Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The Second Largest Genealogy Library? -- Looking at the BYU Family History Library


A couple of days ago, I wrote a post about the Brigham Young University (BYU) Family History Library in Provo, Utah and speculated that it was very likely the second largest genealogy library in the world after the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. I got some comments on the post, mostly in person from people at the library and elsewhere, and that started me thinking. For some years now, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah has claimed to be the "largest family history library in the world." I certainly do not dispute that. But now that I find myself frequently working at the BYU Family History Library, I began to think about "second place."

What constitutes a large family history or genealogy library? Back in 2009, the FamilyTreeMagazine ran an article entitled, "9 Genealogy Libraries to Visit Before You Die." The libraries listed include the following:


As I try to point out, genealogically important records can be found in almost any substantial collection of records and sometimes in very small collections. I am reminded of the floor to ceiling records collected by the Hancock County, Illinois Historical Society, as an example, with its catalog of specific data on over 350,000 individuals available no where else and certainly not digitized online.

Now, if my claim that the BYU Family History Library in Provo, Utah is the second largest family history or genealogy library in the United States is accurate, why isn't it mentioned on the list above? Why isn't the BYU Family History Library one of the lifetime bucket-list of libraries to visit before you die? I could say something about having a list of libraries to visit before I die, but that goes into a family tradition we have of taking out-of-town visitors on a tour of our local libraries.

Here is the key to this discussion. If the library has what you are looking for it is a great library, no matter the size, if it doesn't, then what?

My point in many previous posts has been that libraries, per se, are always valuable resources for genealogical research. Even smaller local libraries often have extensive local newspaper collections. I have found important genealogically related information in the Seligman, Arizona Public Library located in a double-wide mobile building and I once spent over two hours listening to the librarian talk about their genealogically important records in the Keokuk, Iowa Public Library.

If we were going to look at libraries from the standpoint of size, then the list above would be dramatically altered. The largest university library in the United States is probably the University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But size alone does not make a library an important genealogical resource. It would probably be impossible to determine the size of the staff of each of the libraries dedicated solely to genealogy, but the BYU Family History Library has about 120-130 volunteers and paid staff dedicated to assisting patrons solely with family history research. Unlike the limited hours of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, the BYU Library is open from 7:00 am to Midnight Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to midnight on Saturday and two Sundays a month from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm except on holidays.

Now, the BYU Family History Library is actually part of the larger Harold B. Lee Library on the university campus. According to a list in Wikpedia of the largest libraries in the United States, BYU is number 53. But it is larger than all of the libraries on the list above except for the New York Public Library and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Interestingly, the Library of Congress is not included on the Wikipedia list. From the Cincinnati library's catalog, it looks like BYU has about five to six times as many genealogically important microfilms than the Cincinnati Library.

Why is all this important? Well, people seem to travel great distances to visit some of these libraries to do research. I would suggest that the Brigham Young University campus and the Family History Library are only a few miles apart (about an hour by automobile or train) depending on traffic and train connections. It seems a shame to me that people would travel all the way across the United States to Salt Lake City, Utah and fail to spend some time exploring the BYU Library. Whether it is second in size or whatever is not as important as realizing that it and many other libraries hold valuable genealogical materials.

I think that the fact that there are almost 130 volunteers dedicated to helping patrons with their genealogical research at the BYU Library should place it near or at least second on anyone's list. Personally, I have only begun to scratch the surface of the resources at the BYU Library. I have been spending even more time recently to walking the shelves. With what I know now, I would come to Utah to the BYU Family History Library and visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City only as I found it had items not at BYU.

Now a final few words about university libraries. Although most school libraries are "open to the public" you will find that there are always some restrictions for patrons who are not students or staff of the university. In many cases (probably most cases) these university libraries have a visiting research accommodation. I would always suggest exploring the access to the collections granted to visitors. Some libraries, like the New York Public Library, have special passes for visitors to the Library. Some of the libraries have restrictions on access to certain collections and it is wise to research the library and its policies before arriving to do research.


6 comments:

  1. BYU is in good company for having been left off that list... Another glaring omission is the National Archives.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not particularly criticizing the list and after all, the National Archives is not, strictly speaking, a library. Although it could be considered as a library in a very general sense.

