I love researching!

[Craig Hipkins]

(12-10-2012 04:11 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Hi Craig. That is wonderful!! I hope you won't mind me posting this link and also this link.

Roger,

Thanks!

Craig

[Donna McCreary]

There are many things I have read while doing research that has made me 'giddy.' Sometimes, I find something that others may have read, but did not publish. Sometimes, it is something no one else has read. Sometimes the moment is special because I am in awe of the item in my hands. Some of my favorite moments include:

1. Putting on the white gloves and holding Mary's coral necklace, measuring the waist of her skirt, and taking detailed notes about the strawberry dress.
2. Going through an old Todd family scrapbook and helping the staff identify the orginial owner.
3. Just reading ML's letters.
4. Reading a letter written by a friend to the Todd sisters and learning that it was Mary's sister Ann Todd who was truly left at the altar on her wedding day.
5. Reading about a biography of Mary Lincoln that was written in the early 20th century but never published. (would love to find that manuscript)
6. Going through hundreds of letters and documents written between the families of Emilie Todd Helm and Robert Todd Lincoln. Reading the letters written by Mary Harlan Lincoln explaining in great detail why she made the decesion to bury RTL in Arlington. Reading the love letters between Emilie and her husband Bejamin Hardrin Helm. Knowing all of those letters and documents are now lost, and my copies (and copies I made for a friend and co-researcher) are all that remains of that collection. (but hoping the orginials surface someday)

It is impossible to choose one single moment as my favorite. Each is special, and each encourages me to keep looking for more details.

[Jim Page]

(12-14-2012 12:06 AM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  There are many things I have read while doing research that has made me 'giddy.'

Donna, that is a beautiful post and I am happy you shared those moments with us.

--Jim

[Rsmyth]

Donna,
My favorite moment was, as you say, "putting on the white gloves" and holding the small pearl ring that Booth gave Isabel Summer. Both their initials were engraved inside the band. I imagined Booth shopping in Boston, New York, Washington or Philadelphia for the ring and their expressions when he handed it to her. What did they say to each other? Did they make short lived plans? I held history in my hands.

[BettyO]

OK -- I certainly agree, Rich! It's really something to "hold history" in your hands!

The thrill of my life was getting to "meet" face to face with Lewis Powell. I went with Mike Kauffman, Laurie Verge, Nancy Griffith and others about 20 years ago when Lew's skull was found in the Smithsonian.

To actually hold his head in my hands was quite thrilling, as it's not everyday that an author/researcher gets to meet face to face the long dead subject of their study..... I found it all facinating and a bit bittersweet....

[Rsmyth]

You topped me Betty!

[Christine]

Ohhh, I have to agree completely about the thrills of researching! Obviously, some of my best moments of historical research were searching for Frederick Aiken, and one of the coolest and most recent was helping to determine that he could have owned this flag: (remember, I said could have, not did. . . ) http://ephemera.ning.com/photo/president...ntext=user

The collector contacted Laurie, who sent him to me. He wanted to know if this flag was Frederick's. He hoped that I might find a contact through Aiken's newspaper work, but told me that my genealogy research probably wouldn't help me. Needle in a haystack, really. . .

I spent days looking for a Dunbar Aiken connection in his newspaper work, and in his military service, and in his political alliances. No luck.

But then I had a hunch and checked Frederick's genealgy. Boy, was the collector wrong! I discovered that Frederick's cousin Charles Cook (son of his dad's sister Selina Aiken Cook) spent his growing up years with Frederick's family (his family had moved from Vermont to Maine, but he was sent back to Vermont to live with family while he went to school). Charles was in the 1860 census with Aiken's family, but enumerated as Chas Aiken, not Charles Cook! I had always wondered who Chas Aiken was, and despite searching for him never found him. Obviously, because the enumerater made an error with the name! When he was old enough, he enlisted in the Union Army, and served with the 20th Maine, and was present at Petersburg, Five Forks and Appomattox.

He married and had a daughter named Selina Cook who married a Dunbar!! So, the flag, given to 'Grandfather Dunbar by Colonel Aiken' very easily could have been Frederick's. Family lore often gets some of the details wrong - Frederick died before Selina married Robert Dunbar, but. . .

Aiken was not officially a Colonel, but was often referred to as Colonel - even called Colonel Aiken in his obituary; he joined a cavalry unit, but didn't serve with them (in a letter to General McDowell he stated that he came dressed in his cavalry captain's uniform), and could have given the flag to his cousin who was raised in his family home who then gave it to his daughter or son-in-law!!

Yeah, historical research is one of the best legal highs!

[BettyO]

Thanks so very much for this thread, Dave!

One reason I love research so very, very much is because everyday can bring something fresh and new - and maybe sometimes earth shattering to the person doing the digging! Used to be that one had to travel all over the country to "dig" at various institutions (which I STILL LOVE to do!) Stuff still keeps turning up which is what makes this so much fun - much as Howard Carter said in 1922 when Tut's tomb was opened - "Wonderful things!"

The internet has made it so very, very much easier nowadays - still it's a thrill to go to the various historical societies and dig because not everything is digitized yet. And the museum and society holdings are usually vast and sometimes not even completely accessed - so it's good to keep one's hands in on solid, "hands on" research. Like libraries today. Much as I love technology and Ebooks and other electronic access, to me there is nothing like the feel, smell and touch of a good, solid REAL book!