Acquisitions.

I’ve doubled-down on my research investment, purchasing several items, including a surprisingly clean copy of a rare atlas from 1875. There's a lot more to it than what historicmapworks.com shows, and I really can't be arsed to get to NYC or Philly (if Philly even has a copy) just to get glimpses at the data I want. Besides, they have all sorts of limitations on the material's use, but now that I have an original copy, I can decide my own limitations, and have all rights. It cost an arm and a leg, but it was worth it. It falls neatly between Federal Census years, and lists landowners, names of businesses and restaurants, and has a number of other intriguing details to help fill out the portrait...

An idea of how rare this atlas is? I have it, but ancestry.com does not, and I come up empty when Googling for auctions for it. The crazy stuff you'll turn up on ebay on a lark. :)

I also picked up a copy of "Missie" (1947) by Annie Fern Swartwout -- a niece of Annie Oakley's who traveled with her for a time as her assistant. It's said to be fact and myth in equal measure, but it may provide some good flavor. I'd tried to get a cheap copy, but someone sniped me, so I bit at a signed copy w/dustjacket. Probably didn't get any other bids because the seller labeled it poorly, not even mentioning Annie Oakley in the heading, so even if it's absolutely horrible, I can turn it around for an easy $25-50 dollar profit when I want, likely more. Similar copies have gone for more than twice what I paid, so I'm pleased.

I’d only received Walter Havighurst's book the week prior but it has probably proved the most useful when looking for a style from which to take inspiration. The man's got a way with words and really nails dialect and accent. Plus, he cites Annie talking about a family she’d stayed with in terms I’d not heard before, reminding me that there’s still some personal writing of hers I’ve got to track down.

New York Public Library, OCRs and whatnot...

I hit the Schwarzmann Building (Milstein and Map Divisions) last week in NYC, and had a chance to examine:

History of Darke County, Frazer Ellis Wilson, 1914

The History of Darke County, W.H. Beers, 1880

The Biographical History of Darke County, 1900

The two former were most useful, the third very little. I've since procured OCR (optical character recognition) versions of the two I found useful, but let me warn any who would attempt similar: OCRs are crap. Optical Character Recognition technology is hit-and-miss. These versions, unedited, are rife with blatant typos, making them difficult to make sense of in some places. "N" is sometimes translated as "X". "W"s as quotation marks. If anything is to be made of them beyond the notes I already made in NYC, they'll have to be cross-referenced with online resources to guard against error. Pity that proper editing for these isn't deemed profitable. Clean modern reprints would be incredibly useful among the history-nut group.

The Map Division was rather less useful. Any images they make for me would prove unnecessarily expensive, and would grant no rights to reproduction. I know that once this work is finished, any rights to reproduction would be procured by the publishing house, but I like to have everything done myself. Little control freak in me, I guess.

I have a bid in for a copy of Swartwout's "Missie" on eBay. Swartwout was Annie's niece and accompanied her as an assistant overseas. The book is said to be truth and fiction in equal measure, but I'm welcoming such versions at this point. I want to see the apocrypha of Annie as well as the truth, and see what was skillfully woven, what was not, and what territory remains untread. I already have an interesting account for children, by Ellen Wilson, circa 1958.

And, watching "America: The Story of Us" tonight, I've learned that "milk-sickness" was caused by livestock eating white snakeroot, which injured not only the livestock, but also human consumers of the milk with its toxicity. Very useful, even though the cause of milk sickness wasn't recognized until well after the period I'm researching.

Almost New York.

By this time tomorrow, I'll be a very sleep-deprived boy in NYC. I'd received research copies of the maps I was seeking from Historic Mapworks, but they're not quite all I was hoping, so Tuesday I'm hitting the NYPL while I'm there to get my own copies. While Shannon's at Book Expo America, I should have plenty of time to do that, and skim a couple of obscure books I need to look at.

Left some research materials at dad's, so I haven't ordered the microfilm I need.

Unlikely that I'll get the DCI Daybook data I need before I go there myself. The real question is, will I fly or drive? I need to use that Southwest Airlines leftover refund somehow... Maybe on Florida.

Oh Holy Crap.

I just signed on to ancestry.com for a sec 'cause I hadn't been there in a bit, and a bunch of leads off the one family tree popped up... There may well be more living relatives I can track down and talk to... It'll be a few days while I sift through the info and start making connections, but I'll update when I've completed it.

Slowly.

My Dayton contact has been busy researching his own stuff (can't say I blame him), so I reckon while he might get around to mine, I'll likely first see the data firsthand when I get out there myself.

Wrote a letter to a member of a research family asking for memories, stories, and whatnot, but the lack of a printer is a hindrance. Things are slow now as I've been having the urge to draw more than write.

All for now.

Progress.

Through my ancestry.com account, I've found and contacted a link to one of the families I'm studying. It has revealed that there are, once again, a great many new avenues to pursue in the pursuit of comprehensive data about the family.

More later.

Well...

*sigh* This weekend wasn't as fruitful as I'd hoped...

The National Archives is broken into regional branches, and unbeknownst to me, they have only material specific to their region, excepting U.S. Federal Census data... The USFC data I can get off Ancestry.com with greater ease, and it seems that my local NARA branch covers only the mid-atlantic states (which means zippo about Ohio).

I ran on over to the Free Library to see if I could access their atlases, but naturally, the map department closes an hour before the rest of the joint -- which was precisely the time I arrived.

Don't get me wrong... Some gelatto, some food, and chilling with Hal Sparks was lovely, but I'd hoped to get so much more accomplished for what I've spent this weekend.

And now I have to do taxes tomorrow... Grr.

One highlight was that my Dayton contact said he'd likely be able to conduct the research-by-proxy in about two weeks, so hopefully, I'll have the confirming data soon.

Anyway, a bit sleep-deprived now, so, off to sleep. Peace to all you random passersby! :)