Preparing for the Research Trip

Several CVGS colleagues and I are going to the Carlsbad (CA) Cole Library on Saturday to do research in their excellent genealogy resources. Most of us carpool because it is a 42 mile trip each way, although some folks drive themselves and meet us there.

This library is the best genealogy library in San Diego County. The entire second floor is genealogy. One side is surname and locality books and periodicals. The other side has microfilms and microfiches - with readers and printers. There are also a number of computers with access to Ancestry Library Edition, HeritageQuestOnline and New England Ancestors, in addition to the Internet.

The Carlsbad library catalog is online at http://cbcl.sirsi.net/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/49/. It's a good idea to search the catalog and make a search list at home. When you are at the library, they have computers with the catalog on it.

You can sign up for a Carlsbad library card at the front desk for free. That will permit home online access to HeritageQuestOnline and other databases (but not Ancestry or New England Ancestors). Many of us have these cards - you have to renew them every so often, so I take my card, check out a book at lunchtime, and turn it back in right away just to ensure my card works at home.

To prepare for this trip, I searched the last two years of TAG, NEHGR, NGSQ and New England Ancestors to see what new books of interest to me were listed and reviewed. I typed them into my "Genealogy Books to Review" form and printed them off to look up in the catalog and read if they are in the collection.