Sometimes It's Worth A Second Look

A note I wrote on 29 October 2002 for my ancestor John Henry Bryant in my family tree:

The biography from the Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County is one of my favorite finds.  I was in the Los Angeles Public Library on a weekend in September 2000.  I thought I had just about tapped out all of the resources the library had to offer for my genealogical research.  Boy, was I wrong.  When I pulled the old crumbling book from the shelf, I looked up the family names from McLean County: Bryant, Champion, Burwell, Ingersoll.  I was elated to find good old John H. Bryant.  I realized I had seen the biography earlier that year when I first started my research but had dismissed it because I didn't recognize the family connection.  This linked our Illinois Bryants back to Massachusetts and to the ancestor, Abraham Bryant, that came from England to America.