International Genealogy and Local History: Papers presented by the Genealogy and Local History Section at IFLA General Conferences 2001-2005 9783598440908, 9783598220364

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen Международная Федерация Библиотечных Ассоциаций и Учреждений Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

About IFLA

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IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession. IFLA provides information specialists throughout the world with a forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research, and development in all fields of library activity and information service. IFLA is one of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems. IFLA’s aims, objectives, and professional programme can only be fulfilled with the cooperation and active involvement of its members and affiliates. Currently, approximately 1,600 associations, institutions and individuals, from widely divergent cultural backgrounds, are working together to further the goals of the Federation and to promote librarianship on a global level. Through its formal membership, IFLA directly or indirectly represents some 500,000 library and information professionals worldwide. IFLA pursues its aims through a variety of channels, including the publication of a major journal, as well as guidelines, reports and monographs on a wide range of topics. IFLA organizes workshops and seminars around the world to enhance professional practice and increase awareness of the growing importance of libraries in the digital age. All this is done in collaboration with a number of other non-governmental organizations, funding bodies and international agencies such as UNESCO and WIPO. IFLANET, the Federation’s website, is a prime source of information about IFLA, its policies and activities: www.ifla.org Library and information professionals gather annually at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, held in August each year in cities around the world. IFLA was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927 at an international conference of national library directors. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in 1971. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library), the national library of the Netherlands, in The Hague, generously provides the facilities for our headquarters. Regional offices are located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pretoria, South Africa; and Singapore.

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IFLA Publications 130

International Genealogy and Local History Edited by Ruth Hedegaard and Elizabeth Anne Melrose Papers presented by the Genealogy and Local History Section at IFLA General Conferences 2001-2005

K · G · Saur München 2008

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IFLA Publications edited by Sjoerd Koopman

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. U Printed on permanent paper The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard – Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997)

© 2008 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved K.G.Saur Verlag, München An Imprint of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany by Strauss GmbH, Mörlenbach ISBN 978-3-598-22036-4 ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA Publications)

TABLE OF CONTENTS Melvin Thatcher Introduction .................................................................................................

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2001 Genealogy and Local History Librarians making a difference to society in social and cultural development Judith Prowse Roach Genealogy at the Library of Congress ............................................................... 13

2002 Building on the past, investing in the future Patrick Cadell Building on the past, investing in the future through genealogy and local history services................................................................................... 19 Rhidian Griffiths Wales to the world, the world to Wales ......................................................... 29 Margareta Bovin Serving genealogy and local history researchers – experiences in the analogical past and a peek into the digital future............................................... 35 George MacKenzie Digital access to archives. The Scottish Archive Network Project ................... 41 Gu Yan A Chinese cultural project – the compilation of the general Catalogue of Chinese genealogy........................................................................ 47

2003 Co-operation between Archives, Libraries and Museums Ruth Hedegaard The benefits of archives, libraries and museums working together .................. 53 5

Table of Contents

Robert S. Martin Co-operation and change: Archives, libraries and museums in the United States....................................... 65 Elizabeth Anne Melrose If we can do it, so can you. The UK North Yorkshire digitisation project........ 77 Bozena Rasmussen Library innovation is hard work. Lessons from a Norwegian case study............................................................... 87

2004 Resources for immigrant history – their origins, lives and contributions George R. Ryskamp European emigration records, 1820–1925......................................................... 99 Paul Armony Jewish settlements and Jewish genealogical research in Argentina .................. 111 Liz McGettigan, David McMenemy and Alan Poulter Holocaust remembrance 2004 in East Renfrewshire, Scotland ......................... 127 Belarmina Benítez de Vendrell From Europe to Misiones – sources for the study of immigration .................... 137

2005 Navigating the world of our ancestors Anita K. Oser Using GIS to map genealogical data: getting started......................................... 163 Stephen C. Young The English Jurisdictions Mapping Project....................................................... 173 Peter Korsgaard Presenting maps and other spatial information on the Internet ......................... 183 Vibeke Kallar and Michael O'hAodha Library and Information. Literacy for “non-traditional”/Mature Students: Some Aspects of the Irish Third-Level Experience........................... 193 6

Table of Contents

Janet Tomkins Chinese-Canadians in search of immigrant ancestors – current and potential resources .......................................................................... 203 Ugo A. Perego The power of DNA: discovering lost and hidden relationships – how DNA analysis techniques are assisting in the great search for our ancestors.............. 231 Sanjica Faletar Can archivists, librarians and curators join hands to do a better job? .............. 247 Ragnhild Hutchison Local history world wide: an international internet inventory .......................... 265

Biographies of Authors...................................................................................... 275

Appendix Genealogy and Local History Section. Strategic plan 2007–2008 .................... 285

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INTRODUCTION Melvin Thatcher Chairman, GENLOC Background The Genealogy and Local History Section (GENLOC) belongs to the Special Libraries Division of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The section is charged by IFLA to focus on genealogy, local history, oral history and tradition, and cooperation between archives, libraries, and museums. GENLOC’s mission is to: ... be a voice for genealogy and local history librarians in the international information community, to facilitate networking among subject specialists and libraries, archives, museums, and related societies and institutions, and to encourage the development of genealogy and local history collections and user services.1 The section’s activities include sponsoring open sessions for delivery of professional papers at the annual conferences of IFLA, organizing study tours to institutions of interest to genealogy and local history librarians in the conference city, publishing a semi-annual newsletter, and providing an open listserv2 for genealogy and local history librarians. In addition, the section maintains a webpage3 where its strategic plan, publications, minutes of meetings and annual reports, and standing committee member names and addresses are posted. Formation The Social Science Libraries Section agreed to host a discussion group for genealogy and local history librarians during IFLA’s annual conference which was held in Copenhagen in 1997. At the annual conference in Amsterdam in the following year, a petition was signed by representatives from fourteen countries supporting formation of the discussion group. After the petition was accepted, the discussion group organized meetings and study tours for participants in the annual conferences of IFLA which 1 2 3

www.ifla.org/VII/s37/annual/sp37.htm accessed 31 May 2007 [email protected] www.ifla.org/VII/s37/

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were held in Bangkok, Jerusalem, and Boston from 1999–2001. At the Boston conference the Special Libraries Section and the Special Libraries Division agreed to support the transformation of the discussion group into a Section as part of the formal structure of IFLA. Approval was granted by the governing bodies of IFLA, and GENLOC was constituted as a section at the annual conference in Glasgow in 2002. Conference Papers The papers collected in this volume present the results of open sessions convened by GENLOC at the annual conferences of IFLA from 2001–2005. A session theme compatible with the general conference theme provided the framework for calls for papers. The number of proposals submitted each year necessitated review and selection by the Section’s programme committee. The twenty-five authors, who hail from twelve countries, provide an international view into the topics of concern to genealogy and local history librarians. Some of these papers have been revised since they were presented to provide the author’s latest thinking. The theme of the final meeting of the GENLOC discussion group in 2001 was ‘Genealogy and local history librarians making a difference to society in social and cultural development.’ Judith Roach’s paper provides an example of how this is being done through the genealogy and local history holdings and services of the Library of Congress, Washington, USA. Patrick Cadell’s paper frames the theme of the 2002 open session, ‘Building on the past, investing in the future,’ with ruminations from his lifetime of service to genealogy and local history researchers. The other papers in this section deal with the services and activities of specific institutions. Rhidian Griffiths introduces steps taken by the National Library of Wales to improve access for local and international family historians with Welsh roots. Margareta Bovin describes the role of Swedish Archives Information (SVAR), a unit of the National Archives of Sweden, use of microforms and digital technology to providing libraries to primary sources of information for genealogical research. George MacKenzie discusses the achievements and contributions of the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) project in providing electronic reference services and digital access to pre-1901 wills and other genealogical source materials. Gu Yan gives an overview of the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy project which is creating a catalog of the holdings of archives, libraries, and museums around the world under the leadership of the Shanghai Library. Collectively these papers provide excellent examples of how genealogy and local history services are able to move with technology to support research by improving access to bibliographic records and source documents. The papers presented in 2003 are focused on the theme ‘Co-operation among archives, libraries and museums.’ Ruth Hedegaard discusses co-operation between 10

Introduction

archives, libraries, and museums (ALM) in Denmark in creating local and multiregional, online databases to provide simultaneous access to the holdings of their respective institutions while utilizing existing catalogue and inventory records. Robert Martin delineates how the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is giving federal grants to promote co-operation between libraries and museums as well as to break down traditional barriers to collaboration between ALMs. Elizabeth Melrose presents the Unnetie Project, which brought together local ALMs and a local history society to provide digital access to images of regional historical interest in North Yorkshire, England. Bozena Rasmussen shares the experience in merging the library, museum, and archive of a small rural community in Norway into a single institution. All of these papers discuss the challenges faced in ALM co-operation and suggest guidelines to pave the way for success. ‘Resources for immigrant history – their origins, lives, and contributions’ was the theme for GENLOC’s 2004 open session. George Ryskamp focuses on records generated in European countries during the emigration process and introduces the Immigrant Ancestor Project which is making these records available online. Paul Armony surveys Jewish immigration into Argentina and government and community resources for Jewish genealogical research across the country. Liz McGettigan, David McMenemy, and Alan Poulter discuss co-operation with the Jewish community in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, to create an online portal and CD-ROM in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. Belarmina Benitez de Vendrell presents a wide-ranging, annotated bibliography of sources for the study of European immigration to the province of Misiones, Argentina. The open session papers presented in 2005 addressed the theme of ‘Navigating the world of our ancestors.’ The first three papers deal with maps and genealogy. Anita Oser uses data about cemeteries in Jackson County, North Carolina, USA, to illustrate the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to map the spatial dimension of genealogy. Stephen Young recounts the history and development of the English Jurisdictions Mapping Project that plots the overlapping boundaries of various record keeping entities in selected counties of England – and Peter Korsgaard presents a work in progress, namely the creation of an online digital map reading room in Denmark, paying particular attention to various ways of geocoding, or creating spatial references for places and administrative jurisdictions in terms of their co-ordinates on a map. These papers speak to our natural interest in seeing where things happened and where we are. The remaining 2005 papers treat other aspects of navigating our ancestral world. Vibeke Kallar and Mícheál Ó hAodha discuss the creation of the Traveller-Roma Access Centre in the library of the University of Limerick and other literacy and access initiatives reach non-traditional users in the Irish Traveller and Roma Gypsies communities of Ireland. Janet Tomkins addresses the challenges faced by Chinese11

Melvin Thatcher

Canadian family history researchers and offers suggestions about how libraries can be more inclusive in the provision of genealogical services for minority communities. Ugo Perego and his associates take the reader into the new world of molecular genealogy which uses the results of DNA testing to identify, among other things, the geographic location of our ancestral roots across time. Sanjica Faletar reviews efforts to promote co-operation between cultural heritage institutions, such as ALMs, through the European Union’s Cultural Applications: Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resources Access (CALIMERA) project and a number of initiatives in Croatia. Ragnhild Hutchison presents the Local History World Wide: An International Internet Inventory (LHWW) project and website of the Norwegian Institute of Local History and invites international co-operation in its further development. The interests, concerns, and vitality of librarians in the field of genealogy and local history are evident in the essays that are collected in this volume. Genealogy and local history librarianship has its historical roots in the research interests and needs of family and community members. Great service has and continues to be rendered by traditional means. And the prospects are bright for wider and easier access to genealogical and historical materials through the development of online services and holdings through the individual and collaborative efforts of archives, libraries, museums and local and national historical and genealogical societies around the world. May the contributions by the authors of these papers be useful in stimulating thought and action in the advancement of genealogy and local history librarianship and services.

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2001 BOSTON GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY LIBRARIANS. MAKING A DIFFERENCE TO SOCIETY IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT GENEALOGY AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Judith Prowse Roach Local History and Genealogy Reading Room The Library of Congress, Washington, US Abstract This paper summarises the history of the genealogical collections of the Library of Congress in Washington, USA, and describes what these now contain. There is an account of related family history resources in other sections of the Library of Congress; information available both in the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room and through its web-based home page giving access to the Library’s online catalogue and to QuestionPoint; and an account of material available in microform and electronic media. The Library of Congress1 has one of the world's premier collections of U.S. and foreign genealogical and local historical publications. The Library's genealogy collection began as early as 1815 when Thomas Jefferson's library was purchased. The Jefferson Library included the Domesday Book, Sir William Dugdale’s The Baronetage of England, and Peerage of Ireland. In August 1935, a ‘Reading Room for American Local History and Genealogy’ was opened on Deck 47 in the Main Building, today called the Thomas Jefferson Building, ‘to provide a more adequate service for those coming to the Library from all parts of the United States to consult our unusually large and important collections of genealogy, including state and local history, and to throw proper safeguards about these collections, large portions of which are irreplaceable.’ Today, seventy-one years later, the statement remains accurate, although the Reading Room has changed locations several times to accommodate the growing collections and expansion of the focus of the Room to its present international scope. For example, the reference collection contained 2,500 volumes in 1935; today it has 6,000. Since 1935, the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room has 1

www.loc.gov/index.html

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Judith Prowse Roach

seen relocation to six physical homes, four administrative changes, varying hours of service, and new generations of staff. The collections are especially strong in North American, British Isles and French, German, and Scandinavian sources. The majority of the genealogies have come as gifts from around the world; the Australians have been particularly generous, and their donations have greatly enhanced British Isles and Australian research at the Library of Congress. These international strengths are further supported and enriched by the Library's incomparable royalty, nobility, and heraldry collection, making it one of a few libraries in America that offers such comprehensive collections. In addition to the national and international genealogy and local history collections at the Library of Congress, other related material of great significance to these fields is found in the areas of archival resources, biography, church history, city directories, folklore, geography, and history. Important genealogical resources are also found in special collections of manuscripts, maps and atlases, microforms, newspapers, photographs, and rare books housed in various custodial divisions of the Library. Fortunately, the Library has a number of outstanding tools to help access these collections. The Library of Congress: A Guide to Genealogical and Historical Research by James Neagles (Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 1990) is a comprehensive handbook for the Library's genealogical collections and inventories the Library's vast city directories collection. Additionally, the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room’s homepage2 provides general information about the reading room (hours; location; requirements for reader registration; information about tours; descriptions of the collections; details for presenting gift books to the Library; the full-text of the reading room’s bibliographies and guides; and links to other Internet sources on local history and genealogy). Equally important, both the Library’s and the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room’s homepages provide access to the Library’s online catalog and to QuestionPoint, the Library’s electronic reference question tool. To search for citations to genealogies using the Library’s online catalog, use the search term ‘Family’ after the name of the family, e.g. Roach Family. The Library has linked catalog records to digital table of contents, indexes, and other parts of the bibliographic record for many of our 50,000 genealogies. More than 300 local histories have been digitized and are accessible on the Library’s American Memory site3 through California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849–1900; Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820–1910; and The Capital and the Bay: Narrative of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, ca. 1600–1925. 2 3

www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

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Genealogy at the Library Of Congress

Remote access is also provided by the interlibrary loan of material in microform for which the Library holds the master negative. Since the Library has microfilmed all of its holdings in class CS71 (U.S. genealogy) published from 1876 to 1900, a significant part of the genealogical collection has become available through interlibrary loan for use in libraries around the country. To identify genealogy titles on microfilm consult Genealogies Cataloged by the Library of Congress Since 1986: With a List of Established Forms of Family Names and a List of Genealogies Converted to Microfilm Since 1983 (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1991). The Library of Congress does not permit its books on genealogy, heraldry, and U.S. local history to circulate on interlibrary loan. The Library’s Photoduplication Service can supply photocopies of items located in the Library’s collection if there are no copyright restrictions. The Local History and Genealogy Reading Room (LH&G), a small, specialized reading room, answers questions about heraldry, royalty and nobility, biography, naval and maritime history, American history, as well as genealogy and local history. Because many genealogies are self-published and have been given to the Library for many generations from around the world, the Library has more than 50,000 genealogies and more than 100,000 local histories. A ‘Gifts’ information sheet4 designed to assist authors in donating their family histories to the Library is available by mail and from the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room homepage. The Library acquires published material in a variety of ways. In addition to gifts, the Library of Congress relies heavily on copyright deposits for additions to its collections. If it is not possible to acquire a publication through donation or copyright, the Library makes every effort to purchase a copy. While the Library's collections are outstanding, every published genealogy will not be found here. To identify those available elsewhere, book catalogs and online tools, including the Internet, are used. The Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, with a staff of ten, is located on the Ground Floor of the Jefferson Building, LJ G-42; it offers specialized card catalogs that index genealogy, heraldry, and local history in the collections. An inventory of the Library’s extensive collection of city directories is maintained at the Reference Desk. Primary Source Microfilms’s City Directories of the United States, in the Microform Reading Room, is a microform collection of directories from selected cities and towns, dating from the colonial period to as recently as 1960. See U.S. City Directories on Microfilm in the Microform Reading Room5 for a list of cities and towns. These microforms are supplemented by the Library’s extensive collection of unclassified city directories in paper. The Local History and Genealogy Reading Room also offers public Internet terminals and subscription databases. Of special interest are Ancestry Library 4 5

www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/gifts.html www.loc.gov/rr/microform/uscity/

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Edition and Heritage Quest Online that offer digital images of the U.S. Federal census. Further highlights of the former are: an Immigration Collection that includes the New York Passenger Lists for 1820–1891; the American GenealogicalBiographical Index; the Civil War Databases including the Civil War Pension Index and Civil War Service Records; the Social Security Death Index; and the Massachusetts Town Vital Records Collection. In addition to the digital images of the U.S. Federal census, HeritageQuest includes more than 25,000 family and local histories in full image, the Periodical Source Index, a comprehensive subject index to more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals, the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files and the Freedman’s Bank Records. Much of this material is in the Library’s collection. Another important electronic resource is ProQuest Historical Newspapers which offers full text and full image articles from the Atlanta Constitution, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Defender, the Chicago Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post dating back to their first issue. For a complete list of the Library’s electronic resources for genealogy and local history research look under History, Genealogy & Archives, which is one of the categories found on the Electronic Resources webpage.6 While the Library is rich in collections of manuscripts, microfilms, newspapers, photographs, maps, and published material, it is not an archive or repository for unpublished or primary source county, state, or church records. Researchers seeking county records will need to visit the courthouse or a library in the county of interest, the state archives, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or one of its Family History Centers, all of which might have either the original county records or microform copies. Libraries, archives, and genealogical and historical societies at the national, state, and local levels are all vital resources in this complex puzzle of genealogical research.

6

Internet Subscription Sources: www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/internet.html Other Internet Sources on Local History and Genealogy: www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/other.html See also: Hispanic Reading Room: www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/Asian Reading Room: www.loc.gov/rr/asian/ African and Middle Eastern Reading Room: www.loc.gov/rr/amed/

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NOTE This paper was presented at IFLA Boston 2001 and updated by the author in November 2006. All websites were active 2007.

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2002 GLASGOW BUILDING ON THE PAST, INVESTING IN THE FUTURE. BUILDING ON THE PAST, INVESTING IN THE FUTURE THROUGH GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY SERVICES Patrick Cadell Edinburgh, Scotland Abstract This is a discussion of the changes and advances in genealogical research from a time when some archivists treated the public with suspicion and genealogists had less background historical detail about their ancestors than they are now able to access. The Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) is an example of what modern technology can supply with its scans of primary genealogical material, wills and testaments in Scotland up to 1875. Advances in Information Technology have simplified the scrutiny of the past for family historians. These improvements should also ensure a more qualitative approach to research, and allow the work of scholars to be made available to others. In the matter of genealogy and the study of family history, it is remarkable what advances have been made in recent times and certainly over the three or four decades during which I have been involved. I recall two quite separate incidents, both from the 1970s, and both from my own professional experience. They perhaps demonstrate both the work that was needed for successful genealogical research, and the standard of proof that people were prepared to find acceptable at that time. One Saturday morning an elderly American lady came into the manuscripts reading room of the National Library of Scotland, and said that she was descended from the family of Cumming of Presley which had emigrated to America at about the time of the second Jacobite rising. She was quite clear about this, and she had all the proofs necessary. What she wanted to be able to show was that the Cummings of Presley were descended from the Cummings of Altyre, and thus from the head of the clan. She had discovered that the Cumming papers were in the Library and she was determined to see what could be found. On that day, and on many others, with the calendar of the papers and the original documents, she laboured through some very complicated 17th century deeds, but eventually she came across, under the unpromising title of a ‘bond of caution’, exactly what she wanted. 19

Patrick Cadell

One of the lairds of Altyre of the 1670s was a very wild young man, and in order to save him from prison or perhaps from the gallows, members of his extended family came together to form an agreement that they would guarantee his good behaviour. All these people, who included the Cumming of Presley of the day, proclaimed their loyalty to the Cummings of Altyre ‘from whom we are all descended’. The American lady had the proof she wanted even if it still lacked some precise details, and was absolutely delighted. But she had had to work long and hard for the information she needed. My second incident relates to a man who wished to prove his descent from someone who had flourished in the 1770s and 1780s. The proof of this descent did not seem very good, to me anyway. However as if to clinch the argument, he brought out a photograph of a portrait of this gentleman, and asked me if I did not think there was a strong family resemblance between him and his supposed ancestor. As I still must have seemed less than convinced, he produced a further photograph of himself wearing just such a bobwig as was being worn by the man in the picture. I need hardly say that our conversation ended inconclusively, but as it was conducted in an open search room well within the hearing of other researchers, I noted the handkerchiefs that were being put to mouths, the splutterings of mirth and the heaving shoulders. That particular genealogist’s standard of proof was not high. The point I wish to make is that genealogical research is now in many areas a lot easier than it used to be, but that it is also a lot more rigorous. It is also, I rather suspect, a lot more interesting. I shall return to the first two of these; let us look at the interest of genealogy. There is no doubt that at one time what was considered a sufficient achievement in itself was the linking of one person – usually male – with his father, and so on back with a few dates and places but often little else, in the faint hope of finding a royal or at least a noble ancestor. A Danish archivist once wondered aloud in my hearing why it was that everyone seemed to want to prove how they had come down in the world. Even fully written up family histories were exceptional if they made any effort to deal with anything beyond military or political achievements. Female members of the family, however influential, were simply cardboard cutouts. Agricultural, industrial or social activities are little mentioned before the 18th century, and then only grudgingly. As for musical or artistic skills – one thinks of the Burnetts of Leys, the Maules of Panmure, the Roses of Kilravock or the Clerks of Penicuik – you will have a task to find much reference to this aspect of their characters in the histories of those families, though evidence of their skill is readily available. As for the skeleton that lurks somewhere in every family’s cupboard, it is simply overlooked. Now, I believe, we are beginning to look for more rounded characters in our genealogies. The family tree needs a bit of foliage on its bare branches, and we are 20

Building on the Past, Investing in the Future

no longer satisfied with a simple relationship and a date. We realise that people who emerge from old documents, in difficult language and script, nevertheless had feelings, interests, worries and preoccupations which are not absolutely different from our own. I lay some emphasis upon this because I think it is something which has brought what one might call ‘respectability’ to genealogy. There are still, I regret to say, a few archivists who do not like dealing with genealogists, and who consider that family history is not true research. I like to think that they are a dying breed. I also like to think that many people interested in family history arrive in a library or archive with very much more information at their disposal than would have formerly been the case, and are therefore ready to move on to more interesting research – to an examination of what lies behind the life events of which the bare record tells us little. In 1789, William Malcolm was condemned to be transported to Australia for stealing a horse, but why did the judge at the trial find it necessary to pay for him to have a complete new set of clothing before he went? Agnes Murray Kynynmound died in 1778. How do we know so much about the development of her breast cancer? Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, 7th baronet, died young, but is always thought to have married and had a son. Why is there not a single scrap of paper in the family archive for the period of eighteen months or so covering the marriage, the birth and Sir William’s death? These are matters which a true family historian would wish to know about, and because so much basic information is so much more readily available now than it was in the 1970s, those interested in family research have the time and the opportunity to extend their studies. Sometimes this will be into the life and work of an individual; sometimes into that of the locality in which the family flourished. What I find remarkable is the quality of the research being done. I do not speak here of the professional researchers and record agents whose knowledge and efficiency never cease to astonish me. I speak of the ‘ordinary’ family historian, if such a person exists, who wants more information, certainly, but who can now look for it on the basis of greater knowledge, and of a better understanding of what the records will offer and of how to make best use of them. It is nevertheless a feature of the last thirty years that record offices receive a much higher percentage of first time users. In June 1998, the Public Record Office conducted a survey of its readers. It showed that 22% were visiting, not just the PRO, but any record office for the first time. These first-time readers are in a very large majority people who are interested in family or local history. One of the reasons why family historians take up such a disproportionate amount of the archivist’s time, and perhaps why some archivists so dislike them, is just that. They are more demanding because their needs are greater. Their perfectly reasonable 21

