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Archiver > GODFREY-LIBRARY-HELP > 2006-06 > 1150110371


From: "Dale and Beth" <>
Subject: Re: [Godfrey Lib-H] Research options still remain
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 06:06:11 -0500
References: <2c2.8d038f2.31bc286e@aol.com> <448ABBA0.32763.34D33316@localhost> <008401c68ceb$42038d10$6601a8c0@m1070n> <002101c68cfd$904c6ca0$6402a8c0@pcclub>


I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've been doing research for many years
also and remember the days. I like the convenience of being able to sit at
the computer in my pajamas at 2 AM and do research, but in no way can that
compare to holding a book in my hand that has that minute piece of
information; or actually touching items in a courthouse that at some point
in time were also touched by an ancestor. Standing at the grave of an
ancestor is not the same as getting the picture off the internet. You
cannot compare. I value those "vacations" we take to sit in a courthouse or
dodge snakes in an old cemetery. Or wandering through the house that was
built in the 1700's by an ancestor. Yes, being able to research at 2 AM
gets me information but it can't give me that feeling of accomplishment or
that connection that the Experiences give me.
We live in this "instant gratification" society and that will not change.
But I don't think I will change either. I'll gather information online and
then I'll travel there to get the info that's not available through the
internet.


> Oh for the excitement of the good old days. I work in a University
> setting where the students cannot even imagine not having "instantaneous
> gratification". When I started doing research nearly 50 years ago, the
> excitement of the mailman delivering a letter with possible information
> that we could share with everyone was worth enough excitement to keep us
> writing more letters.
> My husband and I have taken our vacations to courthouses, libraries and
> small town libraries that had a world of information that the larger
> libraries did not have. We've had librarians take pictures of tombstones
> they knew of and sent to us months after our trip to their town.We met
> people in courthouses who called local historians to come to meet us or
> put us on the phone to find people we needed to meet. We taped hour of
> stories that were told to us in the south and heard about old ancestors as
> well as being fed by families who begged us to stay over a weekend so we
> can show you some of the family cemeteries. We've jumped into jeeps in
> Alabama where a shirt tail relative told us he had been waiting for us to
> return so he could show us the cemetery that had been restored that had
> been overgrown several years earlier. The feeling of standing in that
> thicket of trees looking at the graveyard of our earliest ancestors
> buried in the late 1700s that 3 men had cleared out in their free time so
> that when we returned we could see it was impossible to describe.
> How can we tell the younger generation of the emotions that overcame us
> at such a gesture? Being the family genealogist for our "Family" clan,
> any and all of them, I have had phone calls within 15 minutes of a death
> and always get the newest grandchild's name. And we still have a missing
> link to the other 2 braches of the family.I have even been called by the
> police in Arizona late one night regarding lost property of a woman who
> had been the ex-wife of a family member. I'd been referrred to them by
> Texas people that said that if they really wanted to know just call us in
> a 3rd state. I had it for them in 3 minutes.
> All the fun the younger generation has missed by their need for
> "Instant gratification". You'll never get the stories of the family
> bootlegger who paid off the sheriff out of a book. You'll always laugh at
> some story you shared for years and the "friends" who were such a part of
> it become your e-mail buddies. Some of you end up realizing you are
> actually a cousin.
> I wouldn't trade those good old researching days in the courthouse for
> any of the data bases there are. we went in early in the morning in clean
> clothes and left dirty but estatic with our finds at the end of the day.
> Helene
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "MScheffler" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 6:09 PM
> Subject: [Godfrey Lib-H] Research options still remain
>
>
>> 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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>>
>
>
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