Emails to my friends real time... but Names have been change....
My adventures at the National Archives doing ancestry research.
I wanted to look up the Civil War records of one my ancestors, Fredrick W....
On Dec 29, 2015, at 10:36 AM, Jill M wrote:
I was on the subway about 15 minutes after we landed and at
the Archives building at 8:45, 15 minutes before it even opened! Orientation
was a breeze (for the most part -- they were training someone new so there was
some delay) and then I was off to fill out my pull slip...they were very
impressed that I came with all the information I already needed, yet they still
wanted me to look it up on ancestry. That's okay -- they were new, too,
lol. I got in two pull slips (one for the military records and one for
the pension -- both pension files are together) for the 10:00 am pull and am now
anxiously awaiting the results!! They said they should get here between
10:45 and 11:00. The anticipation!
It is starting to get a little lighter outside so it might
turn out to not be a terrible day to walk around when I'm done. I was
also thinking I would go to DAR and look up a couple ancestors there that I
suspect they have better records of than the National Archives!
Certainly I'm going to visit the Bill or Rights and
Declaration of independence while I'm here at the archives, though.
So far so
good!
:)
On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 5:41 PM, Jill M wrote:
I am sitting in the hotel's concierge lounge eating the hors
d'oeuvres. Actually, gobbling them down--it's the first thing I've eaten all
day since the banana I had on the airplane at 7:30 this morning. HONGRY!
My hands were practically shaking when they handed me this
big thick folder that was Fred W's pension records. I just read through it for
about an hour then started photographing it. Then read some more, then more
pictures. Much of it was extremely repetitive but there was a lot of new
information or at least answers to open questions. And I need to go back
tomorrow to finish photographing it all as I ran out of steam around 2:30. When
I get off my ipad and on my computer I'll write more ... And also tell you
about the scandal I almost got caught up in -- no seriously, I was almost
questioned by Archives guards/federal whatever they are. Goodness, lol.
Anyway, from the Archives I walked over to DAR headquarters
(guzzling a diet coke on the way), swinging by the White House for a pic. I
spent another 1.5 hours in DAR -- and So cool -- was perusing the application
files on the A’s and OMG, right there all of a sudden, was a hand written
letter from MY 4x great grandmother explaining how she was the daughter of a
Revolutionary soldier and stating that her uncle also served (and that was how
this other applicant got into DAR) but so cool to see her name just jump off
the screen at me. :)
I was hoping for more info on my other rev war soldier, but
it's hard to complain -- it's been an amazing day. :)
Then I went
over to the National XMas Tree and it is SO COOL.
On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 6:36 PM, Jill M wrote:
The most surprising thing about the experience at the
Archives was that it was like a mini-soap opera there at times! Or it was
like I was in some not very funny SNL skit, lol.
First there were the people that wheeled in their own flatbed scanners. I
mean...sure I guess if this is what you do for a living but still it made me
laugh. And there do appear to be a bunch of them that probably do these
look ups all day every day for a fee and send them off to the requester. So,
the day started with one women greeting another man with "oh hey, it's
been a while, how are you doing?" And the guy replying that his wife
died, rectal cancer, and she'd gotten a clean colon screening just 3 years ago,
and the docs told her to come back in 5 years, yeah right, so much for
that. Then the woman saying how sorry she was and she understood because
her husband has been in the hospital with cancer and by now I'm just thinking,
"is it like this every day?"
Then my documents arrive and I'm just reading and diving into them and finally
the guy next to me goes, "You seem really engrossed by that, can I ask
what you're researching?" And I briefly explain how the man that raised my
great grandmother was a Civil War soldier but there are so many open questions
about my great-grandmother and I'm hoping the pension file sheds some light and
that it WAS shedding that light and it was just amazing to read these things and
hold them in my hands. I then asked what he was researching...it was
something about the 85 soldiers that died ...in some battle (lol, I wasn't
paying that much attention), but the guy across from us (whose wife died of
cancer) piped up because he'd done extensive research on one of the soldiers
and oh Barry (the guy next to me, should look him up). Barry wrote that
down, very interested. Then the guy is like, "Do you know <name
of civil war researcher?" Barry does not but writes that down.
Two minutes later the guy goes, "Do you know <another
researcher>?" Barry goes, 'no, I don't know many'. Then
again two minutes later the guy goes, "Do you know..." and by now Barry
is not happy with the interruptions and says, "No, you know, I'm really
not a groupie." both LOL and Oy and ouch. Barry then backed
off and was like "That's fine if you are, but it's not my
thing...." and the research hall feel silent.
Shortly after lunch, one of the women with the flatbed scanners got into a
boisterous discussion with another long time researcher about how terrible it
is that so many states established these state archives that are not up to
snuff and records are being lost and destroyed and these records aren't even
accessible and the archives are just pork from the Senators.
