It was tough

Yesterday.

Thank heavens it's over.

By work-day end I was weary. I couldn't think anymore. I had no ideas for follow-up research. I was done.

Looking back, several points came to mind that might have contributed to the state I ended up in:

• I looked at a film listing the Descendants of John Decker Robison. It included a good synopsis of information about his ancestry. Data I'd gone through before. Stuff that we can no longer connect with. The bulk of the film images (600+) were family group records of people who might be cousins. But I can't yet connect. And I have no opportunity at this point to really dig in and build the bridges needed.
• I found out that the Mission President for whom I finally created a data file was released last week. Late again...
• A good headache and low-grade fever visited me in the late afternoon.
• I got stomped at Scrabble during lunch time.
• I forgot the portable 40-gig drive that has my stuff on it. Left it home. Goodness.

Last night we went out to Applebee's for Family Home Evening. Apparently that's what most folks do. I didn't know that was on the list of suggested activities. We went out for a change of pace, scenery and temperature. Good Dinner. It revitalized me.

When I got home I worked through the obits I'd found, adding them to the database. That done, I returned to the Callister Collection and worked through more family records. I established the rules that determine whether I'll add a record to the database:

1. The family members are related to me. ~OR~
2. A family member lived in Millard County.

Those are pretty much the rules that govern my obituary searches, too. That cuts down on the number of records I have to add from the Callister Collection, so I've been going through more documents and putting those not meeting the above criteria in a different folder.

By bed time I was through with my slump.

I hit the ground running today. A little bump when the entire system went down - employees and patrons, both - for well over an hour. Still, I got the 1880 and 1900 census records for Millard County copied.

A patron came up to me and said, "I want the newspaper from Gainesville, Georgia." I looked it up in the FHLC.

"We have no newspapers from that town in our collection," I answered.
"I want the phone number for the newspaper in Gainesville, Georgia." he responded, irked that I hadn't read his mind.

I did a whitepages.com business search for him. 7 records in the result set. He declined the phone number for Poultry & Egg News and Mexico Lindo, but copied down the information for the Times.

He wasn't happy when he found out that we only have death records thru 1916 for that county.

"I want to find out when my cousin died, there," he stated. "I guess I'll just have to get the obituary from the newspaper."

I'm glad that I won't have to answer his call.