Relics: Genealogy, family stories, history & other curiosities.

  If this were a movie, this part from September to say early December would be that musical montage where lots happens, there is a lot of hard work and then resolution.   It was a blur. It was full of starts and stops and I was stunned for most of it.  I tried to make the best decisions possible, not only for all my genealogy research, but for all the stuff, our place and for us.   Helene hit and our house became uninhabitable. We were in a hotel and could only bring our essentials. The portrait of my grandmother had to stay behind. My mom's wedding album, my dad's beloved high school yearbooks, photos, important, treasured items, documents, art and everything, but what we needed to get through the next few days.   Yes, some of it is only stuff. But it's my stuff. And a lot of if was sentimental and important to me. I wanted it. I deserved it. I am by no means a hoarder.  And yes were lucky that a good deal of our stuff was not floating down...

     While I have been keeping up with the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks project facilitated by genealogist (and former librarian) Amy Johnson Crow, I haven't been writing each week or publishing each essay.  Some weeks I don't have anything to say about the assigned topic or more likely I don't have the time to write more than a paragraph or two. And while I would love to be a prolific blogger and genealogy writer, not is not the time. I am doing what I can and that is enough.   So this week's topic is at the library. This is my love letter to libraries.   I wouldn't be a genealogist or a family historian (and a librarian) without libraries. In particular, without the New City Library. I was already in library school when I discovered the Rockland Room, the name for the local history room at New City Library. I was a loyal user of my home town library and really wasn't looking for a new home, but then I discovered the Rockland Room.   I thought I...