Those of you who are looking for your ancestors at the library (not literally, of course) have one more arrow in your quiver with the Rochester Public Library's new Genealogy & Local History Resources page. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that we have now organized all your arrows into the same quiver on our Genealogy page. This page give you a quick rundown of the library's online resources (staggering amounts of information stored in computer databases for your comfort and convenience) , paper resources (those book and pamphlet things), allows you to search the library's catalog under some popular subject headings and more.Right smack in the middle of the page are links to our fabulous online databases. What is an online database, you ask? (Well, you probably know, but I'm going to pretend for the moment that you don't.) Harnessing the power of the 21st Century to find records from before the 21st Century (sometimes well before the 21st Century), you can search through records from the Census, Immigration records, Military records, local history books and more without having to look at every single page of every single book (and there are lots of books). The five resources on the Genealogy page include Ancestry, HeritageQuest, New England Ancestors, the Post-Bulletin Archives, and the Olmsted History Center. If you were on the playground picking genealogy databases for a basketball team, these are the five databases you would want on your team.
One valuable resource that sometimes gets overlooked in libraries is the venerable "vertical file". Before we go too crazy with the alliteration, let's translate "vertical file" into "pamphlet file" (i.e. all of those file cabinets behind the adult internet terminals on the second floor with lots of pamphlets in them). They are spectacularly unglamourous file folders jam-packed with useful, often historical information. You can find maps, old programs for historical happenings, photographs, and all sorts of evidence that we existed long before the advent of the internet. The key to finding information in those files is knowing what subject headings to look under. That's where the lists under the "Local History Materials" come in handy. Think of the lists as treasure maps that will lead you to historical treasure. (Please note that no actual treasure - at least of the golden or jeweled variety - rests in our pamphlet file cabinets.) Some lists will also mention some other useful resources in the library.
Another handy feature of the Genealogy page is that you can search our catalog by Geographical Region or look through a specific type of Genealogy Guides with the click of a mouse button. We also have links for the list of Genealogy periodicals (journals and magazines in non-library language). And to round out the resources, there are links that have instructions for requesting an obituary form Rochester newspapers or interlibrary loan of materials. Almost hidden on the bottom of the page is a list of recommended internet sites for both Minnesota and non-Minnesota (i.e. U. S. and international) genealogical resources.
Whew, that's a lot of resources at your fingertips and all without a single exhumation!
