Feedback about, Books and IOWA and ILLINOIS

Feedback about, Books and Iowa and Illinois

When attending a meeting Saturday, I announced the Educational Event about information on Iowa and Illinois.  Having explained why this format was being taken, it was very interesting to see how many people, concurred with my theory.  They came to me on break and said, "You are right, not everything is on the internet and when I used books for sources,  I found much of what I was looking for".

It was enlightening to have so many come up and say, we need to be reminded of that more often,
"Thank You" and others saying they wished they could have attended the talk.

We started covering states for information after we received word of the need for help, but just did not seem to know which states and who.

Having devised a program that when you sign in you pick where in the USA your biggest need
(Interest) lay. The map was color coded with dots to wear at the meetings so other members would know whom may also be researching that area.  Then we took the most dots to be the first talks and working down and around to cover all dots, taken.

New York was number one.  Being unable to be there due to family situation elsewhere Randy Seaver and Shirley Becker did a great presentation on the area.

Other states have been covered but we are going to step up the process. We are doing two states a session now and will be booking the talks more often.  We may also move some of the talks to other venues to get the data available to members and guests.

This can also be used as an IceBreaker for events within the society for people of like States to meet and share knowledge.

I listened to my plane seat mates and various people I met as I traveled and it became obvious to me that
because I started research prior to computers, I looked at research differently than those whom have started since 2000.

Mentioned this  to those at local society and the older ones agreed, we do things differently, mentally when preparing to research.

Yes, we have charts and 5 Generation charts and we know have computers, laptops or pads.

But we started with pencil and paper. books and pictures, family stories and letters.  We wrote to our kin in other places we asked for shared knowledge, shared pictures and fun.

A trip to the Library was rare but vital after a period of time. We must learn the history of the area in which we are looking, otherwise we can not get a timeline to work right and know what we are truly missing.

So we must remind the new researchers that History plays a major roll in our research.  Having always felt it should be taught via Genealogy and no child would find it boring or none informative.

If you did not know the boundary was one state, then another, then another how do you know which state had the data your looking for at the time period your looking?

If your doing very early research, you would write to Great Britain or France or Spain for the information. The colonies and areas sent the records to the home base for permanent keeping.

I found my Jones records in England.  I found my DuVall records in France.  Many who came 100 plus years later know that they came from Ireland or Scotland or Germany.

Being willing to share the information if you will leave an email address for your response.

Books are vital and books carry much data, they will never all be digitized.  Ironic, but they also seem to be accessible easier and we do not need to worry about what program to use, what button to push and how to save them.  They last 100's of years many times over. A computer program hardly last 3 years let alone 50.

Think Books, think Libraries, University Libraries, Law Libraries, Medical Libraries, Business Libraries, the list goes on and on.  Find a Book, find a Clue and many times find an answer.