New Year's Resolution and the Blogs...Problems!

Several months ago, I began my New Year's Resolution. Since the title of this post has the word Blogs, well you can probably guess I am going to do something with my blog. Many long-time readers know that I had three blogs, but you probably don't know that two have been deleted.

Ten years ago, I was introduced into the world of blog writing, and in the fall of that year, I began this blog, and all articles were related to genealogy. Probably two years later, I started, Flowers from my Area, it showed gardens and flowers and 25 people followed it. It wasn't publicized on social media, but I do know, some people enjoyed it. Perhaps a year later, my 3rd post began. Seeing New England consisted of many photos and information, and was followed by 75 or more.

In the fall of 2018 I realized that all my photos in both blogs were the original pictures, and were not in my computer! I currently had over 45,000 photos on my hard drive, but my blog copies are missing. Although I almost freaked out, I had to figure out a way to get them back. So for months, I looked at every post and if I really liked a picture, I could have to copy it and save it back into the computer. Seeing New England took a very long time, because I wrote over 160 posts for that, and so many pictures represented good memories.

Some of the Seeing New England posts were copied into Life from the Roots, and all are under the tab of Travel /Tourism, with the approximate date I took the trip.

So what about the current blog? Will it survive? I still have the picture problem,...that is a huge issue now. I've published 1,273 posts, have over 704,000 pageviews. The interesting fact is, my top 9 Posts as Determined by Google (you can see it on my home page) have little to do with genealogy. Three are photos of monuments, three about Lowell, Massachusetts, a photo of me and my grandmother, a post I wrote about visiting a Family History Center, and an outline of my Lay family (which is listed first). Over the years, most viewers are interested in the non-genealogy articles. More recently, it has been the historic houses and libraries I've visited.

Okay, time to cut this short, as I hate long posts. My Resolution? I really don't know what I'll do. More important than my blog is the reader, and if you have read one, twenty or more of my posts, I salute you. Thank You and Happy New Year's.

Manchester City Library, Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester City Library

405 Pine Street

Manchester, New Hampshire 03104

https://www.manchester.lib.nh.us/

From Victory Park, you can see the Library.

Front entrance, but there is probably a handicapped entrance on the side or back.

Circular reception area, straight ahead, but before I asked my questions, I had to look up at the ceiling.

From the 2nd floor, looking down to the 1st floor. The New Hampshire Room is where the local history and genealogy books and resources are kept.

https://www.manchester.lib.nh.us/Research/NH-Room
See the below flyer for the New Hampshire Room.


The reference librarian's desk.

As you can see from these pictures, there are many bookshelves, vertical file cabinets, a lot of city directories, and cabinets with microfilm of newspapers. The thing I enjoyed seeing the most were some census books. There might have been a computer or two, but I didn't go into the area where one patron was working. I didn't do any research, although I have a few names I could have researched. Not seen very well, were two tables with chairs to do sit at.

Nice view from above window.

On the 2nd floor, husband checking out something in the display cabinet.

These two pictures were taken because I loved the heated benches and bookshelves. No photos of the Children's room on the lower level because renovation work was being done.

For those interested in the over 100 year history of the Library, please read what friend Janice Webster Brown wrote four years ago, when the Library was celebrating it's Centennial.
http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2014/09/05/new-hampshire-celebrating-the-manchester-public-librarys-centennial/

Facing the park from the library stairs.

Additional photos of the library.

Google map to show location of library and 700 Elm Street, where the New England Regional Genealogical Conference will be held in 2019.

Newbury Town Library, Byfield section of Newbury, Massachusetts

Newbury Town Library

0 Lunt Street

Byfield, Massachusetts

https://newburylibrary.org/

The Library looks very much like a school, but I've seen pictures from another angle it looks just beautiful. I'll have to go back for better pictures.

Facing the reception / reference desk.

Nice display area.

This is another rather new library, large and lots of light.

The Local History and Genealogy room was easy to spot. I was surprised the room was open,  but not surprised to see just about everything locked up. Since I wasn't doing research, I didn't ask anybody to open a cabinet. However, I found a few good things on my own.

Below the sign-in book, is a map cabinet. It was unlocked, and I found the items, shown below.

This was a large handmade book.

The 1872 atlas of Essex County was in rough shape.


I opened this unlocked drawer in a nearby file cabinet.

Although I couldn't find any genealogy information from their website, I did go to the Newbury Historical Commission and found a wealth of useful links, both for local history and genealogy. Once on the website, select the Resources for Research tab, and choose which one you want. Both the local history and genealogy sections have a lot of on-line books.

Nice sitting area.

The Children's Room.

Byfield is not a town, but a section of Newbury.

Not a good picture, almost impossible to take since it's almost touching the ceiling.

Another view of the Library.

This house was across the street from the Library. So quaint, I think.