The Genealogy Library Center has acquired some wonderful new collections–some picked up by me in my Dodge Caravan Van; some delivered by UPS and US Post Office this very week. It is like Christmas every week. Books, reports, family files, photographs, research in progress–now and from the past.
Published volumes with the back-up research. Computer printouts, flash drives, PDF files. Boxes and loose-leaf binders. And the Conner-Bishop Library shrink-wrapped on pallets.
Every day in America, someone’s genealogy is in jeopardy. Most libraries do not accept genealogy files, unless they deal with a very prominent family or were compiled by a celebrity. The thought, that your life’s work on your family tree could end up in the trash, gives me nightmares. See also Robert M. Doerr. “Editorial: Records at Risk,” MoSGA Journal, XIX (No. 4, 2009): 195 ff.
What might happen to my files was of real concern to me.I have been a professional genealogist for more than 35 years working for more than 600 clients and consulting with more than 500 genealogists who want to trace their family themselves. Even interested children usually have homes too small to store adequately a collection of books, card files, magazines and periodicals, maps, and family files. So my husband and I bought a building large enough to house my stuff and the stuff of hundreds more genealogists just like me!
Please share your family genealogy and your research files with others:
IF…you write a genealogy book…
If… you make a break through on a tough genealogy line…
If… you discover new ancestors on RootsWeb or in a genealogy just loaded online…
Please share a copy.
Will you put the Genealogy Library Center, Inc. on your list of interested people? And mail a copy, so others can share your finds? If you are selling the book, it will not decrease your sales. Patrons who find that their ancestry is being traced or printed in a book, almost always want their own copy. I do.
And, don’t forget! There is a place waiting for your stuff if you need it. We don’t buy collections, since this library is currently maintained solely by my research income. If the collection is too large to ship, I will come and get it. Contact Arlene Eakle, 56 West Main Street, PO Box 129, Tremonton UT 84337-0129; mailing address: PO Box 40, Garland UT 84312; or arlene@arleneeakle.com with donations or pledges.