Ancestry Library

The most frustrating thing about this lesson was that we couldn't work on it at home.  It was a busy week at the library and it was tough to find time to spend on the site.  I did do a search for my name, trying several versions of it.   I was born in Canada and don't use my given name anymore.  I reversed my real name - Viola Jean - when I started college  - also changed the spelling of Jean and started using Jeanne Viola.  Really had fun with that when I went to renew my driver's license the last time - the time when I had to bring all the proof that I was a citizen - had to take my birth certificate, my mother's birth certificate, and a copy of my parent's marriage license - 45 minutes and a phone call to Augusta later, I finally got my driver's license renewed.

When I searched for my name I didn't get any hits until I used Jeanne V. Benedict. It had the right address but had my husband's birth date.  It also brought up Jean V. Benedict which had the correct birth date but the wrong address and another hit with an address in Steuben I've never heard of.  Couldn't seem to find anything else easily - will have to try again at some point.

A search for my grandfather took several tries as well - I did finally find him and his family in the 1910 census which was cool.  I found it a little frustrating that it took so many tries with combinations of his name and would come up with so many hits that didn't match the full information given - by adding Steuben to his name info, it would have been nice if it only showed people that also had Steuben in their info instead of every person with the same first and last name and even different middle initials no matter where they lived.

I wasn't able to find a Photos and Maps tab to try the third exercise - if it's easy to find I must have been having a bad day cause I looked everywhere I could find to look!  I was reading someone else's blog at home after trying and she mentioned having trouble but said where she found it so I will try and get a chance to go back and follow what she said.

I do think it's wonderful that people can access this site for free at the library.  If I had more time, I would probably enjoy doing some more research - although I usually avoid getting involved in genealogy because I really don't need one more thing in my life to be addicted to!