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  2. Does the library at BYU offer any type of look up or copy service? A couple of days ago I started work on cleaning up the Family Tree record for my g-g-g-grandparents Hiram Winters and Rebecca Burdick. Both had over 30 sources but a lot of the sources needed extensive editing to make them useful. One source I have not been able to improve:

    Title: Legacy NFS Source: Hiram Winters - death: 21 October 1889; Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah, United States
    Citation: The Genealogical Magazine, Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library, Page number: Vol. 19, page 128 and 130

    I have not been able to determine the actual publisher of this magazine or the date or place of publication. I am assuming that BYU and the HBL Library came from the "Repository" field in the New Family Search sources form. I would also love to get a copy of the full article to which this source is referring in order to get any and all information it might include.

    By the way, when I say the sources needed extensive editing, here is one example.

    One source was: Title: Sons of the Utah Pioneers: Biography Files (R-Z)
    and nothing more.

    I changed it to:
    Title: Rebecca Burdick in Sons of the Utah Pioneers: Biography Files (R-Z) (Ancestry.com)
    Web page: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=Sup19&gss=sfs28_ms_db&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=rebecca&gsfn_x=NP_NN_NIC&gsln=winters&gsln_x=NP_NN&MSAV=1&uidh=2oz
    Citation: Ancestry.com. Sons of the Utah Pioneers: Biography Files (R-Z) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
    Original data: Biography Files. Salt Lake City, UT, USA: Sons of the Utah Pioneers.
    Notes:Name: Rebecca Burdick Winters
    Death Date: 15 Aug 1852
    "About Sons of the Utah Pioneers: Biography Files (R-Z)
    This database in a index to the biography files which have been turned in to the Sons of Utah Pioneers library by descendants of the people whose life story is recorded on the sheets. Some of them are short, some more extensive. Some have journal entries or diaries and many have pictures. Most of files have family group and pedigree sheets showing family ties. Time periods range from 1600's to present. In many cases, only the primary name will be have been indexed and the researcher should refer to the SUP for whatever additional information may be available."

    I know you have written about sources before, but will you be including how to make sources actually useful in your current series on cleaning up Family Tree in your other blog?

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    Replies
    1. I find plenty of information about Hiram Winters, including a death certificate. The citation above about "The Genealogical Magazine" was entered by a user and is incomplete. I made several searches and my best guess is that the citation is to the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine.

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    2. Yes to your second question. I will be reviewing all sorts of issues.

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  3. Thanks for your help! Learning the probable real name of the magazine, I was able to find it digitized on Family Search and change the source from:

    Title: Legacy NFS Source: Hiram Winters - death: 21 October 1889; Pleasant Grove, Utah, Utah, United States
    Citation: The Genealogical Magazine, Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library, Page number: Vol. 19, page 128 and 130

    To:

    Title:
    Information on the Burdick and Winters Families in the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Volume 19.
    URL:
    https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE93879&from=fhd
    Citation:
    The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Vol. 19. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Genealogical Society of Utah, 1928.
    Notes:
    Bennett, Archibald F. “A Legacy from the Past,” pages 50-59.
    Grant, Heber J. “Seek, and Ye Shall Find,” pages 59-61.
    Bennett, Aarchibald F. “The Ancestors of Gideon Burdick, pages 62-64.
    Bennett, Archibald F. “The Descendants of Gideon Burdick,” pages 127-132, 165-171.

    Title:
    Information on the Burdick and Winters Families in the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Volume 20.
    URL:
    https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE93839&from=fhd
    Citation:
    The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Vol. 20. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Genealogical Society of Utah, 1929.
    Notes:
    Grant, Augusta W. “The Descendants of Gideon Burdick,” pages 127-132, 172-175.

    Title:
    Information on the Burdick and Winters Families in the Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Volume 21
    URL:
    https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE94852
    Citation:
    The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Vol. 21. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Genealogical Society of Utah, 1930.
    Notes:
    Grant, Augusta W. “The Descendants of Gideon Burdick,” pages 29-30.

    (I know these are not strictly in a "proper" citation form, but that is another discussion altogether.)

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