St. Paul Mayor Latimer and the St. Paul Public Library

Way back in 1989 I had the pleasure of meeting St. Paul Mayor George Latimer. One of the large genealogy conferences (NGS) took place in St. Paul. I found out that he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and had an interest in family history.

He accomplished many things for the benefit of St. Paul over the 14 years he served as our Mayor. He still resides in the city and has had a great honor bestowed upon him. The central St. Paul Public Library in downtown St. Paul is being renamed the George Latimer Central Library.

I love this library building and took the bus to it as a child, researched there for school projects while in high school, even went there with a special beau (that's all I will say about those visits!), and used it for family history research. 

To read a very nice article about Mayor Latimer and the library at Twin Cities.com, click here.

The St. Paul Library's website is here.

North Dakota State University Archives and Institute for Regional Studies reopens

It's always a good thing when a great research place stays open. It's sad when one is closed, even temporarily. In the case of the Institute for Regional Studies and the North Dakota State University Archives, that temporarily closed is now in the past. It has reopened in a new location.

I noted the announcement in the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead's March 29th online edition. The article gives a good overview of the collections. It also says "It isn’t easy to find the new location of the North Dakota State University Archives. Stashed out in the old Knox Lumber Co. warehouse at 3551 7th Ave. N., it’s the last right turn before Interstate 29 on Seventh Avenue."

I used to spend a lot of time researching at the Institute when it was located in the university's main library. What a wealth of information for North Dakota and also for some families along the North Dakota and Minnesota border. 


Click here for the full article.

Click here for the repository's website with collection details and online databases. Browse the tabs for great details.

Baby books in the UCLA Special Collections Library

I haven't looked at my baby book or those of my three children in a long time. My youngest child turns 37 in a few days so that book will bring back some great memories. Need to get that box down from the high shelf! My own mother's baby book that was started in 1926 yielded much family history information. I spent some time figuring out what the connection was to those listed as newborn and 1st birthday gift givers for her.

The University of California - Los Angeles Special Collections Library has a huge collection of baby books collected from a variety of places. The library's blog has a post from February 14th, that is titled "Grow(ing) Up! The UCLA Library Baby Record Books Collection." This year is the 10th Anniversary of the beginning of the collection.

The post's last paragraph states "The books and their handwritten and pasted-in contents have been used for research and teaching in pediatrics, printing history, economic and social status, material culture, linguistics, architecture, advertising, folklore, depictions of family, and other topics and disciplines." I sure hope that the other topics include family history.

One baby book item I found in the UCLA Library catalog:

• Baby birth announcements, height and weight chart, and photographs for Charles Wriggins Walker, born 14 February 1914 in Buffalo, N.Y., 1914-1920.

Click here to read the full blog post.


A quick check on ArchiveGrid.org for the phrase "baby book" shows 385 entries. Keep in mind that some hits in any catalog might yield books on how to care for a baby!

Thank you West Valley Genealogical Society

A week ago I was in sunny Arizona to do a seminar in Sun City for the West Valley Genealogical Society. I had the opportunity to experience a tour of their library. Wow! It's huge, has books, atlases, many computers, databases, space to research, and more. I think I could have spent several days there. What a gem for those who live in Arizona but also for the snowbirds who descend upon the state. (Oh do I wish I was one of them after this winter in Minnesota!). The library is at 12222 N. 111th Avenue, Youngtown, Arizona. Free parking right in front, too!

The group was welcoming, the seminar was well-organized, great door prizes were awarded, lunch from Paradise Bakery was awesome, and we all had great opportunities for learning and some laughs. I could not have asked for a better day.

One other highlight of the weekend was that one of their members, Linda Caldwell McCleary, was my host for the weekend. Linda and I have known each other for more years than we will publicly admit to. She is a former board member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies but we really needed some catching up time!

I mentioned door prizes and that brought about a moment in which I was speechless. Yes, me, speechless. Toward the end of the door prizes, Judy Linnebach announced some special door prizes that the speaker (me) didn't know about. Seems that their last year's seminar speaker, J. Mark Lowe, had provided three prizes of shirts that said "Genealogy by Paula" and I was totally surprised. Thanks, Mark!

I owe many thanks to Arlene Sampson and Judy among others for all the planning!

Oh, did I mention that the WVGS library has a huge sign outside?

One more thing you might want to know. The library has an obituary file. I found the obituary of one of my children's Granduncles in that file! Thank you WVGS volunteers! Plus the index is online at www.azwvgs.org/library.asp. As the website states, "The West Valley Genealogical Society Obituary database contains nearly 50,000 records dating from 1963 to the present, with a heavy concentration from the 1980’s to date. The database covers primarily the cities of NorthWestern Maricopa County, Arizona . . ."

