24 February 2016

Going Down the Proverbial Rabbit Hole

I have an alert on my computer! Every hour - on the hour - a man, in a loud whisper - states the time. For example, I'll be trolling the internet and hear this "It's 2 o'clock!" from the speakers on my laptop.  I look up to discover that it's 2AM. Yes, 2 o'clock in the morning and I've spent the last several hours 'online'.

Or as a dear friend says,
I've been traveling down the proverbial Rabbit-Hole! 


From Alice in Wonderland ... 

"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next."



For me this typically starts with my desire to locate one piece of information. A question that needs an answered, so that I can continue my 'journey of discovery'. Frequently that elusive 'nugget of knowledge' is found on one of the following 10 websites. Many times all of these are open in tabs on my screen, with me clicking back and forth endlessly.
  • WorldCat.org
  • Find-a-Grave.com
  • Ancestry.com
  • DigitalArchives.wa.gov
  • Newspapers.com
  • Archives.gov 
  • ChroniclingAmerica.loc.gov
  • Hathitrust.org
  • Wikipedia.org
  • Infoweb.Newsbank.com (historic Seattle Daily Times 1895-present)
However, the road to locating this 'nugget' is a long winding path with many offshoots that catch my attention! Eventually, I can't even remember what the original question was, and I've quintupled my list of questions. I've learned to write down the original question on a notepad next to the computer, in order to stay focused. Plus open a Word document on my computer to capture the list of new questions - to capture them for further exploration.

Today I was online researching a question that had nothing to do with anything Norwegian. I found myself on one of those offshoots, traveling deep into a list of books that piqued my interest. The subject matter was Norwegians AND the American Civil War. Below are links to the books I discovered. 


I thought others who read this blog might also find these books to be of interest.


I also wondered if others ever get caught up in the proverbial Rabbit Hole?  If so, I invite you to share your thoughts on it in the comments. 



Now I can get back to my original rabbit-hole question. :) 

3 comments:

Jana Iverson Last said...

Hi,

I want to let you know that your blog is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/03/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-march-11.html

Have a great weekend!

Unknown said...

Have you read Charles Russell's biography of Elise Wjaerenskjold? She immigrated to Texas in 1847. There's some interesting info about the Civil War period, including how the Norwegian immigrants were generally against slavery but thought they better play along and fight for the South so as to keep the peace with their American neighbors.

BTW my Norwegian ancestors were Olsons who settled in Texas :)

Linda said...

Thank you so much for sharing!