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questions keep the searchroom archivists from other tasks. But this very fact has encouraged archive services, and indeed those such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church) with a particular interest in the matter – and in the case of the Scottish Archive Network both together – to move into making basic genealogical material available in more easily accessible ways. I suppose the earliest examples of this in this country were the publication by the Scottish Record Society of lists of burials, testaments, apprentices etc. along with the lists of professional people, advocates, writers and of course ministers of the Church of Scotland. The involvement of the LDS Church made possible the microfilming of the Old Parochial Registers, and subsequently their indexing, and for the first time brought the search of genealogical records within the scope of modern technology. I should admit at once that this process was not viewed without some suspicion when it first began. It was justified as a necessary conservation measure, but of course it also meant that when, considerably later, technology permitted, there were several ways in which the information in the Old Parochial Registers could be managed and manipulated. This gave the researcher as much information as he or she could obtain from the registers without having to search in volume after volume, possibly in vain, for people who moved from one place to another, or for whom no record survives. This type of access is now being dramatically extended by the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN).1 Scanning the wills and testaments of Scottish men and women up to 1875 (the records most heavily used for genealogical purposes after the Old Parochial Registers and the census records), and provision of networked access to the catalogues of the archive repositories in Scotland are further examples of what new technology can offer. They will allow the researcher to do more and more work at home, or at least off site, before he or she has to consult those troublesome original documents. I mention SCAN to make the point that much is being done to help the genealogist – and let us admit it – to help the archivist, so that when the family historian does arrive in the search room his or her visit will be of real value. If all these developments make genealogical research easier, they also make it more rigorous. At least I would like to think so. Though there will always be points that are not absolutely clear, and others that are open to discussion, there is, on the whole, little use in arguing with the official record. Its compilers had no particular axe to grind, and I have only once come across an official document of the last two or three centuries which had clearly been tampered with. By offering a higher standard of accuracy in the traditional areas of genealogy, is it not reasonable to hope that higher standards will be maintained elsewhere? The publication of Roots was groundbreaking in a number of ways. Perhaps the most obvious was that the author, as an American of African descent, wanted to find 1

www.scan.org.uk/

22

Building on the Past, Investing in the Future

out where he came from and who his ancestors had been, and in particular, both in the title he chose and in the avowed aim of the book, he stated his purpose of needing to find a fixed point in the past of his own ancestors. Although the ancestors of most of the people in this room have not been subjected to enormous social or political upheaval, there are probably few who live where they were born. Most Scotsmen if pressed will admit that a few generations back their forebears arrived from the Highlands, Ireland, England, the continent of Europe or even further away. But this is the generation, perhaps more than any other, which has seen social movement. People go from one side of the world to the other in search of work, and people settle in places to which they have no attachment beyond that of employment. As a consequence people naturally wish to have a better understanding of the family traits, the physical characteristics, and the instinctive loyalties with which they are blessed or cursed. The remarkable novel No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod is all about this personal heritage, which can be difficult to understand, but which it is impossible to escape. There is in fact an ever increasing demand to meet what for many people has become a psychological need – the need to find a few fixed points in a world of constant change. The locality in which you have settled offers one fixed point, but so does your family. You may not like your family; you may not consider your ancestors particularly estimable; but they are unalterably yours. The future of genealogy itself, I suspect, is more of the same. Advances in IT and scanning technology suggest ways in which classes of records might be made available electronically. In Scotland, some of the great Registers – Deeds and Sasines in particular – might perhaps be given the same treatment as the wills. It is interesting that this idea was considered when SCAN was being set up, but was rejected as being altogether beyond what it was reasonable to undertake with the technology of the time – just a few short years ago. Now it is a definite option. Access to existing catalogues and indexes will little by little become easier. And just as advances are taking place in IT technology, so advances are taking place in popular understanding of, and skill with, IT. It is perfectly reasonable now to ask a prospective researcher what internet investigation he or she has made before coming to a record office, and it is to be hoped that the huge efforts made by archives and libraries to make their holdings more user friendly will be to everyone’s benefit. However there are problems associated with all of this which ought not to be underestimated. In a traditional library or archive search room there was a professional person who could explain and evaluate the records or books being used, and who could assess them properly in relation to other records which might be available. There was thus perhaps less danger of giving greater value to the material being consulted than the material would really bear. The fact, for example, that one of those marvellous town directories, which are so common for the 19th century, 23

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affirms that your ancestor was the best drawer of teeth for miles around does not indicate either that the information is true, or that he practised in a particular place for longer than the time necessary to get his name into the directory. The besetting virtue of the genealogist is optimism. Hope is always there and links are made which the actual evidence will not support. There was an Alexander Edward, known as a mathematician and musician; another was minister of Kemback in Fife; another was a garden designer of more than passing importance. Alexander Edward is also a rather uncommon name. The assumption that these people are one and the same – correct as it happens – is one which one might be tempted to take for granted. But I know from my own family that many people have assumed that Thomas Cadell, father and son, successful publishers in London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, must of course have been related to the equally successful Robert Cadell who published the works of Sir Walter Scott. In fact they are completely unrelated, though they operated at the same time in a small profession, and share an unusual name of Celtic origin. One lot comes from Wales, the other from Scotland. I make these points because, with an increasing use of IT, there will be less need, and possibly less opportunity, for the genealogist to interface with that best of all finding aids, the archivist or librarian behind the desk. We have to be careful to see that the information available through the computer is properly described, not just as to its content, but as to its value. Frankly I have no suggestions as to how this should best be done, though I know that the many courses on genealogy run by universities, libraries, archives and evening schools take the matter very seriously. The difficulty is more to do with the extent to which all potential genealogists are prepared – not just in terms of the information available to them electronically, but in terms of the value of that information – for the work they hope to do. There are other difficulties. For many years it was assumed that one of the main functions of an archive service, particularly a national one, was to publish the records it held. This could be done in the form of calendars of documents – into which of course the archivist’s own value judgements intruded – or by printing them in full, and in both cases providing an index. Indeed, publishing the records of Scotland was one of the main tasks of the National Archives of Scotland as set out in the various reports produced in the early years of the 19th century. Of the great series of state papers, only that of parliament has been published in what might pass for its entirety. If anyone fancies tackling the transcription of the many series of which there are incomplete published versions, I’m sure no one would stand in his or her way. The great advantage of the publication process was that it got over the difficulties of palaeography, if not necessarily those of language, and was much appreciated by researchers of all sorts. Indeed, although the cost of doing so had become prohibitive, and the demand seemed limited, I was still under some pressure 24

Building on the Past, Investing in the Future

in the early 1990s as Keeper of the Records of Scotland to continue that kind of activity. Scanning it seems to me is the modern way of doing the same thing. Its advantages of speed and accessibility are obvious. However it has at least two drawbacks: it can only scan what it sees – that is the original text – and there is as yet no reliable means of indexing original documents automatically. This task has to be undertaken by teams of dedicated people as part of the scanning process – as the LDS Church has shown. In the case of material already printed, the problems of reading and indexing are perhaps less significant, but not those of choosing what to make available, and of course the wider the range of the material brought into an electronic system, the less actual research value it is likely to have, but the more expensive it will be to produce in the first place, to maintain, to make available and to preserve. I do believe that these are problems which will resolve themselves as technology advances. I envisage, at some point in the future, that genealogists will be able to do the bulk of their work at home, that they will be able to order copies of documents electronically, and that their direct use of our archives and libraries will fall. In some ways I would regret this, but the objectives of making genealogical research easier, and lightening the genealogical load on the librarian and archivist, obviously tend in this direction. Perhaps we shall one day begin to miss all those family historians. We shall certainly be ignorant of what work is being done on material of which we hold the originals. Separating access to documents from the source of those documents removes a level, not so much of control, but of knowledge on the part of the repository of what research is in progress. Even now, researchers are not as careful as they should be – in their own interests as well as those of libraries and archives – to say what they are working on. When, in future, for example, someone can sit at his or her desk in New Zealand and carry out, very effectively, research which would once have involved a lengthy and expensive stay in Scotland, this situation will simply become worse. It is a brave and exciting new genealogical world, but not altogether without its hazards. So we are making, and will continue to make, the best use possible of the wonders of modern technology. I would like to come back to the one or two down sides that there are to the use of IT in historical research. While one can generally assume the accuracy of what appears on screen, the same is by no means true of its completeness. One may get the truth and nothing but the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth. While the SCAN wills project does indeed aim at being exhaustive, and in any case is involved with the processing of a well defined series of records, the same is far from true of networked catalogues. Can we be sure that the description of a family archive contains all the information necessary to allow us to assess the value of it – or otherwise – to our research? The fact that there is a computer catalogue in an archive service does not mean that everything is in that 25

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catalogue or indeed that the original catalogues on which the computer access is based are of even quality. Even with modern attempts to create cataloguing standards, ISAD(G)2 for example, archival description remains highly subjective. What may take my fancy in a collection of papers, and what I would therefore wish to mention in a catalogue description, may not be what you would find interesting, and vice versa. But the temptation to assume that what appears on screen is complete is a very powerful one. It allows us to assume that we have done all that it is reasonable to do. At the same time it can excuse us from the tiresome chore of checking as to whether some archive at the other end of the country has material that might perhaps be relevant. Laziness is in fact a great motivator. There is however something worse. This comes in two forms. There is beginning to be a break down in the distinction between archives and information. Librarians, I suspect, have been dealing with this for ages – the phenomenon of expecting repositories of books or documents to be able to offer instant replies to questions on matters of fact, even on matters of easily ascertainable fact. It is almost as though people were beginning to lose any understanding of where information comes from, rather like children who say that milk comes from a carton or from the supermarket, and are unable to relate it to a cow. The archives of the European Commission, for example, suffer from this in a big way. They are repeatedly being asked for basic information about the constitution and history of the European Union which is perfectly accessible on websites and in easily available reference books. The second problem relates to the use of email for research purposes. Again, because people are so accustomed to working on screen, they always assume that on the one hand others do the same, and on the other, that those others can work at their rhythm. There is a tendency to believe that if you send off an email message you should get a response almost at once. But of course that is not necessarily so. The email may demand just as much time for a proper reply as did a traditional letter, but because it is easier to send, more are sent. Archives are beginning to develop defence mechanisms against this, which mainly boil down to the very traditional refusal to do someone else’s research. It is one thing to say what an archive holds, to suggest that certain collections would possibly interest the researcher, and to describe the facilities available at the record office. It is another to say that a particular collection does not relate to a researcher’s area of work, or that there is reference to a particular person or event in a bulky series of papers. In addition, because emails are so easy to send out, they may for example be sent out indiscriminately to all the major archive services of the country. Many of them will be irrelevant, but will still add to the workload of the duty archivist. 2

ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. see: www.ica.org/biblio/isad_g_2e.pdf and: www.paradigm.ac.uk/workbook/cataloguing/isadg2.html

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Building on the Past, Investing in the Future

I do not associate genealogists in particular with this, but it is a trend which has developed over the last few years. It was certainly very apparent in the National Archives of Scotland before I left at the end of 2000, and genealogists are not altogether innocent. These are caveats which need certainly to be borne in mind, but I think it is fair to say that the old reservations which archivists tended to have about genealogists and local historians have almost disappeared. The quality of research is improving; the means of carrying out that research are better and are improving all the time. What is pleasing, as I have already pointed out, is that the motives which lie behind the demands for access by the genealogist and bodies with similar interests on the one hand, and those which lie behind the need for archivists to make their holdings more readily accessible, may be different, but they are equally powerful, and are pushing us all in the same direction. I have great expectations of genealogical research, and the fact that it has found this important slot at IFLA’s conference shows perhaps that I am not alone. Finally may I add a plea? We are told – especially by those bodies which are responsible for funding us, and also occasionally by those archivists who do not consider family history to be ‘proper’ research – that genealogists are doing no more than enjoying their leisure. It follows from this, does it not, that what they are doing is not serious, and that in any case they should pay for the privilege of doing it. I do not think it is for anyone to question a researcher’s motives. Just because I am studying people rather than things, does not make the difference between enjoying or not enjoying the work of research. I imagine that the academic researcher gets just as much pleasure from his or her work as does the genealogist. If not, he or she should be in a different job. However, the fact that the research process is pleasurable does not, it seems to me, remove from the researcher the obligation to make the results of that research available to a wider public. I rather suspect that many family historians have piles of notes at the back of some drawer which have great potential interest, and which, if they can be used, would certainly save others from going through the same documents. We all know of examples in Scotland of our debt to researchers who looked at and then transcribed, or at least described, documents which are now lost. Without the work of the antiquaries of the late 16th and early 17th century – the Earl of Haddington, and Balfour of Denmilne, in this country; Sir William Dugdale, John Selden in England and many, many others – our knowledge of earlier periods would be much diminished. We should not underestimate the value of what we do, and we should make sure that it is preserved. Just because we do it now does not somehow devalue it by comparison with other work, which has gone before. Haddington and Balfour and those other early researchers were not always right, but their work has in many cases provided a foundation on which others have been able to build. Research is an 27

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isolated activity, but its foundations are the work of others, and its results should be available to others. What may seem to you to be a comparatively modest investigation may lead on to other things for other people.

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WALES TO THE WORLD, THE WORLD TO WALES Rhidian Griffiths Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales Aberystwyth, Cymru / Wales Abstract The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth is by far the largest centre for genealogical research in Wales. Its collections include many family history sources such as parish registers and pre-1858 wills along with local newspapers. Unusually for a national library, it also has extensive collections of family and estate archives, photographs and maps which can assist the genealogist. In recent years the Library has upgraded the facilities it has available for family history and has published a free guide to sources. It has also had considerable success in attracting more visitors and users from all parts of the world, many of whom are the descendants of Welsh emigrants. It is a commonplace of life in Wales that Welsh people all know each other. More than that, when Welsh people meet, the first thing they do is to establish their respective places of origin and then go on to determine which friends and acquaintances they may have in common, and even whether they are related to one another. The Welsh mind is still tribal, and it is not unusual, particularly in Welshspeaking Wales, to know one’s second cousins as close relatives. It is, therefore, appropriate that the National Library of Wales should be represented at this meeting of the new Genealogy and Local History Section, because, as I hope to show, its contribution to the study of genealogy and local history is already significant and likely to be more so in time. The National Library of Wales was founded in 1907, the outcome of a long struggle within Wales for national recognition and the foundation of national institutions. The vision of its founding fathers was a broad and imaginative one, and as a result the Library is unusual, if not unique, in the wide range of its collection formats. According to its royal charter of foundation, dated 19 March 1907, the Library is required to collect documentary material of all kinds relating to Wales and the Welsh, including printed and manuscript material, archival documents, portraiture and photographs; a supplementary charter of 1978 extended this broad remit to include audio-visual material, which in recent years has been widened to include sound, broadcast, film and moving image material. As a result, visitors to the Library at Aberystwyth in west Wales (always remember that Aberystwyth, not 29

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Cardiff, is the home of the National Library of Wales!) have the unusual privilege of being able to study related documents in various formats in a single location. The Library is funded almost entirely by government grant in aid, which since 1999 has been channelled through an elected National Assembly for Wales and its executive arm, the Welsh Assembly Government. The Assembly expects all Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies (ASPBs), of which the Library is one, to respond to the Assembly’s own agenda for Wales and to reflect Assembly priorities within their own corporate planning. The Library’s corporate plan is reviewed and approved each year by the sponsoring ministry, in our case the Department of Culture and the Welsh Language, and, it is to be hoped, funding for the plan is forthcoming in the succeeding financial year. One of the main priorities of the National Assembly for Wales is socially inclusive policies and the attraction of more visitors, and a wider range of visitors, to publicly funded institutions. And so organisations like the Library and its sister institution, the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, are required to consider how they may reasonably broaden their mission to embrace a wider public than the traditional, academic user. In the case of the National Library this is not a new, still less an unreal concept. In 1999 the Library issued a public consultation document, Dewis y Dyfodol / Choosing the Future, the response to which clearly indicated widespread support for the Library’s traditional role but also an eagerness to see the Library opening its doors more widely in a literal and figurative sense by attracting new audiences to the Library building and by making available information about its collections, and examples from those collections, in digital form. This also accorded with plans which the Library had been developing at least since the completion of its major new storage building in 1996. The augmentation of available storage by 100% allowed areas in the existing building to be freed up for other public uses. A comprehensive bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund, under the title, The Visitor Experience, fully supported by the National Assembly, is about to bear fruit in its first phase. This will include education facilities, an interpretation and display area, a reception and shop, and a new restaurant. A second phase will see the construction of a multimedia auditorium with facilities for the showing of items from the National Screen and Sound Archive collections, and a permanent display area for some of the Library’s ‘treasures’. The interpretation and display area will feature themed displays, which will reflect the richness and variety of the Library’s collections and – it is hoped – encourage casual visitors to explore the facilities more fully. The aim will be to exhibit interesting but not necessarily glamorous items as exemplars of collections. The first theme chosen for the interpretation area is ‘Migration’, which will illustrate in a fairly modest way themes in the experience of Welsh people migrating from Wales and others migrating to Wales from different countries. Such a display with its overtones of family history and people movement 30

Wales to the World, the World to Wales

will afford an opportunity to advertise the Library’s potential as a genealogical centre as well as the attractiveness of family history research to visitors from Wales and elsewhere. The Library like all institutions of its kind has witnessed a considerable upsurge of interest in family history and genealogy in recent years. Not only in recent years, for a newly published and authoritative history of the early years of the National Library, A Refuge in Peace and War by the late Dr David Jenkins, has shown that the founding fathers believed that the collection of family papers in the fledgling Library would be important not only for social historians but also for genealogists. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that family history has become a more and more obvious plank of the Library’s service. Of any 100 postal and e-mail enquiries received, at least 30 will be genealogical or associated, and a significant proportion of our readers, particularly those who come from outside Wales, come to trace their ancestors. Family History is accorded a special place of its own on the Library’s website, with explanations of available sources and guidance on how to use them. The available sources are many: As an official repository for the archives of the (disestablished Anglican) Church in Wales the Library holds a wide range of ecclesiastical records of interest to genealogists. Parish registers which include details of baptisms, marriages and burials (hatches, matches and dispatches) are held for a large number of parishes in Wales, and have been microfilmed for regular use. The Library has also published a guide to the parish registers of Wales and their locations, which enables us to direct readers to registers not held at Aberystwyth. The Library also holds the bishops’ transcripts (or summary registers) for many parishes, and marriage bonds or permissions for the period 1616–1837, after which civil registration was introduced. There is an index to the marriage bonds available on the Library’s website. The census returns for England and Wales are held by the Public Record Office, but the Library has acquired microform copies of the returns for Wales for each census from 1841 to 1901 and part of the 1881 census on CD-ROM. Street indexes have been created in-house for some of the census returns. Before 1858 wills were proved in the Welsh ecclesiastical courts, and the Library holds the original wills, currently being digitised. Indexes to other information sources include the General Register Office index to births, marriages and deaths from 1837 to 1998 and the 1988 edition of the International Genealogical Index prepared by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are some distinctive Welsh sources, including the St Asaph Notitiae, census-like returns for the diocese of St Asaph in north-east Wales for the years 1681 to 1687, an unusual source which has recently been made available on the Library’s website. 31

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There is also a wide range of records for nonconformist congregations particularly strong in Wales in the 19th and early 20th centuries – and an inhouse database which provides locations for such records held outside the Library. There is also a published guide to nonconformist records. Because of the wide range of its holdings, the Library can also offer local newspapers, by far the largest collection in Wales, in hard copy and on microfilm; maps – particularly tithe maps, which show for the period of the tithe survey, 1836– 41, not only the distribution of land but, in a separate apportionment, the names of tenants; legal, administrative and estate records; portraits and the largest public photographic collection in Wales, which includes pictures of well-known and not so well known Welsh people. In local history terms too it should be remembered that the Library is a UK legal deposit library, and collects local history material intensively for all parts of Wales in particular. Yet the availability of the sources is not in itself enough. The Library undertakes to answer very specific genealogical enquiries free of charge. It also provides a feepaying service and employs for that a full-time genealogical researcher who undertakes enquiries which require searching. She now has a considerable clientele, and more work than even she, the most assiduous of staff members, can reasonably cope with without some weeks’ delay in responding to enquirers. It is clear that family history research is here to stay, and will form an important part not only of the Library’s services, but also become an important bridge to a growing and different audience from the traditional ‘catchment area’ of a national library. So many who have taken up family history are unused to using research sources and indeed research libraries, and therefore are the very people whom we, and our paymasters interested in social inclusion, wish to attract to the Library. Those new to family and local history need more and better guidance than we can at present give them. Accordingly, the Library is formulating plans for the development of a Family History Centre, based on an extension of our current services. Much of the original material held by the Library has been placed on microfilm and material acquired from elsewhere has been obtained in microform from other repositories. This material forms a large proportion of family history sources, and is consulted at present in a designated area within the North Reading Room. The first step to the development of the Centre will be the transference of this existing microform reading facility to a refurbished reading area on the south side of the building which currently houses a map room. The new South Reading Room will bring together manuscripts, maps and microforms in one large, secure reading area. The Library’s Corporate Plan includes a bid to the Welsh Assembly Government for funding to begin the development of the Centre through the provision of additional materials and experienced staff to give guidance and advice 32

Wales to the World, the World to Wales

to family history researchers. It is not our intention to make the Centre a separate block within our reading services. For reasons I have tried to outline, the Library has many sources in various formats, which will assist genealogists, but we hope that by providing staff support and access to an ever-widening range of sources, we can build up a ‘virtual centre’. The number of digital sources is increasing steadily as the Library’s digitisation programme is further developed. Of great importance too will be the links with other available online sources, and – most important – the accessibility of the ‘centre’ to searchers from outside. It is hoped to commission a feasibility study, which will look at the potential for the development of a webbased guide to family history in Wales, linked to the Library’s own services and those of local record offices in Wales – in much the same way as the Library itself is linked to the family records website developed by the Public Record Office. This can be further linked with the services being developed by the Wales Tourist Board which will allow people from all over the world who wish to trace their familial links with Wales to plan their visit and their family history search strategy. Such a development, if it can be brought about as we hope, will be part of the Library’s ongoing programme of introducing itself to a wider audience, encouraging access to its collections, and encouraging their use to meet the needs of researchers of all kinds. It is part of our mission to bring the world to Wales and Wales to the world. NOTE This paper was given at the IFLA Conference in Glasgow in 2002. The following is an update which outlines developments since then. Update August 2006 The four years since the above paper was delivered have seen a number of significant developments: 1. A new Charter received royal assent on 19 July 2006. This, while making certain changes in the Library's structure of governance to reflect the creation of the National Assembly for Wales, reaffirms the Library's role in terms of collection, preservation, and service to users. 2. The building work referred to above was successfully completed, and new facilities, including the Drwm, a 100-seater auditorium, were opened in 2004. They have been extensively used since, with the gratifying result that visitor numbers have increased by 25% between 2002 and 2006. The themed displays referred to have been digitised, and may be viewed on the Library's website.1 1

www.llgc.org.uk/drych/drych_s003.htm

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Rhidian Griffiths

3. The Library's South Reading Room was extensively refurbished and was formally re-opened by Alun Pugh, AM, the National Assembly Minister for Culture, the Welsh Language and Sport, on 7 October 2004. It provides a secure area for the study of manuscripts, archives and maps and much enhanced facilities for family history, which include microforms on open access and online access to computerised sources for genealogy. Also provided is a collection of relevant works of reference. Plans are now underway to refurbish and modernise the North Reading Room. 4. Registered Library users have free access to major online reference sources useful for genealogy, including The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Y Bywgraffiadur Cymreig / The Dictionary of Welsh Biography, which has been digitised by the Library in co-operation with the original publishers, The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. Access is also provided to Ancestry Library. 5. The Library has published a guide, Family History at The National Library of Wales Aberystwyth, which is available free. 6. During the spring of 2006 a pilot project was established to provide advice to users by means of weekly 'surgeries' in which a member of staff gives an introduction to Family History sources. These have proved immensely popular and have been very well received, so much so that the arrangement has become permanent. 7. The project to digitise pre-1858 Welsh wills has suffered some setbacks, but is now nearing completion. Once the digitised wills are available they will be linked with an e-commerce facility to allow their full exploitation. 8. Our fee-paying service has been discontinued, but we maintain on our website a voluntary listing of researchers who are prepared to undertake family history research on behalf of clients. The Library plays no part in negotiations between researchers and their customers. 9. The Library regularly attends family history fairs held in different parts of Wales, where there is an opportunity to present information about available sources to existing and prospective users. Fairs attended recently include the Glamorgan Family History Fair at Llantrisant, the Gwent Family History Fair at Cwmbran, and the Dyfed Family History Fair at Llandovery.