The Minnesota Genealogical Society Co-Sponsors Hennepin County Library Family History Fair

Join us Saturday, October 26 at Minneapolis Central Library from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the 4th annual Hennepin County Library Family History Fair.

Nationally known Minnesota genealogist, Paula Stuart-Warren, CG, FMGS, FUGA, starts off the day with a keynote address, Check it Out! Public Library "Musts" for Genealogists.

Paula's talk is followed by three rounds of short breakout sessions presented by local genealogists.  Breakout round 1 features Finding Family in the Federal Census from Lois Abromitis Mackin and Faith

Dublin, Ireland libraries: architectural treasures

If you love books of any kind and the buildings that house them, then you want to read this Washington Post article from Friday, September 30th. Yes, you may just look at the pictures but the accompanying story is as superb. Now I want/need to go to Dublin for another reason beyond family history research.

I love the treasures that these buildings themselves are. The architecture, the plaster work, the artwork on walls and ceilings, and the lovely old wooden tables are just some of what draws me in to the "feeling" of being a perfect place for old books.

Loving a library!

And they aren't even genealogists. Claude Peck and Rick Nelson write for the [Minneapolis] StarTribune on food, clothing trends, culture, and more. They are usually lighthearted and sometimes irreverent in their conversations. I was surprised to see their column today "Downtown library a real town hall" in praise of the Minneapolis Central Library. This library is part of the well-known and heavily used Hennepin County Library system. This location is at 300 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. It is a beautiful building and many more items are on open shelves than in the old downtown library which often didn't look like a library because so many books were in closed storage and had to be requested. Now browsing is wonderful.

Click here to read their conversation.

If you live in the area and haven't visited the downtown library to do some family history research, it's time you put that visit on your calendar. Special collections is a must but it is not open as many hours as the main parts of the library. The library has many databases, old city directories, newspaper clippings, newspaper indexes, genealogy periodicals, yearbooks, censuses, and a wealth of things you might be interested in.

Genealogy library electronic news

These are three examples of helpful electronic publications from libraries that have extensive genealogical research collections. I have researched in all three libraries and highly recommend them and their publications.

• Mid-Continent Public Library, Independence, Missouri:   http://www.mymcpl.org/genealogy/news-bytes-newsletter
   
• Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois: http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/news/
   
• Allen County Public Library, Genealogy Center:  http://www.genealogycenter.org/Community/E-zine.aspx

Do you have a library card?

All family historians should have a library card. Your city, town, or county library holds a variety of help for your research. One important factor is that almost all library cards are free for residents of the area where the library is located. Few libraries allow us to borrow genealogy related research materials, so we need to purchase those from the book vendors we find at seminars and conference and online.

• Reference section: no matter the size of your library, browse the shelves of reference books to see the various compilations, directories, and other books that may help you.
• Local History Room: the indexes, histories, vertical files are great for community history, too.
• Reference librarians: the knowledge and experience may give you knowledge of references sources

LaCrosse, Wisconsin Library to receive special award

On October 24th, the La Crosse Public Library’s Archives "will receive the 2010 Governor’s Award for Archival Achievement. It recognizes not only the library’s extensive archives but the ways they’ve been made accessible, [Wisconsin] state archivist Peter Gottlieb said.
“A lot of archives are content to wait for people to find them,” Gottlieb said. “What makes Anita’s [Anita Doering] program a natural winner is the initiative to connect what you have with how you can help people. They’re not passive. They really get out there in front of people.”

You may read the full story in the LaCrosseTribune.

Visit the library's Genealogy section of its website for details on the great holdings. It's been a while since I researched there, but I remember it was a good place for research. This is also a helpful library if you have Winona, Minnesota family connections.

Researching Delaware family history?

According to DoverPost.com (October 1st) The Delaware Public Archives has produced a series of twelve videos that provide info about the holdings and research at the Archives. Each video is two minutes long. Click here to view the videos.The topics include Visiting the Archives, Manuscript Genealogies, Vital Statistics, Tombstone Records, Photographs, and Orphans Court Records.

Thomas M. Summers, Manage of Outreach Services for the Archives, is the man you see in the videos. Also check out their Facebook page and blog. All of these along with the Delaware Public Archives website provide extensive details about their holdings and research.

Makes me wish I had some Delaware ancestry.

