Pondering the world

Bottger Mansion of Old Town Bed & Breakfast

We own the historic Bottger Mansion of Old Town bed & breakfast in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Come stay with us--we have a great location and the best breakfast in Albuquerque! Click here to visit our website. Visit our B&B blog, "View from the Innside," for great recipes, Albuquerque events, history, restaurants, things to do, and much more.

Disclaimer: This is my personal blog, full of experiences and observations, craft projects, foodiness and frustrations. Depending on the day, it most definitely does not represent our business. Fair warning: observations and opinions different than yours may be present.

more discoveries and frustrations at the Special Collections Library

Ancestry.com:

Good:  my new special library card gives me free access to ancestry.com at the Special Collections Library for genealogy research.  Bad:  Access to ancestry.com is available only on one computer, and it's almost always in use.  Worse:  When I was finally able to use that computer, I had great difficulty getting the information I needed.  Even when I put in a specific name and date, it gave me tons of stuff hardly even remotely related.  If I put in Max Stein, died Texas, 1889, why does it give me pages of people named Stein from all different dates, from Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey...  I need a tutorial.

flash drive vs. printing

Another researcher told me late in the day that if I bring my flash drive (removable), I can "print" directly to it instead of on the printer and paying 15 cents a copy.  However, I was warned to watch out for viruses, since I would be plugging it into a public machine.  I didn't have my flash drive with me.  Total for the day:  $1.35, not counting the six copies I went off and left at the library and will have to go back to pick up or reprint tomorrow.  Dang it.

lies caught by newspaper microfilm archives!

I'm hot on the trail of an unsuspected additional marriage of someone who, for the time being, shall remain nameless.  I found some records, some references, a newspaper tidbit in the "personal page" (society column) of the newspaper.  But when I looked at the microfilm of the newspaper on that important wedding date, it was illegible.  It's barely readable, and only that because I know what names I'm looking for.  My next effort will be to "print" it onto my flash drive and then see if it can be digitally enhanced to bring the print up.  Plan B would be to visit the main library to see if their microfilm copy is any clearer.  The fascinating thing was that she subsequently lied to a census worker and said she'd only had two marriages.  We suspect husband No. 3 didn't know about husband No. 2, and husband No. 3 was in the room when the census worker asked the questions.  Obviously, husband No. 3 didn't read the back issues of the newspapers like I did.

insights while strolling through the cemetery

Today I spent some time wandering around Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque.  While I'm posting my actual findings on our Bottger Mansion blog, I made some other observations.

The part of the cemetery where I was searching is the oldest section and goes up a hill.  While I was looking at graves at the very bottom of the hill, I was not surprised to see squared pieces of stone and granite, obviously pieces of grave markers, on the ground among the rocks.  How many graves will  never be found again because their markers have crumbled and rolled far away, or their wooden crosses have dried and splintered?  The most enduring markers are those which are made of cast metal inserted onto the headstone, but even some of those have fallen off and become misplaced.  There is no permanence, even in death.

Mt. Calvary is right down the street from Albuquerque High School.  It was interesting to note that some of the students took a shortcut among the graves, while others chose to stay on the sidewalk and go the long way around along the street.

The lady working at the counter who has to look up every grave, every time, in ledger books and on maps, told me that the old Santa Barbara section was "dirt."  She was wrong--it's goathead thorns.  If you're going to visit cemeteries in New Mexico, wear long pants and sturdy shoes.  Be prepared to pick many thorns out of your soles.

tracing the Bottger family history

I've been doing a lot of history research on Charles A. Bottger and his family.  My blog posts about that will be in our Bottger Mansion blog, "View from the Innside" under the category Bottger Mansion history.

Click on this link for yesterday's post, then follow the history research on "View from the Innside."