Guess who I found at my local library!

Yeah, I know that's grammatically incorrect, but if I'd titled this "Guess whom I found..." you wouldn't even want to read it, would you?

Amy (We Tree) has created a new list of weekly prompts for GeneaBloggers for 2010. In this, the first of 52 Weeks to Better Genealogy, we're encouraged to visit the library to see what materials are available there to assist our research. As I was planning to go soon anyway, the prompt gave me the extra motivation I needed to get out the door and do it.

I had three goals for today's visit:

1. I hope to participate in a few more GeneaBlogger activities this year. As a rule, I am a self-proclaimed meme-slacker and marcher to a different drum. Having attention deficit disorder makes it difficult enough to stay on my path without being distracted by other ideas. But I want to make more use of those group activities which will not only help me accomplish what I'm working on at the moment, but also help to build and harness the group energy that comes from such activities. Today, mission accomplished!
   
2. I wanted to learn how to use the membership databases that my library provides access to: Footnote, Heritage Quest, ProQuest, and Ancestry Library Edition. Mount Clemens Public Library has a really nice genealogy room with lots of resources. The Macomb County Genealogy Group meets at this library, and I had attended the November meeting when a presentation showed how to use Footnote. I had tried some searches at home, but I was very glad that a genealogy room volunteer was available today to walk me through the procedure for accessing the database on my own laptop via the library's wireless, and other Footnote fine points I'd forgotten since the presentation. Again, mission accomplished!
   
3. Almost two years ago, I posted some pictures of a burned building that I'd found among my grandparents' things. I'd been able to identify them as the Wadsworth Factory which burned August 1, 1919, based on a photo at John Davis' website, Detroit Engine Works. John and I corresponded at that time, and I was pleased to hear from him a few days ago. He wrote to let me know his research has continued and he's updated his website with additional information about the fire. All along, I had assumed he lived here in the Detroit area, but he's actually in Florida. Now that I'm living here in Michigan, and knowing that my library received The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press on micofilm when our county library closed, I hoped I might find some news articles about the Wadsworth fire to send him. Unfortunately, in this goal I was thwarted to some extent. The oldest microfilmed Detroit newspapers in this library date back only as far as 1939. However, my very well-informed genealogy room volunteer told me that older Free Press archives are available from ProQuest, which she showed me how to use. This will surely be of use to me in the future. And I did find some Wadsworth articles, although judging from the excellent body of information on John's website, I don't think my finds will be adding anything new to his research. So, while this mission was not accomplished, I did learn something useful about another library resource available to me.

On today's list of goals, there was no mention at all of any particular research to accomplish, other than to gain access to records I already knew were on Footnote. Once that was done, I decided to poke around on Ancestry for a bit, since I don't have it at home. I hadn't planned a list of things to look for, so I just typed in a few of the usual surnames. As luck would have it, I found something so cool that it deserves a proper post of its own. For now, all you get is a hint:

Part 6 of a series featuring the Bloodhound Cousins continues soon at Before My Time!