And go through the census, page by page, just hoping you'd chosen the right county. It might take several weeks' of searching microfilm to find the ancestor you wanted. Remember the excitement when the Accelerated Indexing books were published? At 03:21 PM 1/1/2008, you wrote: >I subscribed to the River Counties Quarterly in the 70s and have all issues. > >I also made memeograph (blue stencil) copies of my family tree (with many >crossed-out mistakes since you can't erase, even though they had a fluid to >cover up holes) and sent them out to cousins. Of course it was incomplete >and inaccurate then, but started our family searches. Someone even posted >it on the internet before I started searching the internet. > >In those days, you had to write archives and wait for months to get >information/application forms back. The internet has certainly changed >things. > >Gerry Parchman > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1206 - Release Date: >1/1/2008 12:09 PM

Betty, Yes, I remember when more of those indexes came out for more states. When I started in 1974, I lived near Philadelphia, PA and sneaked over to the Federal Records Center from work and tediously pored through census microfilms, since they had them for every state and every census. They only had partial indexes then for about 3 states, not including Tennessee. But when you found one of your families, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened. Gerry Parchman

I was a volunteer at the National Archives branch in Fort Worth for about ten years. I can remember people actually standing up and shouting when they found someone who had eluded them for years, and everyone in the place would gather around to hear the story. It's awfully nice, though, to have the computer searchable indexes to census nowadays. I wouldn't go back, for all that excitement. At 04:17 PM 1/1/2008, you wrote: >Betty, > >Yes, I remember when more of those indexes came out for more states. When I >started in 1974, I lived near Philadelphia, PA and sneaked over to the >Federal Records Center from work and tediously pored through census >microfilms, since they had them for every state and every census. They only >had partial indexes then for about 3 states, not including Tennessee. But >when you found one of your families, it was the most exciting thing that >ever happened. > >Gerry Parchman > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >-- >No virus found in this incoming message. >Checked by AVG Free Edition. >Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1206 - Release Date: >1/1/2008 12:09 PM