www.itowler.com

I was looking back at some old emails to try to figure out when I actually started to get interested in genealogy. The earliest record that I could find was an email that I sent to an aunt in early February, 2001. That means that I have been doing this off and on now for about 7 years. In the very beginning I can remember being very frustrated because I was not making ANY progress at all. I could not even get my an agreement on my paternal grand fathers name or birth place. I vaguely remember trying for a little bit and then setting it aside, I was in grad school and was pretty busy at the time. In July of 2002, I was getting married. The wedding provided an event for my Fathers family to get together. In the days leading up to the wedding, my Uncle Phil gave me a file that contained some of the information that he had gathered on the family.

That file would end up getting me started once again on the family genealogy. For the next few years, I worked on the family tree, but not that often, and I did not make much progress. Then in late 2006 I decided that I should start working on it some more, and I decided to go ahead and join Ancestry.com. Prior to this point I had never joined a “payâ€site, but in joining Ancestry.com I was finally able to make some headway. Since 2006 I have put together a family tree that contains 1335 people (as of 1-18-2008). A good portion of the "Main" branches of the tree have at least one document for each person, and I am on my way to filling in more documentation.

So why do I bring this up? This weekend I am planning on visiting one of the top ranked genealogy libraries in the country, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Library in Washington, D.C. The DAR genealogy Library is among the top genealogy libraries along with the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The DAR states that it contains around 180,000 titles, and 53,000 micro film’s, and many more Family files. Founded in 1896, the library was made available for public use in the early 1900’s. Also available at the DAR library are verified DAR applications, and these can be great. A verified DAR application is one that has been checked and accepted and the applicant has been admitted to the DAR. While at the DAR library you can pull up these applications and you all of a sudden have complete linages with some supporting documentation to go with them. Its great!

I have only been to the DAR library once before, and I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed at first. Having been once, I now feel that I am a little better prepared for my upcoming trip tomorrow. One thing that you can do to make your trip a little more productive is to search the online card catalog and prepared a list of books that you would like to see before you go. My list is ready, and has about 40 titles on it. I am hoping to find some information that I need to finish my grandmother’s DAR application using Thomas Arbuckle as the Patriot. I need proof for 2 generations and then we should have it all. I am also planning on looking into some Oklahoma records to see if I can find anything on John Henry Towler or Henry Preston Towler. One of the great things about the DAR library, is that you can research all of your family tree at the same place, unlike visiting a Local Library where the records that the library has tend to be local in focus of at the most state level in focus. The DAR library is focused on the National level, breaking its collections into roughly 2 parts, the States section and the Family Surname section. It’s a great place to get things done!

Well wish me luck!

Ian