This was a fun, but frustrating activity. It's fun and exciting when you find something, but frustrating when you can't! I was also difficult to do the AncestryLibrary because I couldn't do it from home. I spent two hours at the school working, and I felt there was so much more to look for.
1) I was able to find my name three times, but the information was correct on only one. I couldn't find my marriage certificate either. I then tried my husband's name and he had about four entries and only one of those was correct. I couldn't find the marriage certificate that way either. Maybe we aren't married??? Ha!
2)I spent quite a bit of time on the census portion and found a wealth of information. It was so cool to find my parents and grandparents and their siblings in the census. I also found my maternal great grandparents in an Iowa census before they moved to South Dakota. It is interesting that I found them on this resource and not on the HeritageQuest source. I seemed like you needed to know some key information to get anywhere though. I would have liked to have spent more time looking for more, especially the older ancestors.
3) In the photos and maps, there were maps of the counties and areas before they were counties in South Dakota. I looked at an early map of Mitchell and saw how much smaller it was, but there were still some of the landmarks that we know today. I also saw a map of Spirit Mound that is north of Vermillion. I remember driving past it when I taught in Vermillion. I often wondered what ceremonies the Native Americans held there.
4) In the HeritageQuest, I looked up my grandparents and great grandparents. I found a great many of the same name, but the information was incorrect. I did find my great, great, great grandparents in an 1880 census. I think I would be able to find more information on the older ancestors, but not the more recent ones. I think I needed more information on some of the searches and then maybe I would have been more successful.
5) I looked up Kimball, SD. When I looked at the map from 1928, I found few of the buildings that still exist. The church buildings are there, but now are privately own and are housing, because a new protestant church was build for all denominations. The Catholic church is still there, but has had a teaching center added. The two elevators are still standing, one has been empty for years and the other is functioning and prosperous. The school is still in the same place, but a new elementary school was built on to the high school in 1962. In 2003 a new high school was built and attached to the elementary school. I remember many on the buildings from when I was a child that were on that map and are no longer there: the depot, two lumber yards, an opera house(then a creamery), the NWPS light plant and several more.
Overall, I found this a very challenging activity and I know I'll use some of the sources more. Now I will know where to go to work on my family history. Since I've retired, my son thinks I should do some work on that--since I have nothing else to do!
Ha! Nothing else to do! So funny! Thanks for giving this a whirl. Yes, it does help to know a few things to get a good start in these resources. HeritageQuest is a little trickier because you have to search each "collection" separately, where Ancestry searches them all at once. Look & see what marriage licenses are held. South Dakota Marriage licenses in Ancestry are from 1905-1949. You can probably find your grandparents' license. Interesting changes in Kimball through the years. Keep up the good work!
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