The Genealogy Roadshow

Unfortunately, not everything we want to find out about our ancestors can be learned from the internet or through letters. Sooner or later, you're going to have to travel. It may be a simple as a trip to the library, or one of the key research centers. Perhaps you're planning that trip to the county courthouse in that distant state to see if you can find the records you want. Or you want to visit the homestead and find the graves of the ancestors that bore your name.

Later this month, I'm taking off for the Swarthout Family Reunion in New York. That's a long way from my desk and files. This leads to a whole new problem. What do you take with you? How do you balance the reams of paper you already have and the need to travel light? How about restrictions on what can be carried into the archive section of the library? You may not be allowed certain items. Here are some hints and tips for being prepared for the research trips.

Have a plan

The first key is to have some idea of what you expect to accomplish on your trip or visit. If you are making a once a month trip to the state library, or if you are making a once in a lifetime visit to another country, you will have a different scope. The narrower the scope, the easier it is to take the specific items, files and information you may need. But if you don't know what to expect, you want to be ready to handle any opportunity that arises.

And review what you already know. Flipping through the sheets and refreshing your memeory may prevent you from traipsing down a path you have already followed to a dead end. It will also give you fresh ideas aobut where to start for new material.

My reunion trip will focus on the Swarthout family, of course. But there is always the chance that some other branch may suddenly appear, and I want to be ready to identify any need to research it. Knowing I have Fairchild's in my line may be well and good, but could it be the one in front of me? I want to know before I spend too much time on it if there is a possible connection. I have made trips were the entire purpose was to simple identify all of my ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War. I took a working copy of the family tree with birth and death dates. That was all it took to allow me to look up each of the appropriate names in the DAR Index.

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