Check out our previous post on another’s journey.
My journey into researching our family history started in the mid to late 1980s. Computer genealogy was not going strong yet. I started by spending many hours at the Midwest Genealogy Center (then called Mid-Continent Library genealogy department) searching through multiple rolls of microfilm to find census records. I used the index called Soundex, which helped find last names in the census. It was a specialized coding for the index which led you to the appropriate microfilm for the census.
Winding and winding the microfilm in that darkened room was exciting, and you could always hear gasps from others when they found who they were searching for. Some days there were no empty microfilm readers at all because that was the most convenient way to study the census or other records.
There were lots of other microfilm records, land deeds, some wills, and county records. It was the easiest way to search records rather than traveling to the actual courthouses or waiting for answers by mail. I did receive many records through the mail, and it was so exciting to get that envelope.
Researching took lots of time and patience. I could not begin to say how many hours I spent at the genealogy center looking at microfilm. Then there were also issues of genealogy journals that might give up information on my family. Indexes were used for the journals and the Center had back issues of the journals, but sometimes you had to write to different libraries to get the article you wanted.
The Center housed thousands of books from all over the United States and the world. I spent time searching the book indexes for information. I attended many classes at the library through the years and also several state and national workshops devoted to genealogy. It was slow going but exciting. Each new find was a gem and added to my family history.
Our vacations took on a different tone. We planned trips to include stops at courthouses and cemeteries. My husband was the one who handled the giant big heavy books in the courthouses, and I taught him how to help me search those books. Again this might be the only way to find the information I needed. Fortunately his family was in 3 counties in North Carolina for 8 generations which made his family search a little easier.
I will never forget trying to locate my 3rd great grandparents marriage record. I knew they married in eastern Tennessee so on one of our vacations, we stopped at the courthouse in Grainger County, Tennessee to search for the marriage record.
I asked the clerk at the desk where can I find this record – just sure it would be in the one of the big books, but she pointed to the open door of a giant safe. I walked in there and sitting on the floor were several shoeboxes with papers spilling out of them.
I looked through the first shoebox and found the original of my 3rd great grandparents marriage record, dated 1837. I was absolutely stunned that the original paper almost 160 years old was just sitting in a shoebox on the floor. It would have been so easy to have it lost forever.
When Ancestry started publishing records, I was reluctant to utilize their site. I felt I was a purist, searching the old fashioned way was the right way. But I tried Ancestry and was surprised at the ease of finding records. When I moved away from the Midwest Genealogy Center, it made my researching just that much harder, and Ancestry certainly filled in the big gap.
Now I continue my search through the internet, but still utilize the big books at courthouses, mailing requests, looking at journals and when I can, I visit the Center. There are many avenues to searching for our family history and we need to utilize all the different ways.
FamilyFinders