Saturday, March 28, 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Finding FHL Resources

It's almost Saturday Night (SN) - and time for our weekly Genealogy Fun (GF)!

I spent most of the day at the San Diego Family History Center reading three microfilms that I ordered two weeks ago in my effort to solve my Devier J. Lamphear (1839?-1894) mystery - I want to know who his parents are.

On the drive home, I asked myself "what genealogy fun can we have tonight?" and the immediate answer was "why should I have all the fun? I'll help my earnest and dedicated readers advance their genealogy by delving into the LDS Family History Library Catalog (FHLC)." Does that sound like fun? Actually, it really doesn't, does it? But I promise you that if you pursue this tonight you will set the stage for Genea-gasms galore in the next months as you use the FHLC in your research.

In order to help those who have never used the FHLC before, I wrote the Using the LDS Family History Library Catalog post this afternoon. You can use that as a step-by-step procedure to get you to the county of your choice.

Here is the "assignment" for tonight's SNGF:

1. Identify one "elusive ancestor" family (perhaps one you just found, or one you've not found any information about), and the county/state that they resided in. Tell us the family name and the county/state.

2. Go to the FHL Catalog, find the resources for that county/state.

3. Identify at least three items from the FHL Catalog that you need to look into in an effort to further your knowledge about that family's history. Tell us about them.

4. Do you know where your nearest Family History Center is? If not, go here and look for it. Tell us where it is.

5. Are you willing to make a commitment to go to the FHC and rent microfilms in order to pursue that elusive ancestral family? If so, tell us about your commitment.

And later on, when you've reviewed the microfilms and information, you can tell us all about your research findings in a separate post.

I urge each of you to make regular visits to the Family History Library Catalog in your genealogy research, and to use the resources at the FHL/FHCs to further your research. The results may well be many genea-gasms ... hey, genea-gasms are really a lot of fun!!

5 comments:

Brenda said...

My brick wall, Randy!~ Here's hoping I can prove or disprove this fellow.

http://hte46.blogspot.com/2009/03/brendas-brick-wall-wolfgram.html

Thanks Randy, Brenda

Cousin Russ said...

Randy -- So far, No Fun. BUT I found this in my search:

The Seaver family : a genealogy of Robert Seaver of Roxbury, Massachusetts and some of his descendants

The connection is the "Russell" Surname, which is what I was looking for. This "hit" was not mine, but thought I would pass it along.

Thanks --- Russ

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

I guess I should have waited until my third or fourth cup of coffee to attempt this one. You can find mine here.

My question is whether I might have a better experience going to a FHC in a busy metro area or one in a rural village, but with fewer open hours?

Anonymous said...

I'm a bit slow....it is nearly Sunday night and I just got around to the challenge. I'm looking for the parents of Asa Cummings(abt 1795- 15 Dec 1866). Asa, my 3rd great grandfather, was in Augusta, Kennebec, Maine in 1840,1850 & 1860 but I haven't found any birth record. The FHL catalog shows microfilm for land and probabte records in Kennebec County AND promted me to remember that Kennebec County was formed from Lincoln County in 1799. I need to look in Lincoln County Records as well although the published Augusta V. R. to 1892 does have earlier records.
I'm headed to Maine in May, but I may get the films with indexes before I go.
Thanks for providing gentle pushes to me keep going on this puzzle.
Marnie

Michael Hait said...

I posted one of my most persistent brickwalls - George L. Obaugh/Orebaugh of Augusta Co., Virginia. Ironically, this is also the topic of last week's Genea-Bloggers' Weekly Blog Prompt (#12) that Thomas MacEntee sends out on the GB Facebook group.

http://tricksofthetree.space.live.com