Another fantastic day in GRIP-land: Federal Land Records by Claire Bettag, Rural and Urban Map Strategies by Rick Sayre, and several lectures by Tom Jones covering Documentation, Census and Census-Substitute Strategies, Tax Roll Strategies, and the beginning of Local Land Records. Keep in mind that these lectures are not “What they are” sort of lectures. They are mostly “Analysis, Interpretation and Correlation” sort of lectures. Chris Staats did a superb job describing today’s class over at his blog Staats of Ohio. So…what he said. Check it out. Oh, and Happy 20th Anniversary to you and your wife, Chris!
Do I sound exhausted? There’s a reason for that. It’s called homework. Homework to end all homework. My eyes are crossed and my brain is fried. Dr. Jones gave us information from personal tax records for 10 men, census records, 12 deeds, wills, bonds, marriage register entries, order book entries, land tax books, and a Revolutionary War pension file. We are to analyze, interpret, and correlate all that to determine which of the nine zillion men named is the father of a particular man, about whom we know very little. After four or five hours of this I have made some progress. But then the little warning light came on that said my battery was low and my brain would shut down in three minutes.
In case you are thinking that this all sounds so serious and not much fun, please refer to my FaceBook page. (Send me a friend request if we aren’t friends yet.) Summer camp for genealogists is in full swing.
