Second Day in Rhode Island
Jul. 8th, 2011 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pagerdI used up all my good karma yesterday. The morning started out with a thunderstorm and it rained off and on all day. Still hot, too.
I was going to take the local bus into the airport to catch the express, but it passed me. I walked back and caught the hotel shuttle instead. It rained while the bus was driving to Providence, but it was only a few drops by the time we got there. Two blocks before I got to the historical society library, the sky opened up. I was soaked. The library is well-air-conditioned to keep the documents safe so they advise everybody to bring a sweater. Mine got wet so I hung it up to dry while the rest of me was also drying.
I avoided anything paper and looked through newspaper fiche. The early 1900s Providence Journal wasn't gossipy enough to have the kinds of things I was hoping for and the one issue of a Johnston paper they had was of a socialist tract from 1898 called the Beacon. No luck.
After a few hours I was dry enough and cold enough to grab my sweater. I looked through the cemetery database for information the internet-published version doesn't have. There were a few nuggets of data, but none in the direct line.
Then I browsed through the published (both professional and amateur) family genealogies. I didn't find a Fenner match, but I did find a source for Harlan's wife's, Emma Randall, mom's last name. Then I checked in the death index, because it was an online death record that originally got me her first name, and got a different last name for the same person. And then it was closing time. I'm worse off than when I started.
I also looked through the Warwick city directories to find a listing for William, Margaret & family. No luck. (Hm.. maybe check for Margaret's parents, they were living next door in the 1900 census)
I'm going back tomorrow. I found out in the last few minutes that, even though they disallow portable scanners, they now have a camera day-pass for society members and I joined before I came.
I just checked the weather. It's supposed to be dry tomorrow, but check out what's hitting me now: http://www.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp?region=a5&size=2x&ID=BOX19
Goals for tomorrow:
Photograph the pages of the Randall book I'm interested in.
Compare the photo requests for Pocasset Cemetery to the database to find lot numbers so I can take pictures of the stones near our family plot.
The death index for Marcena Randall nee ?(Groton/Goodman) is a tertiary source, try to locate at least the secondary source to hopefully clarify.
See if there are Johnston city directories for Harlan & Simeon.
See if the 1926 paper microfiche has a clearer version of Harlan's obit.
Whatever occurs to me.
I was going to take the local bus into the airport to catch the express, but it passed me. I walked back and caught the hotel shuttle instead. It rained while the bus was driving to Providence, but it was only a few drops by the time we got there. Two blocks before I got to the historical society library, the sky opened up. I was soaked. The library is well-air-conditioned to keep the documents safe so they advise everybody to bring a sweater. Mine got wet so I hung it up to dry while the rest of me was also drying.
I avoided anything paper and looked through newspaper fiche. The early 1900s Providence Journal wasn't gossipy enough to have the kinds of things I was hoping for and the one issue of a Johnston paper they had was of a socialist tract from 1898 called the Beacon. No luck.
After a few hours I was dry enough and cold enough to grab my sweater. I looked through the cemetery database for information the internet-published version doesn't have. There were a few nuggets of data, but none in the direct line.
Then I browsed through the published (both professional and amateur) family genealogies. I didn't find a Fenner match, but I did find a source for Harlan's wife's, Emma Randall, mom's last name. Then I checked in the death index, because it was an online death record that originally got me her first name, and got a different last name for the same person. And then it was closing time. I'm worse off than when I started.
I also looked through the Warwick city directories to find a listing for William, Margaret & family. No luck. (Hm.. maybe check for Margaret's parents, they were living next door in the 1900 census)
I'm going back tomorrow. I found out in the last few minutes that, even though they disallow portable scanners, they now have a camera day-pass for society members and I joined before I came.
I just checked the weather. It's supposed to be dry tomorrow, but check out what's hitting me now: http://www.wunderground.com/radar/mixedcomposite.asp?region=a5&size=2x&ID=BOX19
Goals for tomorrow:
Photograph the pages of the Randall book I'm interested in.
Compare the photo requests for Pocasset Cemetery to the database to find lot numbers so I can take pictures of the stones near our family plot.
The death index for Marcena Randall nee ?(Groton/Goodman) is a tertiary source, try to locate at least the secondary source to hopefully clarify.
See if there are Johnston city directories for Harlan & Simeon.
See if the 1926 paper microfiche has a clearer version of Harlan's obit.
Whatever occurs to me.
