Wrap Up

My biggest discovery was the book search section in HeritageQuest.  I can't believe that has been hiding right under my nose this whole time!  I will be utilizing that a whole lot and recommending it to genealogy researchers who come into the library.  Who knows what they may be able to find?

I can promote this resource when helping patrons with their research, and also mention it as a great resource in the genealogy workshop I plan to host sometime this year.

AncestryLibrary, HeritageQuest, Sanborn Maps

Ancestry:
I searched for my own name in AncestryLibrary....no results of mine came up.  I tried different variations of my name (maiden included) but nothing.  I could be too young?  I've never had a land line--just a cell phone.

I searched for my great grandfather Christian Dutt and found him in the 1930 census record!  I opened it up and there was my grandpa Edgar and all his brothers and sisters.  It listed great grandpa Christian's homeland (Russia) and his wife (Elizabeth), his birth year, their home in 1930, marrital status, and if I clicked on the children's names it gave the same info about them.  It also had a link to view the original document.  How exciting!

I searched for the keyword "South Dakota" and limited the results to "Photos and Maps."  It gave me pictures of WWII south dakota men and baseball players.

HeritageQuest:
Oh my gosh! Can't tell you how excited I am about THIS ONE!  I do some of the family history research here at our library and I have never even looked at this before.  I have been trying to trace my family on my dad's side back to England and I just discovered the Publications.  I searched for "Snow" and received several results.  There is a publication about a Richard Snow in England giving his family history....I'm looking forward to reading this to see if I can connect the dots.  This is a great resource for patrons.  And me! :)

Sanborn Maps:  I selected Aberdeen, July 1884.  I had to zoom in to to see the map, but once I did I could see the entire city divided into blocks and numbered.  I could navigate my way around using the arrows.  It told me what each building was.  This is very usefull if someone wants to know where a building used to be.

CAMIO

Paul Revere made a teaspoon, and it looks like he drew a picture of the Boston Massacre, a tea urn, a sugar bowl, and another tea set. 

When I typed in "Sioux"  I received all sorts of Native American Sioux items, from Gauntlets, to Scalp Shirts (I hope that's not as bad as it sounds), to pipe bowls, and paintings.

I searched for "Van Gogh" and pictures of his paintings came up, with descriptions of museums that have them in their collections.  Now I know where to go if I ever want to see them.

I can see our community using this resource to research historical figures for school projects.  It would also give people another lead as to where to go to find other historical collections.

I searched for "Dakota" and added a picture to my favorites.  I was able to view my picture (a black and white picture of a cattle skull in a field) and it gave me the description of the picture below.  When I clicked on the picture it made it bigger and gave the full title, museum information and photo info.

ArchiveGrid

I learned that Sitting Bull was about 56 years old when he died, that Cornell University has a card with his autograph on it, and that he toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

I searched for "L Frank Baum," since my library has a special historical collection of his.   I found out that there is a Fred M Meyer collection in Syracuse, NY.  An inventory has not been created for this collection.  Fred M Meyer was a founding member of the Wizard of Oz Club and edited the Baum Bugle.  This was an interesting find.

I also found that Syracuse University has an L Frank Baum Papers Collection. This is a wonderful database for searching for historical documents.