01 April 2006 - Saturday |
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Fred and Tom ready
for departure
It was about 9:00 am
when we said our good-bys and departed Fred’s home in West Deptford, New
Jersey. It wasn’t long before we made
our first stop at the Cracker Barrel in Pennsville, NJ where we ate a
sumptuous breakfast, the first of many.
Soon thereafter we crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge where we
entered Delaware the nation’s first state.
We do have ancestors who lived in this State but we decided to forego
any research as this location is close enough to be explored at a later date
besides we were eager to get into our new adventure as well as our first
planned stop at the National Archives.
We quickly covered the 15 miles of Interstate 95 that traverses this
tiny State and entered Maryland. Around noon we arrived
in College Park, Maryland. As it was
Saturday there was plenty of good parking spaces at the nearly empty National Archives (NARA) lot. We had previously visited the NARA
regional center in Philadelphia and were well aware that one must have a
researchers card to gain access to the facilities. On that occasion all we
had to do was show our drivers license and a card was filled out for us to
sign. Our previous cards had expired
and as they are effective for only one year our first thoughts were that we
could obtain a new card based upon the issuance of the previous one. How naïve of us to think that the
government would believe that we were the same conscientious family
historians as before! In order to obtain
a researcher identification card we had to first show a driver’s license, and
in Tom’s case his passport as he is currently living in Canada. Following
this we had to complete a questionnaire giving full name, |
permanent
address, telephone number, and a brief description of the proposed research
topic. Then because
we were at the NARA headquarters we were required to view a computerized
orientation program emphasizing the safe handling of records and explaining
the most basic research procedures, responsibilities, and rules. In order to complete the process we had to
pose for a photograph. The product of
all of this was a really neat plastic Research Card much like a credit card
in that it has a magnetic strip on the back just below where your required
signature is placed.
It must be noted that we were fortunate that the person we dealt with was
pleasant and most helpful, and as it was Saturday we had her complete
attention. Armed with our new cards
we were ready to accomplish some important research at this the Nation’s
largest and most significant repository of official records. We had previously decided to focus upon
land and military records and eagerly requested directions to these
records. To our surprise we were told
that such documents are located at the facility in downtown Washington, D.C.
Since it was nearing mid-afternoon we felt that a trip into the city would
not leave us time for any research.
As such the first of many research skills was further impressed upon
us that is we would advise others to utilize the NARA website to plan any trip
to the Washington and or College Park locations. Upon departing College Park we headed south on U.S. 301 to our
first overnight stop at the Aqua Land campground. Aqua Land is so named because it is located on the Potomac
River practically under the bridge.
The campground didn’t have any hook-ups or designated campsites so we
just parked under some trees near the highway. We didn’t use the bathroom or showers there because the
building looked pretty decrepit. For
all of this we paid $15.00. Little
did we know at the time that this amount of money would buy much more at some
really great state parks in the southern and western part of the
country. On our 1 – 5 scale Aqua Land
rated the lowest at a 1. |
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