Week 1: Go to your local public library branch. Make a note of the genealogy books in the collection that may help you gain research knowledge. Don’t forget to check the shelves in both the non-fiction section and the reference section. If you do not already have a library card, take the time to get one. If you have a genealogy blog, write about what you find in your library’s genealogy collection.
I spend a fair amount of free time at the Hackley Public Library’s Genealogy Department in Muskegon Michigan. My Library card is wore out! I have gone through the collection which is a good size, many times. I always find sometime new. Resources online include, Ancestry Library Edition, NewEnglandAncestors.org and Footnote subscriptions (the latter is a new find for me!).
Heritage Quest is one I can access from home through my library card.
There are so many books in the collection to mention the list would be long. In brief: Historical County books of Michigan as well as other states, atlases of local counties, directories, newspapers on microfilm etc. So instead of listing more, I will mention the last books I accessed.
I personally do not have much to search in the area of Muskegon for my personal research. However for a brief moment in time my grandfather took the family to Muskegon and he had a store there. I found him listed in the R.L.Polks Directory of Muskegon 1928 , as well as the store.
Cornell Leo D (Joyce) store mgr Great A & P Tea Co h1005 Maffet (MH) page 215
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co gros.....1035 Peck (along with other locations) page 217
Ha! Now I know what the A&P stands for...yeah, I didn’t know. Furthermore, through Ancestry.com I found grandpa’s biological brother living in Muskegon during the 1920's. Relevance? Grandpa was adopted at age 1 and became a Cornell. His ‘brother’ Lorrin Rust, who was older remained with his mother with other older siblings. I want to find the Rust family...and I earlier joked when I said they could be right here in Ravenna, when they originated further up north. (Some folks with that name here)
I found at the library, a very informative book called The Scotch-Irish: A Social History
By James Graham Leyburn. The migration of the Scots from Scotland to Ireland and North America. A very good read.
I will be there again, I am sure to find a new book. I always do.