“All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes”. Winston Churchill

Well when I posted on my website that I was going to post my mistakes, I meant it.  This is my first post of a mistake I recently made and it was a pretty dumb mistake at that.

Last week, I took a day off from work so that I could go to the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse to get photocopies of divorce judgements for several divorces in my family.  I work for the City of L.A. in one of its major departments and knew that the day I requested off was not a holiday for us.

So I left my home and drove to downtown Los Angeles, parked and walked to the Archive department to get in line for the microfilm machine.  I knew that if I had tried this during my lunch hour (I work only a few blocks from the courthouse) I wouldn’t be able to because the line for the microfilm machine was long so hence the reason for me taking the day off.  When I got to the elevator door to take down to the Archive department, there was a sign by the buttons saying that they were closed for Lincoln’s birthday.  I couldn’t believe it!  Then it dawned on me, the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse are a county facility, not a city facility.  That is why my department was still working and the court system was not.  I should have called the archive department to make sure that they would be open on the day I planned on making my trip down there.

So, please learn from my mistakes.  Always call ahead of time to make sure the repository/library/family history center that your going to do research at will be open when you make the trip there.