Amanda's Excellent (Genealogical) Adventure (Day 1)

It began Wednesday at 6:40am. This is when I left my apartment and headed toward the inactive records center in Buffalo. I arrived shortly after their opening at 9am and was directed to the new CD version of the Buffalo death index, available for 1852 - 1944. Someone has recently scanned the book indexes and created pdf files that you can view on the computer. This makes it much easier for the workers, as they do not have to bring out the huge index books for every searcher who visits. I ordered death certificates for 4 of my ancestors, meaning I only could not find one I was searching for. I also ordered one for my great-aunt who died as a baby. These should arrive in my mailbox sometime next week.

I then moved on to birth indexes. It is here that I must thank Marvin, who happily lugged out 10 different index books for me to go through. He was the most happy and helpful government worker I have ever met. I ordered a couple of my ancestors sibling's records, as I am a big fan of cluster genealogy.

Lastly I looked at the marriage index which is located on microfilm and found the listing of one of my great-great grandparents and ordered this certificate as well. Unfortunately, the other listing I was hoping to find was not there:-(

At about 11:30 I left and went to the central Buffalo & Erie County library branch. My goal there was death notices and I did rather well, finding 8 of 13. The multitude of Buffalo newspapers in the late 18- and early 1900's make it a challenge, as you will find the death listing in a "vital records" section, but the death notice will be listed in another paper. I am hopeful that I will be able to find the rest, plus those of the people whose death certificates I just ordered, on my next trip.

This was the end of genealogy for day one, outside of showing my finds to my mother and grandmother. I will post on day 2 at a later time.