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SERVING GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY RESEARCHERS – EXPERIENCES IN THE ANALOGICAL PAST AND A PEEK INTO THE DIGITAL FUTURE Margareta Bovin SVAR, Ramsele, Sweden

Abstract The author describes the work of SVAR: Svensk Arkivinformation (Swedish Archives Information), a department of the National Archives of Sweden, based at Ramsele, 500 kilometres north of the capital, Stockholm. SVAR preserves significant Swedish archives, including Swedish parish records and other primary genealogical documents, and makes these accessible, on loan and by purchase, to libraries and institutions in Sweden and abroad on microform. There is also a SVAR website. Digital access is increasing and SVAR is involved in digital training programmes, teaching researchers how to read old documents. The village of Ramsele with about 1,000 inhabitants, situated more than 500 kilometres north of Stockholm, has turned out to be a symbol for genealogical research in Sweden. This is due to the establishment of SVAR.1 SVAR is an acronym for Swedish Archives Information which has been a unit of the National Archives of Sweden since 1984.

SVAR’s main task is to make archive materials accessible for research, to safeguard materials of vital interest and to make archive materials available to researchers, to libraries, archives and educational institutions and to the independent media. This is still mainly accomplished by distributing film and microfiche as a loan or for purchase. Digital forms of distribution are increasing. SVAR has been situated in Ramsele since 1978. There was and still is a great need for new jobs in this part of Sweden. Between 1982–1984 microfilming and indexing facilities were developed. Then, in 1984, the National Archives of Sweden took responsibility for its organisation. Between 1985–1986 efforts were made in Ramsele and SVAR to offer a loan service. The Swedish National Council of Cultural Affairs considered, in a report of 1987, that SVAR could easily provide inter-library loans of microfiche for libraries. This would ease the burden on libraries as they would not need to provide this kind 1

SVAR. Svensk arkivinformation. www.svar.ra.se/

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Margareta Bovin

of service. Libraries were seen as an important information channel and, according to the 1987 report, an agreement was made between SVAR and every community library in Sweden. Later, similar agreements were made with several libraries and institutions outside Sweden. So from that time SVAR took on the role of both a central lending facility and a wholesaler. Statistics from last year show that we had 423 agreements with libraries and 52 agreements with other institutions, such as archives and different genealogical societies like the Genealogical Society of Utah and the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, both in the United States. The contents of these agreements include a reduced loan service (because many people go to the library to order microfiche), newsletters from SVAR twice a year and also an offer on any new archival material that is free from data protection requirements specific to the area. Though we now are in a digital world, the use of microfiche materials continues to increase and more archives are available for the researcher. In Sweden the tendency has been for the researcher to visit the library, because there you can usually book a microfiche-reader. Microfiche-readers are quite expensive to buy so it is not so common for the public to have these at home. At the library there are also bibliographies, local history collections and books on genealogy. SVAR still has its headquarters in Ramsele, though filming and indexing facilities are now located in other places, but still in the County of Västernorrland. About 130 people (with an even distribution of men and women) are now working at the five different work places of SVAR. Variation is due to the labour market. During the 1960s and the 1970s parish records had been in frequent use for public administration purposes as well as for the steadily increasing research in genealogy. The microfilming of public records which the Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) began in 1948 and continued through the 1950s and1960s comprised all parish records until 1860 and in some cases until 1895. During the 1960s, copies of these microfilmed parish records were sold to all 24 county libraries in Sweden. Several community libraries later bought the rolls of film relating to the parishes within their districts. At that time public libraries in Sweden were still quite small units. They were supported by the county libraries, which today still have certain functions, such as inter-library loans, the gathering of written materials, films, microfiche and so on about the region, and the organisation of seminars for library staff. From 1977 onwards, the master films, which the Mormons donated to the National Archives of Sweden, were converted from 35mm to 16mm. Subsequently these were transferred to microfiche. The microfilming is still going on – about 6 million exposures a year. Every volume is registered in a database. The Register is accessible in catalogues available in archives and libraries in Sweden. The catalogues are in a loose-leaf format so it is quite simple to update them. A couple of 36

Serving Genealogy and Local History Researchers

years ago the SVAR database was incorporated into the National Archives database which is available on the Internet.2 For a couple of years we have also been involved with a large database system common to both the National Archives of Sweden and the county Archives in Sweden. This system, Arkis 2, handles the archival stock, loans and invoicing. I do admit that there have been problems with this larger system. Our customers have been waiting longer than normal (normal is ‘not more than a week’) to get their microfiche orders. Temporarily we have focused on those who are taking genealogical courses by giving a priority to servicing their microfiche loans. These students have to order material on special forms signed by the leader of the course. Indeed we feel it is important that the course members receive their loans on time. We are handling around 900 incoming and outgoing packages each day. For some years SVAR has been very lucky in having an active and enthusiastic librarian, Irma Ridbäck – the author of the report that I mentioned earlier that established the microfiche loan system. She also took the first steps in our book distribution system by bringing the store of books published by the National Archives of Sweden in Stockholm to Ramsele. Ten years ago she prepared our first book catalogue and, even though on a small scale, the concept of sales through the bookstore was introduced. Huge thanks to her! This bookstore was the beginning of our present and expanding Internet bookshop concentrating on archival, genealogical and local history publications.3 You could even regard this bookshop as an antiquarian bookshop – we have books in our stock dating from 1877. This coming autumn we are going to make some improvements in the bookshop, including the ordering of more titles, the listing of all the books written in English, the purchase of specific PDF-files. SVAR personnel are also available to undertake genealogical research. Of course we are forced to charge, but the rate is the same as that charged by the National Archives of Sweden. Anyone can go to Ramsele and do their individual research in SVAR’s quite exclusive research centre, built in 1994. The centre holds parish records from all over Sweden, and many other kinds of archival materials, such as court records, reports from district medical officers and county governors, military rolls and so on. Here a researcher can actually select from more than 2 million microfiche. What about the digital future? There is no doubt that church records are the most requested of all archival materials. 95% of microfiche loans relate to church records. SVAR has been 2 3

Nationell ArkivDatabase: www.nad.ra.se www.svarbokhandel.ra.se

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Margareta Bovin

working to convert the films into microfiche over a very long period, and now the time is right to begin digitising the most heavily used archives. To tackle the problem, SVAR has been involved in some projects studying the digitisation of archival material. There was a preliminary study in 1996 – 1997 and a major study in 1998 – 2000. The object of this latter study was – among other things – to establish general quality standards and rules relating to the digitisation of archival material, and to structure a suitable method of indexing. There are still unsolved problems. As we are a unit of the National Archives, it is really important that we do things correctly from the start. The scanned material must be able to stand up to long-term preservation and it must also be able to be converted into other formats. There are many pieces in this puzzle that just have to fit together. However, in spite of this – last year SVAR scanned around 5 million exposures. Over the last few years we have concentrated on creating digital tools for archival studies in the humanities. It is not easy to read the antique handwriting used in church records, and very often researchers ask for help in deciphering older texts. In Sweden there is very little educational literature that addresses this subject. Within the National Archives of Sweden, SVAR has a responsibility for improving accessibility to our written cultural heritage, since an ability to read historical documents is fundamental to an understanding of previous generations. So, to meet this obligation, and to teach researchers how to read historical documents, SVAR has produced a digital training program that can be used both in the classroom and at home. Another effective tool for interpreting old texts is the ongoing project for developing a digital dictionary containing Latin expressions, abbreviations, measurements, monetary systems and much more. There are plans to create educational materials that provide explanations as to the origins of types of documents and archives. Highlighting aspects of the history of local and central administrations can give an understanding of society and its context. For example, a digital application that would visualise and define administrative borders and their variations over time would prove very useful, not only for educational purposes, but also as a demarcation tool to help the researcher define his areas of investigation. Among other activities, SVAR is building up a Digital Research Centre on the web. On a particular web address the researcher will find different types of digital materials, such as registers and scanned documents. SVAR will collect good quality materials both from the National Archives of Sweden and also from other organisations and private individuals. This year, while the website is being constructed, it will be free to visit the site, but most likely there will be a charge subsequently. SVAR is a non-profit organisation sitting within the National Archives of Sweden. The budget is made up of – 1/3 from the National Archives and 2/3 38

Serving Genealogy and Local History Researchers

generated by commercial enterprises and other different projects. It is a really difficult job to balance the budget. Within SVAR, staff have a vision that, in the future, researchers could obtain archival documents on the Internet cost-free, but to make this possible would require a real cultural-political investment at the highest level.

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DIGITAL ACCESS TO ARCHIVES – THE SCOTTISH ARCHIVE NETWORK PROJECT George MacKenzie National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland Abstract The Scottish Archive Network (SCAN)1 project created a virtual archive service, consisting of catalogues of most Scottish archive services, a suite of reference services for users, and digital images of all Scottish wills before 1901. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Genealogical Society of Utah, and led by the National Archives of Scotland, the project cost £3.8m. It pioneered high volume digital scanning from original archive records, and has provided a model to follow in the provision of remote access to archive customers, using the internet. It has paved the way for a major new service for those interested in Scottish genealogy, bringing together the General Register Office for Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon along with the National Archives of Scotland. The ScotlandsPeople website2 is already in operation and a new centre at Register House in Edinburgh will open early in 2008.

The Scottish Archive Network or SCAN project, a £4 million initiative supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has put Scotland's archival heritage on the Internet and provided a model for access to archives in the twenty-first century. It has created a virtual archive service, combining three elements: •

catalogues of the holdings of nearly every Scottish archive service

•

a suite of reference services, aimed at helping both the beginner and the experienced user of archives

•

a complete archive resource in digital form, 2.5 million images of all Scottish wills before 1901

Three quarters of the project funding came from the United Kingdom Heritage Lottery Fund, with the balance coming equally from the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU). The project took just 1 2

www.scan.org.uk/ www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

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George MacKenzie

4½ years to complete and cost £3.8million. It employed a total of 79 people, either full-time or part-time, all of whom contributed a total of 111 person years of work. The project has created or collected catalogue entries for over 29,000 archive collections across 52 archive services. These give a summary of holdings, with dates, and contact information. The reference services include a knowledge base of 1,000 key entries on Scottish archives and history, virtual exhibitions and an interactive course on early Scottish handwriting. There are also a series of educational resources aimed at schools. The wills are accessed via a newly created index, searchable by name and date, which allows the customer to jump straight to the digital image in seconds. In order to make the project sustainable, images of wills downloaded from the Internet are charged for, though they are free-to-view in the search rooms of the National Archives of Scotland. All other services, including the wills index, are free. The project was planned and led by the National Archives of Scotland, while the Genealogical Society of Utah provided volunteer staff to capture the digital images and work on indexing. One of the project's major achievements has been to develop a system to allow high volume, high quality image capture from original archive documents, while safeguarding them through skilled conservation input. The project was one of the first to achieve this, and the model has been copied by the National Archives of Scotland which has gone on to produce several million more digital images from original archive material. SCAN has changed the balance of access to archives, with help services controlled by the customer in place of the traditional archivist. This does not mean the end of the human service on site in Scotland’s archives, but it does put these archives within the reach of many more people than before. It also means that those who do make personal visits to Scotland’s archives can use their time better, by establishing what documents they wish to see. There are six areas in which SCAN has achieved significant progress. 1 Digitisation SCAN has developed one of the largest and fastest digitisation operations from original archive documents anywhere in the world. The achievement has been threefold: •

first is the development of workflow procedures, including conservation treatments and pagination before scanning, careful handling protocols during scanning, and phase boxing afterwards

•

second is the development of image management software with GSU experts, including a quality control system to minimise the need to retake images 42

Digital Access to Archives – the Scottish Archive Network Project •

third is using skilled archivists to ensure the links from images to index entries are correct. After several months delay, as suitable equipment was procured and workflow systems were perfected, the project digitised 3 million pages of archive documents in 36 months. This rate of image capture puts digitising documents on demand within reach for the first time, and the National Archives of Scotland has been building on the lessons learned in the project. Although it is not yet in place, it is possible to envisage an entirely remote access service for archives, in which customers select documents from the catalogue, then order digital copies, which can be scanned and delivered to them in about the same time as it takes to order a document in a traditional archive. This is of potentially enormous importance to archive services across the world

Catalogues and Standards SCAN's second major achievement has been to produce a single union catalogue of all Scotland's archives at the collection level. This puts Scotland ahead of other parts of the United Kingdom, in terms of coverage and consistency, and provides a model that is now being copied elsewhere. The components of this achievement are again threefold: i.

the development of a set of guidelines for archive listing at the collection level in Scotland, based on international standards. This is the first time there has been a comprehensive standard for archive cataloguing in Scotland and has already improved consistency of description and raised professional awareness of standards

ii.

the application of these guidelines by project staff across diverse record holdings, helping to transfer skills and increase the expertise of Scotland's archivists in description and the application of national and international standards the implementation of a catalogue database that could be used by the project's central server, and also by participating archives. Use of a common system by over half the participating archives helps promote common cataloguing standards, makes future updating of catalogues easier and provides an invaluable building block for further development of item level electronic catalogues in Scotland

iii.

The project changed mid-way, adapting an off the peg product rather than developing its own system, but the result has improved access to Scotland's archival heritage, as well as helping Scotland's archives to position themselves in a way that en43

George MacKenzie

ables them to benefit from future networking initiatives in the United Kingdom. A beneficial project to extend the SCAN catalogues to item level is now being actively discussed by the archive community in many Scottish authorities. Marketing and e-Commerce The SCAN project has broken new ground in applying business techniques to identify a market for electronic delivery of archival images, and to exploit it. The project began with an untested assumption that there would be a ready market for the digitised wills. The experience of the NAS search rooms was that around 1,000 copies of wills per year were produced, for personal and postal enquirers, but the project hoped that more knowledge of the wills, and easier access would improve this. Marketing research, with the assistance of Lothians Enterprise and seconded students from Heriot Watt University, indicated that the market might be more substantial and that people would be perfectly willing to pay for a full colour, high resolution image delivered to them. The project has gone on to develop a thriving e-commerce facility that is selling as many images of wills per month as the NAS sold in a year, and with every sign of continuing growth in sales. Once the project was completed, the NAS took over responsibility for maintaining and making available the digital products developed. The wills were transferred in 2005 to a new joint website, ScotlandsPeople,3 operated with the General Register Office for Scotland.

A camera operator capturing the 1 millionth image 3

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

44

Digital Access to Archives – the Scottish Archive Network Project

Genealogical Tourism The project did not set out to specialise in genealogy, but it recognised early on that this was probably the single biggest growth factor in the use of archives. It is also one with significant potential to contribute to economic development, through stimulating tourism. SCAN staff worked with representatives of VisitScotland and local tourist interests to link their site to those targeting visitors to Scotland, raising awareness of both those holding archives and those promoting tourism, of the potential of the genealogical tourism market to Scotland, and the value of collaboration. SCAN has also led to a further initiative to develop ScotlandsPeople, a single official family history service for Scotland, at both national and local level. Genealogical tourism can be an argument for archivists at every level, showing a real connection between the care of the documentary heritage and economic growth. 2009 is designated as the year of Homecoming Scotland, so this form of tourism looks set to accelerate. Benefiting the Archive Community The project has made a significant contribution to the capacity of Scottish archives. In addition to promoting awareness of standards, it has provided PCs and Internet connections to a number of Scottish archives that did not have them before. A total of 34 participating archives benefited. It provided associated ICT training that boosted archivists' knowledge, skills and confidence. It continues to provide specific help to some archives, including hosting micro sites, digitising documents, and hosting virtual exhibitions. The ability of Scotland's archivists to respond to customer enquiries has been widened by the availability, for the first time ever, of a union catalogue and high quality on-line reference materials on Scottish archives and history. Benefiting the Archive Customer SCAN has created an archive website that mirrors the facilities of a physical service. Much attention has been paid to developing self-help services, allowing the visitor to access catalogues and reference materials, answer questions whether simple or complex, view exhibitions and educational material on-line, and order digital images of documents. This is now a tried and tested model for the development of archive services in the twenty first century. The success of the SCAN project is clear from the popularity of its websites. In 2005–6 they recorded around 800,000 visits by 225,000 unique visitors, which is several times greater than the total of people making physical visits to Scotland's archives. During the same period, 18,000 wills were downloaded, several times the numbers that were consulted when access was manual. 45

George MacKenzie

NOTE The Future Since the presentation at IFLA Glasgow, SCAN has matured from a project to become part of the main business of the National Archives of Scotland. Using the techniques learned in the project, around 4 million pages of Scottish church records have been digitised. These are already available in the search rooms in Edinburgh and from April 2007 will be progressively released both on the Internet, where access will be by subscription, and in a series of Scottish archives where access will be free. The main Scottish property register, the Register of Sasines, is also being digitised and in 2007 work will start on the Valuation Rolls. The project has also helped to promote the ScotlandsPeople joint initiative by the National Archives of Scotland, the General Register Office for Scotland and the Lord Lyon to bring the principal Scottish family history records together. The joint website is already operating, and by early 2008 a new centre will open at Register House in Edinburgh, providing state of the art access to an unparalleled series of records, in magnificent surroundings. There are also plans to provide similar joint services in a number of local authority areas in Scotland, further opening up access to the records and encouraging people to visit the places from which their ancestors came.

The SCAN Project team. Front Row – Rob Mildren (Project Manager), Hazel Anderson. Back Row – Joanna O'Rourke, Alan Borthwick, Robin Urquhart

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A CHINESE CULTURAL PROJECT: THE COMPILATION OF THE GENERAL CATALOGUE OF CHINESE GENEALOGY Gu Yan Shanghai Library, China Abstract The compilation of Genealogies in China has a long history, with a heritage of nearly 50 thousand family history records. However, a complete catalogue of the existing Chinese genealogies is yet to be accomplished, which poses restrictions on research and exploitation. In 2001, the daunting task of compiling a ‘General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy’ on a global scale was initiated by Shanghai Library, with contributions from institutional and individual genealogy collectors of the country. This paper reviews and analyses the significance, the challenges and the progress of compilation, and looks into the perspectives of this great project of Chinese culture

The significance of compiling the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy. The concept of the Chinese genealogy Chinese genealogies are histories that record a patriarchal clan's pedigree and events. A classic Chinese genealogy is composed of a preface, table of contents, rules of compilation, family rules and instructions to be observed by clansmen; pictures of the ancestral temple, portraits and biographies of important clansmen, pedigree charts, pictures of tombs; treaties and contracts; a list of donors for producing the book; and a postscript. Genealogy is a significant supplementary source for academic research and tracing one's roots. It is also an indispensable component of Chinese history and culture. Chinese Genealogy Catalogues Five genealogy catalogues have been published to date: • Chinese Genealogies at the Genealogical Society of Utah • Catalogue of Chinese Genealogies in Taiwan. • Catalogue of Chinese Genealogies 47

Gu Yan

• Comprehensive Catalogue of Chinese Genealogies • Summary of Genealogies at the Shanghai Library The fact that none of the present catalogues is complete hampers the study of Chinese genealogy. In order to facilitate research in this field and in consideration of the needs of ordinary people, we decided to compile the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy. Significance Since the Catalogue lists Chinese genealogies on a global scale, its importance lies in reflecting the physical distribution of Chinese genealogies. Traditionally genealogies were not allowed to be shown to non-clansmen and very few copies were produced. Today they remain semi-closed to the public. Researchers are, therefore, unable to make full use of genealogies. By publishing the catalogue, we mean to improve this situation. The catalogue also contains a good many descriptive items that impart essential information about a genealogy and satisfy the different needs of users. We believe that the catalogue will help both domestic and overseas Chinese to trace their roots, and further, to strengthen the Chinese peoples' sense of community. It will also facilitate research in the social and natural sciences. Compilation of the General Catalogue of the Chinese Genealogy Difficulties that had to be overcome in compiling this catalogue: (i) Genealogies are huge in number. It is estimated that, not counting duplicates, there are about 50,000 titles of Chinese genealogies (ii) Genealogies are widely dispersed. Chinese genealogies are scattered at home and abroad. Not all genealogies are kept in public institutions. A large number of genealogies are in the hands of private owners; so the total quantity is hard to estimate, but it must at least amount to tens of thousands (iii) Cataloguers of genealogies must have professional skills. Genealogy has its own characteristics with which the various collectors may not be as familiar as are trained librarians Execution of the project (i) Inaugural meetings were convened. In June 2000, the project was approved by the Conference of Co-operation on Constructing and Sharing Global Chinese 48

A Chinese Cultural Project

Documents and Resources held in Beijing. From November 27–28 in the same year, the first compilation meeting was held at the Shanghai Library, signalling the formal start of the project. The meeting appointed editors, defined individual responsibilities, drew up cataloguing rules, and set the project schedule. In February and March of 2001, the editors, who were in charge of different regions, held editorial meetings separately and arranged specific tasks. These meetings established the project (ii) The editorial board was established. The Shanghai Library acted as editor-inchief; the Genealogical Society of Utah, Cybersia.com Singapore, the National Library of China, and the Taiwan Research Center for Sinology were deputy editors-in-chief; and editors were, in the main, provincial or regional libraries in China (iii) The project was publicised. By promoting the project through the media, we enlightened the public about genealogy. As a result, many organisations and individuals became willing to donate genealogies or to let us catalogue them. This was very helpful for surveying and calling for private genealogies. Meanwhile, we managed to gain support from leaders and to establish co-ordination among organisations. The Ministry of Culture extended its warm support to the project (iv) The correct procedures were followed. For every region, we appointed one organisation to be responsible for cataloguing local genealogies. The records were to be sent later to the Shanghai Library for proof-reading. It was estimated that the project would last three years – one year for the separate cataloguing, one year for final proof-reading, and one year for publication and adaptation to the Web. Such a timetable had proved successful before (v) Quality was ensured through training. Because the cataloguing of genealogies is a highly professional activity, editors trained cataloguers through lectures and practical sessions. They arranged tutors, and gave person-to-person assistance. Editors and cataloguers were required to follow the strict rules. No required descriptive items could be omitted. Whether the genealogy was kept publicly or privately or whether it was old or new, we strove to include it in the catalogue as long as we could get the information (vi) A briefing on Cataloguing Chinese Genealogies was issued. To date we have published five briefings, one for each phase of the project. In this way we have been able to communicate with the organisations at all levels and to summarise our experience in a timely way

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Gu Yan

Breakthroughs and innovative points in the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy (i) The General Catalogue is the first special subject catalogue to list comprehensively Chinese genealogies around the world. Its scope includes genealogies of the various nationalities of China, recorded in Chinese characters, and printed before 2000 – whether collected by Chinese (including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao) and international book collecting institutions or scattered among the common people. These genealogies involve Chinese overseas and clans that have multiplied and developed in the motherland The General Catalogue has collected various types of genealogies named according to family, nationality, generation, branch, and clan, as well as general and universal genealogies, etc. All forms of publication are included, such as printed copies, non-printed manuscripts, reprinted copies, and microfilm copies (ii) Features that fully unfold the basic elements of the genealogy are highlighted. The descriptive items in the General Catalogue entries include title, statement of responsibility, edition, physical description, notes on key ancestors and famous persons, binding, collector, and other comments (iii) Data retrieval on the Internet is to be facilitated. Apart from being published in written form, the General Catalogue will also be made available on the Internet, thus providing a more convenient searching tool for Chinese around the world Status of the General Catalogue Project and its future Since March 2001, the work of compilation has continued methodically, and now the work of assembling the catalogue is just beginning. Progress of compilation From February last year the compilation of bibliographic records was started successively nation-wide and in various overseas localities, simultaneously winning the attention and response of local departments at different levels. By the end of last year, more than ten editorial committees had finished their assigned tasks. Some have submitted collected data in the form of batches, others will complete their work in the first half of this year. The speed of compilation has gone smoothly according to plan. Quantity of submitted records Based on statistics compiled by the different editing committees (some still have to report), the number of records has already reached around 60,000 titles (including 50

A Chinese Cultural Project

duplicates). This total, however, does not include over 20,000 privately owned titles, so the actual number will increase in the wake of the delivery of remaining records. Quality of submitted records Since the beginning of 2002, the Shanghai Library had already assembled some bibliographic records. Generally speaking, the majority of these records basically meet the editing requirements of the catalogue, but there are some problems with the identification of the indigenous place of a genealogy, the edition, the ancestral hall name, the notes, and the ancestors. These problems are unavoidable due to the complexities of compilation work and the uneven mastery of the required items by compilers. Where this is the case, we have asked the party concerned to perfect and improve the items which have problems or fail to meet the requirements. All in all, compiling the General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy is a heavy task, and we have a long, long way to go, but we firmly believe that we will achieve this difficult commission, helped by the enthusiastic support of the Chinese people worldwide.

