R~ It is soooo much easier to find out basic things today, versus what it was. Today, we can get actual census records in just a few minutes, or a few hours, depending on how much searching we have to do. It used to be to get census records, I had to get in the car, drive for an hour to the Regional Federal census building, and get the microfilm, and start looking. Most of the census'es weren't indexed, and most certainly not the ones in 1870....many of us were stuck in that timeframe.
And now with email, we can write letters instantly, and make connections. I have thousands of letters over the years, that were done the old fashioned way...written or typed, stamped, addresses, sent, then waited for the reply.... minimum of two weeks, and many times longer. People weren't always so anxious as I might be for info....<ggg>
So what we need to know today, is Names, PLACES, and we can generally find the dates if we know these two things.
The biggest help I've found is trying to find living relatives, where in the beginning, I had no intention of doing that. Soon realized that if the letters, Bibles, certificates, pictures, etc were anyplace (other than the dump or in an antique shop) they would be with living people. So I HAD to find them. Turns out, that's been part of the fun and the adventure. |
