Last Day of a Great Adventure!

Just checked with Amtrak for my homeward trip; the westbound California Zephyr is about one hour late, but is expected to make up most of that time by Salt Lake City.

Spent the last day at the Library in the microfilm room again, looking at marriage and death records. Not a lot of Eureka! experiences today [there was one interesting discovery], but it was all educational just the same.

Here’s some advice on preparing for a trip to the Family History Library, based on my now vast experience: First, decide which surnames or areas you want to focus on. Then set goals for your research on those families or areas. Figure out the categories of resources you may need. Go to the Family History Library Catalog online to see what resources are available. Make a list of call numbers and titles of books and film numbers of microfilm and take that with you. [You can do this on the computers at the Library, but it saves time and helps focus your research if you do it before going]. Some microfilm is stored off-site, so if you manage to get organized sufficiently in advance, you can call or fax the Library with a list of those resources, and they may be able to get them before you arrive. Once at the Library, don’t hesitate to ask the staff and volunteers for help. They won’t do the work for you, but they’ll gladly share tips and advice.

You can take your laptop into the Library; there are plenty of places to hook up. [I left my computer at the hotel; I found it a bit of a hassle to carry around one more thing]. But please, please, follow the rules about where you can use cell phones! There are plenty of easy places in the building to use your cell phone, so be a good neighbor on that issue.

I didn’t go to the floors with the international resources so I don’t know what they’re like, but I can imagine that they must be as useful as the US/Canada collections.

Again, I think the key to a useful trip is preparation.

Coming soon, what I found in Salt Lake City! Meanwhile, I think I hear a train coming!

A Little Rain, But Trip’s Still Good

Frankly, I wasn’t as productive today as yesterday, but that had mostly to do with my chronic illness. I spent most of the day on the second floor where the microfilm is located. I had prepared for the trip by identifying which resources I wanted to look at. So I had a list of specific reel numbers and I could go right to them. I would point out to those raised exclusively in the digital age that working with microfilm is not exactly simple. First there are the physical aspects of the medium: you have to place the reels on mechanical spools and hand-crank through the frames. [There are, of course, electronic microfilm readers, but the Family History Library doesn't have many]. Then there is the nature of the content you’re working with: ancient records with no indices in many cases; certainly no “search” function! Those documents that do have indices often are only casually alphabetized. And that’s because before the digital age, “cut-and-paste” was a physical, not a virtual operation, and thus not undertaken. So without careful preparation and some computer aid, microfilm research can be time consuming.

[Note: The LDS Church for some time now has been converting a portion of its vast genealogical data trove from microfilm to a digital format. That process had been estimated to take as long as 120 years. Just this month, however, the Church announced that technological innovations have cut that time to as little as 10 years].

I found the marriage license for my great-grandparents, Otis and Bettie Sanford Manson. It appears that they were married the same day as Bettie’s sister, Addie and her husband, Abe White. I found a number of other things, but I think they need some analysis before I describe the raw data.

The atmosphere is one of a library, for sure, but one where everybody’s loving their homework.

The Library is open until 9:00 pm Tuesday through Saturday. I got there at 10:00 am, stayed till 2:00 pm, and went back about 4:00 o’clock. I called it quits about 7:30 pm.

The Library offers various classes throughout the day, so there’s more to do than just research.

I had a momentary flash of insanity thinking that if I moved to Salt Lake City, I could spend as much time as I wanted in the Library. Just as I was snapping out of that, I overheard a couple discussing, “Well, maybe we should get a timeshare here . . . .”

5:30 am

The California Zephyr got into Salt Lake City about 4:15 am, one hour late. Not bad by Amtrak standards. But then I waited, with a lot of other folks, about forty-five minutes for a cab. Where’s the entrepreneurial spirit here? I could see the Plaza Hotel from the train station, but I don’t walk more than half a block anymore. I’m going to bed.

11:00 am

Ordered room service and now I’m heading out to the Library. The Library is literally next door to the hotel. Before traveling, I went to the Family History Library’s online catalog and made a list of books and microfilm that I might want to look at. 5:30 pm

What a great day! The Library’s resources are terrific. The staff and volunteers very friendly and helpful. There’s a camaraderie among those researching. The resources are easy to use. You can buy a copy card for a dollar and make copies for five cents [23 cents for microfilm copies]. There are plenty of computers on each floor, too.

