For most people, the idea of sitting in a library building for 10-12 hours a day peering at multiple computer screens and walking less than a block from their hotel to eat out of a mini-refrigerator and vending machines for a week is not their idea of a vacation. But for me, this was an AMAZING vacation and so worth the investment!!
I spent an entire week with Ancestor Seekers and I can’t tell you how much I think it was worth it!! You can see how they describe the “Dream Vacation” here.
I can’t tell you how much I learned in the week! Not only about my family and finding resources to help me find family, but also about researching, in general. One of the biggest take-aways was learning to ASK for help and ASK for things from archives. Let me share two examples.
Asking for help from Archivists
On my first day, when working with Malia (one of the senior researchers at Ancestor Seekers), I shared with her my “brick wall” of my great-grandfather Henry Edward Leach who just appears in the Upper Peninsula in 1880 Census and I can find no records of him prior to 1880. His census, his marriage, record, son’s birth record, and other things pointed me to England for his birth, but I have looked (really hard!) for his death record hoping to learn more but I just can’t find it recorded anywhere. I just received his probate records the week before from the Michigan Archives–very interesting and cool information–but beside providing me the information that he died at home in Houghton County, Michigan on June 15, 1892, there was nothing about parents or a birth location.
Malia asked if I had his obituary and I said that I did not and that the newspapers from the Houghton County area are not yet digitized anywhere accessible to me right now. She then said, “Well, have you asked the archivist where the newspapers are available?” 
Emily Schwiebert
Feb 21 2023, 02:56pm via System
Good afternoon, Lynn--
Thank you for your email. I am doing well and hope you are, too.
I would be happy to see if an obituary exists for H.E. Leach. The surviving newspapers from the Copper Country (both in our holdings and elsewhere) from the 1890s are sparse for unclear reasons: both earlier and later eras tend to be more robust. However, I believe we may have a title on microfilm that covers 1892.
Preliminarily, it appears that a brief report of his death appeared in the Daily Mining Journal of Marquette, which is available from the Peter White Public Library through the UPLINK service. You can review the death notice on page 7 of the document at the following link: June 16, 1892 Daily Mining Journal.
I'll consult our holdings to see if more is available from papers closer to home and follow up with the results one way or another, hopefully by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. If you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to email or call.
All best,
Emily Schwiebert
Wow!! I was speechless and so excited. Not that this bit of newspaper told me exactly what I wanted to know, but it gave me important information that is going to help me move forward. (The date of his birth is in conflict with other data, so while Obituaries provide information, take them with a grain of salt because the people reporting this information sometimes don’t know the accurate information.) Since it said that he had been with the company from nearly their beginning, I was able to look up the history of the Hecla & Calumet Mining Company and determine that he had been in Houghton County since at least 1872 and had been working there for 20 years. Also, while I knew he was active in the Odd Fellows, it helped me to understand that he was fairly involved in the organization and might provide me another lead and opportunities.
Emily also did consult her resources and found a couple more articles about H.E. Leach (including the announcement of his wedding to Flora Elizabeth Croft of which I had seen a transcription but not the original).
What a find, and all I had to do was ASK!!
Now, I will give some advice….when asking an archivist for information, be specific! You need to know dates and people and exactly what you are looking for. They are busy people and don’t have lots of time to do your legwork, but they do WANT to help. And always say “Thank you” especially since you never know when you will have the opportunity to ask for something else. 🙂
Asking help from Communities
Did you know that most countries/regions of the world have Communities created within FamilySearch.org? Nope, me neither!! Well, Heidi–another Ancestor Seeker researcher helped me with this one. She could read some Hungarian and Slovakian, but when I found the marriage record for my great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather (parents of Alonzo Sedlock, my other major brick wall), she suggested that I post it to the Austrio-Hungarian Group in Communities.
So, I did. And within 2 hours, I had a translation!
Hello-
I'm wondering if anyone can read and translate the entry in the marriage record of my gg-grandparents? It's from 1874 under the column about any impediments in the marriage banns. Thank you!
Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
Announced twice, have dispensation for 3rd announcement. The girl received a dismissal from the parson of Felső-Novaj.
Yeah, Googletranslate was not going to provide me this!! This bit of translation was the KEY to unlocking so much more about Alonzo's family!! By learning about Felső-Novaj, I found the church which holds all of the baptismal, marriage, and death records for the Kristoff (Alonzo's mother's) family.
I went on to use the community several more times during the week. The Community was amazing and everyone wants to help each other. As my daughters would say, “10 out of 10”, definitely will keep on using!
And I will be doing a lot more ASKing!!
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