BY BOBBY DOBBINS TITLE
I , - , James S. Dobbins, disappeared o the records in Kansas and didn’t show up again until he enlisted in the Union army in 1864. My many years of researching had simply drawn a blank for that time period. I couldn’t gure out where he had gone.
Some time back I ran across an old note I’d made that said, “Check NUCMC for JSD.” NUCMC stands for National Union Catalog Manuscript Collection, a division of the Library of Congress that makes the catalog entries for archival and manuscript collections from eligible libraries nationwide searchable in one single catalog.
At the time I made the note, the only way a person could use NUCMC was through a university library computer, and I was much too timid to march into such a place. Since I assumed none of my ancestors were important enough to appear in a manuscript, I just led the note and forgot about it.
e note surfaced again not too long ago. Now, armed with a computer, I ran a Google search and found the NUCMC website. I read the instructions carefully, but I couldn’t understand how to use it. I went to the reference
desk of my city library and asked the librarian to teach me how to access NUCMC on the Internet, which he did. en I went home, entered DOBBINS, and nearly had a heart attack when I saw James S. Dobbins listed as the author of an 1886 manuscript titled “Mining, stock-raising and Indian adventures in Colorado.” e notes eld for the manuscript read, “one of John Brown’s partisans in Kansas, 1856; with Lane’s 11th Kansas Volunteers in the Civil War; to Gregory Gulch, Colorado, 1859; miner, and stock raiser.”
According to NUCMC, the manuscript was held by the Bancro Library at Cal Berkeley, in my own state of California. I ordered it, and within a week I had a copy of my great-grandfather’s words in my hands.
is reminded me of four very important research strategies:
Don’t assume your ancestor wasn’t important enough to be documented in something that sounds highfalutin.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your librarians; they are there to help you.
Review your notes periodically; you never know what will ring a bell this time around.
Do your research sooner rather than later; your brilliant idea may be forgotten if you wait.
Now be brave and have a go at it yourself.
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