Thursday I will be traveling down to North Carolina for my first actual research trip. The average person may be nonplussed to learn that it will primarily consist of time spent in research and library rooms poring through old documents. However those of you non-initates where genealogy and research is concerned take heart. There willbe some field work which will probably be done mostly en route from one research spot to another.
Yes its a short trip and its pretty full but its still one that I am looking forward to. While in North Carolina I will be visiting a local registrar of deeds office in Halifax and I will be visiting the North Carolina State Archives Office. I am at this point primarily focusing on locating Marriage records. the majority of the family members are accounted for with several instances usually of records including for most birth and death records. After doing some extensive data entry and moving most of my files into a new genealogy software program I found that the thing mainly missing were marriage dates and documentation to support them. so I decided that this mini research trip should focus on that.
Additionally on this trip I will be digitally photographing the family bible. This is the only instance in several cases of any dates with regards to family members. There are a few that fall in between the timeline that documentation was required for births and or deaths and so if not for the bible we might never have found out some of that information. It is not I am told in all that great a shape so its imperative that the information be put into a digital format as soon as possible. So I and tripod and camera will attempt to do just that.
When I get back I will work on transcribing and placing the information on the internet for others that might find it of use.
After having spoken to the family as well as the director of the department at state archives that oversees family records and archives it has been agreed all the way around that this information will be shared/provided to state archives and that they would make sure it would be available to any researcher.
I dont know that I will get a chance to blog while I am away although I shall try to do that if not I know that I will have a lot to speak about when I get back.
Until then - Namaste'
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