Thursday, September 16, 2010

Library Challenge-Ancestry Library

After some problems with Ancestry Library connecting at our Library, everything if working again. So I went to finish my final assignment for the Library Challenge. I took a class a few years ago, and did some researching on AncestryLibrary. I remember finding my grandmother's marriage and death certificate at that time. Now, I was quit frustrated. I tried to research my own name, looking for our marriage license. I found a record through the US Records Index stating my birthdate and current residence. Although, I moved across the street about 8 years ago from 441 5th Street to 420 5th Street, and my old address was still listed. My mailing address is POBox 390, which was listed, but POBox 71 was also listed. That was a mailbox that we had some years ago, probably at least 25 years ago. Then when I tried to research our marriage license, I had problems. I also put in my maiden name, which was Eidem. I received information on names from Adams to Eatons, with a few Eidem's mixed in. They were my cousins, so I guess I was a little related to my research. I did find some information when researching my husband's name (Greg Gemar) and got a little info. but not our marriage license. I'm wondering if it's all legal?! I did find a couple of my husband's brothers' marriage to their wives. When I marked the box for "exact" it jumped me to JoAnn Efta's obituary. She was my neighbor years ago, so I felt a little "related" to that search also. But I was very frustrated after an hour of searching. Was I doing something wrong? Are we still having problems with our AncestryLibrary at our library? This is one database that I would love to be familiar enough with that we could offer a hands-on class at the library. We have a part-time staff of 3, and if we could all be familiar with it, we could give some explanations for searching, and then just all be there to assist as people gave this a try, so I was disappointed since I couldn't find what I was looking for at all. I would like more help, or some explanations of why I had so many problems. I hope everyong else had more success than I did. But as I expressed in more summary, I was pleased for the most part with the class, and I am glad I took it. But, I need a lot more work on AncestryLibrary.