52 Ancestors Week 32: At the Library

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 32

One of my favorite things to do when I was little was go to the library. (It still is!) It's really no surprise that I ended up getting my Masters degree in library science. This week's theme is "At the Library." Do you have any librarians in your family? What about fond memories of going to the library or help that you've received from a librarian?

No HUMAN BEING would stack books like this....

    Libraries and I go way back. Way, way back. I was always one of those kids who went to the library to study or just for some quiet time. Before any of you yell "NERD!!", remember who you're talking to. I've made multiple pop culture references in various blogs. You knew what you were getting yourself into the second you clicked that link! Anyway, I was always at the library looking up stuff or playing a game on the computer like "Oregon Trail" or "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" In college, I actually worked at the McQuade Library at Merrimack where I helped to organize periodicals. So, yeah. Libraries and I go way back! I like them because they are a great repository for the expansion of human knowledge. They're also good if you just want to get away from the noise of school.

    While websites like Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias have also expanded human knowledge, it's important to remember that they are a tool. Nothing beats actually going to a library and seeing what they have in stock or seeing what you can find in their archives. Now, I haven't gone to the mecca of genealogical information at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or even the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. I have gone to a library a bit closer to home. Join me as I talk about the time I went to the Haverhill Public Library. 

Save the clock tower! Wait. Wrong building.

    It all started last year when I asked my dad's cousin, Bob if we could go to the library in Haverhill. We did a cemetery run at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Haverhill and I suggested going to the library when we finished running around trying to find Coppola graves. More on that cemetery run in a few months when we discuss "Tombstones" in Week 46. Spoilers!

    Bob was doing research on his own tree and happily agreed to go with me. He had some things to check out and I wanted to see what I could find in the library's newspaper archives since no Haverhill newspaper is currently online. Don't ask me what the deal is with that. This blog would become a long rant about how much potential they're squandering. *shakes fist.*

    The Haverhill Public Library is actually part of this complex of government buildings on Summer Street. Across the street is city hall and around the corner is the courthouse. If that doesn't scream "convenience", I don't know what does at this point.  It was tempting to go to those buildings and ask for information. SO TEMPTING!

I don't know why but I just
really like this picture.

    As tempting as it was, I had to stay on task. I had a mission to complete and I had the following objectives:

1. Find articles pertaining to people in my family from my great-grandfather Vincenzo Ferraiolo to even my grandparents, Marco Ferraiolo and Olympia Carrabs' wedding. 

2. Try to find Maria Tedesco's obituary and the obituaries for various relatives.

    Simple, right? Ahhh. If only that was the case, my friends.

    When we got to the library, Bob said that he needed to look up some stuff at the archive on the third floor. I said I was going to the newspaper room on the first floor and that I'd meet him once I find what was looking for. I then made a bee-line right to the librarian's desk and asked for help locating the reels I needed to use to find the articles I was looking for. The librarian on duty pointed me to where I needed to go and I thought I was all set. Apparently, I was not....

    

    I was a bit overwhelmed by the set up they had for the film viewer. Basically, the screen was an oversized Ipad and below it was a film viewer where you load the film and run it reel to reel. You use the mouse to open a program and it would look at the document for you as well as take screenshots. That's pretty cool in and of itself. We're living in the future! You could also browse the Internet and that means any patron could conceivably e-mail the pics to themselves. Just don't be that guy who saves their password on that computer. That's asking for trouble!

Just showing citizens of Haverhill this week. =D

    The librarian gave me an hour-long session for which to work with and I spent like fifteen of those minutes setting up one of the reels I needed to sift through. I thought I would start simple with the Haverhill Gazette from March of 1943 as that was the month Maria passed away. So, theoretically her obituary should have been there.

    Sadly, it was not. The clock ticking on the screen didn't do me any favors. So, I tried to use certain key words. For whatever reason, the app I was using didn't have an option to scan the pages for a certain word like "Ferraiolo". And yes I even used quotation marks to get the exact phrase. The technology was cool and all. But, it would have been so much more helpful had they included a simple search engine for the document. You could search for a word on the page don't get me wrong. The problem was that it couldn't search the entire reel. A simple program could have made the search easier. 

    I thought about it and felt like maybe I was being too hard on the system. I've been used to searches on sites like Newspapers.com where you could easily search for one word and the computer goblins can find it instantly. I know you have to work with what you have and maybe the system there spoiled me a wee bit. I just thought it needed to be easier to use and the clock was literally ticking. It's fine to just look page by page. But, when you're literally on the clock, it becomes a race against time!

Vincenzo and Maria!

    Time ran out and after an hour of searching the Haverhill Gazette from March of 1943, I came up empty. You can imagine my frustration as I walked to the front desk and asked if I could have more time. The librarian on duty said I could. I thanked him and he just went about his business. The odd thing was he didn't offer to help me look anything up. He was doing his own thing. I even said "I think I might need help with a few things" and he seemed kind of disinterested. I was like "Come on, dude. I'm finally at the Haverhill library, the place where I NEED to be and you aren't helping? REALLY?" I wonder if I should have pulled the "Freelance genealogist card". I should make one.

I didn't say that out loud. But, you KNOW I was thinking it.

  Once I had more time, I thought I would try and find something else. I carefully selected a reel which ideally should have had my grandparents' wedding in 1946. I sat down to sift through the reel and the iPad crashed on me. I sighed. This was one colossally bad comedy of errors. I just took the reel off and put things back quietly and went to go find Bob. I hoped he was having much more luck! I just wish the librarian was a bit more helpful. He seemed more content to just do his own thing.

Next time....

    I found Bob where I left him. He didn't seem to go very far. He was having a great time looking at books about the history of Haverhill and was talking with the librarian there. She seemed more helpful than the guy on the second floor. 

    Bob asked me how everything went and I said I wished I had found what I was looking for. I had the exact dates for everything I was looking for since I had the browser on the iPad open to WikiTree. All I needed to do was look over on there and then back to the reel viewer. Easy. 

    The only problem was that sometimes the reels were kind of hard to read and the help I could have gotten was virtually non-existent. I like libraries and I use them whenever I can. The problem was that this time the library kind of failed me. I wasn't mad or anything. I was just disappointed. It also didn't help that the program's focus feature didn't always work.

    All in all it was a disappointing experience on many levels. However, this doesn't mean I won't go back. If first you don't succeed, you try and try again. Just make sure a different librarian is on duty. The Haverhill public library is a great place and I can't really fault the app or anything. I had the search tools at my disposal. What I needed was more time and a helpful librarian. All the basic facts were already on WikiTree and I knew what time periods I was looking for. 

    I also wonder if the information was in another paper and not just the Haverhill Gazette. The city has other papers and I sadly didn't have time to go through them all. Next time? Next time I will and there will be a next time. I will find what I am looking for! Bob also agreed to go to City Hall. That should be fun and I'll be sure to write about the adventures here in the blog. Stay tuned and please support your local library!

   See ya next time!