I received a voicemail yesterday, informing me that I had microfilm available. This would be the first microfilm I received through the local Family History Center (I initially ordered three reels four weeks ago). The process to retrieve my film was simple: the new films are in one drawer and films ready to be sent back are in another. They also had numerous other drawers filled with "indefinite" microfilm reels with names of patrons on them.
The film I received was Minutes and Membership Lists, 1842-1859 for Hawhammock Missionary Baptist Church in Swainsboro, Emanuel, Georgia. I know that multiple generations of my paternal grandmother's family attended this church. I was hoping to find mention of deaths, baptisms and perhaps births and weddings in this film.
I didn't end up finding everything I was looking for, in part because the title of the film is misleading. It should be "partial" or "fragmented" Minutes and Membership Lists - because that's exactly what they are. At times 10 to 20 years were missing from the minutes. This was unfortunate, because the minutes did in fact include obituaries and baptisms, as well as other religious events. Of course, most of the years I needed were the ones that were missing.
I did find a few things of interest however, including a membership list from 1938 which listed my Great-Grandmother (click the image on the right to see a bigger image). Her name, Ledora Britt, is crossed out and marked "dead," though no date is given.
And you'll notice that the image has been stitched together from multiple images. I don't know if it was the older machines (hand crank) or the film, but I couldn't zoom out far enough to see the entire width of the image. I ended up taking multiple pictures of the screen and stitching them together.
And while I was waiting on this film to arrive, I discovered that the Georgia Archive has a copy (c'mon GA-A, index your film on something more hi-tech than a physical card catalogue!). I'll be back there again on Thursday, so I'll take a look at this film on a newer machine and see if I can get a better view. Also, I'll be able to save to flash drive there.
I have two more films coming in soon, so I'll see how that experience goes before deciding to order any more film.
Today I finally visited the local Family History Center for the first time. With the FHC located only three miles from my house, I'd been procrastinating, but finally visited today with my mom.
This particular location has a dedicated entrance for the FHC at the back of the main building. There was a sign next to the door and a call button for someone to come let us in.
The main room for the FHC was only about 10 feet by 10 feet and had four computers along the walls. When we entered, three of the computers were in use. It appeared that there were two volunteers/instructors there, but they were both helping others. When we said that we'd never been before the folks looked a little concerned. It was clear that they were helping folks who had no experience even reading a census form. They were obviously worried that we would need the same level of help and they were already busy with others.
At that time though, an elderly lady came in. She said that she usually worked there on Tuesday and was up there to help someone else, but could help us until that person arrived. We told her that we were already experienced with genealogy research and wanted to order some microfilm. She walked us through that and we chatted a bit. She said that she was very surprised at how busy they were today and that often there were no researchers there at all. It also turns out that she had attended the Family History Expo and we chatted about some of the classes we'd attended.
Due to how busy they were, I was unable to find out what, if any, materials they had on site. I did notice the microfilm room, which had between four and six machines, with two of them in use by other researchers (so that's six other folks up there doing research total). The three rolls of microfilm that I ordered will be ordered tomorrow and I was told to expect them in two to three weeks. Hopefully when I go back, they won't be as busy and I'll be able to learn more about the materials that might be available onsite.
My mom has the week off from work, so I've drafted her to help me with my genealogy research. We'll be doing some things that I've put off - again and again. One of my personal hurdles with research is my hesitancy to do new things, especially new things on my own. So I'm taking Mom with me. Also, I'm broadcasting my plans to the world, which is further incentive to follow through. So, what am I doing?
Wednesday, I have the day off. I'll be going to the local Family History/FamilySearch Center. That's right: I still haven't been to the location three miles away. I'm the queen of procrastinating! Though it doesn't hurt that the center is open only two days a week, which doesn't often fit with my varying work schedule. I'm not sure what to expect, but I have looked up some microfilm records online that I'd like to request. (The FamilySearch Center locator on the new FamilySearch.org was broken. I sent an email about my problems using it and was told that, for now, the old Family History Center locator on the old site is the best option right now).
Friday, I've requested the day off from work. Bright and early, I plan to travel down to the Georgia Archive in Morrow. They're open from 8:30 am to 4 pm and I hope to make use of most of that time. I'm currently trying to use their website to plan my visit, though I find their Finding Aids hard to understand. The Georgia Archive is right next door to the National Archive's Southeast Branch. We plan to stop by to get information, but we'll have to visit gain to do actual research. Friday evening I'll be doing what everyone else reading this blog will be doing: Watching the first episode of season two of Who Do You Think You Are.
My boss told me that I could take a day off today and use some sick time, which I never get to use and an about to hit my cap on. So, I thought I'd spend the day doing some genealogy. And I did kinda do that, but not the way I'd planned.
So, my original plan was to visit the local Family History Center. I've never done this before, even though they are only about five minutes from my house. I spent yesterday evening browsing the online catalogue and finding resources that might be valuable to me. I was specifically looking at researching the Albea family of Lincoln County, GA and Iredell County, NC before that. I printed out some sources and a bit of family tree info and planned to go by the next morning.
However, in the morning I checked my email and saw that my associate degree diploma was ready to be picked up. Yay! This pretty much trumped any other plans for the day. By the time I drove halfway around Atlanta and back, got home and ate lunch, the FHC was closed. However, they open for a few hours in the evening, so I thought I'd go then.
But then, I got a call from my Aunt June (my dad's sister, as opposed to my mom's sister, also named June). She had previously mentioned that her sister, my Aunt Charlotte, would be in town sometime soon and they wanted to get together and talk genealogy. Now she knew that my Aunt would be in town starting tomorrow, so we set up a time to meet this Friday. This was a bit earlier than I'd expected, so I wasn't prepared. I have since spent the rest of the night creating reference notebooks for each Aunt.
As I was printing out my records about their Dad (my grandfather), I started thinking about some comments that my dad had made earlier in the day. From my grandfather's WWII army separation notice, we know that he received a WWII victory medal and an Occupation Ribbon for Germany. My dad had asked my aunt about these, but she didn't have them and, logically, she's the only person that would have them. Since she doesn't, it's assumed that they were destroyed in the house fire in the 1960s. So I thought I'd look into possibly ordering replacements for these. After about 10 minutes on the National Archives website, I had finished doing so. I'm not 100% that we'll receive the medals - the form just seemed too easy! But, we'll see what happens.
I'm now sidetracked with putting together genealogy information for my aunt's visit, so the FHC visit has been put on pause. Hopefully I'll get to it next week, when I legitimately have Tuesday off. :) Does anyone have any advise for me or tips on what to expect?