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2003 BERLIN. CO-OPERATION AMONG ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS THE BENEFITS OF ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS WORKING TOGETHER Ruth Hedegaard Vendsyssel historical Museum, Historical Archives, Hjoerring, Denmark Abstract In many countries, there is a growing interest in co-operation among archives, libraries and museums. For the sake of the interested user it is crucial to make it easier to obtain information from the different institutions. It is important to make a crossover strategy for giving people access to our cultural heritage. The goal is to give people the opportunity to search archives, libraries and museums simultaneously. Consequently, it is necessay to try and create minimum standards for cataloguing and description. The starting point should be those standards already accepted internationally. In Denmark there have been some interesting projects, with the object of making it possible to search for material in several institutions at the same time. NOKS1 is such a project involving 9 institutions, archives, libraries and museums. The records from the institutions involved have been put together in one database consisting of 115,000 records, among them 8,000 photos, including different types of material, printed material, books, leaflets, newspaper clippings, archives, museum items etc. After the success of NOKS, the project entered into co-operation with another region in Denmark (Vejle) and established the database ARBIMUS2 (arkiver, biblioteker, museer – archives- libaries- museums). The purpose of ARBIMUS is to be able to search for information in all types of material in different geographical areas. In NOKS you can seek material from North Jutland, but in ARBIMUS it is possible to search through material held in more regions at the same time. The purpose is, moreover, to intensify the co-operation between cultural institutions in Denmark and to coordinate and develop existing standards and practice of recording material. 1 2

http://www.noks.dk accessed 2007 http://www.arbimus.dk accessed 2007

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Ruth Hedegaard

During the past couple of years there has been a growing interest in co-operation among archives, libraries and museums in many countries, and there are several programs and projects pointing in that direction. In the Nordic countries there is an acronym describing this co-operation called the ABM institutions – ‘a’ for archives – ‘b’ for biblioteker, which is the Scandinavian word for libraries, and ‘m’ for museums. Discussion of co-operation between archives, libraries and museums is one of the very interesting topics being debated at the moment. In Norway, for example, they have ABM utvikling (development in English), where the library and museum authorities have united as one institution from the 1st of January 2003. In Denmark several attempts have been made to promote interest in this kind of co-operation, and these efforts have resulted in a political interest as well. In January 2003 the Ministry of Culture in Denmark appointed a committee with the task of preparing recommendations for co-operation among institutions in the fields of archives, libraries and museums. The committee is to judge the definitions of data content, data formats and data transport with the purpose of establishing a common presentation of information from archives, libraries and museums on the Internet. The steering group of the committee consists of the directors of the library authorities, the archive authorities and the museum authorities. A group with participants from the three sectors made an interim report on the subject in 2003, and the final report was completed in 2006.3 With regard to data content the committee recommends a common Dublin Core based format, and the data exchange format to be XML (W3C standard). Regarding search strategy the report recommends compiling a subject list and developing common standards for description of time and place. It is very important to have a joint strategy for giving people access to our cultural heritage, found in archives, libraries and museums. There is a need for access to the material of the three institutions simultaneously and for having it presented as a union catalogue. People seeking information do not care where they find it, as long as they do find it. If you want to know the year of the foundation of the rifle club where one of your ancestors was an important member, you might find the answer in the museum because it received a jubilee plaque that was made on the occasion of an anniversary. In the archives you might find information because they have received the minutes from the foundation, and in the library they could have a jubilee publication. This example shows how you often have to get your information from different places, and there may be much more information than you can imagine. The museum has many other objects, the archives also have accounts, many pictures and other papers, and the library has other books and articles. 3

www.kuas.dk/tjenester/publikationer/emneopdelt/kulturarv-it/abm2006/abm-rapport_2006.pdf accessed 2007

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The Benefits of Archives, Libraries and Museums Working Together

A great part of our national cultural heritage such as artefacts, photos, archivalmaterial, printed material, audiovisual material, etc. is situated in more than one of the three types of institutions. The different institutional cultures and ways of registration make it difficult for the user to find relevant information. The lack of common standards makes it difficult to search material at the same time in different institutions and to coordinate communication efforts. The new technology does demand common standards in order to get results when searching for all the relevant information. In clarifying the strategies and the principles of co-operation between the three types of institutions there are several conditions to take into account: • The three institutions must participate equally in organising any initiatives. • The existing electronic records from the last 10 – 15 years should be incorporated at the same time into the new way of searching material in the institutions. If not, it will result in an unacceptable backlog. • As the ABM databases are to include all sorts of material, it is important to be able to access the material from the different institutions simultaneously. Moreover it must be possible to search information on the basis of both individual words and on the basis of a specific subject system and subject terms. There may be a very big difference in the result if a text search is used instead of using a structured subject field search. It is very important to start on a joint strategy for communication now, because minimum standards for cataloguing and description must be created, with a starting point in politically decided international standards. This is the decisive precondition for any sensible simultaneous search in the different institutions. Besides, a common presentation of data demands common principles when communicating the records. Regarding this strategy of the ABM co-operation it is vital to stress the need for common minimum standards created on the basis of international standards. It is important that these standards be used in all institutions, so that it will be possible to reuse the electronic records already made without having to make changes to them. DANPA (Denmark’s national private archives database)4 In Denmark there have been some projects leading in the directions just described. DANPA is one of them. The database contains search capabilities for descriptive records representing approximately 120,000 private archives in Denmark available via the Internet. The 120,000 records originate from 190 archive institutions with 4

www.danpa.dk accessed 2007

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digital registrations – among them the State Archives, the Emigration Archives, the Royal Library and the Library and Archives of the Labour Movement. Definitely the greatest suppliers for the database were the many local historical archives with their different historical information. Networking within the field of Local History5 A project on network and co-operation as regards local history was initiated by the Danish Library Authorities and financed by the Authorities together with the State and University Library in Århus and the Central Library of Viborg. The project started in 2003, and its purpose is to support different ways of communicating local history material and information from archives, libraries and museums on the Internet. This support will be brought about through the coordination, networking, and gathering of experience and qualifications. By means of examples the project wants to create an interest in local history and thus be an impetus in giving it a priority. The town of Viborg has been chosen for the project, and an important part of its internet homepage will consist of stories written for the homepage. Furthermore, scanned photos, articles, archives etc will be put on as well. The project will try to catch the users’ attention by inviting them to give their comments. An important goal is also to try to collect experiences from other successful projects and communicate these to others. www.noks.dk

Frontpage of NOKS 5

http://www.lokalhistorisknet.dk/tekst.asp?i=24&m=15 accessed 2007

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NOKS is an abbreviation for Nordjyllands Kulturhistoriske Søgebase (The cultural historical database of the North of Jutland), which is a database containing material about cultural history of the North of Jutland. The purpose of NOKS is to make the collections of archives, libraries and museums accessible on the Internet. It is to give the users the possibility of seeking material in all three different institutions with one search by searching in the digitally catalogued records that have been created in archives, libraries and museums in this northern part of Denmark during the last 10 – 15 years. Moreover the purpose of the project was to bring together entries for all material within the area of cultural history, no matter what kind, archives, museum items, printed matters, photos, tape recordings, film- and videotapes etc. etc. The creation of this database, NOKS, is naturally of benefit to the web-visitors using it, but it is also an attempt to create standards concerning descriptions and catalogues of material in cultural institutions. Organisation and participation The project took a year, from March 2001 to February 2002. The participants were three local historical archives, three cultural historical museums, two art museums and the Central Library of the County of Northern Jutland. These participants gave the project a wide spread geographically. As mentioned earlier, it is important to have equal participation of the three types of institutions when organizing initiatives, for example when the steering committee of the project was appointed. The project budget was 1.14 million Danish Kroner, or 143,000 EURO, provided by the State, the municipalities and the participating institutions. Figures in NOKS In the original database there were 115,000 records, 8,000 of these with digital photos from archives and museums attached. Of the records 70% come from the archives, 15% from the library and equally 15% from the museums. During the first year 60,000 searches were made in the database. In 2006 there are 170,000 records in NOKS, and the number of searches has each month in 2006 been from 6,000 – 13,000. When explaining the figures of 70% from the archives it is necessary to make a small digression to describe local historical archives in Denmark.

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Local Historical Archives in Denmark The local historical archives, which are typical of the Danish archives tradition, trace their origins to the first local historical archive, established in 1937. After rapid growth, there are now more than 450 – the number of municipalities in Denmark is 275 (and 98 after 1st January 2007). In the local historical archives, as a part of the Scandinavian tradition, much work is being done to gather historical sources and collect data about the history of the local community. Here archives have been of great importance to the preservation of sources for local history not mandated by any law. Organisations, associations, commercial enterprises and private persons have no legal obligation to preserve their archives. The State Archives do not systematically collect private archives in Denmark, so this is really a task for the local historical archives. The latter do not only collect archives but also information in the form of photographs, maps, tapes, films, newspapers, books and other printed matter, all for the benefit of research in the field of local history. After collection, the material is registered and made available to the interested user by, among other things, the use of a standard common computer registration system, called ARKIBAS (Arkivernes base – the base of the archives), which is employed in more than 300 archives, large and small. ARKIBAS. The local archives’ joint system ARKIBAS dates back to 1988 and is a program developed in co-operation between archivists and system developers, being especially designed for the needs of the local archives. The program is able to handle material from the first contact at the point of delivery until the material is completely packaged and registered on the storage shelves. It is possible to scan pictures and thereby see a copy of the photo simultaneously with the record. The program is able to handle the many different material categories with their different ways of being recorded. At the same time the records are bound together into a joint retrieval system. This joint system has, among other things, made possible the establishment of DANPA and NOKS on the Internet. Creating the Database and developing the Search System In NOKS the data have been drawn from each institution and physically moved to one server. Before they can be united on the server the data must be converted into the same format, from the archives Frontpage of NOKS system, from the MARC format of the libraries and from the third system of the museums. After that the converted data 58

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must be fastened together, so that there will be a joint connection to the records from the single institutions. The subject systems of the original records were difficult to convert into a common format. Instead it was decided to collect all the subject terms from all the records. The list became extremely long and therefore a connection between them was created, so that one subject term at the same time points to different records from archives, libraries or museums. This model illustrates this function:

Care of senior citizens

Library

ms seu Mu

Ar ch ive s

Care of senior citizens

Senior citizens Elderly people

From the subject term list, one term, for example: ‘care of senior citizens’, is chosen. This term points to the subject term used by the library, but also to other subject terms – at the museum ‘elderly people’; at the archives ‘senior citizens’. The records from all the institutions will then be found no matter which term the institutions have used originally. In that way it is possible to keep a sort of structured search. It is important not to rely exclusively on free text searching. Making a free text search on: The German occupation of Denmark during World War 2, just called the ‘Occupation’, will give the result of 353 records. The same search using the subject term ‘occupation’ will give the result of 1,590 records. Rather impressive figures, which are really showing that the user should not rely on free text search for a high quality search. Furthermore in the system it is possible to combine the text search and the structured subject search. 59

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It is also possible to search for all kinds of material about a parish or a municipality, and it is possible to narrow a search to a specific subject only in one parish or in one municipality. Furthermore it is possible to narrow the search to a specific material category. The search can consist of, for example, either pictures, or pictures and videos, or archives, or archives and pictures and so on. The users of NOKS NOKS has been very well received from the beginning. Numerous searches have been carried out already, and through promotional efforts from the participating institutions and press coverage new users get to know about the database. The people using NOKS are very different. Many genealogists know of it, and the genealogists’ associations have played a significant role in making it known to their members. Students at the universities use NOKS to search facts for their papers. Teachers use it as an inspiration to find material for their teaching, and pupils to find information in their schoolwork. People outside the county with connections to the area but little possibility of visiting the cultural institutions use it, which shows the national interest for the database as well. NOKS is looked upon as one of several search tools. It is well known that it is not the ultimate search, and it is often possible to find more material in the institutions themselves, that has not yet been digitised. For the staff in the three different institutions NOKS has meant more enquiries, especially by mail. The art of enquiry work has not changed significantly, but NOKS helps the staff do their jobs more efficiently. Information in NOKS makes users aware of the existence of institutions they did not know before, and NOKS is often just an entrance to further information in these institutions. NOKS can make the institutions known to the public. Of course that means more work, but at the same time it is a very good way of promoting the institutions. It is an advantage for the staff as well to get to know the holdings of the other institutions and to exchange information. The present situation of NOKS A search database like NOKS is justifiable only if updated. The economic incentive for NOKS came from the State, the municipalities and the participating institutions, and the money was given for this project only, not as a permanent grant. Many efforts have been made to raise money for the updating of the database. Members from the participating organisations have taken the initiative to establish an association with the purpose of raising money for an update. A committee has been established and 60

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more organisations, libraries, museums and archives have joined the association. For the institutions involved it is possible just to export records from the databases of the different institutions and send them to the programmer. This can be done in no time. Of course, afterwards, the records must be put together in the database, causing quite a job for the programmers. This problem, however, is beyond the concerns of this article, and for the institutions it is no extra work at all. With the creation of NOKS it will be possible to get information/records from different databases, and to search in several databases at the same time. The cross searching of NOKS will be a tremendous step forward, as people will no longer have to find and search in the collections of all the individual institutions. In 2005 the NOKS Association has succeeded in raising money for an update. The Library Authorities and the Cultural Heritage Agency have each granted 165,000 Danish Kroner or 22.165 Euros for an update and further development of the system. It was decided that the updated database should be converted to Dublin Core. The data of the different types of institutions, archives, libraries and museums are incorporated into the structure of Dublin Core. Furthermore the base will be expanded with records from the participating institutions in the NOKS association. (November 2006: 26 members). An organisation in the Vejle region known as TREKS (Trekantområdets kulturhistoriske søgebase – The cultural historical database of the Vejle region), has created a database reusing the database from NOKS, which is already at hand. The NOKS co-operative has gone into a joint venture project with the organisation of TREKS, and ARBIMUS (arkiver, biblioteker, museer – archives, libraries, museums) has been established. The database is developed, so it is possible to feed it with records from NOKS, from TREKS and from other regions for that matter. NOKS/ARBIMUS is planned to be a national database, meant for people to search for information all over the country, or just in one or more counties, at the same time. This update of NOKS will equally give a hint of the speed of the digitising of the collections in the institutions. Furthermore, the number of participants can be increased without too much extra trouble. Many of the records are only found in the institutions, not online, and that is why part of NOKS has been created drawing the records from the databases. In the future that will change, and still more material is to be found on-line in the sector-specific databases. In the future NOKS / ARBIMUS should be constructed with the capacity to search in these bases at the same time. But the principles of searching and the presentation of data will not be changed even though another technology is developed.

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Recommendations From the experiences with NOKS three sets of principles have to be observed to give the users of the Internet a good and useful cultural historical search tool. The example from the search on the ‘Occupation’ shows how necessary it is to keep the structure of the original record. This model of subject terms is not the final solution, and another way has been tried in ARBIMUS. One essential thing about this model is that it is possible to make searches in the different institutions at one time. The purpose of a database like this is to make the material in archives, libraries and museums available for the users of the Internet. Another essential point is that the existing digitally catalogued descriptions and records must be reused. Use should be made of the many good records that are already at hand. Future ABM Co-operation The experience from NOKS and, more recently, ARBIMUS shows the importance of working out a strategy for the digital communication of the cultural heritage of Denmark. With DANPA, NOKS and ARBIMUS the co-operation started on a voluntary level and, through this co-operation, people have felt the need for standards, and have understood how important it is to have these standards in order to have quality searches and descriptions. There is a need for a common strategy to make it possible to cross-search in the ABM institutions. NOTE This contribution is based upon the presentation at IFLA 2003 and the article: Hedegaard, Ruth: The benefits of archives, libraries and museums working together. A Danish case of shared databases. in New Library World 2004, vol. 105, no. 1202/1203, pp. 290-296. In addition, developments up to the present are briefly described. References Hedegaard, Ruth: NOKS: A searchable cultural and historical database with contributions from Archives, Libraries and Museums. ALM cooperation in Denmark. in: Alte Archive – Neue Technologien, old archives – new technologies. Udg. Thomas Aigner und Karin Winter. St. Pölten, Bischöfliches Ordinariat, 2006, pp. 54-66. Hedegaard, Ruth, Hellum, Asbjoern and Topholm, Jens. NOKS: A searchable cultural and historical database from Denmark. An ALM project (Archive-LibraryMuseum). in: Library HI Tech News 2005, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 19-20. 62

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Hedegaard, Ruth: The benefits of archives, libraries and museums working together. A Danish case of shared databases. in: New Library World 2004, vol. 105, no 1202/1203, pp. 290-296. Witt, M. and M. Ihadjadene, M. eds.: Archives, libraries and museums convergence. Archives, bibliothèques et musées. 24th Library Systems Seminar, Paris, 12–14 April 2000, Paris, Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, 2001 pp. 402-428: Selected references concerning the topic ‘ALM (Archives, Libraries and Museums) convergence’ and some other documents on the related topics by Maria Witt. Heikell, M. ed.: Möjligheter och hinder i utvecklingen av samarbete mellan arkiv, bibliotek och muséer. Seminarium på Utstein kloster 23–25 April 1999. Helsingfors, Nordinfo, 2000. Hellum, Asbjoern, Thøgersen, Mogens and Topholm, Jens. DanPa – Danmarks nationale privatarkivdatabase. in: Arkiv, tidsskrift for arkivforvaltning og arkivteknik 1999, No. 4, pp. 7-12. Porskær Poulsen, P.: Vi passer på historien. En undersøgelse af lokalarkiverne. Vejle, Sammenslutningen af Lokalarkiver, 1997. Hellum, Asbjoern: ARKIBAS – vejen til lokalhistorien. in: Lokalhistorie uden grænser. Festskrift til Anders Friedrichsen. Farum, Farums Arkiver og Museer, 1996, pp. 59-73. Poul Sverrild, ed.: Folkets arkiver. Sammenslutningen af lokalhistoriske Arkiver 1949–1989. Esbjerg., Sammenslutningen af Lokalhistoriske arkiver, 1989.

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CO-OPERATION AND CHANGE: ARCHIVES, LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS IN THE UNITED STATES Robert S. Martin, Ph.D. U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Washington DC, USA Abstract The U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent federal agency that serves the primary source of federal grant support for the nation’s museums and libraries. Grant funds provided to libraries through both the state library agency grants and the competitive National Leadership Grants program have strengthened the infrastructure of libraries to provide enhanced access; have encouraged innovation and creativity; and have especially fostered increasing collaborations between and among libraries, museums and other cultural heritage institutions. Digital information technology has dramatically affected the way we now perceive the differences and similarities of such institutions and have blurred the boundaries between them. Some projects funded by IMLS provide illuminating examples of these changes in the landscapes of libraries and museums. The U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent federal agency that provides the primary source of federal grants for the nation’s libraries and museums. IMLS grants to museums and libraries build institutional capacity, support core library and museum services, and encourage excellence. Since its inception, the IMLS has done much to expand the role of libraries as cultural institutions; to encourage the development of cultural partnerships of libraries, especially with museums and archives; to expand the use of library buildings as community cultural centers; and to promote the important role of libraries in changing cultural environments. IMLS was created in 1996 by the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA), which restructured the existing Federal programs for supporting the nation’s museums and libraries. The Act transferred the library programs from the administration of the Department of Education, where they had been since their inception in 1956 with the Library Services Act, and grafted them on to the independent Institute of Museum Services, which itself had begun in 1975 with the Museum Services Act (MSA). The subtitles of the MLSA are the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), and the Museum Services Act (MSA), and they are often cited by those subtitles. 65

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This restructuring resulted from the simple recognition on the part of some members of Congress that museums and libraries share a fundamental mission to support education and learning. Thus the mission of IMLS is to build the institutional capacity of museums and libraries to provide the resources and services that support learners of all ages. In short, IMLS is dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners. Funding for the IMLS in the financial year 2003 totals about $245 million: $181.7 million for library programs, $29 million for museum programs, and about $35 million in directed appropriations. The majority of our funding for libraries is distributed in formula grants to the state library administrative agency in each state. In most states LSTA funds are used in a variety of important ways: supporting resource sharing, providing training and staff development opportunities, and statewide licensing of digital information services. Most of the remainder of the library funding is distributed in a competitive grant program called National Leadership Grants, which fund projects in four broad categories: education and training, research and demonstration, preservation and digitization, and model programs of museum and library collaboration. It is important to note that fostering collaboration between and among libraries and museums is inherent in the IMLS statutory mandate and is reflected in our structure and programs. Although archives are not explicitly mentioned in the IMLS statutes, it is clear that in pursuing our mandate we must perforce include archives in many of our collaborative efforts. This is especially true in the digital arena. The statute explicitly charges IMLS in funding digitization and preservation projects to ‘give priority to projects emphasizing coordination, avoidance of duplication, and access by researchers beyond the institution or library entity undertaking the project’.1 This of necessity requires that we include archives within our funding schemes for digitization projects. Today it is common to consider museums, libraries and archives as very different kinds of institutions. All three may be considered cultural institutions in the broadest sense of the term (in Europe the preferred term in ‘Memory Institutions,’ but this term has not yet taken hold in the United States). All derive their mission from the collections of objects, artifacts and documents that the collect and preserve. But they apparently have different social roles, are managed with very different professional practices, and exhibit different organizational cultures. Upon close examination, however, these differences are revealed to be more apparent than real, and are the result of convention and tradition rather than substantive differences. Historically the distinctions between and among libraries, museums and archives have not always been so sharp and clear. The earliest libraries known to history were in fact archives. What are often called ‘temple libraries’ or ‘palace libraries’ 1

20 USC 9162.

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were in fact collections of texts (usually cuneiform tablets) that documented the official religious activities of the temple or the government transactions of the palace court. Later, collections of other kinds of texts were in fact called ‘museums,’ in that they were buildings dedicated to honoring the muses. The great library of Alexandria, for example, was in fact called the Museon, a temple to the muses. In practice, there was little practical differentiation between library and museum until the early modern period, when the development of typographic printing resulted in a dramatic increase in the volume of texts available, and these were differentiated from the collection of objects, library from museum. The practice of separating official records from other kinds of documents also arose around the same time, developing from the rational bureaucratization of governments. The point is simply that the distinction between library and museum and archives that we now accept as common is really a matter of convention, a convention that has evolved over time. That convention is predicated on a perception that libraries and museums collect very different kinds of things. In fact, however, from one perspective or frame of reference – one school of thought – libraries, museums and archives all collect precisely the same things. They all collect documents. As David M. Levy has pointed out in his recent book Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age, our traditional notion of a ‘document’ is bound up with writing and paper. But now in the digital environment we are using the word ‘document’ to refer to all kinds of other things, like text files, audio files, image files, even multimedia presentations and Web pages. The old concept of a document no longer makes sense.2 Levy draws on the formative work of Paul Otlet, one of the founders of the documentalist school of thought. In 1934, Otlet offered a definition of the idea of a document to include natural objects, artifacts, objects such as models, and works of art, as well as the conventional notion of document as text. The term ‘document’ was used as a generic term to denote ‘informative things.’ In 1951, Suzzane Briet further extended the definition of document to be ‘any physical or symbolic sign, preserved or recorded, intended to represent, to reconstruct, or to demonstrate a physical or conceptual phenomenon.’ Briet even asserted that an antelope could be construed as a document. An antelope in the wild was not a document; but once it had been captured and placed in a zoo, it became a document because it then became evidence of a phenomenon.3 Drawing on the work of Otlet and Briet, as well as Michael Buckland, Levy asserts that we need to redefine our notion of what documents are, and he then offers a 2

3

David M. Levy. Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (New York: Arcade, 2001). Suzanne Briet. Qu'est-ce que la documentation? See Ronald E. Day and Laurent Matinet’s commentary and translation at www.lisp.wayne.edu/~ai2398/briet.htm

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simple but profound definition. ‘They are, quite simply, talking things. They are bits of the material world – clay, stone, animal skin, plant fiber, sand – that we’ve imbued with the ability to speak.’4 When viewed from this perspective, in the digital world, the boundaries between museum, library and archive disappear. In the past two decades, libraries, museums and archives alike have begun to use digital information technology as a valuable tool to carry out the central work that each does. The most dramatic use of this technology, beginning almost forty years ago, has been to centralize some of the work that libraries do in organizing their collections, and simultaneously enhancing dramatically access to information about those collections. The work of bibliographic utilities transformed not only the process of cataloging library collections, but also access to bibliographic information. More recently, digital technology has enabled the creation of large-scale digital surrogate collections, which has again dramatically enhanced knowledge about, and access to, library collections. This has had an especially noteworthy effect on access to unique materials held in rare book, manuscript and special collections. Archives have also adopted digital information technology. In recent years, with the advent of the MARC AMC format for cataloging archival materials, bibliographic information about archival materials has been significantly increased. Recent development of the Encoded Archival Description standard for archival finding aids has ushered in a new era of access to information about archival materials. And archives have joined libraries in creating digital surrogates of some of the most important and/or popularly used records series. Museums have been slower to adopt new technology, but they too have recently joined the procession. Museum information systems are now used to register and track collections. And museums too are now creating not only online exhibitions, but in fact digital representations of their collections, including even three dimensional objects. With this increasing development of digital surrogate collections accessible through the World Wide Web, a transformation in the use of materials from library, archival and museum collections has occurred. People who formerly used such materials on-site in the respective institutions are now frequently (if not exclusively) consulting them online. Even more important, large numbers of individuals who heretofore made little or no use of these materials – who perhaps were even unaware of their existence – are now frequent users of the digital collections. And these new users do not care, and may not even be aware, whether the original materials are in a library or a museum.5 The boundaries between libraries, museums and archives are blurring. 4 5

David M. Levy. Ibid p. 23. For another more extensive view of the relationship between museums and libraries in the digital age, see: W. Boyd Rayward. Electronic Information and the Functional Integration of Libraies, Museums and Archives in: Edward Higgs, ed., History and Electronic Artefacts. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 207-224 (available at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~wrayward/museumslibs.html).

