Saturday, July 24, 2010

More 411, Please

The information I requested from the National Records Center in St. Louis back in January is anticipated to be mailed to me on Tuesday, and I am supposed to allow 5-7 days for it to get to me. I am not holding my breath on this one. Although that might be a welcome relief from breathing all this humid air in St. Louis. I haven't been around this much hot air since my brother visited last month. Har, har.

We are going to Washington, D.C. next month so I am making plans to visit the National Archives. I am doing some preliminary research here on what is available so I can make the most of the one day I'll have to spend at the repository. I guess what I'm hoping to accomplish first and foremost is to gather additional background material for my dad's book. It sounds like I might be able to look at records concerning the Air Transport Command, which my dad was part of, as well as photos and discussions of the China-Burma-India Theater. Some of the stuff is searchable online, so I'll do that ahead of time. Then if time allows I will also do some other genealogical research. You can't bring any notebooks, photos or photocopies of historical documents into the research center. You can bring handwritten notes, however, as well as cameras and computers. My Macbook does not have my genealogical software on it, so I'm not quite sure how to handle the 1100+ names I have in the database. I may just print off the family tree and hope they'll let me in with that.

I am anxious to receive the military records on my dad. I hope there is something in the packet that I don't already have. I hate to think that I have waited 6 months only to find nothing new out about his time in the service. And I hope I find some good stuff at the National Archives to enhance my dad's story.

1 comment:

Mrs. Wryly said...

You have such an admirable persistence it's admirable.

OH, I already said that.

Just getting you prepared for government-speak!