ROOTS & BRANCHES

Last week’s “Roots & Branches” column mused about the collections policies of Pennsylvania historical and genealogical libraries. Among the musings was the phrase “core collection,” particularly in reference to the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, the organization at which I’m currently interim executive director.

In case you don’t think things “come full circle,” I recall in my previous stint as GSP executive director helping the New England Historic Genealogical Society—the nation’s oldest and richest independent family history group—put together a list of what sources constitute a core collection back then.

Of course, a list such as this will be somewhat subjective. Some items that I think are vitally important may not be nearly as so for researchers whose interest lie in different parts of Pennsylvania or ethnic backgrounds.

And my picks are undoubtedly influenced by not giving priority to library shelf space to what’s available online through either free or subscription databases.

So, with a sense of humility that this should be looked upon as a “rough draft,” here are some ideas for a Pennsylvania core collection of published materials.

First up are the 132 volumes of the published Pennsylvania Archives series, which contains early government correspondence as well as military, land and naturalization records. But this is a good example of not duplicating online sources: Ancestry subsidiary Fold3.com has a digital version that’s available for free (you just have to create a log-in). That said, the paper volumes are somewhat easier to use.

Transcriptions of cemetery inscriptions are another item that probably should be collected carefully by society libraries because aggregation websites such as Find A Grave and Billion Graves have so many inscriptions, many with photos of the tombstones, to boot.

But the caveat here is that many times the cemeteries found on those websites do not have every grave documented … especially those with markers no longer extant that inscriptions read long ago might include. So published collections should be evaluated on that basis.

Books of newspaper abstracts are great but there are so many historical newspapers that giving an organization’s library patrons access to one or more of the websites such as Newspapers.com, Newspaper Archive or Genealogy Bank give considerably wider coverage.

A starter set of methodology books such as The Source, How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records: A Genealogist’s Guide and Black Roots are essential to virtually any library.

As happens to me occasionally, what looks like just one column on a subject turns into two. Next week’s “Roots & Branches” will look at the county-level elements of a core collection.

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Happy Thanksgiving! Remember this is a great time to gather oral history from family you often don’t get to see!