{"id":59915,"date":"2020-07-10T12:10:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T16:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=59915"},"modified":"2023-10-26T13:37:02","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T17:37:02","slug":"genealogy-during-quarantine-preparing-for-archival-research-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-during-quarantine-preparing-for-archival-research-at-home.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy during Quarantine: Preparing for Archival Research at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega gives tips, while you\u2019re home during quarantine, for planning your next research trip to an archive once the pandemic lessens. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Previously I wrote an article that gave ideas for preparing for your next research trip to the library during this unique time ( see Genealogy during Quarantine: 5 Things to Do When the Library Is Closed<\/a>). In that article I discussed what to do in preparation for when libraries are once again open and we can conduct in-person family history research.<\/p>\n

Libraries are essential to family history research \u2013 but so too are archives. Unlike libraries, archives contain records penned during our ancestors\u2019 lifetimes and may contain information about the organizations, occupations, religion, and FAN Club of your ancestor. (1)<\/p>\n

The Society of American Archivists points out that libraries make their collections available to the communities they serve via the ability to borrow materials to be used at home, digitized materials and databases available online, or various materials to be used in-person at the library. Library materials include published items like books and periodicals.<\/p>\n

In contrast, archives \u201ccan hold both published and unpublished materials, and those materials can be in any format. Some examples are manuscripts, letters, photographs, moving image and sound materials, artwork, books, diaries, artifacts, and the digital equivalents of all of these things. Materials in an archive are often unique, specialized, or rare objects, meaning very few of them exist in the world, or they are the only ones of their kind.\u201d (2) These materials are rare and do not circulate, so they can only be used at the archives.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Houston County Tennessee Archives. Credit: Melissa LeMaster Barker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Archives can yield important documents for the family historian, so before planning a trip you should choose a research project (an individual or family) and then identify what research questions you have about that person or family. Figuring out the question you want answered will help you determine what types of materials you need to search for and where they may be located. Once you have your project and questions written down you will want to:<\/p>\n