Researching Genealogy the old Way.

Remember when, O can you remember when, to do a research you went to the library and looked in the Card Catalog, the History Section, Reference Section, Who's Who's books, books on names meanings, and if lucky to live near a LDS Library you could go spend some time searching the files and films and fiche for data. I loved their books, so many of the LDS places have had the books disappear. When our local library moved, two books I was using for two years disappeared. They were able to find one and get it back the other is gone, gone, gone. Maybe some day it will show up in SLC. But it's not in their system anymore.

Our library (County) had a series of Encyclopedias on Colonial America. I was 1/3 the way through it and they did a remodel and they removed that series, I was using it to help the students in the class I was teaching. That was a real bummer. NO they never found those books again. I have only seen it in their system. Alas, it talked of the hard times, the ships travels, the storms, the weather and it's affect on people coming to America. We all were learning so much from them. I have not seen another with the data that they had. It was from pre COLONIAL TIMES to when we became a Nation.

I think we were all amazed to learn of the winter storm that froze so much of NYC and people died from no heat and no food.

It reminded me of the elderly that die today because of the heat and no liquids and no way to cool off. These types of events seem to hit the inner cities somewhat harder than rural areas.

I suspect this is due to rural tend to find and help each other on a steady basis as in the city we only relied on the milkman, the grocery man, the produce man etc. . When they could not travel the city streets people were lost. It talked about how one milk man died from exposure attempting to get to some of his steady customers.

Research the old way brought out many great books written long ago with a different perspective than many historians of today.

IN 1959, I started reading the history books in the Petaluma, Ca library, when husband returned from deployment 18 mos.
later I had made a huge dent in their books. Books that make me wonder how people can do research today and not have this knowledge to know what direction to find more information. Ceasar A. did some many interesting things to keep his Empire
in control and not lose face, or money to feed his people. He was a shrewd business man.
His war with Nubia (North Africa's Morocco) changed the linage of at least three nations and one massively so. I suspect had I completed that section in the library he may have changed more than those countries ancestry. When we go back farther we have other rulers who changed the make up of the people.

So researchers, remember books are the answers to many of our problems but finding them is an even bigger concern of mine of late. We also need to branch out( our research ) and learn the lines of many countries before they became what they are known as today. I am blessed following a G YDNA search on a line of my family and am learning of the old people of the old times that I was just beginning to scratch the surface of when I moved away from that great old library that is now new and modern and no does not have all those great old history books in it.

I worry that with our county ( San Diego) that is now looking at a new library (if one calls that design a library) how many of the very old books will go. How many of the old Encyclopedia's that talk of the days of a different time that as researchers we need will disappear. More on this topic to come if you want to watch for it. Leland I am going searching and knocking. :>)