one. Many people came up to us and said that this was one of the smoothest conferences they'd ever attended. The local arrangements committee of NCGS under the leadership of Ann Hilke is responsible for much of that. They did a super job in planning this conference and pulling it off. I'm really sad this conference is over. I look forward to returning to Raleigh for future conferences!

NGS Reflections: Part II - Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday morning I had to be at the convention center by 7:00 a.m. so we could begin registering folks who were just arriving before the 8:00 opening session. When I arrived at 6:45, the NGS folks were already doing on-site registration, so I grabbed our boxes of pre-registrations and got into action. I worked registration until about 9:45 a.m. when I had to go to monitor training. I was room monitor for Thomas W. Jones' presentation "Solutions for Missing or Scarce Records" at 11:00 a.m. After that, I attended the NCGS Luncheon where Helen Leary spoke on "Using Peculiar Records to Find the Rest of the Story." After that I monitored Jeff Haines' 2:30 p.m. session on "North Carolina Tax Records." I went back to the registration desk to help pack up things after this. Wednesday was society night. I helped at the NCGS table part of the time, but I did have time to visit some of the tables. I'm particularly excited about the free issues I picked up from Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society. I'm working on a project with another genealogist that involves someone who resided in Davidson County. I am really not quite ready to get into the Davidson County research on the person because I've got a few records to acquire in a couple of other counties first. However, there was a published tax list in one of the journals that listed this person. I shared the "find" with the other genealogist. We were both excited that a freebie could be so helpful to our research. After this several of us went to The Pit, a downtown barbecue restaurant, to eat. It was quite good.

Thursday I monitored "Collaboration and Cooperation: The Family History Archive--A Digital Partnership FHL/BYU/ACPL/HPL/MCPL" which was presented by Susan D. Kaufman of Houston Public Library and Michael J. Hall of the project. I'll be quite honest. This is not a session I would have attended had I not been monitoring. I think that God puts us in situations for reasons sometimes. This was basically a session about the Family History Archive digital books project. I had already used it extensively, but as I was sitting there listening to them, an idea came to me. We use the netLibrary e-books collection in our library, and we're able to purchase MARC records for them to dump into our online catalog. I decided to go up after the session and ask Susan (the librarian) whether they had MARC records available through Marcive or another vendor. She admitted that they had not even considered that, but that it was really a very good idea. I'm hoping that they will be able to follow up on that idea and make those available to increase access. The types of books they are digitizing would be wonderful for many academic libraries to include. Did I learn a lot from the session? Probably not. However, I think I was put there to ask that question. I was having trouble determining whether or not to attend Craig Scott's "Quaker Migration Into North Carolina and Out Again" or Helen Leary's "Genealogical Standards: Obsolete Model T or Space-Age Air Car?" at 9:30 a.m. After reviewing the syllabi for the two, I discovered that Craig's session did not appear to be covering the one group of Quaker immigrants in which I was interested--the ones who went to Nova Scotia and who were loyalists. I found a friend who was going to that session to "spy" for me and get back with me on that, and I went to Helen's which was also closer to the session I would be monitoring at 11 a.m. We don't get to Helen at the conferences much any more, and she's such a fountain of knowledge. I'm really glad I went to that one. At 11 a.m., I monitored Jeff Haines' "South Carolina Research." I'd actually heard Jeff do that one before, but I still picked up some new stuff because I'm more involved in South Carolina research now than I was when I heard him do it in Richmond. After that was the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History Luncheon. Jeff Haines spoke on "Merchants, Planters, and Pirates: British in the West Indies." It was a very interesting luncheon talk! I worked the hospitality desk from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and then I went over to the North Carolina Museum of History where we got ready ready for those who had signed up for the dessert reception, tours, and talks there. People were also able to go take a tour of the Archives across the street. I was on the sign-in desk for the first half, and then I went to the auditorium and distributed the syllabus for Jeff Haines' talk "People Finders of North Carolina." Everyone seemed to really enjoy the event.

NGS Reflections: Part I - Before the Conference Began

I really didn't have a great deal of time last week to blog the conference. I'm really glad that a few others were able to find a bit more time to do that for the benefit of those of you who could not attend.

I traveled to Raleigh on the Saturday before the conference. I'm a member of North Carolina Genealogical Society, the local host society, and had volunteered to help at the conference. My work began on Monday morning with the stuffing of the conference tote bags. I think the original plan was to have us constantly circling the table filling new bags, but most of us realized that the only efficient way to do it was to form assembly lines so that is what we did. The biggest problem we encountered is that some of the stuff was late in arriving so we'd have to pause, go back and put the newly arrived materials in the totes, and then resume the process with the new item from time to time. We had finished this process by about 2 p.m. even with a lunch break at Sam and Wally's across the street. While we were at Sam and Wally's, we talked the owner into opening at 7 a.m. beginning on Wednesday rather than his usual 7:30 a.m., and we also talked him into being open on Saturday if business was good the rest of the week. When we checked with him later in the week, we discovered that he was very pleased with his business that week. NGS was his best event ever! Several of us went out of the way to give him business because of his willingness to work with us to give conference attendees some breakfast options that were not available otherwise. His lunch prices were very reasonable. I had a slice of pizza and a soft drink for $4 one day.

