Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A Journey to London


Life will eventually become more normal, but for now I am enjoying London.  I am staying in a lovely flat off Baker's Street.  How thankful I am that I have been walking diligently every day for well over a year.  Comfortable shoes and stamina are needed here!  
As time is limited I am using most of my time to explore old cemeteries.  I had hoped to get to Suffolk to visit some ancestral homes, but that will be for another trip.  
On Sunday afternoon I toured the Highgate Cemetery, west.  Climbing the stone stairs from the entrance, one is quickly engulfed in a forest of trees, vines and tombstones.  The stones appear to come out of the earth in any which direction.  It is dank, dark, somewhat spooky, and yes ... Gothic.  It is truly London!  
My camera could not shoot fast enough.  Oh the many unusual graves I should capture for future reference and viewing!  I'll be back again ... and to do other things in London and ancestral haunts.  For those of you who won't be coming any time soon, check out London Cemeteries for a closer look at Highgate and others.  

Monday, August 4, 2008

Library services for genealogists

A friend just alerted me by e-mail that the Kearney Public Library in Kearney, Nebraska has an online collection of newspapers.  The Kearney Daily Hub can be accessed from June 1889 through October 1905.  The database is searchable by date and keyword.  If you don't have ancestry in Kearney or that area, it is still a good idea to check the newspapers. 

Many newspapers carried interesting stories or news items from other newspapers.  I have found that if there are missing newspaper issues, Nebraska or another state, I can sometimes find the same news item in another location.  For instance, I found a news item in the Kearney Daily Hub about a relative who died in Indiana.  

To access the newspapers from the home page of the Kearney Public Library, click under "Reference."  While there you will also see a link to Research Databases.  Kearney is a Nebraska library that offers Ancestry.com library edition to patrons.  

Mid-Continent Public Library in Independence, Missouri offers many helpful databases for genealogists.  To explore what is available click on "Research Databases" under Online Resources.  Another click under "Genealogy" will make you wish you lived in Independence, Missouri!  Not to worry.  Go back to the opening web page and click on "Get a library card" in the top right hand area.  

This is a library that offers out of state or out of district library cards for a very reasonable annual fee ($20).  E-mail them to obtain all the details.  Some of the databases that you will find there are:  America's GenealogyBank, America's Obituaries & Death Notices and Digital Sanborn Maps.  There's more ... just start looking.   

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