So how was your trip to SLC. .
Joseph and
Ranchos members. My trip was very rewarding but very exhausting. I
arrived on Sunday afternoon and was promptly informed that all dining
establishments were closed on Sunday with the exception of the mall
which was about 4 city blocks away. I proceeded to walk to the mall so
I could get to know the area, find the mall and find the family history
library that evening. I found the library that evening then walked back
to my hotel room to rest up for Monday morning.
Monday
morning in order to maximize my time at the library I had the
continental breakfast at the hotel then proceeded to the library. The
first part of the morning I sat through a brief introductory video that
told me most of what I already knew so I passed on the second video and
proceeded downstairs to B1 which is the international floor. To those
of you who know this process this is old news, but to those who have
yet to go and are planning to go sometime in the future this might be
of interest to you.
I spent the
first half of the morning becoming familiar with the process, where
everything was located such as the film, copiers, film viewers etc,
etc. At 10:00 am I met with Jonathan, he gave me some good pointers on
what to look for first and how to go about the search. I then very
aggresively pulled 4 rolls of film thinking that I could easily get
through these. Boy was I wrong, I was able to get through only 1 1/2
rolls in one day but these two rolls were packed with valuable data. I
considered this the best one day manhunt. Fortunately I selected two
very good rolls to begin with. I found a gold mine of information. It's
unbelievable the joy and excitement you feel when you find someone
you've been looking for.
I realized
that one reason I'd been discouraged with my Geneaology search thus far
was that in past searches, I had not found anything conclusive which
was the search for my father in-law and his descendants. In these films
while I still did not find anything on my father in-law I did find my
great aunts and uncles on both sides of my family and as you all well
know that leads you to more people to search for. I was doing the happy
dance now. In the meantime I lost track of time and before I knew it it
was 2 o'clock and I still had not had one good meal. For someone past
50, with a compromised immune system like myself that is not good but I
still could not pull myself away. Finally around 3:00PM I found my way
to the vending machines at the FHC as I did not want to leave the
facility for fear of losing ground and losing time. I hurriedly ate a
stale sandwich and ran downstairs again to get in some more time befor!
e they closed at 5:00 PM which is the closing time for Mondays.
More of the
same on Tuesday and Wednesday except on Tues and Wed they close at 9:00
pm so just add a few more hours to this routine. By this time my
fingers are getting crippled from so much writing and my shoulders are
aching from bending over for hours on end to say nothing about my eyes
straining to read all the different types of writing by different
scribes, clerks or juezes municipales.
On Wednesday
I had just about given up hope of finding anything about my father
in-law. It was two hours before my time to depart when I'm scanning my
second to the last roll of film # 1092599 which which was Nacimientos,
registro civil de Nochistlan, anos 1904-1908 and about half way into
the year 1904 I hit the jackpot. While I didn't find my father in-law,
I did find his brother, Julian Carrillo, hijo legitimo de Francisco
Carrillo de 18 anos de edad y Mariana Jauregui de 16 anos de edad
nacido en el Rancho de El Monte De Duranes. I didn't yell out loud but
I did feel such a sense of joy internally and I'm pretty sure that the
earth did stop spinning for just a second. I now have some verifiable
data to work from.
All things considered, yes I
starved myself of food, yes I was exhausted and If I'd done this for
one more day I would have been very sick but it was worth it. I
wouldn't do it this way again but I will go again, next time I'm taking
my two sisters. The irony is that before I went to SLC I had been
asking and begging for information from my father in-laws family and
nobody could remember any names of his siblings, just that they thought
there were two, a brother and a sister. Once I came back with a name
and a year I got "oh yeah, I do remember an uncle by the name Julian
Carrillo but I never met him and I did hear stories about him. Go
figure.
There you have the essence of
my trip to SLC, bravisimo.
PS: I didn't get sick, just
felt extremely exhausted.
Alicia
.I bet it was somewhat overwhelming. . .kindof like the first
time you went to a smorgasboard. Just a guess since I've never been
there to do research. but my time is coming one day. . .
joseph
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