52 Weeks to Better Genealogy Challenge #4

I am not able to go to the library because I am helping my daughter with the rascals above right now. She is still a month and a half from her due date and has been put on bed rest. I am not complaining, nor bragging, it is just a fact.

I will have to write about this challenge from experiences I have had in the past and recently at the library I have been writing about in the previous challenges.

A few years ago, my mother wanted to know facts about the county she was born and hoped her birth was written about in a county newspaper in Oklahoma. The county was Custer. I looked in the inter-library loan book to see if the newspapers were on microfilm. They were and they were in the Clinton Public Library. I contacted Clinton Public Library. They said the films were available for loan. After filling out the necessary paperwork of request and costs, the films were ordered. They arrived 2 weeks later and I was busy searching the May 1928 editions. Sure enough, because they were twins, my mother and her sister were written about as number 12 and 13 in their family. Unfortunately, I only made a copy for her and now because of her dementia, haven't a clue where it might be. The process was easy and results were satisfying.

The more recent experience was for someone else. As I was visiting with the librarian, my eyes were drawn to a book on her desk. The title was "History of the Ballew family in Virginia". I was excited because a friend by the same name had just begun to research his family. I noted the card on it that indicated it was on loan. I then asked if it was to go back soon and if the person who had ordered it would mind if someone else were to look at it. It was due back in a week. It was on loan from a Michigan Library. The person who had ordered it was finished.
I quickly called my friend and the next morning he came down and found it was about his family and the librarian taught him about the inter-library loans. However, he went a step further and contacted the authors and ordered the book.

You never know what is going to happen when you go into the genealogy department, looking at the new books, visiting with the librarian, checking out things that can travel from afar to be within your vision, and if the librarian is so inclined the public library can arrange to be able to order films from the Salt Lake Genealogy Library also.

Is it any wonder my family would shake in dread when I said I was going to the library, they knew I was lost to them for the day. It has been a good thing.