August 1 - Public Libraries

Aug 1 – Colorado’s Denver Public Library has one of the best historical records collections around. See www.dever.lib.co.us/whg . Explore the resources of a public library in your ancestral state.

This summer I spent time at my 2^nd home in Wisconsin, my ancestral state and many of my ancestors. I wanted to obtain some records for my DAR application and knew I wanted to visit three county courthouses in Dodge, Waupaca and Winnebago County. However, I hadn’t plan on how much time I would not have to do this simple task since I had taken my granddaughter to Wisconsin with me. So I told my 14 year old daughter that I plan on leaving really early and visit a courthouse and that I would be back by lunch time.

So I traveled all the way to Waupaca and found the Marriage record of my great grandparents. Then on my way back I stop at Winnebago County. I decided to not only get my grandmother’s birth certificate and my great grandparents death certificates; I would research the family last name and identify who these people were. I was finally able to get dates of events that I didn’t know, and parent’s names of spouses.

Another day after taking my sisters to the airport, I decided to go to Jefferson County. I had many items sitting in my genealogy project folder for over a year and I didn’t want another year passing without following up on those items. I had hoped to swing by Dodge county on my way home but the home security company called and stated that they could install the system that day, so I headed home.

The next morning I got up early and headed to Dodge County and obtained my grandfather’s birth certificate along with my grandparent’s death certificates. While there I decided to look up in the indexes some other family names and found a different great-grandfather’s marriage certificate to his second wife. His parent’s names were listed on this document. I also found what might be his death certificate, but since certificates cost $20.00 each in Wisconsin, I need to do some further research to see if this is his death. I was told he died in Germany and his birth month and year matched but not the date. I hope this is his certificate because it means we share a birthday.

So today, I spent the day inputting all my new finds and source my documents. Plus I decided to research some more on my Great grandfather to see if I could find his obituary and tie it to his death certificate. I have determined that I need to do some more research next summer and visit the Library where he died. But at least I have a date to go on. Yeah!