Nicole and Diana discuss the final and most important step in preparing for an onsite genealogy research trip: calling the facility. Diana opens by referencing previous episodes that covered foundational steps like creating a research objective, developing a timeline, conducting locality research, and crafting a detailed research plan. Nicole emphasizes that calling ahead is her number one tip for successful onsite research because it can reveal critical information not found online. They share anecdotes from...
In this episode, Nicole and Diana discuss preparing for onsite research, focusing on the critical importance of thorough locality research and detailed planning. They explore Nicole’s contrasting experiences with Love County, Oklahoma, where she conducted comprehensive research into the county’s 1907 creation from Chickasaw Nation, clerk responsibilities, and record locations, versus her rushed approach to Hardin County, Kentucky, which led to challenges with the Kentucky Department of Library and Archives’ broad catalog system and difficulty...
Nicole and Diana discuss the critical steps to ensure a productive genealogy research trip. They emphasize the importance of thorough preparation to avoid frustration and wasted time and money, highlighting that onsite research presents unique challenges compared to online research. Listeners learn that creating a clear research objective is the first crucial step, and Nicole shares contrasting examples from her own experiences: a successful, targeted trip to Love County, Oklahoma, for her Kinship Determination Project,...
After my first day uncovering over twenty Harris family records, I returned to the Love County Clerk’s office with curiosity about what other records might exist, particularly from the county’s earliest years. I didn’t have a specific research plan beyond exploring the oldest volumes to see what I might find. Day two would prove interesting in unexpected ways—sometimes courthouse research yields valuable discoveries not because you know exactly what you’re looking for, but because you...
After my successful morning discovering over twenty Harris family deeds at the Love County Courthouse, I was eager to dive into tax records that might reveal more about my ancestors’ financial status during their time in Oklahoma. What I didn’t expect was to find myself kneeling on a concrete floor in a converted jail cell, using an upturned plastic bin as a makeshift desk while my phone battery slowly died. Sometimes the most valuable genealogical...
Today, Diana and Nicole talk about the many valuable genealogical records still waiting in courthouses, archives, and historical societies that aren’t digitized. Nicole shares her personal journey into onsite research, with recent trips to the Love County, Oklahoma courthouse and Historical Society, and the Kentucky Historical Society and Department of Library and Archives. She also talks about visiting Brigham Young University Special Collections to see an ancestor’s diary, and other facilities like the FamilySearch Library....
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of walking into a courthouse and uncovering a treasure trove of your ancestors’ records that exist nowhere else online. My research trip to the Love County Courthouse in Marietta, Oklahoma, turned into exactly that kind of genealogical treasure hunt. What started as a search for one specific 1913 deed mentioned in a newspaper article led to the discovery of over twenty records documenting the land transactions, oil leases, and...
Ever had an unsuccessful research trip where you spent time and money traveling to a facility, only to leave feeling frustrated and empty-handed? This is the first full post in our Onsite Research series (introduced here), where we’re diving into how to prepare for an onsite research trip and the essential research planning that should be done in advance. The good news is that with proper preparation, you can avoid those disappointing experiences and make...
In our digital age, when millions of records are accessible from our home computers, it’s easy to forget that some of our most valuable genealogical treasures still lie waiting in courthouse basements, archive storage rooms, and historical society filing cabinets. While online databases have revolutionized family history research, the reality is that countless records remain undigitized—and these might hold the keys to our most challenging research questions. Claude (an artificial intelligence tool) helped write...
