Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega describes a helpful genealogy resource often overlooked by family historians: genealogical records in local university or college archives. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”

Recently, I had the opportunity to hear a presentation and view documents at the University of Pittsburgh Archives at Hillman Library. I’ve always been a big fan of university archives. They can hold such unique local history collections.

This event was a good reminder of the importance of academic archives for genealogists. Family historians can search academic archive catalogs in the location their ancestor lived to discover valuable family history-related records.

Ancestral Records? They Have That!

Academic archives will have various collections including documents, records, and other materials that document the history of the academic institution. For those with family who attended, taught, or worked at the university, this can be a gold mine of materials documenting the individual and their time there.

But what else do these archives have? Can academic archives be valuable for those researchers whose family was not associated with that university?

For many family historians it will be surprising to learn that an academic institution may have genealogically relevant records. Academic archives not only document their immediate community, but they also hold the records for the larger location. While they may not see themselves as a genealogical repository, records that document people are genealogically relevant records.

For example, in the case of the University of Pittsburgh Archives, they have Alleghany County birth and death records from 1870-1905.

Archives create “Finding Aids” to help researchers know more about the collection.

In this case, the Finding Aid helps the researcher understand the history of the records, what information can be found on the records, and even where some of the records reside digitally.

While vital records are the most obvious genealogical type of record, many other types of records exist at an academic archive that shed light on families. University of Pittsburgh archivist David Grinnell showed us yearbooks, a prison mug book, a musician’s diary, a deed, and employment records. In most cases, searching the catalog for a name isn’t enough. You need to consider what your ancestors could have been or were involved in and where.

There’s More than One Catalog

Academic archives have items stored onsite and digitized online. Because of this, consider that there may be more than one online catalog for the archive. For example, University of Pittsburgh’s catalogs include Historic Pittsburgh.

The catalog explains:

“Historic Pittsburgh comprises primary and secondary sources about the greater Pittsburgh region, including a wide range of publications, maps, manuscripts, visual images, and audio-video materials, that support personal and scholarly research.”

One of the archive’s collections found here is their directory collection described as:

“The Directories collection contains directories published between 1815 and 1945 by J.F. Diffenbacher and R.L. Polk & Company. While most of the directories cover Pittsburgh and Allegheny City, a portion includes Homestead and nearby boroughs.”

Another digital collection catalog that the University of Pittsburgh Archives has is their ULS Digital Collections catalog that has over 200,000 items and can be browsed by topics. A search on the word “genealogy” in this catalog brought up over 800 results including genealogy charts, diaries, family histories, and family papers.

University Archives for Genealogy Research? Yes!

Think about the universities located near your ancestor’s home. Those institutions may have records that pertain to your genealogy. In some cases, it might be surprising, like vital records. In other cases, it might be records that document their community, church, or workplace. At any rate, don’t neglect to search the online catalogs for the local university archives as you research your ancestors’ lives.

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Note on the header image: birth record, University of Pittsburgh Library System. Credit: Gena Philibert-Ortega.