A few genealogists have shared where they were five years ago today. Arlene Eakle was at the Dallas Public Library.
The morning of September 11th, we arrived at the library at 8:30 am so we could be ready to research as soon as the Genealogy Section opened. We selected seats near the book stacks. We selected the first of more than 300 printed volumes we searched that day.
A few minutes later, we were deeply into our research when Lloyd Bockstruck, the Genealogy Librarian, excitedly beckoned to us. We went to see what was up. He had brought a small screen television into his office and the entire genealogy staff were gathered around it. We watched in shock as the news played and replayed the 1st airplane smashing into the World Trade Center, each commentator speculating on why such a horrible mistake could have happened. [Link]
Nancy Menton-Lyons was in Dublin researching her Irish roots when she heard the news.
On September 11, I was researching in the Library and broke for lunch. I crossed the street to Boswells’ pub and saw the television screen with the burning buildings! I thought at first it was part of Ireland’s internal struggles!
The local Irish didn’t know I was an American until I asked what had happened with my obvious American accent.
In that moment I went from being one of many of them, to being one lone American. My feelings were of disbelief, horror, isolation, and fear for my family, my country, and the world. [Link]
Ed and Annabelle Jenkins were in Washington, D. C., when the Pentagon was hit.
“We were in the National Archives when I started noticing people getting up and leaving and I mentioned to Ed what was going on and he said 'Annabelle, you're in Washington, D.C. This is a big city.' I went to get a tape and I heard these two women talking and one said 'did you hear that two planes hit the twin towers in New York City?' and the other woman said 'That can't be true.' We went to get on an elevator and this woman came off and she was crying and she told the security guard a plane had hit the Pentagon and we went back into the room where we had been and there were all these pagers going off.” [Link]
And Harold F. Goodwin had just arrived at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
After parking, I started to walk to join the ladies. There were two men in a parked car listening to a radio. They must have seen my Maine plates. One said, "Too bad about New York."
I said, "What do you mean?"
"Two planes crashed into two skyscrapers in the city."
"Sure, sure," was my reply.
"Listen."
Needless to say we got very little research done. [Link]