I had decided to focus on Milam County, Texas. I went first to the books, which are on the third floor. Within twenty minutes, I had found valuable information to debunk a family myth. It had been said that one of Otis and Bettie Manson’s daughters, Mattie, had run off to Georgia to find the family there. In fact, according to Milam County Death Records, young Mattie, whose full name was Julia Mattie Manson, died of tuberculosis at age 12.

Another tidbit gleaned in the first hour: William Sanford, Bettie Manson’s father, lived to be 106 years old! He’s buried in the Old Rockdale City Cemetery.

I spent a lot of time looking at Rockdale school records. I learned that Otis and Bettie had another daughter named Myrtle, born in 1906. I’ll look further into her case tomorrow.

I’m having a good time and I recommend this trip!

ABOARD AMTRAK’S CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR–The Zephyr pulled out of Sacramento about thirty minutes late on this Sunday morning, a morning of moderate temperatures and blue skies. The route we’re on today between Sacramento and Salt Lake City is probably the most historic route in passenger rail history. On January 8, 1863, ground was broken, just a few feet away from where I boarded today, for construction of the Central Pacific Railroad–the western portion of the transcontinental railroad. Meanwhile, the Union Pacific line was moving west from Omaha. The lines were linked in the Utah desert on May 10, 1869, making America truly a united continental power.

Today’s line follows a lot of the orginal route. In fact, from Sacramento to Reno, the Zephyr is staffed is by docents from the California State Railroad Museum, who provide a running commentary on the historic sites on the way. For example, four hours out of Sacramento, the docents point out Verdi, Nevada, site of the first train robbery in American history on November 4, 1870. [Today, Verdi is home to an establishment known as Boomtown, where a different sort of robbery goes on daily].

After Reno, the ride is mostly flat. It’s a long way to Winnemucca, then Elko, and then even longer on to Salt Lake City. In the desert in Nevada and Utah, the Zephyr frequently loses time because the route is single-tracked there and passenger trains must yield to freight traffic. This Sunday, however, there’s almost no delay; indeed, the train picks up a little time.

The train for me is enjoyable, except when trying to sleep. My advice: don’t try to get good sleep on a long train trip. Enjoy the scenery, chat with your traveling companions, read a book [my choice on this trip: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman], and if you happen to drift off, okay–but don’t try to sleep.

I read a bit and do a little prep for my Family History Library trip. The last hour will be the longest.

Forecast for Family History Library Spring Break Trip

Courtesy of the National Weather Service. Looks like typical early spring weather in the Salt Lake valley. Highs in the 50s, nighttime lows in the 30s; chance of rain and snow.

Today is the 18th birthday of Louis Quentin Manson. He’s an eighth generation descendant of James Bowie, FMC; as well as an eighth generation descendant of Charlotte Manson. He’s the namesake of his maternal grandfather, Louis Mannuel Miller, and his great-grandfather, Quentin Vennis Harold Manson (1913-1987). Happy Birthday, Louis!

Spring Break Adventure Begins March 26!

A rainy start to spring break finds me and the Sacramento Kings on our way to Salt Lake City, all hoping for a big payoff! The Kings are trying to stay afloat in the NBA playoff picture. I’m looking forward to a few days of rewarding research at the Family History Library.

I had originally thought of spending the break in Rockdale, Texas, one of the Manson ancestral homelands. My thought was that I would take my father to his father’s hometown, where he’d never been. But then Dad got ill, and I wasn’t sure I was going anywhere. I also toyed with the notion of going back to Georgia, the venue of our 2005 research trip. This time, though, we’d stop at the State Archives and head for Talbot County, neither of which were on last year’s itinerary.

After talking to a few folks, I came to realize that a trip to Salt Lake City could accomplish nearly everything I wanted to do elsewhere in less time and at less cost. A look at the Family History Library’s Catalog online confirms this.

I’ll be traveling via Amtrak‘s California Zephyr (train travel is another hobby of mine; at less than $150 round-trip from Sacramento, it’s a great deal). Salt Lake hotels offer “genealogy packages” reasonably priced. Of course, we’ll have the Bloggcast Remote Operations Center online for daily updates, so stay tuned!
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Azaleas Bloom in Oldest Town in Texas

This weekend is expected to be “full bloom” for the azaleas at the Ruby M. Mize Garden in Nacogdoches, the largest azalea garden in the Lone Star State. The annual Nacogdoches Azalea Trail is just one of a number of diverse cultural surprises in this east Texas town, which is home to Stephen F. Austin University.