I've been doing genealogy for about two years now, pretty seriously, and I guess I'm moving from being a brand-new beginner to a category like "experienced beginner" or "thinks she knows her way around but still has a lot to learn." Along with the elation I've felt when something clicks into place -- I find my great-grandmother's actual birth surname -- I've experienced many other emotions along the way. Do any seem familiar to you other semi-new researchers? 1) Frustration : You know there's got to be a record of your grandfather's mother somewhere. She existed, why can't you find any kind of record? Your great-grandfather lived in one city, but died about 130 miles away -- what was he doing there? Why did he die there, not at home? Unlike a brand new researcher, you know where to look, you have multiple places to look, and you come up with nothing. Just one example of the many, many ways you'll feel frustrated. My mothe...
Last night at 7:00 PM we hopped into a taxi for our arranged visit to the Vampire Museum. We weren't sure what we would find, but we were looking forward to it! At 7:00 you might think most of the rush hour in Paris would be just about over but no no no, the streets were bumper to bumper. We were to meet Jacques Sirgent, the proprietor of the museum, on a street corner in Les Lilas, just outside Paris, and as he led us down a small street and into an absolutely dark alley, we understood why. We never would have found it ourselves. We soon came to a red door with a small sign that said "Musee," and were led through a darkened courtyard and into the museum itself. The jam-packed museum The museum was packed full of items from floor to ceiling. M. Sirgent has signed photos of every actor who's played Dracula, except Christopher Lee (I think he said). I was especially drawn to the many ancient books he has, some going back to the early days of the printing pre...
When I was an academic, I loved the research part of my job. When winter break or summer would roll around, I was always so happy to turn to "my" work, that of researching literature related to my subject, or topics related to the classes I would be teaching. Now that I'm retired, this is one of the things that draws me most to genealogy -- the thrill of the chase, the forming of theories that open up new avenues to travel, the very deep satisfaction when something -- anything -- clicks into place, no matter how small. It's never easy, though, and sometimes you only achieve success by dogged persistence, by plowing through the years and millions of documents, in order to put a coherent story together. So, today I have a story that, while not yet finished, I'd like to begin to tell, although it's so long that I'll break it into two parts. I've mentioned before that my paternal grandfather was one of nine siblings who lived to adulthood, and that his m...
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