Treasure Chest Thursday

When I started my family history research, libraries were my treasure chest.  They still are to a certain extent.  I love packing up my notebooks, and driving into the Genealogy library of Montgomery or Clayton Library of Houston.  I know that there are so many pages of books that I haven't even scraped the edges of.  My favorite thing to do is to walk down the aisle of the State I am interested in and let a book reach out an grab my attention.  So many times, in an obscure place of the book, will be a clue or even an answer about my ancestor.

Today, I have a new treasure chest that I love and have to watch out that it doesn't become instead a Pandora's box and overcome my senses and time.  It is the internet, twitter, Google search, Ancestry,
and Family Search to name a few.   Tonight, I received a treasure from The Olive Tree Genealogy .  Well technically it was Twitter, Lorine had twittered a piece about finding ships lists.  When I went to look, I was brought to remeberance of Stephen P Morse's One-Step-Webpages for searching the ship arrivals and lists.  I love that site! It had been bookmarked on my computer that crashed (a good reason for back up [Wiggling of eyebrows and a big smile]) and I had forgotten it because my focus has not been on immigration.  I have been caught up in the Mexican War.  Thanks Lorine! And a great big thanks to those that have developed such a wealth on information links for genealogy.

First You Have to Look to Find The Treasure

This week has been an awesome week for treasure hunting and finds beyond what was sought.  A sweet friend of mine who was intimidated by reaching out to try and find the real ancestor, sat down with me and we went on a hunt together.  At the end of two days of looking at all the possibilities, and offerings, we pinpointed her ancestor as well as back 3 generations.  She sat back and sighed and said "you just have to stand back and look at the big picture."  Ancestry was invaluable for comparing census, and family trees as well as Family Search.

 Now she is taking the next step.  She is emailing the

 people who have posted their trees and is filled with hope she will quickly get feed back and find the biggest treasure in the ancestor hunt...extended family.  Many time it is just a small clue or feeling "impressed" to pick up a book, that sends you down the path to the hidden treasures.

My personal experience was enhanced by finding proof of an ancestor in the land records when looking for a different ancestor.  All long term researchers have their moments of A HA!