Sunday morning meanderings

After my days-long research to put the story of Mickey together, I took a break. I now want to write about a few miscellaneous things:

From the seminar I attended a week ago, here are websites one doesn't normally check out. I have had very little time to try many of them myself.  Of course, coming into the holidays doesn't make it easy for anyone. First, don't forget to consider researching other topics rather than just surnames: geographic location, ethnicity, religious belief and occupation. Visit the website of the local city or county public library of the area you are researching. Visit the state library of the state you are researching (city directories, if available, can be a huge resource). Then head to the state archives in that state. Check out the many state, county, and city/town historical societies in your area of interest.Then, visit the USGenWeb site (including the archives area) for the county and possibly the city/town (www.USGENWeb.org)

Try the following: worldcat.org; NUCMC (loc.gov/coll/nucmc); linkpendium.com; NARA (archives.gov); and even the National Park Service (NPS) for history and culture (nps.gov/history/history/). Here is the link to the Library of Contress and other Federal Government Documents: 
www.lcweb.loc.gov/rr/news/extgovd.html

There were many more mentioned, but this will get you started, and if you are like me - they will lead you to other sites.

Next, in tracking down another story in the family, I was trying to find out the names of the families that lived around my Beckington grandparents in rural Saline, Michigan. Unfortunately, they didn't move there until after 1930. As we all know, the 1940 census will be out next April, so I have to wait for that. The next logical step would be city directories. Unfortunately, these are not always available for smaller towns. I checked with the Saline Library and the local Family History Center in Saline. I am interested in 1935-45. The Ann Arbor Library has city directories and the librarian I talked to was gracious enough to check a 1941 directory and found it did contain Saline residents. I need to get someone to visit the Ann Arbor Library to see if the directories they do have include Saline, and if the information I need is there. If they don't have it, I will next call the Michigan State Archives in Lansing. I will keep you posted.

There always seems to be a "mystery" to solve!