It’s impossible to know before you turn down a road not previously traveled what you will find.

As genealogists we all (ok I’m projecting here) explore new-found resources sometimes resulting in glorious, undescribably exciting results and other times with disappointment. Occasionally that disappointment is tinged with a sense of accomplishment – the search in the database worked. It just didn’t have what you hoped for. Such was my experience this past week. I went searching for my great-grandmother’s AR-2 (Alien Registration form). She didn’t naturalize until the late 1940s so I was hoping that if I could acquire her AR-2 file, I might learn something new about her.

Eagerly, I searched the files recently moved to NARA and came up with the file I was sure belonged to her, or maybe to someone else with the same name? There were two women born in “Russia” within a 2-year period, who both lived in New York. The second woman was listed twice – once with an English name and once with a Yiddish name and I was pretty sure it was my ancestor. To be sure though, I ordered both records.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive the digital files 5 days after placing the order (astonishingly quick for a government order). The one for the woman without the Yiddish name was not my great-grandmother. The other file was. Unfortunately it contained no new information. But the files didn’t cost much ($17 each) and it was certainly worth it to see whether I could learn anything else.

After all, there could be an amazing find, like this wonderful field of flowers that popped up one day in Santa Fe – it really wasn’t there the day before