Genealogical Gems

While the rain outside this morning feels and even smells great, it does alter my morning outing just a wee bit. I hate making deliveries in the rain so I decided to work on my Irish immigrants. The rain - we'll blame it on the rain - has fogged up my thought process evidently. Here I've been searching the records online at Ellis Island for my immigrant Martha Durkin. I could not find her anywhere so I found a helpful site that tells me common nicknames and such (since Irish people rarely seem to go by their given names).  It tells me that Martha is also commonly found as (nicknames): Polly, Patsy, Marnie, Mart, Marty, Mat, Mattie. The Irish also like Marta. I searched for females beginning with M and then females beginning with P then all Durkin females. Then ... Then I realized that Martha - who came over as a child - was born in 1839. Ellis Island did not open its doors until 1892. My Martha would have been 53. Obviously Martha did not come through Ellis Island. Many

Financial strains have hit everyone - including the government of Georgia it seems. In a statement released Thursday from Georgia's Office of the Secretary of State, it was announced that in order to cut the budget, Georgia will be closing its public archives. The close is scheduled for 1 November. The statement reads: "To meet the required cuts ... effective November 1, 2012, the Georgia State Archives located in Morrow, GA will be closed to the public.  ... Georgia will be the only state in the country that will not have a central location in which the public can visit to research and review the historical records of their government and state.  ... After November 1st, the public will only be allowed to access the building by appointment; however, the number of appointments could be limited based on the schedule of the remaining employees." The Georgia Archives are physically located at 5800 Jonesboro Road Morrow, GA . They can also be found virtually at http://sos