Tulare genealogy collection is in the NEW library

Last October I reported on the situation in Tulare [California] Public Library. When the city was building a new library there was no space in the plans for the collection of the Sequoia Genealogical Society that had been housed in the old library. That post is here.

Public reaction to this had a good result -- room was made. Today people are using that collection in that new library. Read the update here.

These are my favorite things about research repositories

Wouldn't it be nice if we could take the most useful aspects of each of our favorite research places and combine them so that each place would have all that we love? (Yes, I know about reality, but I can dream, can't I?) My ideal library, archive, and historical society would have:

• Copy cards so I don't have to carry change
• Space and plugs for laptop computers -- even next to the microfilm readers
• Wireless internet accessibility
• Lockers big enough for our bags that we must lock up
• My favorite staff people
• Staff that isn't overworked
• Finding aids that tell more about individual collections (online and off)
• Comprehensive online catalog
• Place to sit and reorganize your work for the day (where you can use the materials you had to put in the locker)
• Onsite or close by place to eat
• Record or book retrieval service that is not too slow
• More materials on open shelves
• Self-copiers
• OK to bring in a flat bed scanner and a digital camera
• Clear guidelines posted to remind us of them
• Record retrieval forms that don't take so long to fill out
• Record retrieval request online (how many times do we need to fill our our name and address!)
• Parking onsite or nearby and well lit
• Public transportation at the door
• Self-retrieval microforms
• Clean and nearby restrooms (not on a different floor of the building)
• Reasonable security features

I know there must be more features I love and will post those in the future. Do you have any suggestions for the perfect place to research? 

U.S. National Library of Medicine Manuscripts

The National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine has an interesting website. One section is devoted to the "History of Medicine." You can browse the finding aids for manuscripts online, check the catalog, view digital images and learn about visiting the library in Bethesda, Maryland. I found the FAQ section quite helpful.

A finding aids entry looks like this:

Title: Zuriel and George Waterman Papers 1774-1817
Abstract: Daybooks, correspondence, ledgers and journals pertaining to medical practice, as well as memorandum books kept on board a privateer during the American Revolution.

The papers of John Shaw Billings include this description:

". . . was in charge of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office. Other items in the collection include genealogy information, diplomas and certificates, draft of History and literature of surgery, copies . . ." [I bolded the word genealogy.]

One set of digital images includes not only medical history of the 19th century, but lots of family history. It is part of "Physicians' Lives in the Shenandoah Valley."

"The Henkel Family Correspondence collection (MS C 291; 1.5 linear feet) consists of 828 letters and is largely the product of Caspar C. Henkel's (1835-1908) life. . . Items dating before 1850 were written by ancestors of both Caspar and his wife, Margaretta . . . Caspar retained letters written to him while he was away at medical school and in the field during the Civil War. Upon returning home from these extended absences, he apparently also collected several letters he himself had written to New Market. He also kept letters written to him from his two brothers during their medical training and afterwards when they lived and practiced away from New Market. Letters written to Margaretta from her sisters during the late 1860s and early 1870s are also included."

St. Louis County, Missouri genealogy library expansion

Some wonderful news out of St. Louis County Library during this tough time for libraries, archives, and historical societies. A new genealogy center will be built in suburban Chesterfield, Missouri. A story in today's St. Louis Business Journal says that "Plans call for a two-story facility of 63,000 square feet, which would allow expansion of the existing genealogy collection. The building is to include an auditorium and a family history museum." The center is scheduled to open in 2010.

Family in southwestern Kansas?

The April 17th issue of the Pittsburg, Kansas Morning Sun has an article that is one of my favorite types. It tells about an old record book being turned over to an institution for preservation. In this case, it's a 1923 jail register for Crawford County, Kansas that has been sent to the Special Collections Department of the Axe Library at Pittsburgh State University.

Alas, my own Kansas connections were not in that part of Kansas. The preservation of this volume is a reminder to continually check online catalogs and finding aids for repositories of historical materials. A book of records, a set of old letters, or some loose papers found in the back of a filing cabinet may get turned over to a library, historical society, or archive. A collection that was previously not catalogued or not fully described may now be. 

Have you seen these blogs?

Special collections departments or libraries on college and university campuses often hold much for the study of local history and genealogy. Yes, they likely include the university's archives but the other manuscripts, oral histories, newspapers, and books can be a gold mine for research. Local history collections in city and county public libraries are also the home of many resources for family history research. Check out these blogs that are produced by staff at such collections. 

