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Saturday, November 4, 2006

Research trip to Carlsbad library today

Our CVGS plans a research trip every two or three months to a library with a genealogy collection, including San Diego Public Library in downtown SD, San Diego Gen Society in El Cajon, the Family History Center in Mission Valley, or Carlsbad Public in Carlsbad, about 45 miles north of Chula Vista.

Of the libraries we visit, Carlsbad offers the largest selection of genealogy books and periodicals in the County, has the University Microfilm International microfiche collection (about 20,000 surname and locality books), and offers Ancestry, HeritageQuestOnline and NewEnglandAncestors databases in the library. It has been my favorite genealogy library for years, and I have a library card so that I can access HQO at home.

Six members of our society visited Carlsbad today, each seeking genealogy data to fill out their pedigree chart or to add detail to ancestral biographies. I find that Carlsbad is the best place to get up-to-date with the periodicals that I don't subscribe to and to find periodicals dealing with my ancestral home towns.

I helped one of new members today find more information on her ancestry. She has some data from family records, and we had found some census data for her families back in August when we visited the FHC. Today, we found more census data and started working in the Rootsweb WorldConnect and LDS FamilySearch databases, and extended several of her lines a few generations. There are still many unknowns, especially in the immigrant families in the 1800's - we couldn't find several of them in the 1850 to 1880 census records - they are hiding well!

Talking to her about the whole research process is revealing - she is overwhelmed by the quantity of information available, and all of the different resources, and the time it takes to obtain information. However, she is eager to keep the discovery process going and working to document her family history. She is going to tackle FamilyTreeMaker soon, I think, so she can get all of her data organized.

Needless to say, I enjoy the search - whether it is my own or living vicariously through the families of others.

I came home to my grandsons wide awake when they should have been napping. We got dinner down them, got their jammies on and they were both down by 7 PM. This is our first overnighter with them, so we anticipate several get-ups tonight. They are a lot of work, but they are so darn cute and fun. Yawn.

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