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DearREADERS,
On day two of our research trip, we traveled north from Fredericksburg to DC for about an hour. Audrey ran into the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) building, located at 1776 D Street, just to pick up another copy of AMERICAN GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH AT THE DAR, by Eric G. Grundset and Steven B. Rhodes. Barb suggested I give you the link to their web site: http://www.chesapeake.net/DAR/
Just off Dupont Circle (the site of a great metro station) we found the offices, museum and library of the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, at 1300 New Hampshire Avenue NW. Parking was a problem, so I waited in the car until the allowed 11:30 A.M. post-street cleaning hour.
When I entered the basement entrance I found my two traveling companions well- entrenched in research. Several computers catalog the book list. A card file provides access to bound lineage applications. Three cheerful and knowledgeable librarians provided helpful books and made tons of photocopies at 10 cents for members, 25 cents for nonmembers. Copies of membership applications are provided at $7 each. There was no fee for the use of the library, which closed at 9:00 P.M. on the day of our visit.
A note to researchers on reshelving. While working the stacks at CD, I found Bill Dollarhide's Map Guide to U.S. Federal Census Records incorrectly sitting next to Filby and Myer's Passenger and Immigration Lists Index series. From a call number point of view, the only thing they have in common is their beige color, so I set the book on the librarian's "reshelve" table. About 20 minutes later the head librarian came into the room, and shouted with glee, "Who found my Dollarhide?" Apparently it had been "missing" for several weeks.
This points up the need of researchers to honor every librarian's request that patrons DO NOT RESHELVE THE BOOKS. If you incorrectly place the book, it effectively becomes "lost" for months on end. If someone does this to a book you desperately need, you simply won't find it!! If the Colonial Dames librarian lost one book in his stacks housed in a room the size of an oversized two car garage, then imagine the problem in a larger library!
Although this library was small, it was packed with very relevant books, many of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, which happen to be our focus states. Of use to me were lineage's listing specific original documents, which I hope to find later this month in Philadelphia. I also found references to books on the Valentine Hollingsworth family.
With time on our hands, we decided to take in a small meal at one of the popular eateries on Capitol Hill before heading over to the Library of Congress. Little did we know our Big Macs would need to hold us over 'til nearly 11:00 P.M.
We had our Library of Congress photo ID cards from last year, so we zipped into the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room with no problem. I naturally gravitated to the computers near the card catalog. I was so excited to see three computers that had notices reading:
Ancestry Library
http://www.ancestry.com
You can imagine that I felt right at home! :D
The librarian came over to see if I needed any help with the online card catalog, and I innocently inquired about how the Internet access was going. She was very excited about the connection, but said she wished the new search method (global search by name) listed ALL of the available databases. Without tipping my hand, I told her I could demonstrated how to access the complete listing of databases, which grows at the rate of one per weekday.
By now two gentleman had joined us at the computer across from the reference desk. The LIST ALL DATABASES link, located on the main page, is a lot smaller since the new page design. The modem connection was a lot slower than a typical home computer, but each database was fully accessible to researchers. The Library of Congress registration allows open access. At this point someone thanked me for the assistance, and asked how I happened to know so much about this website. So I quietly owned up to the truth. Before we left the LOC at 9:00 P.M., AFSBarb and I had successfully helped five researchers use the Ancestry.com databases.
Did we find anything at the LOC? Six hundred plus photocopies should give you a hint. I was successful in locating two of the Valentine Hollingsworth books, which I ordered from the back stacks. Audrey's bingo was found in a book called American Patriots which had Mayflower and American President lineage's. There was a clue to a wife's name and birth place. Being experienced researchers, we know to take undocumented references like this with a grain of salt. However, this is a first clue to the possible identify of the woman.
We drove through rain and the dark of night, ending up in York, because the intervening first exits in Pennsylvania were busy. Apparently a bowling tournament kept the local innkeepers busy.
On to Ephrata Cloister, Conrad Weiser's Homestead and Philly tomorrow!
Myrt :)
DearMYRTLE
is a daily genealogy column (KEYWORD: dearmyrtle) published on America Online in the Genealogy Forum. Due to the volume of e-mail, Myrt is unable to respond to each individually. Representative samples are used as a basis for articles from time to time. Contact DearMYRTLE at: dearmyrtle@aol.com or dearmyrtle@ancestry.com
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