by Pa Rock
Researcher
My third day at the conference focused on four more workshops, one dealing with DNA, two others that were focused on using old property maps in genealogy, and a final one that dealt with the records that the federal government stores at a special facility in St. Louis - and how to access those records.
The National Archives has several storage centers around the country, but one of the most important repositories is in St. Louis. It was intended to house all U.S. military records after the Civil War era, but a huge fire there back in the early 1970's destroyed most of those records. (The fire was fought by over forty fire departments and burned for four days.). The facility also has draft registration cards for both world wars, and documents from other government such as the ones created during the 1930's to combat the Great Depression.
(I dealt with the St. Louis branch of the National Archives several years ago when I contacted them to obtain my great-grandfather's WPA work records. I was very satisfied with the Archives quick and thorough response, but the service was pricey - seventy dollars for a dozen or so time sheets!)
The workshops dealing with early property maps were especially interesting to me. Recently I spent a lot of time in a county courthouse researching seventy-five land transfers to which another of my great-grandfather's was a party. I was able to use that information to track several places where he actually lived, as well as identify how he got his start in buying and selling property - and where the high-rolling land man saw the end of his business career with a sheriff's sale. There is a lot to be learned in property transfers.
The DNA workshop was a promotion from a British company that is working on technology that may - at some point in the future - actually be able to provide people with a family tree generated by their DNA samples. That's a long way off, but I suspect that is where the field of genetic genealogy is headed, and that we will be there sooner rather than later.
There is one more day of workshops, but I am literally worn down and may head for home in the morning.
Daddy's coming, Rosie!
Researcher
My third day at the conference focused on four more workshops, one dealing with DNA, two others that were focused on using old property maps in genealogy, and a final one that dealt with the records that the federal government stores at a special facility in St. Louis - and how to access those records.
The National Archives has several storage centers around the country, but one of the most important repositories is in St. Louis. It was intended to house all U.S. military records after the Civil War era, but a huge fire there back in the early 1970's destroyed most of those records. (The fire was fought by over forty fire departments and burned for four days.). The facility also has draft registration cards for both world wars, and documents from other government such as the ones created during the 1930's to combat the Great Depression.
(I dealt with the St. Louis branch of the National Archives several years ago when I contacted them to obtain my great-grandfather's WPA work records. I was very satisfied with the Archives quick and thorough response, but the service was pricey - seventy dollars for a dozen or so time sheets!)
The workshops dealing with early property maps were especially interesting to me. Recently I spent a lot of time in a county courthouse researching seventy-five land transfers to which another of my great-grandfather's was a party. I was able to use that information to track several places where he actually lived, as well as identify how he got his start in buying and selling property - and where the high-rolling land man saw the end of his business career with a sheriff's sale. There is a lot to be learned in property transfers.
The DNA workshop was a promotion from a British company that is working on technology that may - at some point in the future - actually be able to provide people with a family tree generated by their DNA samples. That's a long way off, but I suspect that is where the field of genetic genealogy is headed, and that we will be there sooner rather than later.
There is one more day of workshops, but I am literally worn down and may head for home in the morning.
Daddy's coming, Rosie!
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