From several years ago—I’m hoping to make a similar discovery, but not holding my breath.

I had downloaded digital copies of the Aaron Sargent’s 1895 Sargent Genealogy: Hugh Sargent, of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire and His Descendants in England a couple of times, so my seeing it at the Allen County Public Library on my group trip was not necessarily terribly exciting. It was just something on my to-do list. While digital copies of books are great, I wanted see an actual copy and make a few quick paper copies while I had it in my possession.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the book and discovered that the library’s copy had been autographed by the author! William Aaron Sargent would be a very distant relative, but my digital copies had no such inscription. I didn’t take my camera, but fortunately one of my trip-goers had her camera and she took pictures of the book for me. There is even a note that the library (or someone) later paid $18.50 for the book. The Sargent genealogy begins with William, the immigrant from England to Massachusetts, and continues down until 1895. Unfortunately my great-great-grandfather is only listed as a “son” for his father–which is part of what delayed my ability to use the book and even know that my relative was in it. Now that I’ve broken through on my New England lines maybe I’ll make similar discoveries next year on my group trip to Ft. Wayne.

Sometimes it is still nice to have the actual book!