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When we move from the physical to the digital world, the distinctions between text and image, object and artifact appear to diminish. In the digital world, all of the objects that we can access via the Web have been imbued with the ability to speak. Whether the object in question is a text file, an audio file, an image file, or a web page all have the ability to speak. They all carry a message of some significance. In converting them from physical to digital form, we have expressly delegated to them the ability to speak. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that, in the digital environment, the distinctions between libraries, museums and archives that we take for granted are in fact artificial. These distinctions are not conceptual; they are conventional. If our distinctions between library and museum are based on the nature of the materials they collect, if that nature is not as different as we may have supposed, then the distinctions blur. And if the nature of those collections is transubstantiated in the digital environment, then the distinctions cease to have meaning at all. IMLS sponsors an annual conference called WebWise that focuses on digital library and museum projects, many of them funded by IMLS.6 At these conferences we have heard consistent reports indicating that in the digital environment, libraries are beginning to behave more like museums and museums are behaving more like archives. In the traditional non-digital environment, libraries organize their collections and present them for use in response to a users specific need or inquiry. A user comes into the library and asks ‘what do you have on German impressionists,’ or ‘Native American ritual objects,’ or ‘Paleolithic protozoa.’ Conversely, museums traditionally organize selections from their collections in topical or thematic interpretive and didactic exercises we call exhibitions. (Some museum professionals call them ‘voluntary learning environments.’) A user comes into the museum and looks at what the museum staff has selected, presented and interpreted. A museum-goer would not normally come into the museum and say ‘show me all of your paintings by German impressionists,’ or ‘show me all your Native American ritual objects,’ or ‘show me all your Paleolithic protozoa.’ In the digital environment, these behaviors are almost precisely reversed. Museums for the first time can present their entire collection, catalogued and surrounded with metadata, retrievable in response to a users specific interest or inquiry. And libraries have begun to organize selected items from their collections in thematic presentations that tell a particular story, and even call these presentations exhibitions. This blurring of boundaries between cultural heritage institutions provides a useful environment for exploring collaborative endeavors. At IMLS we believe that 6

For links to information about these conferences see: www.imls.gov/pubs/conferences.htm The proceedings of the conferences have been published in First Monday firstmonday.org/

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collaboration is emerging as the strategy of the 21st century. It is aligned with how we are thinking about our communities as ‘holistic’ environments, as social ecosystems in which we are part of an integrated whole. The kind of collaboration we wish to encourage is not a joined-at-the-hip symbiosis, and it certainly is not a parasitic relationship. Instead it is a mature and reflective recognition of intersecting nodes of interest, activity and mission. It is the potential for creating synergy out of cooperation, building a structure in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. At its best, collaboration results in a new, compelling energy entering the life of an institution, creating temporary experiences that inspire permanent change. Librarians have a consistent history of collaboration. Sharing resources is fundamental to the practice of the profession. Indeed, the concept of sharing underlies the very foundation of the modern library as a social agency. Libraries were established in order to pool scarce resources for the common good. The society libraries of the American Colonial period arose from the simple fact that books were too scarce – and too expensive – for any one individual to be able to acquire access to all they needed, so readers brought their individual collections together to share them in common. This ethic of sharing has remained strong in the practice of American librarianship ever since. The museum and archives communities do not share the same tradition of interinstitutional collaboration and co-operation. Although museums often share their collections for exhibitions, educational programming and research, they have not found the imperative for collaboration as persuasive as libraries. Until very recently, archives have typically been even less likely to value such activities. Collaboration between and among libraries, museums and archives, therefore, is not easy. It requires that we – as individuals and as institutions behave in ways that are not ‘normal’, that feel unnatural. One definition of collaboration that I have recently heard offered is that collaboration is ‘an unnatural act, practised by nonconsenting adults.’7 The dictionary, in fact, offers the following as one definition: ‘cooperating treasonably, as with an enemy occupying one’s country.’ This notion may be at the heart of some of the difficulties that we encounter in attempting to collaborate. A better definition for our purposes is ‘working together in a joint effort.’ Differences among institutions, however, can be profound. The assets and personnel, academic preparation of professionals, even the very vocabulary we use to describe operations, can be dramatically different. The characteristics and proximity to the communities served can vary widely. Values and assumptions of mission and service can be different. In short, the cultures of organizations can differ dramatically. These differences are challenging and they do not go away. It is imperative that these differences be 7

Max Evans. Oral presentation at the 2002 Web Wise Conference, Johns Hopkins University, March 21, 2002.

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recognized forthrightly. Over time, they can evolve into sources of synergy rather than contention. One goal of successful collaboration is assurance that the integrity of each institution is sustained by the partnership. IMLS has provided a strong incentive to overcome these barriers and develop the potential of collaborative efforts. As Nancy Allen and Liz Bishoff observe in a recent publication, ‘Through IMLS funding, a growing number of academic libraries are partnering with museums, historical societies, and other scientific and cultural heritage organizations. The IMLS presented these communities with financial incentives to develop joint projects and to work together to create new approaches to meet the common goals and purposes of creating better and more accessible collections that meet the needs of a knowledge society.’8 There are numerous examples of such projects, funded directly by IMLS, and indirectly by state library administrative agencies using LSTA funds. A few examples will suffice to give an indication of the scope and range of these projects, in terms of the size and diversity of the institutions involved, the types of materials included in the projects, and the value-added matrix in which they are embedded. Examples of IMLS-funded Collaborative Projects: Connected by a River: A Collaboration of Museums, Libraries, and Schools to Create Community Based Learning Spaces The Connected by a River project brings together museums, libraries and schools in northeastern Iowa to create materials dealing with the common geographic feature that passes through the involved communities: the Mississippi River. The partners include the Putnam Museum / Nahant Marsh Educational Center, Advanced Technology Environmental Education Library (ATEEL) of Scott Community College, participating K-12 libraries, Davenport Public Library, ten K-12 schools, the Area Education Agency, River Action, Inc., and the National Science Foundation funded Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center (ATEEC). These institutions organized a Project Advisory Team, composed of museum professional, librarian, educator, instructional designer, information technology expert, and environmental content specialist. This team brought the institutional commitment and expertise required to ensure project success. The team developed five learning modules for use in the local K-12 schools. The 8

Nancy Allen and Liz Bishoff. Collaborative Digitization: Libraries and Museums Working Together, in: Advances in Librarianship 26 (2002): 57.

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common theme of these modules was the environment of the Mississippi River, and focused on the following topics: • Life forms and habitat on the River • The role of Wetlands in cleansing the River • Pollution sources and their effects on the River • The impact of man-made structures on the River (ie. locks and dams, flood walls) • A case study of the creation, destruction, and eventual restoration of the Nahan Marsh The project team worked with area K-12 teachers to develop learning objectives, and then curricular materials and lesson plans to achieve those goals. Five packaged ‘turnkey’ learning modules were developed and formatted for web-based or CDROM delivery. These modules were flexible in design to enable ready integration into existing courses, and include pre- and post-sample tests, teacher resources, student resources containing learning content, listing of enhancement resources available through the library, and inquiry-based projects to be completed either online, at the museum, or in the community. The learning modules present a visually rich, fast paced, high tempo educational experience. The learning experience incorporates video conferencing, simulations, and video streaming. Ten classrooms were selected as testbed sites for this project. Each of the five modules was pilot tested by a minimum of two testbed sites. The classroom instructors at these sites were part of the project team and provided detailed feedback to the module design team on their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the learning module. The learning modules will be revised based upon the feedback from the testbed sites. An on-line teacher and student evaluation/feedback system is incorporated into the design of the learning site. This provides for an on-going evaluation and assessment of the utilization and effectiveness of the learning modules. The project incorporates an applied research design that will provide evidence of the success of the model. Worklore: Brooklyn Voices Speak This is a three-year collaborative project between the Brooklyn Public Library and the Brooklyn Historical Society. It will explore the subject of working in Brooklyn as experienced by eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century Brooklyn residents. The project will generate an interactive, travelling exhibition drawn from the collec72

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tions of both institutions will focus on four themes: Newcomers: Immigrant Workforces; African-Americans at work in Brooklyn; Women at Work; and Unemployment: Confronting Job Displacement. This collaborative project of Brooklyn Public Library’s Willendorf Division and the Brooklyn Historical Society will offer free public programs and lectures; curriculum guides for fourth, seventh eighth and eleventh grade classrooms; marketing and outreach materials; and a Worklore web site to provide online access to exhibition texts, images, educational materials and lectures, as well as historic narratives and contemporary oral histories. The four-part exhibition will be launched on May 1, 2003, and will be seen in its entirety at the Central Library and the Business Library. The exhibition will then travel in sections to 16 branch libraries over an eighteen month period, where additional neighborhood-specific materials gleaned from Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection will enrich the experience, to help library patrons make connections between the exhibition themes and the rich histories of their local neighborhoods. More than 100,000 citizens are expected to see the exhibition and participate in the programs. The teacher section of the web site – which will also launch on May 1, 2003 – will focus on broad themes related to New York State’s history standards (such as industrialization, immigration, the great migration, the depression, suburbanization, and the global economy) and will provide links to the treatment of these themes in the Worklore exhibition. It will also provide teachers with primary sources through which each of these themes can be explored, together with questions and guidelines on how to use these sources effectively with students. The supplementary resources section of the web site will offer a bibliography and a directory of related web sites. Also featured will be an interactive computer game, ‘Can You Make Ends Meet in Brooklyn in the Early 1990s?’ This game allows web visitors to make choices about the types of work they might choose, and the consequences such choices might have in terms of their personal economy. Connecticut History Online Connecticut History Online (CHO) is a collaboration between three institutions: Connecticut Historical Society, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea. The Connecticut Historical Society holds 239,000 photographs, prints, and drawings depicting Connecticut people, places and events. The Dodd Research Center holds more than one million photographs, with special strength in the areas of Connecticut businesses, towns, railroads, nursing, and education. Mystic Seaport houses the world's largest collection of maritime photography, numbering more than one million images. Connecticut History Online draws from the rich reservoir of these three collections. 73

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Connecticut History Online is the largest collection of Connecticut historical images on the Web, offering about 14,000 photographs, drawings and prints depicting the social, educational, political, civic and cultural life of Connecticut from 1800 to 1950. It serves as a resource database for teachers and students in grades 7–12 and will encourage them to make meaningful use of primary material. Connecticut History Online is intended primarily as a classroom resource, and most training for students will be provided by their teachers in the classroom. Students have access to the lesson plans, manuals, and search tips that will help them develop research skills. While ideally suited to supporting a historical narrative, Connecticut History Online does not supply that narrative. Rather it affords access to the raw material for constructing a synthesis and/or supporting one that may come from a textbook, classroom or other source. In addition, as an online repository of historical visual material related specifically to Connecticut, Connecticut History Online can extend and deepen understanding of the past and put a personal and local face on events, trends, and topics. The materials available in Connecticut History Online are surrounded by a rich matrix of interpretive and didactic materials that add immeasurably to the images themselves. There are three basic ways to approach the materials in Connecticut History Online: Search, Journeys, and Classroom. In the search mode, access to the images is enhanced by a powerful search engine that peruses the rich database of metadata for each image and retrieves those relevant to a specific inquiry. A browse function allows the user to examine images by subject, title, and creator. A geographic locator provides access through a clickable map of the state, retrieving images relevant to specific geographic locations and sites. The Journeys introduce the user to specific collection highlights, leading them through images related to a specific topic, and providing guideposts that lead to further exploration of the subject. The Classroom mode provides suggestions and interpretive materials suitable for using Connecticut History Online in middle school and high school classrooms. The Michigan eLibrary The Michigan eLibrary (MeL) is a user-friendly, 24-hour-a-day accessible, core set of information resources provided through the Library of Michigan, the state library administrative agency for Michigan. Available to Michigan residents everywhere in the state, the service has taken on the popular name of its acronym, ‘MeL.’ It is often cited as a ‘major, anytime, anywhere information gateway to selected Internet resources, hundreds of full-text journals and newspapers, and over 100,000 electronic books.’ The phrase ‘anywhere, anytime’ took on new meaning in 2002 when Michigan residents were offered the option of accessing MeL databases from home 74

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or work by simply entering their driver’s license or state identification number. The virtual library includes the following segments: • MeL Internet: ‘Best of the Internet’ selected by librarians. • Mel Electronic Books and Magazines: Commercial resources, such as subscriptions to FirstSearch and Gale databases. Using funds distributed by the U.S. Department of Education, the LearnATest library (a leading source of test preparation materials and interactive practice exams) was added to MeL. • MeL Lending Library: Books and other resources from Michigan libraries to Michigan residents. • MeL Archives: Local Michigan Resources digitized and made available on the web. Significant portions of MeL have been funded with the state’s LSTA grant, but funds from other sources, including state appropriations, have also paid for significant shares of the MeL expenditures. Specifically, LSTA funds are used for the statewide subscriptions to OCLC FirstSearch and Gale databases. The Library of Michigan is working on making the virtual library a one stop portal that will allow users to search any or all of these components and retrieve materials regardless of where the information resides. In short, the Michigan eLibrary is an excellent example of how states use the annual grants to the state library administrative agencies to foster development of collaborative approaches to serving the needs of their users. Another excellent example is the Colorado Digitization Program (now the Colorado Digitization Alliance). Much has been reported on this extremely successful statewide collaborative project to digitize unique resources held in a wide range of libraries (both academic and public), archives, museums and local historical societies.9 This project was initiated with a LSTA subgrant from the Colorado State Library, and subsequently funded with a National Leadership Grant from IMLS in the Digitization or Preservation category.

9

See: Allen and Bischoff. Collaborative Digitization (2002) Nancy Allen. Collaboration Through the Colorado Digitization Project in: First Monday 5 (2000): 6 firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_6/allen/index. html Liz Bishoff. Interoperability and Standards in a Museum/Library Collaborative: The Colorado Digitization Project in: First Monday 5 (2000): 6 firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_6/bishoff/index.html Please note: The Collaborative Digitisation Program web site provides extensive information. see: www.cdpheritage.org/

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Conclusion The Institute of Museum and Library Services has played a significant role in the United States in fostering collaboration between museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions. Although such collaboration spans the field of endeavor, including traditional educational programming and outreach activities, it has been most obvious – and perhaps most significant – in the digital arena. IMLS is very proud of the work that we have done in expanding the resources available to the publics that we serve through these collaborative digital projects. These activities have done much to expand the role of libraries as cultural institutions; to network cultural partnerships, especially with museums and archives; to expand the use of library buildings as community cultural centers; and to promote the important role of libraries in changing cultural environments.

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IF WE CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU Elizabeth Anne Melrose North Yorkshire Libraries and Information Services North Yorkshire, England Abstract There are many well-funded national schemes that involve cross-domain partnerships, linking archives, libraries and museums, such as SCRAN in Scotland and NEWSPLAN 2000. Our Unnetie Project is a much smaller digitisation project. We started with very little experience of collaboration with partners, less funding and originally no idea of the process. Helped by the New Opportunities Fund and Resource, our Library Service is working with a County Record Office, a Museum and a local history society to digitise the little-known archive of a local photographer to provide a searchable website of images alongside several storylines illustrating life in the region. The project team has been supported by these partners, overcoming our lack of knowledge and various obstacles, such as the lack of commitment on the part of the IT developers. The benefits of working with our colleagues were immeasurable and the relationships that have been built up will continue. Our experience shows that what is needed is enthusiasm, energy, perseverance and the will to talk to associates in the same field. At the end of the year 2002 I was working from my parents’ home on my father’s computer. On Christmas Eve my Project Officer, also on leave, was doing the same. We had a deadline for our Unnetie Digitisation Project. This small project involved the County Libraries Service, our County Record Office, a large museum run by the National Parks and a local history society. The weakest link was our County Council IT Services Unit who were contracted to develop the front end of the project and to satisfy the requirements of our funders that there should be a live website up and running by the last day of December. Our web-developer had not structured the fact that we might be on Christmas holidays into his planning. However after badgering and encouraging emails, the IT Services Unit did complete enough web content to satisfy the requirements of the New Opportunities Fund. We hit the deadline…. We had a web presence! The resultant website was not perfect, but it was a beginning. It has been said that our project, the Unnetie Digitisation Project, began four years ago with an idea which started with obstacles, moved on through insurmount77

Elizabeth Anne Melrose

able obstacles, and became opportunities, which have now transformed themselves into insurmountable opportunities … But it is an interesting project, one of a few innovative and collaborative ventures. It has taken our County from nowhere in the field of electronic services to learning so much. All the vicissitudes and the celebrations of putting the project together, bidding for the funding, appointing the project team and continuing with even more challenges have been worth it. We have been included in the community of local history specialists, using the new technology of the internet to display our heritage and historic traditions for the benefit of the public. It has forced us, as a Library service, to co-operate with partners, both inside and outside the library sphere in a way that we had not done before. It has forced our Communications Unit into considering electronic practice, revising their projections and bringing forward a programme for a county-wide content management system by a couple of years. National schemes In developed countries, there are many national schemes that involve cross-domain partnerships, linking archives, libraries, and museums. Many of these are well funded and have the authority and the capacity of the national organisations backing them as well as trained and experienced staff. SCRAN: the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network in Scotland1 was a Millennium Project launched by the Scottish Office Minister for Arts and Cultural Heritage in 1997. Starting with a massive start-up fund of £15 million, SCRAN was set up to build on the collections held by libraries, archives and museums in Scotland. By giving grants to these bodies to digitise their collections, SCRAN has given access to over one million digitised records, while employing the highest standards of preservation and working towards the sustainability of the project for the future. Access is its main aim. This is a multi-media educational resource on Scottish history and culture, which is now available for any educational institution that belongs to the SCRAN organisation. Teachers, librarians and students associated with SCRAN can download and use illustrations, movies and sound clips from the site, all copyright cleared, along with resource packs, topic banks and virtual reality files. One of the UK national newspapers, the Guardian, described SCRAN as ’An ongoing feast of Scottish history & culture’.2 The site was shortlisted for a prestigious Website Award 2002, open to sites achieving real quality in developing online educational resources.3

1 2 3

www.scran.ac.uk/ [2007]. www.learn.co.uk/guardianarchive/webguides/history.htm [no date]. www.scottishmuseums.org.uk/information_services/tak_tent/2002/05-3.asp#14 2002.

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NEWSPLAN4 is another extensive British collaborative programme. In 1983 after a report of the Working Party on Access to Newspapers, the British Library established a Consultative Group on Newspapers. A report on those local newspapers held by the South-West region of the country was supported and published in 1986. This led to representatives from public libraries, the British Library Newspaper Library and the national libraries of Scotland, Wales and Ireland meeting together in ten regional committees to focus on the country’s historic local newspapers of the last 250 years. Many volumes of the local press were discovered in unsuitable storage conditions, in publishers’ attics, in basements and in one case propped up in the Gents’ toilet. Others had found their way into Record Offices and museums. Staff at all these resource centres worked together to list the editions and to take part in the co-ordinated NEWSPLAN microfilming and conservation programmes. Archival standards were established and easier public access to the newspaper content on microfilm has been encouraged. Through the efforts of NEWSPLAN committees, several of the regional newspaper catalogues have been placed on the internet. This collaboration between Archives, museums and libraries over what is a prime historical resource for local historians was further advanced by a successful £5 million Heritage Lottery Fund award for the Local Newspapers in Peril initiative. Over a three year period it is hoped to save 1,700 rare or fragile newspaper titles dating from 1800 to 1950 and held in libraries and archives, universities and publishers' offices throughout the United Kingdom. The regional NEWSPLAN committee members have also been listing not only their own titles in this category but deciding which titles of those stored as copyright at the British Library would benefit their readers. These are all massive collaborative UK projects, and there are many similar in the developed countries. Picture Australia is a national cross-sectoral collaboration of twenty-two cultural agencies that from one portal gives the internet user free access to the online digital images in the collections of the participating agencies. Information is shared across the network and the partners reach a wider public than they might otherwise do.5 But all these projects began with a simple idea. And part of that idea was that cooperation between local history resource centres must be useful. Most enterprising people introduce this germ of an idea and they continue and progress this with enthusiasm, starting simply, learning as they go along, being persistent. And not taking no for an answer.

4 5

www.bl.uk/concord/linc/newsplan.html 2006. www.pictureaustralia.org/ 2006.

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Hackney Archives In London, the Hackney Borough Archivist collaborated with an information management consultancy, and with the National Trust who owned a nearby property with an attached education centre, Sutton House. The result was Hackney on Disk, a visual database that brought together digitised illustrations, drawings and paintings linked to historic Ordnance Survey maps of the borough around Sutton House. A search facility used key-words to identify appropriate images and there was a single front end with a split screen facility. Funding came from several sources including the banking firm Save and Prosper, British Library and the Heritage Lottery Funding for Small Projects.6 This was exciting and innovative in 1998 and Hackney was thought to be ‘the first record office and local studies library in Europe to offer this new way of researching local history’.7 Here again a vision had been progressed through tenacity and collaboration. Recently Hackney has expanded the concept with Tudor Hackney, by collaborating with a touring theatre group presenting drama to schools and community centres, and by developing a website,8 demonstrating a virtual reality reconstruction of a Tudor building in the parish, Hackney Rectory. Audio-visual web pages on the same website will also investigate events in Hackney at the beginning of the seventeenth century, referring to William Shakespeare who was writing and performing in plays at the theatre in Shoreditch in 1601, and to the death in 1625 of Antony, 'a poore old negro', Hackney's first recorded black person.9

6 7

8 9

South Western News. August 1998 (1999) www.la-hq.org.uk/branches/sw_old/sw45_8.html Press release : London Borough of Hackney 156.61.16.5/pressrelease/prmarch98/pr102.htm 1998 [no longer active]. now hosted on www.learningcurve.gov.uk/tudorhackney/default.asp [2006]. LMAL: London’s Museums Archives & Libraries The Sector Section, 2002. lmal.org.uk/sector/ index.cfm?ArticleID=67&NavigationID=148

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The North Yorkshire Unnetie Digitisation Project

Unnetie Digital Archive. Home Page www.northyorks.gov.uk/unnetie Libraries, archives and museums cannot deliver new, exciting services in the local history field alone. Co-operation between professionals working in the same field broadens the scope of any accomplished work and gives each institution much needed support. Our own UK North Yorkshire Digitisation Project, the Unnetie Project, is a prime example of a small project. Under the banner of the New Opportunities Fund and Resource, it brought together partners from the Library Service, the County Record Office, the Dales Countryside Museum and a local history society. We shared our knowledge and used our skills to digitise the little-known archive of a local photographer, Bertram Unné (1913 – 1981) and to provide packages of digital educational material relating to the history and culture of the County.10 Bertram Unné came of a Swedish family, but his father was a medical masseur practising in North Yorkshire. Unné established himself in his home-town of Harrogate and was active as a photographer from around 1940. He was an outstanding photographer, one of the best ever connected with Yorkshire. Employed by the local 10

www.northyorks.gov.uk/unnetie 2003.

