I must have been at the DC ARchieves around the same time. The air conditioning was not working very good and I sweated a great deal, but I found death certificates that took me back another generation. I can hardly wait to go back as I did not have enough time to go through all the records. The staff was very helpful even tho I arrived unannounced. Eileen Mary Zashin wrote: > I would like to share my good experience with the DC Archives. In > Washington last summer, I managed to visit the Archives several times. The > building is a former warehouse or perhaps stable, tucked away in an > alley-like street. It was hot, and the air conditioning was only > semi-functional; I don't know how the heat is! The small staff was friendly > and helpful, but you do most of the work yourself. They have two old > microfilm readers that are somewhat hard to control, so that I found it > easier just to go through the boxes or books directly if I had a vague idea > of when the marriage, death, or birth took place. The boxes are on shelves > nearly to the ceiling, so be prepared to push around and climb the movable > steps. You can pull down the box you want and rifle through it. I found it > somewhat amazing that I had such access to original records and documents, > and I was very careful to replace everything as I had found it. You can > make copies of documents for free. There is limited work space, only a > couple of tables, but there were at most two other people there when I went, > and sometimes I was the only "customer." I had a great sense of discovery > and freedom there and found a lot of birth and death certificates that > considerably advanced my family research. I might never have learned that > great uncle Frank was murdered in 1907 if I hadn't found his death > certificate. From it, I went online to Ancestry's Washington Post images > and learned the whole fascinating, if sordid, story. In short, the Archives > are a terrifc resource. I know I only managed to scratch the surface in my > brief time there. Polly Zashin > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237