WANDERINGS FROM YOUR PRESIDENT
BY GAYLE STUART
Who do you think you are?
This is an advertisement we hear on TV, most often said by a well-known person. They suggest that you put the name of who you are looking for into Ancestry.com and all sorts of things will come up on your person. This sounds like a very easy way to do family searching.
INTERNET is just the tip of the iceberg. Most research is done in: Libraries, archives, courthouses, etc.
The 1940 federal census has come out this month. It is not indexed at this time, but they are hoping that, with the number of volunteers wanting to help, it will be done in the next six months to a year. Some states, ones that do not have large populations, are done at this time. To view online for free, go to http://1940census.archives.gov/. I’m sure several people have tried this already; some have had good luck, because they knew where their family was located. After you put in the state and county, an enumeration district No. will narrow down what you need to browse through. The 1930 census should give you this # unless the family had moved.
With the help of a fellow volunteer from the Family History Center in Elk Horn, I gave a program on “Getting Started with Genealogy” to a group of ladies at a Boots to Heels conference. We had 20 – 25 people attend. It is always a surprise to me how many do not know where to start with their research. In Elk Horn, we have a few every year that think they can come in and give us a name and day born in Denmark and think we can go right to a record for them. They seem surprised when we ask do you know all about them in this country. We enjoyed doing this, but wished we would have had more time.
This past winter, I decided to tackle more boxes from the attic. One of the boxes I picked had an envelope with bills and checks from 1938 when the house Leo and I live in was built. The carpenters got 50 cents an hour and the bricklayers $1.05, painters $3.50 for an 8-hour day. I’m sure this was good money back then. We found sale bills on machinery; a tractor that the original cost was $8,000 and we had that tractor overhauled this past winter with a cost of twice the original purchase.
How many of us have boxes tucked away that we are not sure what is in them? It could be some answers are hiding in these boxes.
Bits and pieces of our history are always fun to find. Good Hunting!
gbs