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Borough Council and other firms and country estates such as Castle Howard to undertake photographic work, his illustrations were published in newspapers and local journals. He specialised in people and scenes of the Three Ridings, documenting folk activities and the landscapes of farming and coastal communities. In particular he recorded the way of life in the Dales and the Yorkshire countryside between 1940 and 1979 – thus within living memory, and this is one of the delights of the collection. In 1979, Unné sold the photographic negatives and prints, mostly negatives, to North Yorkshire County Council for £5,000. This was a rare slice of local history and the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library recognised its value by contributing over half the purchase price. However since then it became increasingly apparent that this was a static collection. A rudimentary index did indicate the subject themes, but there are at least 19,000 images in boxes and envelopes and the storage conditions were deteriorating. Access was only by appointment, and the collection became a ‘hidden treasure’, known only to serious researchers. When I first came to oversee the collection at a time when the only library PC happened to be the one in my office, I had ideas of publishing a book of Unné illustrations. This came to nothing due to staff commitments. The chance of the New Opportunities Fund Digitisation programme seemed like a prospect that we had to grasp. This was in 1999. As a Library Service we had little experience of writing funding bids and our background of internet and digitisation practice was sketchy to say the least. There had been sporadic contact between the Library Service and the County Record Office, the Dales Countryside Museum and the local history society in the past. I had participated in Local History days, prepared educational material, given talks and organised exhibitions with all individually, but this was to be the first time that all four units would work consistently on any joint programme. At the start the idea that we could accomplish anything at all was greeted with some scepticism, so I will be forever grateful to my colleague at the Museum who, when I put the proposal of co-operation to her, immediately said, ‘Why not? Let’s try!’ The New Opportunities Fund (NOF)11 supported by Resource (the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the strategic national body advocating partnership between museums, archives and libraries)12, is a distributor of National Lottery money. NOF awards grants to education, health and environment projects throughout the UK. The digitisation programme was one of the strands applicable to organisations like galleries, libraries, museums and universities which held material that would excite and benefit the public through being digitised and placed on the internet. Expressions of interest were requested. I began to consider the application form, 11 12

www.nof-digitise.org/ [no date]. www.resource.gov.uk/ 2002/2003. now www.mla.gov.uk/webdav/harmonise?Page/@id=90 2006.

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and wondered how I could prove that a project, designed simply to open up an almost forgotten collection to local historians, would demonstrate ‘cultural enrichment’, ‘aspects of identity’ and ‘life-long learning’. There were a lot of late nights learning about budget control and database software.

Unnetie Digital Archive. Screenshot from the Website. Robin Hoods Bay Our project relies on the digitisation of 7,500 of the Unné negatives, but also the addition of engravings, postcards, lantern-slides and prints from collections held by two of our other main libraries. This latter is to ensure that there will be interest from staff in all our libraries, spread as these are over the largest of England’s counties. In any case these earlier nineteenth century illustrations from established local studies collections complement the more modern Unné photographs allowing us to create uncomplicated educational storylines on the themes of work and leisure in Yorkshire communities. The Archives and the Dales Countryside Museum will contribute digitised images of manuscripts and artefacts relating to the storylines and the oral history section of the local history society will provide audioclips commenting on the storyline images. I would like to say that we went from strength to strength, and in a way we did. But it has been an interesting journey. A very steep learning curve for an organisation who are still awaiting the delivery of an ICT content management system and 83

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whose IT department has been desperately challenged by our plans and under constant pressure. Our first set of bid-forms passed the requisite tests and the New Opportunities Fund placed our proposals into a regional Consortia of four similar projects, thus providing our team with further much-needed advice and collaboration, since each of the four library authorities had strengths in different areas. The modest size of the Unnetie Project allowed the disparate members of staff to support each other, and I was especially grateful for the assistance of our experienced Consortium leader who, just before we submitted the second set of applications, gave me a lengthy tutorial on how to endure while setting out Risk Logs and gathering auxiliary statistics from customer questionnaires. As we had anticipated, hardly any member of the public that we approached knew about the illustration collections. However articles were placed in the local press and on local radio and a calendar that we produced as a promotional aid at the end of 2001 created much interest, both at home and in other parts of the country. We had expected interest in Unné landscapes but I had not realised that there are general collectors of historic farming scenes. We were even asked to supply photographic reproductions to be framed as a gift for Prince Charles – just before the report into the sale of gifts from the Royal Household. There were times when I felt that the representatives of the Archives and the Museum Service were more helpful than the County Council Unné Project Executive Group, set up to oversee the running of the bid. The weakest link has been the background ICT. Our project has brought forward the County’s ICT strategy by two years, because we need the content management system to give us a search facility on the illustrations database. I am considered to be ‘difficult’ but this is only because website deadlines are rarely met and there is little consultation given – which means that the Project team have to ask for basic alterations to the website that should have been caught before the pages went live. By dint of some coercion, we persuaded the web-developer to ensure that the website hosted some static storylines in time to be included on the UKEnrich NOF-digitisation portal just before its launch in March 2003.13 Unexpected difficulties have emerged, as they always do. The Digitisation Agent charged us too much for a batch of work. He also mislaid several negatives, both unintentional mistakes, easily rectified. The staff recruited to the Project suddenly had to encourage the scrupulous librarian indexing the Scarborough illustrations in the middle of a total library re-furbishment – he eventually took boxes of photographs home with him and recruited three keen colleagues to assist him – and we upset another staff member by inadvertently omitting her photograph from the website. Through all the insurmountable opportunities we have been able, with the help of our network, to take advantage of the funding and to work towards overcoming our 13

www.enrichuk.net 2003.

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chronic lack of knowledge of process, our inexperience of collaboration with partners, our lack of funding, and, originally, the lack of interest on the part of our ICT developers. It is a small project, but we could not have done it alone. The benefits of working together were immeasurable and the relationships that have been built up will continue, past the completion of the present schedule. I will miss the meetings in the basement Project Office when it is all over and I may have to concoct another collaborative project in order to maintain the links. We learned the very important lesson that we had to have all our partners on board from the very beginning, that we had to persuade colleagues in our IT Services department time and time again of our integrity and good intentions. We had to cope with a long-running library staff re-structure which occupied my energy as I was obliged to go through an application and interview process for a new post. We had to be so patient. We were one of 150 organisations across the UK to be awarded a digitisation grant in 2001, but my experience has taught us that what is even more important for any project of this kind is enthusiasm, energy, perseverance and the will to talk to colleagues in the same field. It can be done. From an original idea to a useful outcome starts with the first step and collaboration makes even a simple project easier.

Unnetie Digital Archive. Screenshot from the Website. Mr Stubbs, Publican, Grassington 85

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In the Santa Clara Valley of the United States, a network of archivists and librarians from the local universities, education departments, libraries, museums, and archive centres has gathered together short descriptions and contact details on The Silicon Valley Local History Resources and placed these on the web.14 Within the Norwegian Netting Local History project, librarians and archivists from Sogndal Public Library, the County Archives of Sogn and Fjordane and the Heiberg Collections to provide an information and enquiry website on local history, Lokalhistorisk Spørjevev – Ask the Web about local history.15 And in Hungary one enthusiastic librarian has just gone out with a digital camera and created a ‘then and now’ website with his local studies department. He is now talking about his strategy, saying, like us, ‘If we can do it, so can you.’ NOTE This paper was written in 2003. All the websites featured were active in March 2003. Websites are notoriously volatile. Since then some can no longer be found and some sites have been updated along with their web addresses. Where possible I have indicated the most recent address. Screenshots are published by permission of the Unnetie Digital Archive: www. northyorks.gov.uk/unnetie

14 15

www.sjsu.edu/~jwhitlat/svlh.htm 2003. sporjevev.sffarkiv.no/sporjevev.asp?p=framside [no date].

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LIBRARY INNOVATION IS HARD WORK: LESSONS FROM A NORWEGIAN CASE STUDY Bozena Rasmussen Gjerdrum Public Library, Norway and Tord Høivik Oslo University College, Norway Abstract In Norway, as in many other countries, cultural policies are undergoing deep change. Libraries, archives and museums used to be managed by different public bodies. From January 1, 2003 they are supervised by a single organisation. In the future, the three cultural sectors will be expected to co-ordinate and integrate their activities. Gjerdrum is a small rural community, with about five thousand inhabitants, 20 miles north of Oslo. Its public library was one of the first institutions to act on the new policy. When the library was offered a site in a new Centre of Culture, we designed the new quarters as a combined library, museum and local archive. The head of the library is an experienced project worker, with international experience as a change agent. The project was carried through and the redesigned library opened in 2002. But developing and realizing a new vision of what a local library could be was not easy. Building new projects at the grassroots level takes strategic planning, systematic network building, political vigilance and a great deal of hard work. The paper presents the main stages of the process, from vision to establishhed fact, as a case study in innovation – and analyses the lessons learnt. Hopefully, other libraries can benefit from our experiences and our conclusions.

Green fields A month before Christmas 2001, Gjerdrum public library closed. On April 2, after four months of travail, it reopened. The old library had shared a bleak utilitarian building with a repair shop for agricultural machinery. The new library is part of a cultural complex. The building contains a large auditorium for performances, several meeting rooms, space for exhibitions, and a cafeteria with catering facilities. And the new library offers more than books. On a small scale, we are also the local archive and museum. 87

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For a place this close to the capital, Gjerdrum is surprisingly rural. Rich farm land and low forested hills dominate the landscape. Norwegian farmers like space. They do not congregate in villages like French and German peasants. They prefer to settle on their own land, with a comfortable distance to the next dwelling. Neighbours should be seen, but not heard. Here we live in a green world. Fifty yards from the library windows cattle graze and horses stare at you. The municipal centre – aptly called Ask – has only a few hundred inhabitants. A generation ago, it was hardly more than a crossroad in the middle of green fields. Now it has a dozen shops, a couple of schools, a small hotel, the main municipal offices, a health care centre and a sports complex. But the grass remains. The municipality used to be an agricultural enclave, a bit remote from modern, post-war, industrial Norway. But the balance between tradition and modernity is shifting. Gjerdrum lies on the axis between Oslo city and the new Oslo airport. The total population is increasing rapidly. Young professionals are moving in. But if you pass through by car, you hardly see them. Farmers have governed this piece of Norway for generations. They refuse to waste fertile land on housing projects. The new residential zones lie in the hills – or on occasional pockets of clay and barren soil. Along the hillsides, hidden by trees, a dense network of small roads connect hundreds and hundreds of well-built modern houses. The new families are young, highly educated and upwardly mobile. The adults often work outside the municipality – in Oslo to the south or in the airport area to the north. Gjerdrum is no longer provincial. It, however, remains green, peaceful and unspoiled. The people that move in prefer it that way. At home in Gjerdrum, they demand efficient public services. They are eager consumers of cultural goods – and eager producers of culture, as well. The number of voluntary organisations in Gjerdrum – and in most Norwegian municipalities – is overwhelming. We can choose between 55 voluntary organizations, if we include political parties. Civic society booms. The Centre of Culture seems to offer a new local performance every week. The afternoons are busy with rehearsals. Our nextdoor neighbours can definitely be heard as well as seen. We have singers and dancers and big-band jazz. We enjoy the tutus and the trumpets. We have actors and painters and poets galore. Finally we are surrounded by a cultural space. Culture and identity When I was offered the position as head of the library in February 1999, the institution had been neglected for many years. The library was one of the very few places in Norway that still worked with a traditional card catalogue. The average public library has four employees for every 10,000 inhabitants. Before I was recruited, the municipality of Gjerdrum had only one person – working three days a week. This 88

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was less than a third of the national average. And it was hardly 20% of the official staffing norm. But winds of change were blowing. In 1998, Oslo International Airport was relocated. From a place 5 miles west of Oslo it moved to a former military airport 30 miles north of Oslo – just 12 miles north of Gjerdrum. The whole region is expanding. Quiet Gjerdrum is next in line. Over the next decade, our population growth is expected to be the fastest in Norway. The capital and its airport are powerful engines of growth. The danger to Gjerdrum, and other communities in the middle, is suburban decay. When people move in without putting down roots, a place is drained of its culture. Commuters drag their bodies home, but their minds stay elsewhere. Our local politicians struggle with this dilemma. There is no way back to the traditional farming community. The world knocks hard at our door. But economic growth is not the same as cultural growth. People who care want a community with its own history and traditions, its own social identity and life. Old Gjerdrum was not a backwater, but heir to a deep and rich peasant culture. To survive as a cultural community, the new must be grafted onto the old. But the traffic must go both ways. Sorry, Mr. Bond – but the old needs to be shaken and stirred by the new. Creating a cultural centre in Ask was encouraged and supported by the municipal administration. But the centre is not – formally speaking – an official undertaking. The community has a tradition of volunteer work. Both the Cultural Centre and the Sports Centre were built by local membership organisations, with substantial contributions from volunteers. The Cultural Centre is organized as a limited company. The shares are owned by the organisations and private persons. The local past Archives In 1997, the Director General of the National Archives visited Gjerdrum. He reported that the old municipal documents were • haphazardly stored: not systematized, stowed away in cardboard boxes directly on the floor, exposed to water damage • removed without documentation, borrowed by private individuals and kept at their homes • incomplete and deficient, or dispersed in private hands and possibly lost for good. Such conditions are widespread. National and regional archives are taken care of by professionals. But at the municipal level, professional management of archives is the 89

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exception rather than the rule. This applies to all types of archives: official, commercial, non-governmental and private. Archives in daily use get a certain amount of attention – but the historical material is widely neglected. Official and commercial archives must conform to legal guidelines. The law is more concerned with current affairs than with historical value, however. The archives of voluntary organisations and of private persons are totally left to the initiative of concerned individuals. But what about the libraries? Library students learn a certain amount of archive management during their education. More importantly: librarians know how to collect, organize, classify and retrieve items in general. We hunt and gather. We impose law and order on the document world. Every municipality has a library. Many of the smaller communities – those with less than two thousand inhabitants – only offer part-time library positions. They find it hard to recruit accredited librarians. But nearly all municipalities with bigger populations have full-time professionals running their libraries. Till now, public libraries and public librarians have generally stayed out of the archive business. There are exceptions, but the profession as a whole has never taken local archives to its heart. We have the competence, but we lack the will. At a deeper level, we see libraries and archives as separate spheres of action. Putting archives on our agenda would increase our work load. More importantly: archives are not our responsibility. Mental walls have kept the institutions apart. Museums Museums fare worse, however. Local archives suffer from neglect. But rules, guidelines and practices for managing historical objects are weaker still. The material past has never received the same attention as the written sources. In historical work, paper has a higher status than wood and iron. But this may change. During the last 25 years or so, professional historians have paid much greater attention to material culture. This is a European trend. Political and narrative history give place to a broader social and structural understanding of the past. Historical researchers collaborate much more closely with archaeologists than before. Material remains tell their own story. And objects need not be 2000 years old to be of interest. Even the recent past can be illuminated by material objects. Local history is more than an amateur pastime. European historians have discovered that national narratives miss the significance of regional and local conditions. To understand the nation, we must understand the regions. To understand the regions, we must understand the communities. Local history has often been treated as exclusively local. In that case it will only interest local people. But Gjerdrum is part of a meaningful region, with tight links to other regions – north, east, south and west. We belong to Romerike. Rike is related to German Reich. Twelve hundred 90

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years ago, we probably had our own king. Today, change follows the airport and the young families that move in. But local names reveal earlier immigrants – from Finland and Sweden, Denmark and Germany. The Swedes and Finns were poor peasants. The Danes were administrators from ‘the king in Copenhagen’. The Germans were miners and technical specialists. The local history of Gjerdrum is a piece in a larger puzzle – which can be extended to include Scandinavia, Europe and even the ‘modern world-system’. The building process Our ‘extended’ library was designed by an architect from the Norwegian Library Centre (Biblioteksentralen). Biblioteksentralen is Norway`s largest supplier of books and other library items. It is run on commercial principles, but the organisation is jointly owned by the municipal sector and the national Norwegian Library Association (Norsk bibliotekforening). Being an early bird in the field has both advantages and disadvantages. The company offered to do the architectural work free of charge, as a demonstration project. We must pay for the furniture, however. But the design process takes time and effort, even if the architect is free. Good architecture requires a running dialogue between customer and designer. It is not a question of 1. making the plan 2. implementing the plan 3. celebrating the opening The architectural process was complex. We started with great ideas and exciting visions. But the work must be followed very closely as dreams materialise in concrete spaces and specific colour schemes. When sketches solidify into walls and wiring and paint, personal attention is crucial. The municipal tradition of voluntary work helped. Much of the work on the cultural centre was done for free, by local people. Volunteers in regular jobs came on weekends. Retired people also came on workdays. During the building period I tried to contribute as much voluntary work as possible. This was immensely useful later on. I could walk into the building site at any time and find people I knew. They were my building mates. I speak their lingo. I have heard that modern novels should have a beginning, a middle and an end – though not necessarily in that order. But modern buildings must start with the beginning and end with the end. Once the bricks are in place, we are bound to live with them. A personal streak of obsession came in handy. I know this building from skeleton to skin. I dreamt about it at night and struggled with it during the day. I learned that architecture is an ongoing process. Being close to the physical builders, 91

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I knew what was happening on the floor. Visions are fine, but God is in the details. Minor decisions – the position of a door and the orientation of a staircase – remain undecided for a long time. And suddenly the window of opportunity closes. Those who hesitate are lost. Designing for a library is difficult enough. Designing for a museum and an archive at the same time was worse. All three are collections, but they store and present their collected objects in very different ways. On the design side, three architects were involved: 1. The local architect (with offices in Ask) who had designed the Centre of Culture and who supervised the construction work 2. A Library Centre architect working in Denmark 3. A Library Centre interior architect working in Oslo. As the new building took material form, we could more easily visualise the library space and its functions. We were able to identify problems and needs and proposed many changes. All new ideas were first discussed with the local architect. If he accepted the proposal, our man in Denmark corrected the architectural drawings – which were computer-generated, of course – accordingly. Links to local community leaders were also important at this stage. Since the building process was managed by a broad committee and not by the municipality as such, the local political climate was important. The library needed political support to realise its vision. Below I give some examples of architectural details that were modified during the building process: 1. To establish close contact with our users, the service desk should be placed next to the entrance 2. Since our staff is very small, we must often switch between office work and user service. The offices should therefore lie next to the main service area 3. To get closer contact with the public from the offices, we wanted glass walls between the offices and the public area. The glass walls also provided the offices with more natural light 4. The library storage space was moved from the first to the second floor, releasing a first-floor room for the local archive. The archive is now located next door to the local history collection. The interior architect started her work in March 2001. She had already done interior design for the libraries in two neighbouring ‘airport’ communities, Ullensaker and Nannestad. But the integration with archive and museum services was new. The local history association has deposited a small collection of traditional tools and other household objects with the library. Once the project is realised, we may get additional donations. This is a community with a long historical tradition. Who 92

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knows what the attics hide? But we have neither space nor staff for a separate museum section. The exhibition must be integrated with the books on show. The same space must serve both purposes. The library – or rather the LAMBRARY: Librarycum-Archive-cum-Museum – must also fit in with the building as a whole. The museum objects are highly visible. They are meant to attract attention. For balance, we must reduce the visual impact of the rest of the furniture. We need clean and simple lines – classic Scandinavian design, in fact. As background colour, the architect chose the same deep, brownish red that is used elsewhere in the building. It is a traditional colour in rural culture – farmer`s red, we call it. ‘Bonderødt’. To exhibit the objects, we put tall glass cases at the narrow end of the book shelves. Each shelf, with its case, forms a single coherent whole. In architecture, gestalt principles are important. Attractive spaces are experienced as unitary. They have a meaningful shape as a whole. But they also consist of meaningful parts. Many details require attention: 1. Archives are heavy. Stacks of paper, in close proximity, impose a greater load on the building than books on open shelves. We must ensure that the archive does not collapse on our heads. It would make a great headline, though: librarians killed by old documents! 2. Old paper needs a controlled physical environment. The archive should be painted and aired a couple of months in advance. Otherwise, gases might damage the archive materials. The air conditioning unit should also be installed in advance 3. Museum exhibits should not be exposed to intense light. But visitors who browse for books need comfortable light to read the titles and scan the content. We decided to keep the overall lighting level moderate, but to provide local spots of light between the shelves 4. We must accommodate people with disabilities. The lighting pattern should work for people who are visually impaired. Even the floor must be designed with such people in mind 5. Many library users are hard of hearing. The acoustics must be tested to avoid echoes and the service desk should have a wire loop. Here we need expert help. Every Norwegian county has a centre that gives advice and lends out specially adapted equipment for functionally impaired persons. I know where to go, since I developed a classification system for such a centre many years ago National actors It was the government that decided to integrate libraries, archives and museums. The change, I believe, is ultimately a consequence of new data technology. Libraries, ar93

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chives and museums are all devoted to storage, description and presentation of cultural objects. The physical institutions show many similarities – but also important differences. Lending books, giving access to sources, and presenting material objects require different types of skills and training. Three different professions developed: librarian, archivist and curator. But once the collections are digitised, the distinctions vanish. The physical objects are different. The virtual objects are similar. They must be stored, retrieved, and presented to the public in roughly the same way. The digital variants of librarian, archivist and curator need basically the same professional background. In a digital environment, the three professions may fuse into one. At the national level, the decision had broad political support. The cultural institutions themselves were much more ambivalent. The library bodies, in particular, were unhappy. But one might say: they had their chance – and blew it. For more than a decade, the major actors in the Norwegian library world had discussed the future organisation of libraries at the national level. It was a match with four contenders: 1. The directorate for public libraries 2. The directorate for academic and special libraries 3. The National Library 4. The national Library Association. In the end, nobody won. Since they could not agree among themselves, the government stepped in. The two library directorates were combined and placed under the new united directorate for libraries, archives and museums. The former head of museums became the new director general. The new integrated policy was a necessary condition for our project, however. The proposal was presented to Parliament in late 1999. The Next year, the director general of public libraries asked for relevant local projects. The invitation came to us via the county library. To understand Norwegian libraries, you should know that our 19 county libraries are service units for the municipal libraries. They have collections, but do not lend to the public. Only public libraries can borrow directly from the county. The county librarians advise and support – but do not direct or decide. Municipal autonomy must be safeguarded. In our dealings with the municipality we needed support both from the national and from the county level. The directorate of public libraries gave good advice and the county librarian was a staunch ally throughout the process. Since he came from the outside, his words were taken seriously. Since we wanted a ‘three-ring’ library, we also contacted the directorate of museums and two experts on local archives. The director was supportive – and he gave us the idea of integrating the exhibition with the book collection. Small museums with limited resources soon turn dull and uninteresting. Why should I see the same exhibition twice? But in a library, the stock on the shelves is constantly renewed. The mu94

