What are we doing?

What a erudite, scholarly group of people looking at all those books!  But what are they REALLY doing?  We are doing shelf checks, pretending to be librarians!  Looks like fun, doesn't it. 

When we first started at the Albuquerue Public library we weren't sure where to start with transcribing.  The library workers pointed me to shelves and said "there is all we have".  So I went through lots of the books seeing if there was any information we could use, like death certificates, mortuary records or more importantly, BURIAL records.  I found many books so we started transcribing them.  Over the years the helpful people at the library would give me other ideas as to reference materials and books we should look at. 

When we started coming back into the library this summer, I noticed that we were running out of work!  There were only about 45 books left to transcribe.  With my group, it would not take long to do that.  It was time to REALLY search through ALL the books, one by one to be sure we got everything.  Our job is not done until we get it all!

So section by section, shelf by shelf and book by book, we all went through every book in the New Mexico history sections looking for anything that resembled records we needed to transcribe.  And we found more to do!  As of 2011, we have transcribed parts of or all of 300 books, about 1000 cemetery or mortuary documents.  After going through the books, we have 75 books left to do - should keep us busy for a few more years.

After two days of shelf checks, we resumed our previous work that we are all comfortable with at the tables.

Betty and Gloria, best friends



Gail, head librarian, came over to talk with us



We have found through the years many, many cemeteries in our state that have been forgotten.  Only through some of the published histories of the counties, or family histories do some of these live on today.  So many of these old cemeteries had fewer than 10 burials, the most recent being early 1900's.  They have disappeared in our desert climate and tumbleweeds, mostly forgotten.  But we find them, write as much as we can, try to get good location information (thank you Wink!!!) and submit the information to the internet as well as the Genealogy library.  They will live on forever now!

The Tombstone Project is so very important.  In a perfect society, every city, village, town and county would have volunteers working on this.  Once these graveyards disappear, so does our history, our families and our heritage as Americans.  All of our ancestors fought for their land, fought to survive and preserve their future.  We cannot forget about them now!  My wonderful group works with great dedication to this cause and with a great sense that they have protected some of New Mexico's history as well as all of our futures.  God bless all of you!

We're cool!

As this hot summer progresses, we are thankful for the wonderfully cool and spacious library. Since the Special Collections library moved in early June to the Main library (downtown) we've taken up residence at their tables on the second floor.

We eagerly wait outside, along with lots of other patrons, waiting for the doors to open at 10 (why can't they open earlier!!). Finally we all rush into the cool dim library. We hustle up the elevators to the second floor after all of us get our parking pass validated. David and Gayle (genealogy librarians) always wave, warmly greet us and are glad we are there. Even Mr. Padilla (expert in all things Hispanic and New Mexico) puts up with our conversations. We don't have a special room to meet in here like we did at Special Collections, but the area upstairs is huge and we can spread out. We just can't tell jokes too loud!

Two new ladies have joined us here at Main - Sharon Serrano and Diane Bloom. They have been very faithful and we are glad to have them join our wacky group. I hope they enjoy it and stay for awhile. Our group usually consists of Betty, Gloria, Wink, Lee, Barb, Rich and Cheryl. Sometimes we are blessed with a few 'floaters'.

The only bad part of working at Main is the parking. The library will validate two hours of parking. So if we park in the structure at 9:45, we have to quit by 11:30 in order to get back to our cars and OUT of the structure before 11:45. The parking is $1 for every 30 minute increment over two hours. That means stopping our work at 11:20 in order to put everything away, get downstairs and across the street in time. It feels like we just get started when it's time to stop.

We are all glad and thankful for the nice place we have to work as well as wonderful air conditioning. But in the back of all our minds is the urgency and desire to get back outside as soon as possible.

Terrific people

We have met today (August 28) for the fourth time this month. We are currently working at the New Mexico Special Collections library for the past 3 months. It is way too hot to be out working on the cemetery grounds, so we are transcribing data from old, old records at this special library. Now this may sound boring, writing about all these deceased people, but the group of people that work with me make it exciting. And we make those deceased people come alive!

First of all, I want to thank my patient husband Rich who has worked with us since his retirement in late 2007. He doesn't like writing ad nauseum in notebooks or reading about all these 'old' folks that died, but he hangs in there. His hand may cramp, his rear get tired of sitting on the hard chairs, or get just bored, but he never complains - or quits! The fact that chocolates and candy are used for bribery each time help some too.

Another wonderful worker is Wink. He has been with my group since 2001! Yes, from day one he has stuck with me. He is pretty awesome too. Although he has another life (unlike me) he shows up all the time. He, too, writes tirelessly and puts up with our silly jokes and comments. But he enjoys the chocolates too. And he is a rare breed (kind of like me) in that he loves searching out new cemeteries. He and I have the National Geographic Topo maps on our computers and we are always emailing back and forth that we found a new one! He even gets in his car and goes and finds some!

Betty came to me at the very beginning of 2001 also. What a faithful friend she has been. She is a wonderful volunteer all over this city. She is very busy with volunteering at the State Fair, any election in the city, the Balloon Fiesta and even the theater. But she has always found time for Tombstone. And she always has a smile and great encouraging words for me. She is a good friend.

Gloria came to me about 3 years ago. She has never balked at any assignment given to her. She quietly sits (or walks) and gets everything done. And she is a wonderful source of translating Spanish for us. None of us speaks Spanish and at times the inscriptions and names get too much. You would think by now we would remember that enero means died....or is it born!?

Barb has been with me so long that I don't remember when she started. She drives a long ways to come to our meetings whether it is the library or cemeteries. Such a happy lady that her smile always gives me a lift. And she never complains about the length of the book she needs to transcribe. She enjoys history of our state and loves to find strange deaths!

And my most recent victim, eh, volunteer, is Lee. He is an amazing man. He and his wife travel all around the world! He has just come back from Kenya and stunned us all with his pictures and tales of the trip. We are all living/traveling vicariously through him. A retired German professor, he is a joy to have in our group - and I know Wink and Rich welcome another male!

To everyone who has ever volunteered with this group, you have my eternal thanks. I know you have all put up with cold feet, freezing fingers, sun scorched necks, wet feet, sprinklers that suddenly come to life as well as holes that open up into the earth to trip you. I give you all a huge HUG and my love! God Bless you!!