Week 19 - In the Library - Dillingham and others

Libraries are the world's greatest invention. They have been around since the beginning of time almost. If there is more than one book, then it is a collection. Libraries have educated us, fed our minds, increased our socialization skills and given us a safe sanctuary.

We all used our school libraries and our local town libraries growing up. And as a person of genealogy pursuits, that is my first go to whenever researching a family or an area.  We can't just go next door to one in another location without a lot of cost and travel expenses, so we all utilize the internet. Each town's library has a special collection - usually pertinent to the citizens of the area. Yearbooks, directories, special history books. And if you are lucky, they have a special room or area just for those types of genealogy research items.  

Billings, Montana's library has ALL the Civil War regiments and battles in book form  -Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 Volumes including index).  All those campaigns are typed out showing how each regiment traveled, who was injured in battle, where they got into position for the next battle. A veritable gold mine if you are researching a family member from that era. My Great-Grandfather Nathaniel G Dillingham's unit is well documented leading up to and during the march on Atlanta. He was a part of Captain Alpheus M. Blakeley's Company E, 74th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry.



Billings, MT also has two.... TWO Family History centers and for about eight years, I traveled to both of them weekly doing research. While living in Montana, I did a trip to Salt Lake City to the main Family Search library. An amazing repository freely available to all.

Appleton, Wisconsin has a great public library. It has a Memory Page link that you can type in, for example, Houdini Museum (Harry Houdini was raised in Appleton) and there are pictures of the museum.  It has a wonderful genealogy learning section with many links to other resources in the area.

Every library I have ever utilized has an 'Ask a Librarian' feature. If you need to know about special collections, books, history of the area - just ask. Need an obituary from their area and they have their newspapers available - just ask. They are a wealth of knowledge and always willing to help. Many libraries have a local genealogy society that volunteers to find the answer to your questions and the librarian will pass on your request.

I volunteer in the genealogy room of the Alice & Jack Wirt Public Library in Bay City, Michigan. From city directories, transcribed birth and marriages from Bay County to local funeral home records there is always something new and interesting if you are researching in the area. They also have the local Bay City Times newspaper online and fully searchable. 

Back in 2016 I wanted to research in the Perry, Dallas County, Iowa area. The local newspapers were digitized, but not available for public pursual. They were only available in the local public library. So, I planned a research trip to Iowa. Spent five days traveling from one end of Iowa to the other, stopping at courthouses and libraries. I was lucky enough to spend a day at the library in Perry and was able to fully search their digitized newspaper archives. 

Doing this missive, I decided to check their website and today they have the 1874 - 2001 newspapers fully available to search online from your home. And you don't have to be a card-carrying resident!

Lapeer, Michigan has an amazing library and genealogy room. They have many locally written family histories and county histories on their shelfs. Also, yearbooks and city directories and other books are available.

Those local genealogy groups that are affiliated with the library? Many of their members are savvy in where to look, how to look, and full of knowledge of where they and their ancestors lived. Check into joining one - in person is great and most now have Zoom options for their monthly meetings. Myself? I belong to seven groups across the state of Michigan and the nation. And even a couple overseas.

As my granddaughter informed me one time - I'm just using my resources wisely.

Remember that the next time you need an answer.

Barbie










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