Genie Meeting

Our little genealogy club meets the first Saturday of each month. It was convenient that talking about local genie clubs was part of genea-bloggers weekly prompt this week.

It was a decent turn-out. Our club is very informal. We bring each other up to date on where we are in our search. In turn we help those who are stumped, if we can, and try to inspire others not to give up. I was able to report on my latest doings--the book signing, the ancestry.com webnar about african-american genealogy, and my trip to Newberry Library. I was so proud of myself especially since I had kind of slacked off there for a while. I can feel the old bug now, though. I mean, two posts in two days!

What is also helping me is that I got to talk to Florence Octavia Alexander Townsend. I followed up on the clues I found yesterday and was able to track her down. She was friendly and enthusiastic. We are planning to meet very soon. She shared something very interesting in our short conversation. She said her grandmother's ancestry is part Indian--east Indian. According to her, some Indians had immigrated to Kenya and intermarried. I never heard that before. So maybe it is possible that Catherine has East Indian blood after all. Of course, I will verify first, though.

Newberry Library

Last weekend I finally made the trip to Newberry Library in Chicago. I usually go about once every two years. It is a great research library, houses many rare maps and hosts excellent exhibits. However, I have never been very successful at finding new data there. This trip was no exception. The time passed by fast, of course. I was able to find some data in the Mississippi Soundex for marriages before 1926. It gave me a few leads on possible ancestors on the Cotten side--leads but no answers.

What I did find out through surfing after I visited the library is that Newberry is a Family Research Center. That means I can have microfilm sent there from the Salt Lake City Family History Library. Although there are two centers closer to me -- one in Griffith and another in Valparaiso, Indiana --their hours are very limited and their staff is small. I am thinking of making another sojourn to Newberry sooner rather than later once I designate which records they have that are pertinent to my family.