What do I mean by Mega-City? Principally, I’m writing about the major cities or areas where the genealogist can do large amounts of research in one area. A few of these are: Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Washington, D.C.; and virtually any State Archives and/or Library.
Preparations for the trip should be very much like preparing for any other research trip. However, keep in mind that you might want to take more data with you when traveling to one of these large repositories than you would if just traveling to your ancestor’s home town. While researching in a large facility, you will undoubtedly run across data on lines of the family that you weren’t planning on researching.
Most major repositories have extensive Web sites that you can use in preparation for your trip. Following are a few that I can recommend:
Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C. – Online Catalog
New York Public Library, New York, New York
Having your documentation with you might save many hours of frustration and perhaps needless duplication of research.