• Haverford College Libraries, Quaker and Special Collections http://news.haverford.edu/blogs/special/
   
• University of Montana, Missoula, Archives & Special Collections at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library http://content.lib.umt.edu/spcoll/
   
• Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, Sandusky, Ohio http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com/
   
• The Top Shelf, University of Texas, San Antonio Libraries Special Collections http://libtmp.lib.utsa.edu/blogs/index.php?blog=7
   
• University of Kentucky Archives and the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History http://www.ukyarchives.blogspot.com/
   
• Iowa State University Special Collections Blog http://isuspecialcollections.wordpress.com/
   
• The San José State University Special Collections & Archives http://sjsuspecialcollections.blogspot.com/

Those 7,000 books will have a home!

Back on October 30th, I reported on the the Sequoia Genealogical Society's collection of 7,000 books that was not going to be included in the new Tulare, California library building. Click here to read that posting.

Last evening, the Tulare City Council stated support for housing the collection in the new library building. It will still require a council vote next week but it looked good after two hours of comment! "The collection belongs to the city," Councilman Richard Ortega said. "It's our responsibility to see it's well kept."

Read the update in the Visalia Times-Delta by clicking here.

And another research closure: Iron Range Research Center

Well, it has actually had a name change from that before today. But that doesn't matter when the place will now be closed to the public as of Friday, 20 November 2009 at 5:00 p.m. The name change to Minnesota Discovery Center didn't help the complex which is located in Chisholm, Minnesota.

The announcement says that it will be temporarily closed to the public. Read the announcement here. Yes, finances are the reason. The place formerly known as The Iron Range Interpretive Center, and also as Ironworld, opened in 1977. It was initially funded during the administration of then Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich. Perpich was from the Iron Range area of northeastern Minnesota. The research area opened in 1980.

The core collection concentrated on the people of the Iron Range area of Northeastern Minnesota, and on the area's iron mining and logging industries. Then it took on a wider scope with the addition of statewide censuses, soundexes, and county level naturalization records for Minnesota. The IRRC also had microfilms of federal census records and soundexes for Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The collection includes governmental records, personal papers, newspapers, church records, maps, family histories, city directories, and an interesting oral history collection. I loved the index to mining accidents and deaths.

Volunteers indexed many records such as the statewide index to district court (county level) naturalizations. The indexes were on its website. The naturalization index is also available at Ancestry.com.

I have been thinking of doing a blog post to let researchers know more about this place but I certainly didn't think it would be about sad news.

Great electronic news from the DAR

Eric Grundset, Director of the DAR Library in Washington, DC has just released some great news about the DAR and its website:

"After nearly a decade of scanning, indexing, and other behind-the-scenes work by DAR members and employees, the Daughters of the American Revolution is pleased to announce the availability of the DAR Genealogical Research System on our public website. Here are the direct links:

http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm or www.dar.org (and click on the Library button at the top, then the second tab in the left-hand column).

The GRS is a growing collection of databases that provide access to many materials collected by the DAR over the past 119 years. Included in this collection of databases is the GRC National Index which has been available to researchers for the past few years. There are still some kinks we're working out here and there.

When you go to the link above, you will find several tabs that will enable searching in the various databases:

Ancestor - established DAR Revolutionary War Ancestors and basic information about them with listings of the applications submitted by descendants who joined the DAR [updated daily]

Member - limited access to information on deceased/former DAR members - not current members.

Descendants - index of generations in applications between the DAR member and the Revolutionary War ancestor. There is much eighteenth and nineteenth-century information here. [ongoing indexing project]

GRC - everyname index to 20,000 typescript volumes (some still being indexed) of genealogical records such as cemeteries, Bibles, etc. This index is not limited to the period of the American Revolution at all.

Resources - [In particular, the digitized DAR Library Revolutionary Pension Extract Card Index and the Analytical Index Cards. Other information sources will be coming in the near future, mostly relating to Revolutionary War service, bibliographies, Forgotten Patriots (updates), etc. Read the introductions to these to learn why these are both important genealogical indexes. For example, the Rev. War pension index includes the names of people mentioned in those pensions that were abstracted (not just the pensioner or widow)!!!]

Library Catalog - our book, periodical, and manuscript holdings

Each of these has interrelated content, and a description of each is given more fully on the website. You will notice restricted information in many search results. This is the result of a concerted effort to protect the identity of our members while providing historical genealogical information to researchers.

The national numbers of members (without the names of living members) given in the search results are needed to order copies of applications and supplemental applications. They do not lead online researchers to any other information about the member."


DAR Library

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

1776 D Street, N. W.

Washington, DC 20006-5303

www.dar.org