On July 3rd, I had the opportunity to accompany two other genealogy enthusiasts on a trip to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. As far as I knew, I did not have any ancestors who lived in the Cincinnati area, but I thought I could at least see what the library collection had to offer.
I didn't want to go on this research trip totally unprepared, so I checked out the website for their Genealogy and Local History Department. The video tour was useful for the overview of the resources available. Since they appeared to have a sizable collection of Kentucky resources, I decided to explore their online catalog before our trip. I was particularly interested in a microfilm title, Kentucky birth, marriage and death records,
1852-1910, on 32 reels. Hoping to trace my great-grandmother Mollie Jones and her siblings, I made sure to bring along my family group sheets.
Once we arrived at the library, I set off to use the microfilm machines to search the Kentucky birth, marriage, and death records for the counties I suspected that Mollie Jones' family lived. The library has digital microfilm scanners attached to wide screen monitors. Using the digital scanner was a learning experience in of itself. It took a bit of practice getting used to reading and moving from frame to frame with the digital display. There is a lag time and blurriness if you move too fast between frames, or zoom in or out too fast. It is different from using a traditional microfilm reader. After spending considerable time searching through several counties' records, I decided that this wasn't getting me anywhere. The microfilm records had many gaps of missing years, and those seemed to be the years that I needed to check.
I decided to explore the print collection instead. The library's collection includes materials from all over the United States, with particular strengths in the tri-state area and southern states. After exhausting the Kentucky materials, I moved on to search the stacks containing Tennessee and South Carolina books. There was a list of cemetery readings in a Jefferson County, Tennessee Miscellaneous Records book, and I believe it is for one of my ancestors. I almost didn't look in this book, but now I'm glad I did. The more I used the collection, the more books I discovered that I wanted to check. Toward the end of our time there, I found the Civil War indexes and Passenger Lists, giving me more reasons to look up ancestors' names.
There were a few clues that I found which might end up proving useful. Although my original research plans for went awry, I suspect that I will be revisiting this library. I would consider this trip a success.
