52 Ancestors Week 19: At the Library

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 19:

The theme for Week 19 is “At the Library.” Any librarians in the family tree? What about a fantastic find you’ve made at the library? This is a good week to write about it.

Want to check a book out at the biggest library in the universe?

    Who doesn't love libraries? I've written about my adventures at the Haverhill Public Library in the blog many times and here's one of my favorite entries.  I'll admit I haven't been back there since the place was flooded last year. What's that? I never talked about that incident? Well, to make a long story short there was a bad snowstorm in January 2024 and some pipes burst following some heavy rain. Some reference materials did get some moisture. But, by and large everything worked out well and they opened up again a few months later. For details check out this link.

Not a bad place!

    The last time I was there was about maybe two months before the flood. My dad's cousin Bob took me there because he wanted to look stuff up and I wanted to use the reference room on the third floor. The reference room at the Haverhill library is where they keep all the reference material you could ever ask for about the city.

    In this case, I was looking for the burial plot of my second great-grandfather, Antoine Legault. Remember him? I still can't find his grave. More on that later.

    I knew he was buried in Saint James Cemetery in Haverhill. I just had no idea where. Unfortunately, finding his final resting place proved to be a monumental task.

    When I got there, I asked the nice lady behind the desk if she could bring out the archive of grave listings for Saint James. I swear the question sounded so much better in my head. I imagine they don't get many requests for that archive. At least she was nice about it. She went into the back and came out with four or five plastic cases. Each case had hundreds upon hundreds of loose computer paper. I umm....didn't expect that. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe a book? Or a tablet with information? Something with a search bar? I resigned myself to my fate and started looking and prayed that I didn't get any paper cuts.

Welcome to the biggest cemetery in Haverhill.

    As I looked through the loose papers, it became apparent that Saint James Cemetery is probably the biggest cemetery in the city. Thousands upon thousands of souls were buried there. Thankfully, each folder had an index at the end and that cut my time looking through that mess considerably.

    Sadly, I was only able to find one or two Legaults by the time Bob came back from doing what he needed to research. None of the Legaults that I found were Antoine. I knew he was buried there! His death certificate in 1901 clearly stated he was buried in Saint James. Looking back, I really wished that the archives were organized a little bit better. Like by year of death. That would have made sense. Instead, I got envelopes full of papers with random dates.

    Let me just say that it's probably not the worst thing that could have happened during that expedition. It's good that the HPL has that all well documented. It's just not terribly efficient in how that information is presented. I think if they were to move the information to a digital platform, the task might not seem so arduous. Not to mention less messy. I dropped one of the folders by accident and the papers inside went everywhere. Whoops. Don't worry! I cleaned it up!  The librarian even got a laugh. I guess it wasn't the first time it happened. At least my visit was not uneventful for her.

    Now, she did offer to help me look through the folders. But, she had to help someone else. I don't think she knew what I was looking for or really the question. I had to explain that I was an amateur genealogist and that I was looking for the burial plot of an ancestor. Saying "I'm looking for a burial plot for someone" sounds weird no matter what your profession or hobby is. I think she finally understood that I was a genealogist and not some weirdo looking for someone. At least I hope so!

    I sadly left the library that day emptyhanded. I was planning to update Antoine's page on Find a Grave with more information as well update his page on Wikitree. It happens. You win some and you lose some.

    Fortunately, he does have a page on Find a Grave and I did request help from a volunteer to help find his grave. Hence the name of the site.
 
        As of May 2025, there are over 9,000 memorials at Saint James and so far no one has found Antoine's grave. I wasn't kidding when I said that Saint James was the biggest cemetery in the city if not one of the biggest. Finding his grave is proving to be a monumental task. However, I did find that his daughter Emma was buried there in 1896. Could he be buried with her? It's hard to say. I wasn't even able to find her information in the library.

    The Haverhill Public Library is still a great resource. It's reasonably close by and would have more information I need for my family history than the Kelley Library in Salem.  Don't get me wrong. I love the Kelley Library. Friends of mine have worked there. It's fantastic! They just ummm...don't have the droids I'm looking for. 

    Eventually, I probably will head back to the HPL at some point. I want to see if they've improved a few things here and there. If a disaster strikes, it's usually a good time to improve a few things once repairs are completed. I'm sure things look even better now. I'd just have to take a trip to Haverhill to check things out.

    Libraries are an important resource and it's good to have them up and running. I'm glad that despite the flooding, the HPL is back in action. It's been over a year since the flooding and there's still a ton of information I need to find there. I think if I go again, I'll poke around the newspapers section. Here's hoping I get a chance to go. Perhaps then I'll come back from the factfinding mission with some genealogical gold! Fingers crossed!

See ya next time!