Two Genea-Bloggers meet up at NEHGS

On Tuesday I met blogger Barbara Poole of the “Life at the Roots” blog in Boston at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library on Newbury Street. I had asked her in an email if she’d like to join me on a jaunt to Maine to look at the vital records, but we changed our venue to meet in Boston. Barbara took the train and I drove down from New Hampshire. We had never met each other before, other than through blogging comments and email, but we recognized each other right away!

We both had our lists of things to research, and each of us, by coincidence, had a “genealogical act of kindness” to research for someone else. We both had something to look up in the manuscript department, too, which was surprising. We have similar research styles, as well as sharing lots of New England ancestry. There were other similarities that made us both smile.

1. We both prefer to work straight through, not breaking for lunch.
2. Neither of us likes to lug along our laptops, or carry too many things.
3. We both brought almonds to snack on, power food for genealogists!
4. We both didn’t find what we wanted in the manuscripts, Darn!
5. We both gave up around 3 o’clock and we both wanted to beat the traffic home (Barbara wanted to beat the crowds at North Station who were coming in for the Celtics-Lakers game, and I wanted to beat the commuters on Rt. 93)
6. We both don’t like using microfilm (unless we are in the mood!) That was the last thing on my list, and I pushed it aside for another day.

We also gave up on whispering and annoying the other patrons with our chit chat. After wrapping up our notes we retired to the lunch room so we could just have a good chat. It was the best part of the day for me to finally talk with Barbara. Lots of giggles and a few hugs later we walked out of the library two happy Genea-Bloggers, and as friends. Barbara, let’s do it again soon!

----------------

Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo