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From: Cindy Amrhein <>
Subject: On finding off beat information
Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 07:42:55 -0700 (PDT)


Two of my favorite places to look for out of the norm
clues or information is
Making of America - Cornell
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/
and
Making of America - Michigan
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/

They are a historical and genealogical treasure trove.
When I work on a house history I always go there to
type in the town and names of my owners. They are
thousands of digitized books and journals from early
1800s to about the 1920s. I found a great story once
in Harpers New Monthly Magazine (1892), which had done
an article on Fox Hunting in the Genesee Valley. I
found it by typing in one of my owners. It seemed his
fox hunts were quite popular at the time it was
written.
They also have some of the War Depts. Civil War
records at the Cornell site.

And of course the Library of Congress Digital site,
American Memory, is a great one too.
http://memory.loc.gov/

They are all great for information written in the time
era you're doing just for insight on their lives. I
had to track a Minister once all over the U.S. but
Vineland, NJ. seemed to be a favorite for some reason.
Then he came to NY, when his father died he was
shipped back to Vineland, and my Minister went back
there to retire, marry,live, and die. I thought why
Vineland? So on doing some searching at these sites I
found some great background info on the whole Vineland
way of life set up to specs by a developer,
and how it was a dry town, and how Welches Grape Juice
(which started out as elixir) was invented there then
refined and used at church instead of wine, and a lot
of other wonderful background facts. So I could see
why it appealed to my Minister. Through the help of
the Cumberland list at Rootsweb I got my Minister's
obit, and it told how active he was in the community.
So it all really added to the story of his life.

Anyway, I highly suggest looking into the above sites,
which are free, from the comfort of your home.

=====
Cindy Amrhein
Historian/Abstractor

Town of Alabama Historian
Genesee Co., NY

**********************
Historian's Page - Alabama, NY
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nycalaba/
APHNYS
(The Association of Public Historians of New York State)
http://www.tier.net/~aphnys/

You can easily ascertain whether the occupant drinks bitters in the morning and whiskey with his dinner, or pure water and nothing else If he drinks bitters you will find his garden full of weeds.
James Wadsworth 1791

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