Getting the right fit in research

Back when I was in high school (somewhere around when dinosaurs wandered the earth), if you were "going steady" with a boy you got his class ring to wear and it was always too big! The solution was a tedious method of wrapping the back of the ring with thread and then sealing each layer with fingernail polish. When you broke up, the poor guy got the ring back complete with the "resizing". How he removed the layers I'll never know!

Genealogy is like that. You keep winding the threads together hoping to get the right "fit"! SWNGS might just have the polish you need with a workshop Saturday, May 16, at the Keystone Business Center here in McCook. Starting at 9 a.m., Sherrie Dack will present Genealogy Basics. Sherrie, a professional genealogist and SWNGS executive board member, has taught genealogy and filled research requests for several years. This session will help you take your very basic information and fill in the blanks to your tree.

After lunch, which is included in the workshop, Larry and MarDee Adams, professional genealogists with the LDS Church will present a session on Family Search/Family Tree. The Adams will show participants the methods of using www.familysearch.org, a free website containing records from around the world that have been digitalized by church members. In addition, they will also demonstrate how to use the Family Tree contained on the website to build your family tree.

Now for some unrelated items. I received a request for information from Jasel Cantu with the Nebraska Latino American Commission. Jasel had been told that McCook's early history included a relic from the Coronado expedition and that our fair city had several buildings designed in a Spanish Colonial style.

I found one reference of a sword being found along the river that was suspected to be of Spanish origin in the September 29, 1910 edition of the McCook Tribune. The writer did not mention who or when that sword was found. If anyone has concrete knowledge of, or knows the location of this sword, please contact me.

At a glimpse I would say only the old YMCA and the Carnegie Library show Spanish Colonial influence in their architecture and in fact the architect of the Carnegie specifically referenced the design as such. Fellow writer, Walt Sehnert, touched briefly on the naming of Cibola Ball Park after the Coronado expedition search for the seven cities of Cibola. These cities were purported to be rich with gold!

These are some "new" websites that might help your research! If you have ancestors that lived in Michigan try this site: www.seekingmichigan.org. This site includes a way to search death records by navigating with the ADVANCED SEARCH button shown at the top of each page. Click on that and then select what you want to do from the drop down menu.

Ohio has also added about 300,000 digitalized papers to the internet for research. To check their resources go to: www.ohiohistoryhost.org.

Finally for information about Missouri records try this site: www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/browse. I'm still trying to catch up with spring so I have not had a chance to look at these suggested sites. Good luck with your queries!