On Tuesday, I arrived around 9 a.m. to help with registration set-up. We had registrar training around 10:30 a.m. although we had all received our instructions ahead of time. I was scheduled to work registration from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. so I went to lunch a bit early. When I got back, I went over to sit with some of my NCGS friends at a table we'd placed near registration for those of us who weren't working at the time but were nearby to help if needed. Most of them needed to "do lunch." They were going to bring back something for Helen Leary and left her with me for an hour or so. Before they left, one of my friends who knew some of the challenges of one of my lines suggested that I pick Helen's brains on the problem. I didn't do it immediately but I eventually found myself telling her about the problem. She asked a few questions. She helped me come up with a few ideas for further research based on what I told her. She began telling about some of her research. She mentioned something which reminded me of another line that I had not tried to work on since I was a newbie genealogist. I decided to tell her about that line and the challenges faced by an orphan who gave us few clues about his origin other than the traditions that certain children were named after his parents and a birth location mentioned on a syllabus. It turns out that she had researched that particular surname before and was able to make some suggestions on more specific counties in which I should begin to look when I get a chance to get back to that line. She told me that there were poor cousins who lived nearby the rich ones. I will have to say that this hour of "picking Helen's brain" was probably one of my favorite hours of the conference week. I thanked my friends for leaving me with Helen that hour. After they returned with her sandwich, all of us continued to talk until I had to go work registration. We even talked about her study of the Hemings-Jefferson question. I am so glad that I had re-read her article last month in preparation for a presentation I'd done for a society.

Even before the conference began, I was already having some of those serendipitous moments that always seem to happen at a national conference that help break through a brick wall or confirm some of your research.

Saturday Night Fun on Sunday

I apologize for not getting to this last night, but I'm way behind on blogs and blog reading. Randy Seaver at GeneaMusings always posts a "Saturday Night Fun" question to which those blogging genealogy are encouraged to reply. Last night's question was:

“What event or person inspired you to start your genealogy research?”

I'm not going to answer this immediately because I want to just say that it is kind of ironic because just earlier in the day, I was sitting around with several APG friends. We were all discussing this very question, and it was interesting to hear how each of these persons had gotten their start. Mine was probably one of the least interesting things.

My mother had always wanted to know more about her Harris family. She and my grandmother had made a few attempts, but just didn't really know what they were trying to find or really where to start, especially when they went to Pulaski, Tennessee, the county seat for Giles County and encountered one of the big problems in Southern research -- courthouse fire with loss of records.

Now, I've always loved history, and I really don't know why I didn't know about this option back in high school or I probably would have gone this route. I didn't know what I could do with a degree in history other than teach the same content over and over year after year, and frankly, that idea didn't appeal to me. I've always loved detective shows on television and books that involve sleuths so the sleuthing aspects of genealogy were also appealing. It's really a shame that I didn't know more about genealogy earlier in my life.

In the mid 1990s I was living in Cincinnati which had one of the best genealogical libraries in the country. I decided that I would try to find out about Mom's family for her. I made a few discoveries on this line, but it was really a line that needed to be put off until I had more experience researching. I made the typical mistakes of newbies -- trying to work on too many lines at once. I soon learned to focus on the lines on which I was making progress.

Let's just say that I became addicted to genealogical research and began attending conferences where I heard some great speakers who gave me some great advice and tips! So that's my genealogical journey. I'll try to post some reflections about the NGS conference in the next few days.

Monday Report from NGS

We are beginning to see researchers arriving in Raleigh for NGS. I understand that the state library and archives were at half-capacity by 9:30 or so this morning. They've got a system in place to try to make sure everyone gets a turn who wishes to research.

I spent the morning and early afternoon stuffing the conference bags. We finished sometime around 2 p.m. after taking a lunch break. It's been great seeing some of my North Carolina genealogy friends as we've been working alongside each other -- and making a few new ones as well!

I did make a stop this morning by the Cafe Carolina for their wonderful sweet potato biscuits with ham and cheddar. YUM! I've been trying to replicate the recipe at home so I'm officially calling this "research." I told some of my friends that I was getting closer to the recipe and thought I knew what was lacking but I need to have the real deal a few more times to make sure I get the recipe correct! Needless to say, I've been getting a lot of teasing over my obsession with those biscuits!

We "did lunch" over at Sam and Wally's which is diagonally across from the convention center near the Sheraton. Arrangements were made with them to open for breakfast at 7 a.m. instead of their usual 7:30 a.m. so we hope they do a good business during conference. Some of the hotels don't offer breakfast so this is a good option! They are usually closed on Saturdays but may open for us.

There are several dining options on Fayetteville Street which is one street over from Salisbury (where the convention center is). Cafe Carolina is on the capital side of the Wachovia Center on that street. Port City Java is a pretty good lunch option. I've eaten there when I've been in Raleigh researching at the archives, particularly when they close during lunch on Saturdays. There's another sandwich shop called Crema. There is a New Orleans style restaurant over there that I would like to try sometime. I'm sure I've just barely scratched the surface of restaurants on Fayetteville Street or in proximity to the convention center.

I'll be busy tomorrow and hope to see some of you at the convention center!

Sunday in Raleigh

This morning when I attended church, I had a very pleasant surprise in store for me. The pastor actually used a genealogical example near the beginning of his sermon. He talked about an "uncle" the family did not know about until 1989. (I think he was actually a great-great uncle.) The uncle had moved away from the family at an early age, ended up across the country in California, and taken the name of his adoptive family. He actually remembered some of the family and wondered about them from time to time. He was able to reach some of them, and they set up a reunion. The family resemblance was there when they got together, and people who studied his facial features knew he was who he claimed to be. The pastor related this to the story of Joseph and his brothers and the reunion which took place in Egypt years after the brothers had sold Joseph into slavery. It had been so long since they had seen each other that they must have studied Joseph's face to make sure he was really who he claimed to be. I thought it was a great warm-up for this week's National Genealogical Society Conference. Maybe I should be studying faces at NGS to see if I can find a long-lost cousin or uncle!

Tomorrow (Monday) I'll be stuffing tote bags, and Tuesday afternoon I'll be working the late afternoon registration slot. I hope to meet many of you at NGS this week.