Posted By:
Scott ForrestI had never done extensive microfilm research until this summer when my son and I hit about ten different libraries in Iowa, several local museums, and interviewed many old-timers in their nineties. We were looking for things that happened in the 1910's, but still were able to find people who remembered their parents and long-deceased friends talking about these events. We were also in a local museum and noticed a photo of a baseball team on the wall - closer inspection showed Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel who were barnstorming across the midwest in the '20s and played against/with the local team - we started asking around and several old-timers remembered hearing about the event. From there we were able to find more in the newspapers and local college archives. These are things you will not find out from where you are sitting now.
I can tell you from recent experience that it will not take you that long to go through a year or two of microfilm - you can count on a solid weekend in the library, about six hours each day, including time to print interesting pages. The toughest part is loading the film on the machine.