New Challenge - A 20 Year Old Prenup

So it's been a couple months since I posted anything and that is because I haven't had a client needing any research. Recently though, I have acquired a new client and they have me researching for something other than genealogy. They are looking for a lost 20 year old prenup and the attorney they had used when drafting it. This is quite a challenge and I am loving the feeling of detective as I research. It appears that most of the research I need to do must be done in person and on-site, so that is also exciting and different than most of my research. So far, I have two places with significant leads; the county courthouse and the local genealogy department at the local library. I know the library has a document I need to identify the attorney and they say it is in very fragile condition. I just can not wait to dive into the actual source and find the answers that I know are there! I'll let you know how it goes...

Haysville Genealogy Society

Saturday I went to my first Haysville Genealogy Society monthly meeting. I had been meaning to go to a meeting sometime in the last couple months but traveling for the holidays made that impossible. That day's meeting focused on FamilySearch.com, and the speaker explained how to use the site. Most of what was said I was already familiar with, but I did learn a couple new things.

The first was that there is a difference between searching the site's records and finding people in the family trees.When you are searching the site, it will bring you records based on the person's information that you have typed in. However, when you search the trees, it shows you where that person is located in other people's family trees. The great part is that you can click on the profile for the person you are searching, and it will give you all the sources that pertain to that particular individual. Depending on what type of information you are searching for, searching either the trees or the site could save you a lot of time. 

Another piece of information that I learned was simple, but could be a game changer when wanting to see the original documents. When clicking on a source or record, sometimes it shows an image of the document and sometimes it doesn't. I never really thought about this before, but I have learned that if the image is not available, more likely than not, the number of the microfilm will be attached to the source and you can have the microfilm sent to your local library! During my research, I have found a couple sources that would make or break an idea about my relative and this could be an easy solution to that. 

Well, that is the bulk of what I learned at the meeting. I will definitely be going back to this club's meetings as they were extremely welcoming and informative. Let me know if there are other places I need to check out!