Then I'm deeply engrossed in my photographing -- take two pictures, turn the
page, take two pictures, carefully turn the page, etc etc. And Barry
goes, "That woman over there is flipping out" ... she must have
been doing it quietly. But Barry goes on that he needed a pencil and that
woman was talking to someone and Barry saw a pencil sitting there and it looked
like all the other pencils the archives provides (since pens aren't allowed)
but then when he put the pencil back down the woman lit into him saying that
pencil was hers and it was private property and he isn't allowed to be touching
it. Barry said he didn't know it was hers but since she freaked out so bad
he said he was kind of purposely being an ass and he purposely just touched her
laptop that only made matters worse. I just am shaking my head not really
following this story at all. Then Barry goes away to make copies and
comes back and says the woman is still going on and on to the archivist in the
room and wants security called. I’m like what? So, I keep
photographing. Next thing I know, Archive Security is standing right
behind me talking to Barry who is right next to me asking Barry to step out of
the room for a few questions. (!!!) Barry goes, "What is this in
regards to?" and the guard says (somewhat aggressively), "It's about
you stepping out of the room for a few questions." I'm thinking
O-M-G! I keep my head down.
Barry comes back a few minutes later and I ask him if they're letting him stay
and he said, "For now." He further explains that the woman was making
all kinds of claims and wants to file a police report (!!) but Archive security
are dealing with it for now. Barry then went to make copies and came back
and said Mike (the head Archivist which apparently Barry knows) told him that
security asked him (that is asked Mike) if *I* (meaning ME) was involved since
I'd been chummy with Barry. I'm like involved in WHAT?! Barry then
disappeared and came back and said that he'd gone and talked to Archive
security and told them that, no, absolutely not, I had nothing to do with
anything and I was just a visitor who had come to DC to do family research.
Please note that this was all in slow motion – it took place over the course of
4 hours in a quite no-pens-allowed documents research room! And again I'm thinking IS THIS HOW IT IS
EVERY DAY AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES RESEARCH ROOM!?!? LOL
I almost can't wait to go back tomorrow to see what else this little gaggle of
characters has in store for me. :D
OMG!!!!!!!
PART 2 and I don't know what's going on! LOL
The moment I walked into the research room this morning the woman with one of
the flatbed scanners and who had the discussion with the guy whose wife died of
rectal cancer jumped up from her desk and approached me and said that she was
so glad I had returned and that she was so SO sorry about yesterday. I'm
thinking....she and I didn't interact at all yesterday so why is she
apologizing to me? But she just barreled on and was saying that the man
yesterday was so inappropriate and that the Archives were supposed to be a very
safe place and all the guards and workers there were very protective of that
and they just don't tolerate that kind of behavior and she was so sorry I had
to go through that.
At this point I put on a good smile and said that I felt like something odd was
going on yesterday but I couldn't figure out what it was and it was just all
over my head as I was really just intent on doing some family history research.
She said that it was clear that that man was hitting on me and not letting me
do my work and then when he touched me that was really the final straw.
And that's when I went wait… WHAT???
Out loud I said almost the same thing. I think I told her that no, he
wasn't really bothering me and he never touched me. Then I paused and said...well,
he might have physically touched me at some point: we'd been talking / chatting
and since we were both speaking quietly, he might have leaned over to hear me and
in the process put his hand on my shoulder ... but I honestly don't remember. I
told her, from *my* perspective any touching that took place I didn’t really
register and I’m pretty key in on that kind of thing. I then kind of
laughed and said further that if he was hitting on me I honestly had zero idea...he
might have been and it just went clear over my head, but regardless I took no
offense to it. But then I asked if there was another woman involved in
what happened yesterday and she said that no, not that she was aware of, there
was no one else involved.
Then I asked her (Sarah was her name and she's there scanning and digitizing
and transcribing all documents from the Lincoln Administration so they are free
for everyone to see (yes we talked long enough for me to learn that), anyway, I
asked Sarah if the man from yesterday (Barry) would be returning today and she
said that no they had banned him -- that they just don't tolerate that
behavior.
Again my brain went, wait, what?!?!?
So....they literally banned Barry from the National Archives because he was
being inappropriate towards ME. They never questioned me; they never
asked me if I had an issue with Barry (I would have said 'no'). But they
kicked him out of the Archives. However...the fact that this whole thing
was about me and not about a woman complaining about a pencil does make me
wonder about Barry. And the story that he went to the guards and told them
not to talk to me because I wasn't involved...that's in a different light, too.
But really, I mean, srsly, wtf?!?!
I did talked to Mike (one of the archivists that was there yesterday and which Barry
had claimed to talk to) and I told Mike basically hey, I don't know what
happened yesterday but I honestly didn't feel at all uncomfortable with
anything Barry did towards me. Mike claimed ignorance to the whole
situation.
At the end of my conversation with Sarah she did say that it was the most
excitement they'd had there the whole year (LOLOL).
So, in the end, it appears that *I* was the center of everything
yesterday. And all I can say is HOW?!?! LIKE HOW?!?!? I
literally spent the day reading about a man that has been dead for over 100
years! And somehow that got someone kicked out of the National Archives.
This will be a trip to remember for so many different reasons!
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