For several months, I have been digging deep into the online records of my family history. Through ancestry.com, familysearch.org, hertiagequestonline.com, and of course, anything I can find on google.com, I discovered much about who my family is, where they have lived, and how they lived. But, there comes a point when you have to start opening books and take a trip to the library. So I did.
Although much of my family is from other states Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina–several of the trees connect to Virginia. Being 30 minutes away from the Library of Virginia gives me a great opportunity to learn how to use a large state library. It would be a plus if I actually found something–which I didn’t, but I learned much about using the library as a genealogy tool.
When I first walked in, I was simply doing a recon of the library to see what the possibilities were. This taught me my first lesson; which is to have a Plan. I asked the librarian, who was incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, where the genealogy stuff was. (In hind sight, this was probably not the most intelligent question.) He began breaking me down with questions; “What are you looking for?” “What period are you looking at?” “What county did they live in?” Soon, I was off on a crazy tangent of the only ancestor that I have verification that they had anything to do with Virginia.
Which brings me to the second lesson; Do your homework before you arrive. I did have my computer with me, so much of the information was at my finger tips. However, if I had been armed with this information before I went, I would have done much better than I did. There is so much available at the state library–I was overwhelmed with where to start. Before long, I was running back and forth to my computer to get another lead. Now, the person I am researching is a big roadblock–but a critical one in understanding my family history as a whole. So, I probably wouldn’t have returned with nothing if it were another person I was researching. With that said, with the right amount of homework and planning, I would have been able to take a couple of minutes to research others that I have in my tree.
I was able to learn much about using the library through investigating many different leads that I developed. Just by going into the library for this purpose set me on a course to find more and more information that I only skimmed online. I can not wait to return, but next time with a better plan and a little more homework.