Motivation Monday: Research Trip

For months I had been planning a research trip to the Baltimore County Genealogical Society library. I had four hours on Saturday morning to cover my list of four things, and my husband in tow as my research assistant. The first item on my list was easy - a copy of the title page from a book I missed last year when I was at the library. One down, three to go.

I came up empty handed for everything else. However, my husband did find tombstone transcriptions for a few individuals with the same surname as some of my ancestors buried in the same cemetery. Not knowing who these new individuals were, I decided we should head out to the cemetery as long as we were in the area.

On the way, it started pouring, but I wasn't going to walk away from the weekend without any success. We were in luck, though, as the rain broke when we pulled into the cemetery. We knew my ancestors were in one of two sections and picked the one we wanted to start with. A few rows in, I spotted the surname we were searching for. I was so excited, I forgot about my previous disappointment. There, I saw the two names I knew, along with two others next to them with the same surname that I did not recognize. I snapped lots of pictures and reveled in one success and was excited to get back to the hotel room to research my new finds.

The clues I received in the cemetery, along with the book my husband copied proved to be my brick wall busters! As a result of what I thought was a disappointing trip, I have more to share than I can possibly fit in one post...and I found it all before I even went home. Over the next few posts, I am going to share my amazing finds, a few resources, and even a very helpful piece of technology, all of which I hope will give you the motivation to keep charging at your brick walls because you never know when they will start to crumble.