Week 9

Ancenstry Library
1. I typed in my married name, and found interesting results. It provided my nickname correctly in parantheses. However, my birthdate and birthyear were incorrect. (It showed me being born 40 years earlier than I was!) It provided me with both college addresses and phone numbers (1 on campus, 1 off campus), and the address and phone number I moved away from 9 years ago. It hasn't caught up with me yet!
Just for fun, I typed in my nickname and married name. It provided me with my maiden name and the motel address we stayed at for a month 18 years ago while we waited for our new house. It provided me with one of my college addresses and also the house address we moved into.
2. I searched for my sweet Grandpa, not knowing his middle name, and found him. Neat! It correctly listed his parents, as well as where they were born. It was neat to see how old his brothers and sisters would have been at the time of each census. His address and phone number were listed correctly. It was sobering to pull up his Social Security Death Index. His death was listed correctly as well. Man, I miss my Grandpa! Grandma's birthday was listed correctly, but no phone number. I suppose because it was listed under Grandpa's name.
3. I never realized till I took this class how fascinated I am by old pictures. I could lose myself in them. There were 929 pictures and they seemed to range from about 1876-1968. Amazing to see how they used horses... When I saw a miner reading in his shack, I felt truly spoiled reading in my air conditioned house! "Oregon or Bust", the back of a vehicle with bicycle-width tires , boasted! It seems like "Bust!" to me! I love this tool.
4. Heritage Quest
I didn't have very good results with this tool. I typed in Volga, SD; Prairie Chautauqua at Madison, SD, etc. I did like the bars on the left side that showed the degree of relevancy.
5. Sanborn Maps
I searched Volga, SD and found 6 maps. They ranged from 1893-1925. The last year had 2 maps. I'm assuming that this is because Volga had grown enough to warrant 2 maps. The 1904 map was fascinating! Main Street was full of little businesses: a hotel, jewelry store, harness store, even an Opera House. It would be awesome to step back in time and see Volga as the busy, thriving community it was. Fifth Street, where I live, was, of course, not there since our house wasn't built till the early 1950s. The school didn't show up until the 1925 map. I found the Volga Hospital, which was later converted to an apartment house. I zoomed in on it in my mind. (This was easy to do since I used to help vacuum it after school when it was owned by my parents. Neat stuff!