Destroying Artifacts of Unspeakable Evil would be EASIER.

I've been using this face A LOT at work lately. Especially today. I HATE SEARCHING FOR THE CHAIN OF TITLE IN STATEN ISLAND!!! STATEN ISLAND, YOU ARE DEAD TO ME!

The Law of Nature decrees that research for me should never be easy, or straightforward. Example: This week I've been researching a site in New Lots. There was a cemetery. The cemetery MAY have extended to the block and lots we're writing our report on. The trouble is that tracing the boundaries of that old cemetery, or even finding if the State removed the bodies when they put the school playground in is being a bitch and a half.

I thought I had had a really, really good lead! A bill was passed in the NY senate in 1913, proposing that the cemetery be reclaimed by the state, the bodies removed, and the land given to the adjacent school for a playground, cause hey! The school kids are using the cemetery for a playground anyway, may as well give them a swing set, or something. Even better, I KNOW the law had to be passed between 1923-1925, thanks too two articles I found that shows that in '23 there was still the cemetery, and in '25 there was a playground. HUZZAH!! SURELY THIS WILL BE EASY!!

So I went to the NY Public Library Law Library and searched and searched...

And it turns out all those bill jackets between 1905-1925 were destroyed. In a big old Albany blaze.

SONAVABITCH.

There was nothing in the law indexes. NOTHING. NADA. ZLITCH.

WHY DO I FAIL AT RESEARCH!?!?!?!

Tomorrow, I'm in the Bronx. Huzzah for backhoe trench excavations! If it's going to be anything like Fishkill, this should be...eventful.

Well. At least I've got a hard hat now. Bring it on, heavy machinery!