Road Trip!

I'm going on a road trip, but not by car.  I'm taking the train to Washington, D.C., next Wednesday -- provided that the arrangements get made on time -- for two months of research at the Library of Congress.

Why not fly?  I have issues with flying, which make it uncomfortable.  One problem could be serious.  Even though I was chewing gum and doing all the things you're supposed to do to equalize pressure on landing, I had an excruciating pain in my left ear on landing in Orlando in 2008 when I returned from my research trip to Seville, Spain.  Not quite a burst eardrum, but I don't want to take any chances with that!

So, the train.  I like the train.  Not so far to fall if something goes wrong, which -- knock on my little wooden head -- it won't.  And you get to see the scenery, see the real America.  I like that.

I'll be mucking about in the East Florida Papers at the Library, looking at the originals for parts which don't show up readably on the microfilms.  The 1793 Spanish census of St. Augustine, Florida, is one of those.  I'll also be looking at matrimonial license petitions.  This research is all for my thesis, which is on the application of the Real Pragmática de Casamiento (Royal Pragmatic of Marriage), proclaimed in 1776 by King Carlos III, and extended to the colonies in 1778.  One thing I'm wondering is if the various governors of East Florida in the Second Spanish Period applied the rules differently.

Yeah, it's one of those esoteric airy-fairy thesis topics.  But it can be quite important to those of us studying Spanish colonial Florida.  At least, I hope it will be.  And I hope one of the university presses will think it is, too.

So Monday through Friday, I'll have my nose to the grindstone, reading old Spanish and transcribing.  I have a bunch of the matrimonial license petitions already transcribed and some translated, as I am hoping to publish a book of annotated translations of these records.  Some of them have wonderful historical and genealogical information in them, and many of them just have good stories!  And at bottom, that's what history is to me -- a good story.

Monday and Wednesday evenings, the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room is open to 9:30.  I might feel a little antsy about walking to the Metro Station and from the bus stop back to the condo where I'm renting a room, but maybe there are tactics I can employ to make the journey safer.

I'll be haunting that reading room, and also on Saturday using the National Archives, for another project I have in mind, which is a more long-term thing and not for discussion right now.  When I have a germ of an idea, I tend to play it close to the vest.  My publisher has expressed an interest in this project.  It will require further research trips to a couple other cities, something that will be another two years down the road, at least.

But it's enough to keep me off the streets and out of the pool halls for a long time to come!