50+ Learn how to plan a success research trip

If you missed the genealogy program at the Roy and Helen Hall Library last Saturday, you might want to take a look at these tips for planning a genealogy research trip. Tresa Tatyrek, veteran of research genealogy since 1997, taught more than 50 library guests how to make sure you do not waste valuable research time or miss clues to your family history while on a research trip. Here are a few of the things to remember.


• Map your trip so you travel to different sites in a logical, non-time-wasting path.

• Research and write down the operational hours and rules of the various repositories you will visit before you leave town.

• If the repository has an online catalog, make a chart of the titles you want to review and their library call numbers, as well as the name of each person you hope to find in that source before you leave town.

• Remember that some repositories will only allow you to carry a notebook and pencil in their facility so create a mini-research kit with condense family notes, a pad of paper, pencils, and a research chart.

• Digital cameras can eliminate the cost of copies and are essential for cemetery research.

These are just a few of the items needed for a success research trip. Additional copies of the handouts from the program are available in the Helen Gibbard Hall genealogy area of the library.

Planning a research trip

You can waste a lot of time on a research trip, and leave without having mined all the resources available to you in the area, if you do not conduct the right advance planning. Tresa Tatyrek, a veteran genealogist, can help. She will present a program at our library this Saturday from 10:30am to noon on How to Plan a Genealogy Research Trip. Come join us.
The new year is bringing new sources into our collection. One that has recently arrived if the 5 volume set of the Texas 1860 Agricultural Census. If you had ancestors in this area you'll want to take a look at volume 2, even though we are referred to as Collins County instead of Collin. Sometimes people appear in this census that were somehow missed in the population census. Some of the information included with the head of household name are how many horses, how many bushels of wheat, rye, or corn, how many pounds of butter or cheese, how many tons of dew rotten hemp, and the value of animals slaughtered. Come take a look and see what you can find out about your ancestor.

Helen Gibbard Hall Genealogy and Local History Collection

Since people who walk into my library are often surprised to find that we collect more than just Texas materials for researching family history, I thought I'd take this opportunity to give some idea as to the scope of the collection. We are limited in space and knew we could not be all things to all people so we made the decision to focus on the states that are on the migration trails to Texas. Therefore we collect materials from the following states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and New Mexico since half of what is now that state used to be part of Texas. There are a smattering of other regions or states represented due to donations, as well as a small collection of family histories.

First post - 2010

I am Tracy Luscombe, the genealogy and local history librarian of the McKinney Public Library System. Though this blog shows a contact of jcox that is only because the library's main blog site has the same contact for every blog. However, my real contact information is tluscombe@mckinneytexas.org. I plan to post to this blog weekly as 2010 progresses. This is a new skill for me so there will be a learning curve. Stay tuned - the idea is to bring more information about our genealogy and local history collection to you each week.