The treasures libraries hold

By Nancy Battick

A recent article in the National Genealogical Society magazine dealt with hidden gems found in public libraries. While many genealogists rely on online sources for their research there are still records only available in libraries, particularly in small libraries in rural areas. 

I remember countless trips to libraries where I happily spent entire days researching. Genealogists still head to libraries to help with their family trees, but many times they confine their efforts to what they locate in the stacks. While transcribed town records, genealogical books, magazine articles, and other shelved resources can be valuable, there may be other items in libraries that researchers should seek. But many never think of asking what else there might be in the collection that could help with their research.

Local libraries often contain materials that can be valuable and haven’t been duplicated. As an example, many libraries house map collections. Sometimes these maps are from published volumes, such as the Colby Atlas, which has maps of the various counties and towns in Maine, but other times they can be unique to an area, such as a petition for a new road or an extension, hand-drawn maps of local cemeteries, particularly ones located on remote farms, or even property lines.  

These unique maps, usually drawn by a family member, can be tucked into a library’s collection. The information they contain is invaluable. 

Another potential resource can be collections of family letters, Bibles and diaries. These can be catalogued under a family surname, but may contain information on other branches of a family, such as a married sister. This is the kind of collection that a local family may donate to a library often because they don’t know what else to do with it, and these are almost never shelved but held in special collections, a vault or a basement file cabinet, hopefully with climate control. 

I’ve found family histories written by a family descendant but never published. Someone in a family donated a copy to the local library. I can’t begin to tell you how valuable all this can be.

You might also locate business records, particularly of long-closed operations such as a woolen mill, organizational minutes or membership lists, newsletters from local organizations or groups, lists of local veterans who served in various wars, photos, yearbooks from the local high school, transcriptions of cemetery stones, records of defunct churches, town reports and copies of local newspapers that may no longer be in business.  Some libraries even hold old town records.

Finding these resources means consulting the card catalog and/or talking to the librarian. Depending on how material is catalogued, you may not find the names you’re seeking, but that doesn’t mean information on the person you’re seeking isn’t there. Large collections of letters may not indicate the names of all the people who corresponded with a given individual; yearbooks or membership lists won’t be filed under every name. 

Check them all. Be prepared to search through collections looking for that hidden gem. 

Columnist Nancy Battick of Dover-Foxcroft has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft. Nancy holds an MA in History from UM. Reader emails are welcome at nbattick@roadrunner.com.