You just never know where you are getting called from

Today I had a gentleman call and talk to me about a brick wall he had.  He had a gentleman whom he believed was born in this county in 1837. I asked him his name and what year this gentleman was married.  He said "Hold on a sec, I have to look that up, I am in Afghanistan and the internet is kinda slow."  AFGHANISTAN!!! I asked if he was in the military and he said he used to be but now a contractor. My tone went from 'you need to talk to the researcher' to 'let me see what I can get this guy'.  He did end up having to hire our researcher but you just never know where people might be calling you from. That was a new one for me.

The Librarian is NOT your researcher

The Librarian's job is to point you to the right sources and let YOU do the research.  Just because their co-workers or others believe they are the experts in everything, does not mean that they know your family inside out and backwards.  This is probably one of my BIGGEST complaints with "Who do you think you are".  People watch that and think that there are people just setting by with all the knowledge of their family that there is to know.  The costumer has more knowledge than the librarian sometimes in family history. 

I have no problem HELPING people find their dead relatives, as a matter of fact I do it all the time.  HOWEVER, help is the key word.  There are other things that I have to do.  I do not get paid to just sit and help you.  When you leave I still have other things.  There are times that those other things have a time crunch and I can not help you as much as you would like.  If you want one on one time, it may sound silly, but call me and make an appointment and I will do everything in my power to be available to help you.  But if you show up before you said or just show up, you are taking your chances on how much I can help you.  DO NOT think that I am rude or unhelpful because you did not want to do the work your self. 

Don't forget we love to help BUT we have other things we have to do also.

As much as we would LOVE to hold your hand the whole time you are here.  We have other things we have to do as well.  The goal is to get you started and check back with you.  If we say here is this book, please don't ask 5 times where they are located.  It gets a little annoying that we have to answer the same question 5 times.  We don't mind helping, that is why we are here but please do somethings by yourself. 

Please be patient with the research place

When you ask for something from a business or library, give them time.  They may be really swamped with things.  Do not demand your items from them by a certain time.  However, that being said, if a reasonable amount of time has passed and you did not hear from them, feel free to contact them.  Normally a reasonable amount of time can be 2 weeks to a month.  You do not want them to forget about you or your research.  Please do not contact them after a week wondering where your stuff is. It is rude. Getting mad at a research place will not be a good idea.  It will leave a bad taste in their mouth to help you again, even if you did pay them money. 

Got to help a lady find a WWII War buddy of her dad.

A few months ago, a lady came into the Museum & was looking to know her father better.  He was in World War II, but she did not get a chance to know him that well and especially not his military time.  Do to some great books, including a scrapbook, and some amazing websites, she was able to walk out with a lot of information about her dad in WWII.  We were able to find the name of the ship & where it was deployed to.  We also found out that he was one of the first members on the boat & that there was a group for members of the ship. 
          She came in today.  She let me know that she had contacted the group and is on her way shortly to meet members including a gentleman that served almost the whole time on the ship with her dad.  He even wrote a book about his experience. 

I LOVE this part of my job.  How amazing to match people up to their questions.  :)

Don't expect the library to know EVERYTHING

      The librarian or research center knows a LOT of things.  However, they DO NOT know EVERYTHING.  Just because it is in the county does not mean they know about it.  If you absolutely have to know something and it seems that that location does not know, feel free to contact someone else.  You can even go to the location and look it up yourself or possibly hire someone. 
      Most times, but not always, library's are pretty busy doing many things.  Please respect that factor and don't expect them to do a lot of your work for you.  If you want a small 5 minute job, they can & probably many do, take the time to answer the question.  However, if that problem is more than a 5 minute job PLEASE be considerate and either come do the research or hire someone.

Does your positive fact make sense historically?

When doing genealogy and you are POSITIVE of a fact, before you go about demanding that everyone listen to you perhaps you should double check that the fact makes sense historically.  If you say that you know that all family members are buried in Nebraska including those that died in the 1750's.  Unless they are Native American's that statement is false.  The west was not explored west of the Appalachians until after  the American Revolution.  Even the early traders didn't go in to French lands.  Make sure that the history matches up before demanding, because if it doesn't you will be made a fool.  One of the great websites for that is http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/.  This website shows the development of counties in states over time.

Had an interesting situation that happens only so often today.  We had a couple come in on Monday looking for a local family surname.  I asked them if they had sent an email about it and they said no.  The reason I asked was because a couple was supposed to be coming in today to meet with some people about the same family.  The couple that was supposed to come in today, came in and meet with a local lady that they were distantly related to.  The couple from Monday showed up as well today.  These 2 couples were able to meet each other as distant cousins but then also some local people that they are also related to.  Usually this does not happen.  I have been around enough to know that it is usually a day or 2 sometimes a week or 2 months between the researchers looking for the same family.

Be Nice to the Librarian

A little piece of advice from the other side of the table.  Don't come in thinking you know everything. Cause if you did, would you be there researching? The librarian is there to help you, but if you don't treat them nicely they may just let you run and mess up your self.  If you are nice and helpful to them they may help you find connections and leads you may have not have found any other way.

Getting started

There are several blogs out there about Genealogy.  What makes this one different besides being from me? Well, I work at a genealogy center so I think that gives me a unique perspective about Genealogical research.

About me:  I have doing research on my husband's family for several years.  I have worked at my job for almost 5 years.  My aunt did research on my family when I was a kid, but lets just say I have not found proof for all of the things she said. :)  I devised a beginning genealogy class to introduce people into the highly addicting hobby of genealogy.  My job has been using it and so far it has gotten a lot of people hooked.

Well, more to come from the other side of the research room.