When I searched "McLauchlin family" in the LOC catalog, I got no results on that spelling.  However, searching "McLaughlin family" turned up 17 items.  These are the ones I plan to investigate (1st stop is to check if these are available at Clayton here in Houston):

1 -- A memorial history of the Campbells or Melfort, Argyllshire. published in London: Simmons & Botten, 1882. From my research, I have learned that at least one branch of the McLauchlins were part of the Campbell clan, so this may prove fruitful, if only for background.

2 -- McLaughlin-McGonegle / McGonigle: the four Irish immigrants: their origins, history, and descendants by Anita Helen Dolan, published in Des Moines, Iowa: A. H. Dolan, 1981. The more I research, the more I have come to believe that the spelling of our surname with a "g" is the Irish spelling. My paternal grandmother, Lula Mylinda Sullivan, was Irish. Perhaps she taught my dad to spell his last name the Irish way; just a theory, but no way to prove it now. Still, it might be worthwhile to learn more about the McLaughlins of Ireland. JennieV was never able to trace our immigrant ancestor, Dugal, to a specific locale in Scotland. Perhaps he made a detour through Ireland, or Jamaica (a common first port for Scots emigrants of that time).

3 -- Memorial history of the family of Campbell-Maclachlan by Archibald Neil Campbell, 1819-1891, published in London: S. Goldbourn, 1883. This seems a more promising lead. If there is no mention of Dugal, then it will make good background information on his branch.

4 -- The McLaughlin family history by Arthur Lee McLaughlin. Owensboro, KY: McDowell Publications, 1980. A history of the family in the U.S.

5 -- A history of the very early colonials -- The McLaughlins by Gerald William McLaughlin. Albuquerque, N.M.: G. W. McLaughlin. 1995. After JennieV's research, this may have something of value...worth checking at any rate.

6 -- The McLaughlins by Steven K. McLaughlin & Evelyn Z. McCann. Dallas, TX: S.K. McLaughlin. 1988. Published the same year that JennieV published The McLauchlins: Fortis et Fidus, and not far from JennieV, I wonder if there is a connection? Certainly worth checking.

7 -- The McLaughlin genealogy: descendants of James and Mary McLaughlin of Muff (now Eglinton), County Londonderry, Ireland: related families, Brown, Johnston, Lossee, Morford, Parker, Speir, Woods by Steven K. McLaughlin. Dallas, TX: S.K. McLaughlin, 1990. A second title published in Dallas. 

I searched all seven of these in the Houston Public Library (Clayton) catalog.  It has none of these in its collections. So, I will have to wait until my next visit to the LOC to investigate these books.
I think I feel a trip coming on.

First excursion today on the Library of Congress (LOC) website.  I started in the Researchers' section:  http://www.loc.gov/rr

From that anchor page, I selected the Local History & Genealogy Reading Room, specifically the "Before You Begin" section which is 13 tips for preparing to do research at the LOC.  A couple of the tips that stand out are that you must have a Reader's card to access the reading rooms.  I have one that probably needs to be renewed, but I recall that I had to get it in the Madison Building.  It was when I learned about the tunnels connecting the LOC's three main buildings.  There is a link to instructions for obtaining a Reader's card on the page. 

Another tip is that the staff does not do research, nor accept research requests, but (another tip) if you know the exact book and page numbers, you can request photocopies ($12 charge for setup, plus charge for the photocopies). 

Finally, there was a link to the "Search Tips for Locating Genealogical Resources in the LOC online catalog." Good information here that I would recommend printing, if you plan to do a lot of searching on the catalog, or at least keep open in a separate tab (I did) to which you can refer as you search. In the next post, I'll discuss the results of my search of the LOC catalog.

Library of Congress Webinar

On November 15 (Thursday), I participated in an online webinar that was an orientation to the collections of the Library of Congress. It was an hour long and incredibly informative.  Some of the highlights:

The LOC acquires items by copyright deposit, by gift or by purchase.  If one submits something for copyright, one copy is deposited with the LOC. There is an astounding number of items in the library's collections:
151.7 million (M) items; 31.4 M primary source files; 22.7 M cataloged books; 66.6 M manuscripts; 5.4 M maps; 13.3 M photos, 6.4 M sheet music files; 3.4 M audio files; 1.3 M moving pictures

Many of these items are available to view and/or download from the library's web page.  For help with exploring these materials, there is a button on the home page to the "Ask a Librarian" anchor page which has links to ask for help by a list of categories.  The links take you to just the right person to help with your specific query.

One useful page is Read.gov which contains literacy resources for librarians.

The Researchers page has an overview of the collections (general, specific format or international collections), a link to the LOC collection policies (with downloadable pdf files), links to collection resources, and links to off-site resources, to name just a few. From this page, one can access the State Memory Projects, which have links to resources at the state level.

From the Digital Collections & Services: In addition to the 9 featured items on the LOC's home page, the anchor page has a complete list of all the digitized collections.  The most helpful to the genealogist are:
American Memory collection: highlights from American history, linking to primary documents, photos, exhibits and more.
Chronicling America features selected historic newspapers which are browsable and downloadable from the library's collection.
Most interesting is the Map collections of the library, with maps from 1500-2004.  From the anchor page, select the category of interest to locate maps to add to and enhance your family history.

For the next week (at least), I will be exploring the LOC's collections, with an emphasis on the North Carolina records of Robeson County, the home of our immigrant ancestor, Dougal McLauchlin.
I will share what I find on this blog, especially anything that adds to the information originally included in JennieV Wier's book, McLauchlins.

Spelling...a rose by any other name?

"You know that your family spells our last name incorrectly, don't you?" my first cousin said to me.  I paused as I considered that he was just getting started as a genealogist.  But, he had asked for my advice. 

In my research, I have, as many serious genealogists have, found my name spelled many different ways.  The most common four spellings are McLachlan, McLaghlin, McLauchlin and McLaughlin. Both of the last two spellings can be found in my grandfather's papers, as well as an "X" for his signature. Therein lies at least part of the problem -- many of my forebears could not (or could barely) read or write. Their names were spelled as those they encountered who could read or write heard them.  The other explanation seems to be that our ancestors, through at least the early 20th century, did not care nearly as much about spelling as we have come to.  This certainly applies to my father, who only had a 5th grade education.  He did not have much use for writing or paper records until much later in his life, long after all his children had adopted the infamous "g" that seems to disturb many of our cousins. JennieV, my genealogy role model, spelled her name with the "c" (third spelling above).  It seems to be the most popular spelling in our line for the name.

Speaking of my cousins, how did I respond to my first cousin, new genealogist, and 10 years my elder? As gently as I could, I told him that I knew, though our fathers were brothers, that we did spell our names differently. I wish I could have told him why, but it was a question I had never asked my father, who was the source of the change, as far as I can tell from my research.  He didn't seem to be too happy with that response, but I think he might come around as he looks at the old documents. In my immediate family, it's too late to change the spelling of our name.  The cousins aren't changing theirs, either.  That's the proof that we are related - a streak of stubbornness that we all share.