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Alicia Carrillo wrote:
Well here I am now getting ready to go, I have been doing my
homework in terms of all the advice I've been given. Much of the
homework I had done months ago as far as the IGI database to identify
which films to order and some I did when we went to Tlachichila in Sept
2004. All of this data is what compelled me to go to SLC. There is so
much that needs to be looked up and verified that only a trip to SLC
will do it.
I found that I would get very agressive and order many rolls of
film at my local FHS and by the time my 3 or 4 weeks were up I'd only
had a chance to review 2 or 3 rolls, hence the trip to SLC. I will be
there for 3 days and nights but somehow I don't believe that will be
enough. I see from some of your responses that some of you go several
times a year. That also tells me that 3 days will not be enough but I
also know that I don't have the financial resources to go often.
My question to those of you who have completed or are very
advanced in your quest to find your ancestors is how long did it take
you to compile this data and how many hours in a day, week or month did
you have to invest in order to get that far?
Alicia,
wow what a question. . .for me it took months of effort. I rolled
through many many films frame by frame. At first when I had more time
than I have now I would go in to my FHC everyday for about 5 hours.
That period lasted probably 6-8 months (I'm currently a 2-3 times a
month volunteer which gives me a key to the place and freedom to go in
and study 24/7 If I want other than Sunday morning during their
services). Now I go in on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th thursdays of every
month and get there at 5 am and have 4 hours of research time before
the center opens when I need to start my volunteer duties. Usually I
can keep working to some degree.
Did you do it alone or did you collaborate with other family
members?
Estoy solito aqui en NC. . .but I do have cousins in CA that are
interested in genealogy and we have discussed the family over the
phone. I even got them to add searching the films at their local FHC in
Fresno. I was talking with my Aunt Julia for two years every other week
collecting oral history before she recently passed. I just loved being
able to report to her what I had found and have her respond that she
remembered her parents talking about this or that person and give added
details and clues for my continued search.
Did most of you do it through your family history centers?
almost 100%
As I see it now I have approximately 47 rolls of film
1 roll of film ='s $3.25 + .25 notification fee then $3.25 first
renewal then $3.25 second renewal or $10 per film to get them on
"permanent hold" at my family history center [prices may vary from FHC
to FHC even though I don't think they do. . .i think that is the
national set price, but I might be wrong on this]. Consider your cost
of going to SLC for a few hours [lets say 4 days at 10 hours or 40
possible research hours] and consider that to put all 47 films on
permanent hold at you FHC would cost $470. Almost all of the films I
order go on permanent. I've discovered that people you don't recognize
suddenly turn out to be relatives a few months later as your research
advances. I'd recommend that you use your time in SLC as an in-depth
"scouting" trip. Go and search out the "gold" mines of your research
area. When you find an area that your relatives lived in for a couple
of generations then consider not spending a tremendous amount of time
on these films but rather put them on permanent at the most convenient
FHC close to you in San Jose. Use your time in SLC looking for clues as
to which films or film groups (locations close to your particular
epicenter of research) are the ones you really want to zero in on. One
of the main things I look for in collecting oral history is Location,
Location, Location. I'm constantly looking for areas of Mejico that the
family might have moved to or come from with regards to the main
location I am researching. Once you find that you find a whole new set
of films you need to painstakingly [it hurts so good] research frame by
frame.
I've never been to SLC but when I go I'm going to save the in-depth
research for my FHC and do a lot of "shotgun" type of research where I
look at a lot of films where I suspect that the family went as they
made their journey north to the US. I want to go and really hunt
through the films of Durango for the presence of my Diaz relatives
where oral history tells me some were born. Heck I could have many lost
branches of my Diaz family currently living in Durango now if I could
just find out more info. I also have oral history that tells me
Coahuila is a key state. So I guess you see I'm reluctant to order a
lot of films from areas that I'm just not sure of but if the films were
there in SLC then I'd surely go and roll some films to see if I could
get a clue to the la Familia's presence.
that I need to request and I believe as I have some new
findings I will find that I might have additional requests.
My other question is how many rolls is the average you can
review in one day or is there an average.
hard question to answer. I'd say it all depends on the quality of the
penmanship of the scribe who recorded the records. If they had that
rare very good handwriting I might be able to roll through a roll in
10-12 hours (guess) if the handwriting is more typical bad or they used
heavy ink and it bled through the page and or back to the page before
by closing the book before it dried then those records can be
especially time consuming and easily take up 2-4 times as long. I've
had some records that still need time deciphering because I can see
that they are related but the smudges and such make the info hard to
see or they are very faded (the worst kind in my opinion).
just some of my personal thoughts. there is no right and wrong. you are
doing right by asking your questions and getting input from different
ones. I'd also add a digital camera to your equipment. I save a lot
more records now than when I used to make hard copies off the films
because it is so much faster to digitally click a frame than transfer
the film from a reader to a copier/reader [then again maybe SLC's
readers are "ALL" copiers as well I wouldn't know about that]. Keep
asking questions. I think its helping others in the group make plans
for a future trip to our Mecca.
joseph
When I would go to my local FHS it would sometimes take up to
six hours to go over one roll because I didn't want to miss anything
that might not be too obvious if I scanned through it too quickly and
some were difficult to read.
I guess I'm thinking out loud and maybe someone out there has
good tips on how to scan film and how not to scan film, the right way
vs the wrong way.
Alicia
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