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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Where did the time go?

We had 14 CVGS members on a research trip to the Carlsbad (CA) library today - and a lot of research was done. We got there around 9:30 a.m. and my car pool left at 2 p.m. Where did the time go? I was busy for all but the 10 minutes I took my bag outside and ate my grapes, pudding and cookies at noontime.

When we first arrived, I got out my "to-do list" of newish books gleaned from past issues of NGSQ and NEHGR. These were mainly New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania books. I used the Carlsbad library catalog to obtain call numbers or note if it wasn't available. Then I went hunting for the books and had some success reviewing and copying pages from:

1) Gordon L. Remington, New York State Probate Records: A Genealogist's Guide to Testate and Intestate Records, NEHGS, Boston, 2002.

What a fantastic book - it describes the probate process in New York - from New Netherland to the English period to American statehood, with a description of the different courts, the available records, and where to find them. In the New York State portion, the book devotes two pages to each county listing County details; the Surrogate's Court address, phone and hours; Court records on microfilm at the Family History Library; published County Probate indexes and records; and a list of probate records published in periodicals.

I wish every state had a publication like this!!!

2) David M. Riker, Genealogical and Biographical Directory to Persons in New Netherland, from 1613 to 1674, 4 Volumes, 1999.

This tremendous work on New Netherland "first families" is great - the first volume lists the history and boundaries of New Netherland 1613-1674, then the people, the Dutch names and genealogy, source materials, and an explanation of the data pages. The rest of the pages in the four volumes are pages for an individual who was the "first comer" to New Netherland. Each page lists the name, ethnicity, birthplace, arrival date, settlement, marriages, children, and references for the individual.

I gathered copies of the pages for a number of my Dutch ancestors in Albany and along the Hudson River. This is a "must have" just for the finding aids listed on each person's page!

3) Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P, NEHGS, Boston, 2007.

This is the latest volume in the series, and treats people with surnames M to P. I had only four New England ancestors with sketches in this book - Samuel Morse, Adam Mott, John Mousall and Edmund Munnings.

This compendium, and the previous volumes covering 1620-1633, are the definitive works for early New England immigrants. I use the sketches as finding aids - Anderson and his colleagues have found more resources than I ever could, so I use their work to find the documents to support the genealogy and family history of these ancestors of mine.

4) Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants Notable in American History, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 2006.

This is Roberts' latest work, and he has added a significant number of descendants from royals, and the royals include all of the countries of Europe now, not just western Europe. When the line extends to a President, President's wife or celebrity, it is presented down to them. One problem, for me, is that the lines from the American colonists go back only to the first royal person, so I need to find the lines from that latest royal back to other, perhaps more notable royals, for my "royal lineages." I have Thomas Dudley (1576-1653), Thomas Bolles, Olive Welby, Mary Gye, and Edward FitzRandolph in this book. I'll have to use other resources to get back further to Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, Robert the Bruce, etc.

5) I searched for resources in Chattooga and Floyd Counties in Georgia, plus the surnames involved, for my research Project M. There were no resources for Chattooga, and I found three for Floyd, but none were really helpful.

6) I checked the Tables of Contents for The Genealogist journal, the NYGBR, and several others on the shelf at Carlsbad. I saw nothing that I "have to have."

The time went very quickly as I reviewed the book, listed the pages I wanted to copy, fed the cash card with money (I almost ran out of coins and small bills), and copied the pages I wanted.

Many of my CVGS colleagues had successes at the library today. It was fun to see them researching and succeeding, and Shirley captured many of the group on her camera deep in thought or checking out the shelves.

It was a good research day - I learned a lot about New York probates and New Netherland. I need to check my database entries against these authoritative works to make sure that what I have in my genealogy database is correct. I also need to return in the near future in order to work down my "to-do list" before the next research trip.

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