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seum exhibits are an added bonus. At a later stage we could renew the exhibition by borrowing items from other museums in the region. Most museums show only a (small) percentage of their stocks to the public. They do not have the space. Nor is it meaningful to exhibit a series of very similar objects – if you have seen one sickle, you have seen them all ... which makes interlending between museums interesting. The archive experts gave detailed technical advice on building, storage and conservation. We had to get this information into the design process at an early stage. Local actors Developing a new and untraditional library in a traditional rural setting was a genuine juggling act. You need to be aware of several distinct processes and to collaborate with many different actors at the same time. Deciding to move was only the first step. What kind of movement was envisaged? When we move house, we may hire a firm to transfer our belongings. The transport costs money, but the furniture is unchanged. In a couple of days or weeks we go on with our daily lives. We relocate, but we do not change. For the library, I wanted more. The old library was essentially a space filled with books. We wanted the new library to be a space filled with activities. Most of our activities still involve literature, one way or the other. People come here to borrow books, to read comics and to study works of reference. There are story hours for children and poetry evenings for adults. But we want more than literature. Even a small public library can be a multifunctional cultural space. Our opening hours are far too short – 22 hours a week. But we invite local organisations to use our space when we are closed. It is an ill wind that blows no good. They appreciate our help and serve as ambassadors to the community. We explore the educational use of computers. We arrange concerts. We encourage distance students to use us as a place of study. We pester the local schools. The teachers want our services, but not our collaboration. We insist on joint planning of library visits. We want music, art, and exhibitions. Our aim is to become the local Centre Pompidou – in the middle of green fields. We even have a golf course in the library. A small golf course. A very small golf course. Actually, it is a 5 x 10 feet putting green – donated by the local golf association. They are trying hard to get a planning permission for an 18 hole course. But so far, with our single hole, we monopolise the field. The older generation of local politicians dislike spending money. They remember Norway as it used to be: a semi-developed peasant country at the very edge of Europe. In their youth they learnt to be careful with every penny. Their concept of culture may be a bit fuzzy. They are more committed to sports than to the intellectual and aesthetic dimensions of culture. They do not relate to the library as an important local actor. Since they are respected in the community, their views count. If 95

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they really put on the brakes, it is very hard to realise a project. Younger politicians are different. They are more dynamic and tend to be impatient with the people of the ‘old school’. Most of them have higher education. The library – and culture in general – finds its best supporters among these people. But it is not fair to describe all elderly politicians as old-fashioned. Some of them share the flexibility and commitment of the young. They are willing to take risks in order to support new initiatives. I discovered many of them among the building volunteers. As a member of the volunteer network, I could test and promote proposals from the library informally and at an early stage. It is said that ‘nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come’. But if you sit down and wait, nothing happens. In local politics, the time of power will only arrive if the idea has been circulated in advance. In Norway, public libraries are intensely local institutions. Every municipality has its own independent library system. Gjerdrum is small, but not untypical. The average Norwegian municipality has about 10.000 inhabitants. But the median municipality is smaller. I do not know if you remember the median? If you order all Norwegian municipalities by size, and find the municipality in the middle – that’s the median. Half the communities are larger. The other half is smaller. The median is ‘the girl in the middle’...The median municipality has about 5.000 inhabitants. This means, by the way, that the typical Norwegian public library has only two staff members: the head librarian and her assistant. The public library system consists of 435 autonomous units. Small is beautiful. The municipal process was essential. The library project had to be on the official administrative agenda. But networking in the local community is also crucial. On the organisation chart, the library is just a small unit at the bottom of the hierarchy. This is normal in all respectable bureaucracies. Layers of middle managers muffle our screams. Our most important ally was the local history association. Both the museum and the archive must build on the work of the association. Through many years the members have collected papers and objects that document local history. The association is a body with unique competence. As a librarian I know how to organise collections, but I can never match their detailed knowledge of places, people and events. Friendly local politicians constituted a second network. My strongest support came from people with broad sympathies. On the one hand they value local history and traditions. On the other they are willing to take risks. They respect the past and support the future. Not everybody was ready to take political risks for cultural causes. Some people appreciated the project, but wanted to avoid controversy. Such silent supporters could also be valuable, however. They create a more welcoming climate for the risk takers, and they add to the momentum once change is in the air. For the library it was also important to have friends and supporters in all political parties. The community has a broad range of parties. During this period the municipality was gov96

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erned by a center-labour alliance. But the “library cause” was not monopolised by any single party or tendency – left, centre, or right. When political support spans the whole political spectrum, the project does not stand or fall with a particular administration. Again we were helped by the volunteer tradition: people from all parties contributed to the building activities. Norwegian municipalities are self-governing entities. Municipal autonomy has been a pillar of the regime since 1837. Not for us the centralized systems of Germany, France, Spain or Russia. But municipal organisations are basically administrative. They are reasonably well equipped to handle the normal flow of casework. Here, they are guided by detailed legal rules and regulations from higher political and administrative levels (county, state). But small communities are less prepared for the management of projects and of innovation processes. Personalities and personal relationships play a greater role than in bigger and more formalised institutions. In such cases, political processes may be complex, subtle, and hard to grasp. Complexity can be defined by the conditions of failure. Juggling one ball is easy. A process is simple if only one thing counts. You can focus your full attention on a single object. A process is complex, and many different things can go wrong. To achieve success, all components must succeed. The rules of the game The head of the public library is not a top-ranked position in the hierarchy. The big municipal departments, in terms of staff and budgets, are schools and health. To make an impact, I had to draw on my previous experience with projects, politics and social networking. At this point, I should perhaps say something about my background as a project worker. In the eighties, during the state of emergency in Poland, I worked with Solidarity actions. After the fall of the regime, I co-ordinated several local development projects, including an agricultural trainee program. I am not involved anymore, but the program is still running. Every year, around fifty young farmers from south-east Poland are invited as trainees for about three months. They do not come to the fertile plains north of Oslo, however. They work on the smaller farms on the rugged west coast of Norway, in the region where I used to live. These projects involved networking, fund raising, political mobilisation, and – during the emergency – a certain amount of physical risk. The work required contacts with politicians from different parties, in Poland and Norway, at local and national levels. Several voluntary organisations, in both countries, were involved. So were the churches. Some projects succeeded. Some failed. And some just faded away. Good will and grassroots diplomacy do not always work. The element of risk is real. But we can learn from any experience if we treat it as a lesson. After fifteen years as a community project worker, I know more about the rules of the game. 97

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Let me sum up the rules, here at the end: 1. Local library development is a complex process 2. Complexity means that many things can go wrong 3. Administrators manage simple processes 4. Entrepreneurs manage complexity 5. Local politics is both personal and political 6. Personal networking is essential 7. Political alliances are essential 8. Work talks louder than words 9. Carpe diem 10. Don’t forget to relax in the grass NOTE This paper was drafted by Bozena Rasmussen in Norwegian. It was translated into English, edited and revised by Tord Høivik.

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2004 BUENOS AIRES RESOURCES FOR IMMIGRANT HISTORY: THEIR ORIGINS, LIVES AND CONTRIBUTIONS EUROPEAN EMIGRATION RECORDS, 1820–1925 George R. Ryskamp, J.D., A.G., Associate Professor of History Brigham Young University, Utah Abstract Immigration records are wonderful, but often fail to give a complete picture of the emigrants and the experiences and processes they went through. European emigration records provide extensive information about individual emigrants, often including the place of origin. No survey of all such records exists and there is not even a complete list of record types and locations for any single European country. In describing the work of the Immigrant Ancestors Project at Brigham Young University this paper identifies the various record types that were generated by emigrants in the process of emigration, giving examples from several countries where each type of record may be found. In one of the greatest migrations the world has seen, approximately 25 million Europeans emigrated between 1820 and 1925. The vast majority went to the Americas – 33 million to the United States, 5.4 million to Argentina, 4.5 million to Canada, 3.8 million to Brazil and the rest in smaller, but significant numbers to countries from Chile to Mexico – melding with indigenous and previous immigrants to enrich and forever change the recipient countries and their cultures. While Ireland, Germany, Italy and England top the list in terms of numbers departing, every country in Europe contributed to the flow. These statistics and associated studies are only a black and white sketch of the rich tapestry of individual emigrant experiences that make up this great migration. For social historians and genealogists, the individual experience of each emigrant holds more importance than the statistics. Each has a unique story, like that of Manuel Roso. In 1839, Spanish immigrant Pedro Roso was becoming commercially successful in his adopted homeland of Puerto Rico. Earning money in Puerto Rico was so much easier than in his native village of Puerto de Santa Maria in southern Spain that he sent a letter to his father requesting his younger brother, Manuel, join him. On 17 August 1839, Manuel Roso was issued a passport by the municipal 99

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authorities to travel the short distance to Cádiz. There he applied for and was granted another passport that allowed him to continue his journey to meet his older brother, Pedro, in Puerto Rico. The passport allowing him to make the first section of his journey is now found in the Provincial Historical Archives of Cádiz. In addition to that original passport, Manuel Roso’s file contains other documents giving even more information about him and his brother Pedro. In a letter of permission to a local civil authority in Puerto de Santa Maria written by the Rosos’ father, also named Pedro Roso, the elder Roso identifies himself as a baker residing in Puerto de Santa Maria. He states that he regrets having to part with his younger son, but explains that it is in the boy’s best interest and asks that the passport be issued to allow his son to join his older brother. The passport file also includes a copy of seventeen-year-old Manuel Roso’s baptismal record, giving his exact birth date and place as well as naming his parents and their marriage place.1 Numerous stories like that of Manuel Roso can be found throughout Europe during the nineteenth century. Under a wide variety of circumstances – rich, poor, convict, free, single, married, seeking economic opportunity or fleeing political or religious oppression – emigrants left homes and often families to go to the New World. Countless records exist to tell those emigration stories, not only collectively, but individually. This paper will look at the types of these records and how and where to find them, focusing on those that name specific persons and give details about their particular emigration experiences. Especially valuable for genealogists are records giving the particular place of origin of the emigrant, as that allows for the tracing of ancestral lines. Arrival Records The records best known for telling the emigration story are passenger lists prepared at the time of the arrival of the ship in the destination country. Perhaps most famous are those of Ellis Island although many others exist, not only for other ports and times in the United States but for other countries and ports, such as those at the Hotel de Immigrantes in Buenos Aires. The best of these offer extensive detail about each immigrant, including the key place of birth. Many are accessible in published accounts2 and Internet sites.3 1 2

3

Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cadiz, Gobierno Civil, Pasaportes. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index: A Guide to Published Records of More Than 2,923,000 Immigrants Who Came to the New World Between the Sixteenth and the Mid-Twentieth Centuries (Detroit: Gale Group, 1998.): John Philip Colletta, They Came in Ships (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997). See for example: www.ellisisland.org, www.stevemorse.org, www.ancestry.com, http://home.att.net/ ~wee-monster/ei.html, www.immigrantships.net, www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/search_ships. shtml

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Even the best passenger lists tell only part of the individual immigrant’s story, and most do not even do that. Over half of those in the United States do not give key details such as place of birth, and few give story details such as reasons for emigrating. In Latin America, even when arrival records are preserved, the information given is still less. For example, in passenger lists for the years 1891–1930 for the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina, the place of birth for the immigrant is only given during a four-year period. For these reasons, the researcher would want to consult European emigration records, as they hold the potential value of giving a more complete understanding of the emigration process and its individual stories. Departure Records The Immigrant Ancestors Project, sponsored by the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, is working to identify records produced in Europe that document the emigration experience and provide the place of birth of the emigrant.4 Records have been located in municipal, provincial, state and national government archives, as well as in university and private archives in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. This research has revealed a mosaic of laws, regulations and practical applications that produced a wide variety of records documenting the experience of individual emigrants as they worked through requirements imposed on them before they could leave their countries of birth. Passenger Lists Just as passengers were recorded in most ports as they disembarked, so they were often listed as they sailed from the ports of Europe. Lists were maintained in all five of the largest mass emigration ports: Hamburg, Bremen, Liverpool, Le Havre and Naples. Sadly, only those of Hamburg have survived the ravages of war and bureaucratic archival cleansing. These have been microfilmed and indexed. Existing passenger lists have been found for smaller ports, such as Lisbon and Porto in Portugal; Llanes, Spain; Bordeaux and La Rochelle in France; and even, for scattered years before mass migration, in Naples. The information in these records varies from nothing more than the emigrant’s name, age and port of destination to more detailed descriptions of passengers including their places of birth. At this time, practically none of these have been indexed. Many have only recently been identified and have not yet been the subject of academic study. Finding others that may exist will require visits to municipal and provincial archives in port cities in each European country.

4

See: http://immigrants.byu.edu and http://familyhistory.byu.edu

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Other Port of Departure Records Often, one of the greatest challenges confronting genealogists is to locate the birthplace of an immigrant ancestor. Of the 55 million Europeans who emigrated between 1820 and 1920, only about fourteen percent can be found in passenger lists, either arrival or departure, that tell their birthplace. Practically none of the 17 million who went to Latin America appear on such records. The best place to go to find the unknown birthplaces of immigrants is emigration records in the home country. Passenger lists were only one form, albeit the most common, to control passenger departures. Other types of records found at the port of departure included: Passports. Often prepared on printed forms or in register books, these show that the emigrant received a passport, often identifying the specific ship of departure. The forms include the emigrant’s name, destination, profession, birthplace, age, and physical description. These collections often precede or are merged into the passports issued by provincial authorities, as described below. Passport books found in Genoa, Italy are of this type.

Page from a Passport Register. Santander, Cantabria, Spain. Passengers in transit. In many cases ships stopped to pick up passengers at intermediate ports before sailing for the Americas. Ship captains may have been required to file a list of such passengers, as was the case in Porto, Portugal and Naples, Italy by the mid 1880s. Health records. In some ports the only requirement, or one significant requirement, was a health check performed by a port physician or provided by the shipping company. These checks may have resulted in a single page certificate of good health, stating the passenger was free from diseases such as tuberculosis or glau102

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coma, the same as were checked by United States port authorities before admitting immigrants. Passenger contracts. One unique record so far located only in Spain is a contract between the ship’s captain or owners, and the passengers. Beginning in 1853, a royal order stipulated that each of these contracts had to lay out the quality of transportation to be provided, including exact quantity and quality of food and water rations, as well as the destination of the ship and what the payment terms were for each passenger. These had to be written before a notary and approved by the subgobernador. Unfortunately they did not have to be placed in the notary´s register, although many were. The company was required to keep a copy, as was the local provincial government, and a third copy was sent with the ship to be filed upon arrival. While scattered examples are found in notarial registers in port cities, in most cases the companies kept these in their own archives. The Transatlantic Company, by far the largest providing passenger service, kept its contracts filed in its central archive in Madrid. Much of that archive, including all of the contracts, was “lost” during a transfer of company headquarters in the 1970s.

Approval to emigrate before departure For paternalistic reasons and/or for control of population movement, governments enacted procedures to regulate emigration. At some time, requirements existing in most, if not all, countries included: 1) that the emigrant have completed military responsibilities; 2) that he or she was not wanted for criminal offences or trying to flee any authority; 3) that he or she was not trying to abandon family; and 4) that he or she, if under age, had permission from their father or other family authority. The gathering of this documentation was handled by the port authorities, the local provincial governments or by a provincial level police authority such as the Questura in Italy or the Prefeture in France. The key difference from the passports required for movement internally in most countries as well as those issued at the port for population movement control was the preparation of documentation proving the emigrant met the requirements discussed above. To accomplish this, a file was created for each emigrant or emigrant family with types of documentation such as follows: Certificate of Personal Identification. Similar to our identification cards today, these included a physical description of the emigrant, address of residence, birthplace, age and other identifying information. Parent/Spouse Authorization. Each emigrant may have been required to show authorization from his/her spouse if married, and from his/her parent if single and under age of majority, usually 25 or 30 years. 103

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Baptismal Record or Certification of Freedom to Emigrate. A baptismal record might have been required if the emigrant was under a certain age, and those over that age could simply have an authorized statement of eligibility to emigrate. Criminal Record. In most cases the emigrant needed a document certified by a judge, police or civil authority of his home or last residence district, certifying he had no criminal record. Certificate of Completion of Military Service. A male was required to have a statement by a judge, police or civil authority of his home district stating he had met his military obligation, either by service or by having stood for the draft and not been taken. Often these passport records come in two parts, the first, a register book of all passports issued (or applied for), and the second, a collection of individual files, one for each applicant or applicant family, containing the documentation discussed above. Without doubt the researcher should try to go to the file and not stop at the register book, even when it gives the place of birth. The file will contain the most interesting material about the emigrant, often including statements as to reasons for emigrating. Records of this type have thus far been found in Germany, Spain and Italy, but were likely required at least at some time period in all continental European countries.

Pages from an Italian Passport Application file. Naples, Italy. 104

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Published Announcements At certain time periods the way in which municipal authorities were able to, or required to, ascertain that the proposed emigrant was qualified to emigrate was to publish a notice of the intended emigration in the official provincial government bulletin. In Spain and Italy, where some of these have been found, the bulletins were issued weekly or more frequently. Again, the time period during which this procedure was used is limited and their use not fully studied. BRITISH AND IRISH PRE-DEPARTURE RECORDS The British Isles took a different stance toward emigration from that of the rest of Europe. Aside from passenger lists, other forms of emigration control used on the continent do not appear among British records. Rather than attempting to prevent the departure of those with criminal records or who were in debt, the authorities in these countries encouraged emigration as a way of dealing with the poor. Vestry minutes and estate records exist that identify those whose passage was paid as a means of meeting local obligations imposed by the poor laws. Transportation to colonies appears regularly in quarter sessions records as a sentence for criminal activity. A variety of records exist relating to indentured servitude and other similar ways of acquiring passage. For these reasons the search for emigration records in the British Isles offers a series of challenges and potential solutions not found in the rest of Europe. AFTER ARRIVAL RECORDS Consular Records All European countries maintained consulates working to meet the needs and often to protect the interests of their citizens. Many of these consulates kept records of transactions taken by their citizens residing in the destination countries. Most commonly these appear to record requests for passports, identification proofs, registration of births, or assistance with an inheritance or other legal problem in the country of origin. On occasion the consul appears to go beyond this to an effort to identify all emigrants. In either case these records identify emigrants and provide more of the story of the emigration process. Home Town Censuses and Emigrant Lists Even after their emigration, the emigrants were still considered residents of their home towns. As such they are often listed in local censuses, with an annotation as to 105

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where they are living and the date of emigration. Some municipalities also kept register books of those who had emigrated. Little has been done to identify these types of records and less to extract the information that they contain. Military Absence Records Both the youth of the age for military service and local authorities responsible for the draft recognized that emigration was a means of avoiding military service. Although little study has been done of illegal emigration during this period, the largest group of illegal emigrants was most likely young men of conscription age. In Italy, provincial conscription lists often identify missing youth as having emigrated. In Spain, lists of those who did not report for draft registration were published in the provincial bulletins discussed above, indicating either the countries where the men were thought to have gone or that they were thought to be in a port city such as Cadiz, apparently a euphemism for the fact they had emigrated or were likely trying to do so. FINDING EMIGRATION RECORDS Passenger arrival lists in the United States have been available on microfilm for decades. Numerous published sources have provided indexes to specific ports for specific time periods or specific ethnicities. During the last three years, beginning with the Ellis Island web site, online indexes to these records have been available. Recent developments on sites such as www.stevemorse.org and www.ancestry.com have further opened the possibilities for searching arrival passenger lists and other immigrant sources in the United States. Work on Canadian immigration records has recently begun, but is limited so far primarily to the early years of the twentieth century. Little has been done to index arrival lists in Latin America, although the work done by the Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos [Avenida Independencia 20, (1099) Buenos Aires, Argentina] which has indexed arrivals at the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina 1882–1926, offers hope that such records will be more readily available in the future. At this time, however, even a comprehensive list of where such arrival records can be found would be most helpful, especially where many Latin American immigrants arrived in one country but ultimately settled in another. Finding European emigration records can be more challenging. Except for the Hamburg passenger departure lists, available on microfilm with indexes currently being placed on line,5 no other major collection of departure lists exist and only a 5

The Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850–1934 Resource Guide at www.familysearch.org

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handful of those for smaller ports are currently being indexed. To find the wide variety of records discussed above one must turn to the original records still to be found in archives in the home country. At this point the arrival passenger lists and other information gathered in the destination country can aid in the search for the emigrant. Such records, even if they do not give the place of birth can narrowly focus the research as to the date of emigration and the port of departure. This information will assist greatly in focusing the search, thus narrowing the volume of material that must be searched in a European archive. The vast majority of the European emigration records described above can be found in provincial level archives in Europe. Obviously, in order to search those one must know the province or departement from which the emigrant came, or the port from which he sailed. With that information, perhaps from arrival passenger lists, there must then be a search through the bundles for those years. This task can generally only be done on site although in some instances, such as in certain German provinces, records are available on microfilm through the LDS Family History Centers. Lists identifying the provincial level archives can be found for each country, often with website addresses. In some cases, such as in Baden and Hanover in Germany, efforts are underway to create indexes on the Internet for these collections. Some emigration records are found at the national archives level, such as a collection of consular records at the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, and passenger lists at the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Lists of all national archives and many provincial and local archives in Europe can be forund at http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives/pages/Archives/. There are also web sites created by those archives, often containing inventories of collections, etc.6 As indicated above, many good emigration records are also found at the municipal level. Unless indexed, these offer little assistance until the home town in the country of origin is known. Clearly at that point they help to tell the emigration story, but offer no value as a locator tool. So far, efforts to index European emigration records are limited to only a handful of localized projects.

6

Access to many archives throughout Europe can be made through the site mentioned above or through individual national archival sites such as the following: http://aer.mcu.es/sgae/index_aer.jsp, www.iantt.pt, http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/, http://www.bundesarchiv.de/, http://www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr/ . http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/.

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ILLEGAL OR EXTRALEGAL EMIGRATION

Recognition must be made that in addition to the problems with locating records and significant missing or destroyed emigration records, there were those who went without meeting legal requirements or registering on the passenger lists. The number of draft age youths identified as having emigrated is indicative of this problem. Likewise, in port authority or police records there are discussions of actions such as unscheduled ship inspections taken to identify illegal emigrants who are on board. Another manifestation of this problem would be ship crew members who deserted upon arrival in the Americas. With so much to be done to identify and index records of legal emigration, little has been done to address this problem or even ascertain how large a percentage crossed over illegally. IMMIGRANTS ANCESTORS PROJECT AT BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

This discussion has touched briefly on emigration records such as passport files, passenger contracts, vestry minutes and consular records – all rich in genealogical information but largely untouched simply because they are not easily available. Few are microfilmed. Most are accessible only by visiting the archives containing the records, and are rarely indexed or sorted. The Immigrants Ancestors Project at Brigham Young University (IAP) has set the goal of looking for these hard-to-find emigration records in European home countries with the following objectives: Identify emigration records, acquire copies of those records, extract data on individuals who appear in those records and place extracted data in an online index/ database available free on the Internet. Work is progressing well on the first two goals. In addition to German emigration files which have been microfilmed, passport records from Cadiz and Santander in Spain for the middle years of the nineteenth century have been identified, copied and partially extracted. Major collections from Spanish consular offices all over the world have been identified and arrangements for copying are being made. Emigration records from municipal archives in Galicia and Asturias have been copied and await extraction. This spring student interns worked with great success finding and copying more of these in several archives in the British Isles and the Spanish Basque provinces, as well as in Rome and Naples in Italy, and Lisbon and Porto in Portugal.7 In all cases copies of emigration record collections identified have been or are being acquired. 7

The following are some of the archives in Spain, Italy and Portugal where students from the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University worked in the Spring of 2004 gathering records for the Immigrants Ancestors Project: Archivo General de la Administración – Alcalá de

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The copies are then digitalized and arranged in small batches. Extraction by volunteers is the key to success for the Project. Utilizing specifically created software, volunteers all over the world, working via Internet, are sent small batches of emigration records to extract. The extracted data is then sent back to the Center for Family History and Genealogy, where trained student supervisors check extractions for accuracy before they are added to the database. The data from those small extracted batches will be continually added to create the online database that will eventually include millions of immigrants with their places of origin. The initial database with thousands of names is found at http://immigrants.byu.edu. Also found there are lists of archives, research tools and an extensive bibliography of books and articles about immigrants and the immigration experience. At present the project focuses on emigrants from Germany, Spain, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Italy, Portugal and France, but plans are to add other countries as resources permit. The IAP needs large numbers of volunteers to extract records. Volunteers, who will receive online training in reading the records and research resources to help in the extraction process, may sign up online at http://immigrants.byu. edu. Even with generous support of time and effort from volunteer extractors and of office space, personnel and faculty time from BYU, a project of this magnitude needs donated funds. Donations made to the IAP pay wages for student researchers, provide copies of identified records, and support computer program development and maintenance. CONCLUSION European emigration records hold the stories of passage for millions of emigrants. Many of these records also give a specific place of emigrant origin. While we know these registers exist, except for the Hamburg passenger lists and a few German provincial records, up to now they have neither been microfilmed nor indexed. The Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University has begun the process of identifying and indexing those records in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the British Isles. We look forward with great anticipation to the Henares, Archivo Nacional de Cataluña, Archivo del Reino de Galicia, Archivo General de la Administración del Principado de Asturias, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Asturias, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cáceres, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cantabria, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Toledo, Archivo Histórico Provincial de Vizcaya, Archivo Histórico Municipal de Llanes, Archivo de Protocolos de Guipúzcoa, Archivo Foral de Vizcaya, Archivo de la Diputación Provincial de Cáceres, Archivo de la Diputación Provincial de Barcelona, Archivo Histórico de la Biblioteca de Cantabria, Hemeroteca Municipal de Santander, Archivio del Ministero degli Affari Esteri d´Italia, Roma, Archivio di Stato di Napoi, Instituto Nacional Torre de Tombo, Lisboa and Arquivo Distrital de Oporto.

