We had a good group and are looking forward to our trip in 2012.
Having been buried in research and helping others for nearly a week reminded me of several genealogy lessons and I'll be blogging about my experiences over the next several blog posts.
I asked about two questions while I was there. I hate to just "dump" papers in the consultants lap as I know from personal experience that can make helping the person even more difficult.
I asked a consultant on the British Isles floor to help me with Robert Frame, cotton warper from County Cumberland, who was born in Spain about 1814 and died in Cumberland sometime in the 1860s. I had not planned to ask about him while there, but needing a change of pace I decided to.
Before I asked the question, I quickly re-located Robert in the 1841-1861 censuses and the marriage entry from the church where he married. I also re-located the 1841-1851 census entries on Rebecca Frame, who lived nearby and whom I am assuming was his mother. I also re-located some christening entries in Carlisle (where Robert lived) for Rebecca's two children. Those entries indicated a husband of John--possibly Robert's father.
Before I dumped all this on the desk for the consultant, I typed it all up. I summarized what I had on Robert and his potential parents. I tried to make it as easy to read as possible. Then I went and presented my problem to the consultant.
I explained that I was uncertain why Robert was born in Spain and that I thought perhaps his father had been in the military.
The consultant I talked with told me how to search the military records and gave me assistance in locating the military records for John Frames who fit my time "frame."
Did it make it easier for her to have somewhat "organized" information? I'm guessing so and I'm hoping so. I do know that it made it much easier for me to explain my problem to her and there was a lot less paper-shuffling in the process.
In the interest of time while at the Family History Library, I just copied the entire service files of the four John Frames who fit my time frame. I decided it was best to analyze them when I got home and could be somewhat more thorough in my analysis. There'll be time later to go back and work on them further.