Ancestry.com
1. When I searched for my name, it brought goosebumps to me to find several people with the exact same name as I have. I was actually the third one listed. When I clicked on my name, I found this site has me listed with an old address. There were two links that said there was more information, so I clicked on them. What I found was one led to my maiden name with the address I grew up at, and the address of my sorority in college. The other link gave my married name with the address of the first house my husband and I bought. I found it interesting that it didn't list the first address I had after college, nor did it have our most recent address - which we've had for 5 years.
2. I searched for all of my grandparents, but didn't have much luck. One set of grandparents came up on a general search at this site, but they didn't show up in the census. The other grandparents I looked up, I didn't have enough information to narrow it down and find them. I find this to be sort of addicting, as I want to keep searching. This also really makes me interested in working to help others who are searching for birth parents or adopted children.
3. When searching for "South Dakota" in the location box, it turned up over 9 million results.When I click to choose the "Pictures", the search increases to over 220 million. I assume this means there could be several pictures for the same person in the registry.
Heritage Quest
4. I had a lot of trouble getting in to this site. None of the links on the class page work for me. I tried to do a search for the Heritage Quest site, and it took me to the state website. From there, it took a few clicks to get me in to a place I assume was the site I was supposed to be at. When searching for "Wagner, SD" it turned up over 1200 results. The page will only list 1000 at a time, so I needed to refine my search. I didn't know how to refine it more, so I changed my search and tried a location where I thought I could find some family from the early 1900s. Again...no luck.
I changed my search to look for a book, and searched for "Wagner, SD". Nothing came up, so I broadened my search to "South Dakota". Finally, I got over 2,400 results, mostly history of the counties. I clicked on The History of Charles Mix County and found an interesting book with 185 pages. I look forward to glimpsing through this book to see if I can find anything more local to the Wagner area. At first glance, I did notice there is information about the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation, so I will begin reading there.
Sanborn Maps
5. I was disappointed to find that Wagner wasn't listed on this site, but there were a few towns nearby. I chose Armour, since it was the closest. I found that the map shows different city limits than what there is today, and even some of the streets have changed. In addition, the courthouse is still there, and it is still in use today.
Yes, Lisa, these resources are very addictive! I wonder what the issue was for your difficulty getting into Heritage Quest. ?? Anyway, you did get in and made some good finds. You noticed that Heritage Quest & Ancestry search quite differently. Though some of their info is the same, they complement each other well. I hope you'll take time to dig further into these. Thanks for your comments.
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