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Archiver > GODFREY-LIBRARY-HELP > 2006-06 > 1149984547


From: "MScheffler" <>
Subject: Research options still remain
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 20:09:07 -0400
References: <2c2.8d038f2.31bc286e@aol.com> <448ABBA0.32763.34D33316@localhost>


Most people can get HQ via their local library. If not keep contacting
your local library or library system every few weeks, perhaps contact some
local politicians. People making policies need to know what their citizens
want. Polite advocacy may well get you access within a relatively short
period of time.

Next, one is not down to only two choices -- online access or travel.
What has happened to using the telephone and writing letters? These are low
tech and generally inexpensive options.

In fact it was rather interesting to write letters and caused most of
us to do more planning and thinking, when one needed to write that carefully
worded letter and send it off to the historical society or other
organization one was seeking help from. Then one kept checking the mail box
for the anticipated response. Often a quick phone call first gave a contact
name and the scope of the collection we could make the best use of the
services offered and ask if they needed photocopy charges, etc. in advance.
This is still a useful approach.

Online does not entirely take the place of on site and library research.
Everyone, should go to at least a few of the areas where their ancestors
lived if possible. Even taking a few short trips to look up information,
photograph some tombstones, gives one an entirely different perspective than
sitting all the time in front of a computer. Files of family
correspondence, local history material generic to the town, perhaps files of
pictures, abstracted state census records -- these are all things that you
will likely not see online.

Using a library in person helps develop a whole different set of
research skills. While some are disabled and can't get to the library, it
is not my opinion that it is the older researcher who has become disabled
that does the majority of the complaining. Most of the older researchers
have done it the hard way and are most appreciative for the help that is now
online.

There is so much.... current online information that many of us "older"
researchers did not have as many as 12 to 15 years ago -- the LDS database,
the WorldConnect database, this "almost free" Godfrey site, the GenWeb
sites and other county pages, the ability to get lookups from people who
have access to census on Ancestry or Heritage Quest, etc....

Online genealogy resources will continue to come and go, but generally
the universe is expanding rather than contracting. Sure we are disappointed
when our favorite sites go, but that should not keep us for looking for
something new.

Margaret Scheffler




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