Although I love using the Internet for genealogy research, I absolutely love the experience of researching in a library. I love walking down the stacks, lightly touching the book spines, and imagining what information they might contain. I like to choose my personal workspace and then feel the excitement as I settle in and open a book to see what secrets it might reveal.
Last week we researched at the New York State Library in Albany. I had just finished going through a number of books on Seneca County and in particular Morrison’s Town & Village Of Ovid, Seneca County, NY 1789-1889, when my husband asked me to watch his briefcase and our laptop while he copied the 1875 NYS Census for Newfield, NY from microfilm onto his USB flash drive. Consequently I was trapped in my carrel, unable to walk the stacks with all that I had to carry. So my attention went to the books directly across from me. They dealt with wars – Revolutionary, War of 1812, Civil War, etc. Not to waste a minute of my library time, I started pulling these books off the shelf. I was familiar with some of my family members who fought in the Revolutionary War, so was not surprised to see their names appear. But one name I was not familiar with – Norman Agard. In the book Record of Service of Connecticut Men, Revolutionary, War of 1812, Mexican War, I found poor Norman had enlisted as a private 11 March 1814 and died 18 December 1814.
Upon my return home I went immediately to Frederick Browning Agard’s book, Agards in America to find out to which of the five branches of the Agard family Norman belonged. I found Norman on page 92, the appendix, under “Three Loose Ends.” Norman was loose end number two. Apparently, Mr. Agard did not know where Norman fit into the family either.
What I love about genealogy is just when I find the answer to one question, another mystery presents itself. Enjoy the journey!
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