Visit to the Allen County Public Library

So in August, when I was in Indiana for work, I got to attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference, as well as take advantage of the resources located at the Allen County Public Library.  I spent *a lot* of time at the library, including staying my first night in Fort Wayne until midnight - when it was technically 11pm CDT, but I had gotten up at 3am to catch my flight, so, yeah.  Long day.

Highlights of the conference were the first session I attended on coal mining and its records - my main reason for wanting to go the conference in the first place; a session on Pennsylvania records that discussed a resource that I had not previously used, the 1798 Federal Direct Tax for PA; meeting some great people; and learning so much from just being in the proximity of so many genealogists.  On Saturday night I went to dinner with a whole bunch of people who read Dick Eastman's newsletter - pictures from this event can be found here, including one of me!  (Though I look terrible in that photo!)

So I got to do a ton of research while I was in the library.  One was the 1798 Federal Direct Tax for PA already mentioned; I found at least one of my ancestors - and was able to scan the entire township of Wheatfield in Westmoreland Co, PA - where a ton of "my people" were located.  I will have to go looking for this roll of film again; I have lots of ancestors that should be in PA by this point.  Also, I spent lots of time with the NY State census records.  These, too, were a resource I had never used before.  I had a great time with them, as well.  Here, too, I need to get some more rolls of film and "finish" looking for some family groups.  The state census records are filling in the gaps quite nicely for some of those crazy Richardsons in western New York.