This week's Tuesday's Tip is: Use the
www.ArchiveGrid.org website to find archival collections of papers, manuscripts, photos, etc.
The site description says:
"ArchiveGrid is an important destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.
"Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies."
The site has a list of contributing artchives at
http://archivegrid.org/web/jsp/contributorlist.jsp. Obviously, this isn't ALL possible archival repositories, but there are many on this list.
There is a link on the home page to search the ArchiveGrid system - the search is at
http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/.
I entered "seaver family" (without quotes) in the search field at the top right of the screen above, and was rewarded with 197 matches:
With "seaver family" in quotes there were only 13 matches, all of which were pertinent.
Some examples from the latter list:
* Seaver Family papers, 1832-1918, 1852-1881 (bulk). Seaver Family. (New York State Historical Documents)
* Herbert and Dorothy Seaver, Jr. collection, 1833-1902., Seaver, Herbert, Jr, donor. (Western Michigan University)
* Family papers, 1812-1947, bulk: 1893-1947., Seaver, Charles Morse, 1848-1924. (Massachusetts Historical Society)* Seaver family Civil War letters, 1863-1865., Seaver family. (Vermont Historical Society)* Richmond (Vt.) Seaver family photograph album, ca. 1906. (Vermont Historical Society)* Gad Day Family Papers (Yale University - Manuscripts and Archives)Each archival record set has a description. for instance, the last one on the list above says:"Four generations of a Connecticut and Massachusetts family, beginning with Josiah Day who is represented by his surveyor's notebook, 1742-1743. The principal figure is his great-grandson, George Edward Day, clergyman and professor at the Yale Divinity School, 1863-1895. Included in the papers are his correspondence, a diary (1832-1837), genealogical notebooks and the account book of his estate. Also represented are his father, Gad Day, with correspondence, accounts and deeds (1811-1844), his brother Horace Day, and Hannah Palfrey Cole Rice with a letter (1819) to her daughter, Sarah Cazneau Rice Seaver about the death of her child."A dedicated and persistent researcher may find a gold mine of family papers, letters photographs, and other records in one or more of these archival records. These types of records may break down a brick-wall research problem, or add priceless family history information to an ancestral family.Or not -- this is very much a situation of "you never know what you might find." Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver
4 comments:
Randy - am I right that this site is only open to subscriptions by organizations, libraries, societies, etc.? Searching it was interesting, found a few relevant items... Well worth the effort.
Oh boy! Thanks for this Randy! I just did a search and found a book on my Iverson ancestors I didn't know about. Now I just need to figure out how to get my hands on it. :)
Randy,
In my area, we have access to ArchiveGrid from home through my county public library -- it's free!
Barbara
Raleigh, NC
Celia,
The beta version of Archive Grid is open to everyone. Just access it at http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/
It's a wonderful source.
-Gena
Post a Comment