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coming months and years as, throughout the world, professional genealogists, students, volunteers – each of us, in a sense, the recipient of emigrant efforts – join together to make these records available and appreciated.

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JEWISH SETTLEMENTS AND GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN ARGENTINA Paul Armony Founder and President The Association of Jewish Genealogy of Argentina Abstract Why the Jews chose Argentina is a question that has many answers. In this article we try to give some responses to such enquiries. We will also give a brief guide assisting researchers in carrying out genealogical investigations of Jewish ancestors in Argentina. To this end the Association of Jewish Genealogy of Argentina has created a large database that contains almost 300,000 registrations of former elders and orphans lodged in the Home of the Jewish Community. Jews in Argentina Before 1860 Jews were not permitted to live openly in Argentina until the adoption of its 1853 constitution. Before the Spanish Inquisition was abolished in 1813, no Jews were allowed to live in any territory that belonged to Spain, including the ‘Provincias Unidas del Rio de La Plata’, as Argentina originally was called. Exceptions existed, of course; all of the Spanish colonies had individuals of Jewish heritage. Some were arrested and burned at the stake for practising Judaism. In the years before 1853, individual Jews were buried in Protestant cemeteries (opened after a treaty with England in 1825). Historians can document only six Jews living in Argentina before 1855. The Jewish Community from 1860 to 1889 The first official Jewish wedding in Argentina was on 11 November, 1860; before then, the ceremony was forbidden. By 1862, a group of several dozen Ashkenazim Jews had founded the first Jewish society in the country, one that within six years became the Israeli Community of the República Argentina (CIRA). It has existed continuously since then. Its synagogue, Templo Libertad, was built in 1897 and replaced in 1932 by the current building. In 1854, the Argentinean government opened the country to European immigration, offering special inducements to immigrants and to the proprietors who sold them land. The great majority of original immigrants were Italian and Spanish, augmented by some Swiss, Welsh, and Volga Germans. Sephardic Jews began to 111

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come in the 1880s, primarily from Morocco, Syria and Turkey. Without any central organization, but able to speak Spanish (because of their knowledge of Ladino [Judeo-Spanish]), most assimilated easily and dispersed around the country as travelling salesmen, and then as tradesmen. In January 1889, José Elias Maman requested permission to establish a Sephardic synagogue. The first Judeo-Sefaradi organization was founded in 1891. The Great Jewish Immigration of 1889 By 1889, Argentina already had 1,572 Jewish residents. In August of that year, the first contingent of 819 Jews from Kamenets-Podolsk (Ukraine) arrived aboard the ship Weser. In Paris, they had purchased land around La Plata, 50 kilometers from Buenos Aires. When they arrived, however, they were forced to accept instead new land in the Province of Santa Fe, 650 kilometers from Buenos Aires. After an epidemic that claimed the lives of sixty-two children, the new immigrants established the first Jewish city in Argentina, which they called Moisesville.

Coach used in the burial of Jews in Moisesville A Jewish scientist, Wilhelm Lowenthal, who visited Argentina at the end of 1889, reported their misfortunes to the Alliance Israelite Universelle. The Alliance had helped the group by partially paying its passage, and felt responsible for its bad luck. 112

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Lowenthal’s report stimulated Baron Maurice de Hirsch to found the famous Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), which bought land in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere to settle Russian Jews as farmers and agricultural workers. The Jewish Colonization Association JCA wanted to settle 3,000 colonists yearly in Argentina, but its goal was frustrated by ignorance of the country and poorly chosen administrators who sometimes were venal as well. Baron de Hirsch's untimely death in 1896 and the bureaucracy based on the colonial English model all prevented the program from reaching the goals foreseen by its founder. During the 80 years of JCA existence in Argentina, only about 35,000 individuals were settled on the land. Most soon abandoned the program. There only remainned 3,393 families primarily because of major disagreements with the inflexible administration. JCA was able to bring only a few German Jews to Argentina at the end of 1930s (only 430 families). Although they never settled in one of the Baron de Hirsch colonies, the very existence of the program itself determined the destinations of many Polish and Russian Jews. Because of JCA, they knew of the existence of Argentina and many emigrated to Argentina and other South American countries on their own. Some had relatives there and knew that one could live freely and make a living. Thus were formed the Jewish communities of Brazil, Uruguay and other Latin American countries. Many did not want to be farmers, but JCA offered no other alternatives. Jewish Immigration to Argentina Approximately 238,000 Jewish immigrants came to Argentina, out of a total of three million, during the period of open immigration from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Argentina was one of the major destinations of the Ashkenazi Jews from Russia and Poland, but also of the Sephardim from such places as Syria, Turkey, and the island of Rhodes. A smaller number of Moroccan Jews arrived beginning in 1956, the last of the Jewish immigrants to the Argentine. At its peak, during the decade of the 1950s, between 400,000 and 500,000 inhabitants of Jewish origin lived in Argentina. At that time, this was one of the largest Jewish populations in the world and the second largest in the western hemisphere. After that, Jews began to emigrate from Argentina, primarily to Israel, the destination for more than 50,000, but to many other countries as well. Today approximately 220,000 Jews live in Argentina.

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JEWISH GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH IN ARGENTINA Any genealogical investigation must begin with the answers to the following questions: when and where the ancestor was born and when and where did he die? Where did the ancestor reside? If he was from Buenos Aires or the interior of the country, the places to search vary. If the interior, then one has thirty or more places to investigate. Did the individual live in a Baron de Hirsch colony? At least sixteen were founded by the JCA. (See the details in the Country Investigation.) If the ancestor was originally a colonist but subsequently left the colony, then he or she may have resided in one of the 15 biggest cities in Argentina: Bahía Blanca, Catamarca, Córdoba, Corrientes, La Plata, Mendoza, Nequén, Paran, Posadas, Resistencia, Rosario, Salta, San Juan, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, and Tucuman. In addition, there are dozens of small towns in the 22 Argentinean Provinces where there were and still are small Jewish communities. To obtain the addresses for these Jewish communities, consult the Israeli Directory published in 1946/47/50. The only remaining copies are available in the library of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA). AMIA is the primary Jewish Association in Buenos Aires whose building was destroyed by a terrorist attack in July 18, 1994. The building was rebuilt and from September 23, 1999 AMIA is again at its former address. When a person arrived in Argentina often helps us determine where he or she lived. Certain records were started or existed only during certain years. Unfortunately, during the 110 years of Jewish communal existence in Argentina, many institutions were founded that no longer exist and often their records and registrations are missing. This is especially true of the first immigrants and in the interior of the country where some Jewish communities have disappeared. For this reason alone, any clue of where to look is very valuable. Jews who lived and died in Buenos Aires At the end of 1990, 31,200 Jews lived in the interior of Argentina, while 190,000 lived in the greater Buenos Aires area. Demographics dictate that the easiest, and often, fastest way to search is to begin with Buenos Aires, where 80–85% of Argentinean Jews live or have lived. Today, approximately thirteen million individuals live in Greater Buenos Aires (the city of Buenos Aires and the towns within a fifty kilometer radius). This represents more than one third of the total population of the country (thirty-six million). Despite the fact that the first immigrants settled initially in Baron de Hirsch colonies, the majority re-emigrated to the cities after a few years. 114

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Ashkenazim or Sephardim Once the place of residence is known, the second question is whether the ancestors were Ashkenazi or Sephardi for, in Buenos Aires and in some of the other big cities, the communities remain divided. In other localities, the communities have united to create communal cemeteries. There is no fixed rule, of course, but in most cases the two groups lived separately. When they intermarried, the husband's origin almost always prevailed, unless the wife was not Jewish. Population and statistical data in Buenos Aires In the United States, Canada, Israel, Holland and elsewhere many books and pamphlets explain where to obtain birth, marriage and death certificates, immigrant arrival records, names of parents, husbands, and other data. Such resources do not exist in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires. For that reason, the Associación de Genealogía Judía de Argentina (AGJA, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Argentina) makes particular efforts to guide new genealogists. Records available in Buenos Aires Records divide into three major groups: those of official government sources, those records of Jewish origin, and those from private Jewish sources. Government records include: 1. Vital records from the Registro Civil. It was created by law in 1886 and all births, marriages and deaths are registered there. To obtain any of these certificates is necessary to go to any office of the Registro Civil 2. Ship arrival records (immigrants) 3. Naturalization records 4. Probate records, including all the various steps involved in claiming inheritances 5. Files of the Argentina Federal Police. These and other political registrations are very difficult to access 6. Voters’ Lists, now available on CD-Rom. Similar lists of earlier years should exist, but until now they have not been located 7. Telephone directories. Current ones are available on CD-Rom; also online by Internet. Earlier ones are available in telephone company offices, libraries and other institutions. There is no centralized national directory or bureau of telephone listings 115

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8. School records for university students, professional centers, and so forth exist, but are difficult to access officially. Sometimes access is possible through personal friendships 9. Museum of Immigrants owned by the Immigrants’ Bureau. The museum is very small and new, but it has some historical information 10. Archives of the City of Buenos Aires. They have little material useful for Jewish history, but you may need former street names and old city information 11. Archivo General de la Nación (National General Archives). They have the copies of the Census of Buenos Aires and the country, old pictures and a lot of historical information. Unfortunately they have little useful material for Jewish genealogy. They have only the records of immigrants arriving in the country before 1880 Records of Jewish Origin: Materials useful to genealogists may be found in many of the following institutions. Because of the two attacks against the Jewish community, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 and of the AMIA building in 1994, stringent security measures now impede free access to these places. 1. The Dr. Salvador Kibrick Jewish Museum 2. YIWO Institute for Jewish Research, ‘IWO of Argentina’ 3. Mark Turkow Center of Jewish Documentation 4. AMIA (main Jewish-Ashkenazi Community Center): Bureau of Dead Persons. Lists of the people buried in the Ashkenazi cemeteries 5. Organizations of immigrants from Europe and other places. Unfortunately only two organizations are still active representing Jews from Poland and Galicia. The addresses can be obtained at AMIA. 6. Various lists of marriages, burials and other key life events held by the various Jewish communities (see cemeteries list for more details) 7. Lists held in temples and synagogues of marriages, bar mitzvahs and other events. Only a few synagogues had records of marriages. Information about these synagogues must be obtained from the Bureau of the Chief Rabbi of Buenos Aires, Pasteur 633, Buenos Aires 8. Lists held by various Jewish institutions such as homes for the aged and orphans, hospitals and benevolent associations 116

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9. Directories of Jewish people in Argentina. They were issued in 1946/47/50 and the only remaining copies are in the library of AMIA 10. Yizkor books published in the Argentina and other books written in memory of the deceased. There are some copies in the library of the Latin American Jewish Seminar, Jose Hernandez 1750, Buenos Aires 11. Jewish newspapers and publications: The Idishe Zeitung, Di Presse, and others have ceased publication. The complete collections were in the destroyed library of AMIA, but perhaps there are copies in some of the other Jewish libraries and private collections 12. Lists of students at Jewish schools, but is very difficult to obtain this information because of security restrictions 13. Listings of members of Jewish clubs and Jewish sport institutions. For security reasons it is very difficult to obtain information about their members 14. The Association of Jewish Genealogy of Argentina (AGJA) does not have a permanent headquarter. It is an organization of hobbyists. The Association cannot undertake to do research for others, but it is willing to try to help with advice. Many in the Argentinean Jewish community are not affiliated with temples or synagogues, making it difficult to reach the group as a whole. General Genealogical Sources: 1. Center of Latin American Immigration (CEMLA). This is a private Catholic organisation. This Center contains records of approximately 3 million immigrants who arrived in Argentina from 1880 till 1926. The Center is currently working to fill in the years after 1926 2. The main and most important branch of the Mormon Family History Center in Argentina is located at the Family Center, Buenos Aires 3. Institute of Genealogical Studies of Argentina. Members meet in the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires There are other genealogical and heraldic organizations but they are not useful for Jewish genealogical research 4. Newspapers such as La Nacion, Clarin and others publish death notices. Back issues of such newspapers can be seen in the Congress Library, as they are not available in the public libraries 5. The main National Library has phone directories and other local historical sources 117

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Obtaining Genealogical Information in Buenos Aires Vital Records: The central office for vital records is located at Uruguay 753, Buenos Aires, but fourteen other neighborhood centers are located throughout the city. Arrival Records: The following organizations hold records of immigrants to Argentina: 1. CEMLA originally held registrations of three million immigrants who came to Argentina between 1882 and 1926. (CEMLA continues to process later arrivals, but had only reached 1930 as of this writing.) Many records are missing, especially from the first decade of this century, because the registration books were lost in a fire. Mail and email are accepted with payment in advance, valid for several enquiries. 2. The Dr. Salvador Kibrick Jewish Museum has records of JCA colonists for the years 1890 to 1901 and sporadic records for other periods. The Argentinean Jewish Genealogical Society (AGJA) has created an alphabetized computerized database of these records. Information may be obtained from either the museum or AGJA. Requests can be sent to AGJA via email. A donation is required if the museum is requested to do a search. Special certificates can be issued by the museum if required. Citizenship Registration: The Electoral National Court has alphabetical registers of all Argentinean citizens, living or dead. The information is only available to direct relatives of the individual sought. Proof is required. If not, you need an attorney to make the request. The information received will have the names of the parents and all addresses of the person. The National General Archives (Achivos Generales de la Nacion): The archives has records of immigrants who arrived before 1882, but since the major Jewish immigration did not begin until 1889, this is of little use to most Jewish genealogists. In addition the archives have a publication office and files of photographs and other graphic documents.

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Temples and Religious Congregations: Temples, synagogues and Jewish associations hold various records but details can only be obtained by consulting each individual organization.

First building of the first synagogue in Buenos Aires opened in 1897, rebuilt in 1930 The Chalom Community, which holds records of the Ladino-speaking Jews of the Balkans, Greece, Rhodes and Turkey, has computerized the marriages performed at their temple; AGJA has a copy. AGJA also has records of marriages of ACILBA (Moroccan community) and partially of ACISBA (a Sephardic community from Turkey and the Balkans) written in Latin script. The Libertad Temple at Libertad 785 also has files of all its marriages and for a fee will send a copy of the marriage certificate. Other important temples such as the Temple in Paso Street also have records, but these are not computerized. Our Society is working copying the Ketubot (wedding documents) from Libertad and Paso. To date, we have information up to 1950. The Jewish Genealogy Society of Argentina (AGJA): AGJA has numerous valuable genealogical lists such as: 1. Immigrant lists owned by the Jewish Museum 2. Lists of passengers who arrived on the Weser, the Tokyo, the Lisbon, the Pampa and other ships 3. Lists of JCA colonists; records of students of schools in Moisesville, children of JCA colonists 4. Records of cemeteries and other databases.

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The entire database includes more than 300,000 records and is the most important Jewish database in Argentina. The information is provided for a fee. AGJA is a non-profit organization that receives no subsidies from any outside group. It has neither funds nor personnel to carry out genealogical investigations for third parties, but is willing to help other Jewish genealogists in a spirit of mutual cooperation. Some of its members will undertake private investigations for moderate fees, but AGJA cannot assume responsibility for their work. AGJA publishes the magazine TOLDOT three times per year [in Spanish]; subscriptions are available to all. There is also a CD-Rom with all issues in pdf format. To sum up, genealogical investigations in Argentina are possible but one must either do the research personally or else hire local researchers. Jewish institutions in Argentina are not equipped to provide free searches. The AGJA edited a booklet in Spanish ‘The Jewish Genealogical Investigation in Argentina’. There is a pdfformat English translation available on request. Genealogical Investigations Outside of Buenos Aires Genealogical investigations outside Buenos Aires are difficult because much information is not centralized. At one time, Jews were dispersed over the entire country, constituting large communities in Cordóba and Rosario, smaller ones in Nequén and San Juan. Some Jews lived in small towns where they maintained stores and warehouses. One can request the addresses of all existing Argentinean Jewish communities from AMIA. An important guide to locating Jews outside of Buenos Aires is the Israeli Guide published in 1946, 1947 and 1950, copies of which are found in the AMIA library. Telephone directories are the best source to find persons. There is one for each city and today these are also available on CD-Rom and online. Some old telephone guides are available in the National Library. But a great problem exists: because of the politics of the state telephone company that existed from 1945 to 1992, one could not obtain telephones without huge payments. There was a black market in the sale of telephones, and telephones that were not in the name of the real user. Even today, people who rent a property do not have the telephone in their own name, but rather, in the name of the owner of the property. This situation enormously hinders the location of people. In addition, many people do not update their listings, with the result that many telephones are listed in the directories at addresses where the holders have not lived for more than ten years. Until the 1950s directories called the Green Guides were published in Argentina. People registered their home and business addresses here, whether or not they had a telephone. Some libraries have copies of the Green Guides, but they are difficult to locate.

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Another source of information is the electoral censuses, where the women appear with maiden and married surnames. Because these documents provide the legal home address, it is possible to check that against the telephone guide and discover the number, even when it is registered in a different name. Civil Registrations All counties in Argentina are divided into departments: each has a civil registration office where one must go to seek death certificates. The offices do not answer requests by mail; neither do most employees understand English. For these reasons, it is extremely difficult to obtain a death certificate without some local help. The other possibility is to hire a specialized agency that can do that work by proxy. Jewish Institutions The interior of Argentina once had many Jewish Institutions, but as the Jewish population has decreased, some institutions have disappeared and others are greatly reduced. Places like Basavilbaso, Carlos Casares, Domínguez and Moisesville which once had a Jewish majority also had many cultural and other societies. All that remains today is the memory of these; in some places there is not a single Jewish family. Many books and commemorative magazines of these communities, with many lists of names still exist; they can be consulted in the library of the AMIA. There is a lot of available information for family research but time is required, and one has to do it in person. Command of Spanish is a necessity in order to read the documents. Lists of Colonists If the family being traced arrived in Argentina as part of the Baron de Hirsch program, one can try to look in lists of the colonists who owned land and in the lists of former colonists who abandoned and sold their farms. The AGJA has some of those listings, but they are not complete. The Jewish Colonization Association (Baron Hirsch Fund) created at least sixteen colonies and many sub-colonies. Other Jewish immigrants and former colonists created four independent colonies. Cemeteries in Argentina More than seventy Jewish cemeteries are currently in use in Argentina. Records of the largest ones, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Bahia Blanca, Rosario, Tucumán, Catamarca, Córdoba, Moisesville, Rivera, Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero and 121

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others (sixty-five cemeteries) are already computerized by AGJA. There are numerous cemeteries in the Province of Entre Rïos, the center of Jewish colonization, but they apparently do not have records of burials. For these, the only possibility is to record the cemetery in situ. Such a project is possible but requires considerable work, time, and money.

First burial (matzeive) made for the colonist, end 19th century

Cemeteries in Greater Buenos Aires Eleven Jewish cemeteries are located in the Greater Buenos Aires, all of them outside the city limits. They are: Liniers, Ciudadela (ashkenazi) Tablada and Berazategui, of AMIA Ashkenazi (AMIA is the Main Community Association); Lomas de Zamora Ashkenazi, of the Community of Lomas de Zamora; Avellaneda (Moroccans); Ciudadela of the Alepinos; Ciudadela and Bancalari of the Ladino-speaking Jews from Greece and Turkey; Lomas de Zamora of the Sephardim from Damascus and Beirut; and Tablada Sefaradí for Jews of Turkish origin. In addition, there is one abandoned cemetery where dealers in prostitution are buried along with the women involved. This cemetery is close to the Moroccan Jewish cemetery, and they took it under their care. No records or information is available for the people buried there. Several of the remaining Ashkenazi dealers in prostitution and their wives were buried in Tablada Sefaradi, after their cemetery mentioned above in Avellaneda was closed. Another cemetery for dealers and prostitutes lies near to Rosario City, 300 km from Buenos Aires. Rosario was a very important port on the river Paraná, with many prostitution houses, involving Jews, dealers and women. The cemetery is in Granadero Baigorria, close to the city cemetery. The following Jewish Communities administer the 11 existing cemeteries in Buenos Aires: 1. The Israeli Mutual Association Argentina (AMIA), the Ashkenazi Community administers four cemeteries, Liniers (opened in 1910), Ciudadela (opened in 1929), Tablada (opened in 1930) and Berazategui (opened in 1957). Only Tab122

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lada and Berazategui with more than 110,000 records are computerized by AMIA and are on the database. Because of the destruction of its building in the terrorist attack of 1994, AMIA lost most of its 150,000 original registrations; these records are being recreated from the books that were kept in the cemeteries. The Association of Jewish Genealogy of Argentina (AGJA) has computerized records of Liniers (with 23,000 registrations) and Ciudadela (with more than 6,000 registrations) 2. The Association Community Israeli Latin of Buenos Aires (ACILBA), an organization of Jews of Moroccan origin, has its cemetery in Avellaneda (Provincia de Buenos Aires). The list of those buried in the Moroccan cemetery number more than 2,200 and was computerized by AGJA. Created in 1900, it was the first Jewish cemetery in the Greater Buenos Aires area. Really the first Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires was the cemetery of the dealers of Jewish prostitution, today abandoned and under the care of the Moroccans. When the Chevra Kedusha Ashkenazi, in 1898, needed money to buy a cemetery, the powerful and rich T’mein (dealers of Jewish white slaves) offered to partner the Chevra Kedusha Ashkenazi, supplying the necessary funding in exchange for rights of burial. When their offer was rejected, they bought their own cemetery – in use up to 1945. The group who owned this cemetery was dissolved in 1934. There is no registration of those buried in this cemetery because the registration book is missing. Most of the tombs were vandalized in the hope of unearthing jewels 3. Bene Emeth is used by Jews from Damascus and Beirut. This cemetery was opened in 1913 in Lomas de Zamora, Provincia de Buenos Aires. More than 6,000 are buried here; AGJA received its computerized list 4. Association Israeli Community Sefaradí (ACIS) buries Jews from the Balkans, Greece, the island of Rhodes and Turkey. They began with the cemetery of Ciudadela and then they acquired that of Bancalari, also located in the Province of Buenos Aires. AGJA has just computerized both cemeteries, Ciudadela with 2,500 registrations and Bancalari with 3,700 registrations 5. The Israeli Association Sefaradí Argentina (AISA), composed of Syrian Jews from Aleppo, has its cemetery in Ciudadela, Province of Buenos Aires. Opened in 1929, this cemetery also has a section that belongs to the AMIA Ashkenazi and another to the Ladino-speaking Jews from Turkey (ACIS). The section that belongs to AISA has more than 4,400 computerized registrations, a copy of which has been given to AGJA 6. The Hebrew Association of Mutual Aid (AHSC) buries Jews of Turkish origin in the Tablada cemetery opened in 1930. AGJA is computerizing their roughly 1,000 registrations 123

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7. The South Ashkenazi Jewish Community of Buenos Aires has its own cemetery located in Lomas de Zamora, Province of Buenos Aires, where 1,500 are buried. The information from this cemetery has been computerized by AGJA For administrative reasons, all of the cemeteries listed above, except for the community of Lomas de Zamora, use death certificates issued by the City of Buenos Aires, even if the person died in the Province of Buenos Aires. This is fortunate for genealogists who only need to request a death certificate in the City of Buenos Aires, instead of having go to La Plata, the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, which is sixty kilometers from Buenos Aires. Jews are buried also in Colinas del Tiempo, a non-sectarian private garden cemetery. Incorporation of this cemetery into AMIA failed because Orthodox Jews objected that some ‘non-Jews’ (of mothers converted by a Reform community) are buried here. The cemetery has existed for approximately five years; AGJA does not have records of the burials. Some Jews are buried in non-sectarian cemeteries such as the municipal cemeteries of Chacarita and Flores. The Municipality of Buenos Aires holds records of burials in municipal cemeteries. Also non-sectarian are the private garden cemeteries such as Jardin de Paz and Memorial Park where one may buy a tomb and be buried without specifying religion. The AGJA does not have records of Jews buried in non-sectarian cemeteries. No specifically Jewish private cemetery exists inside Buenos Aires proper, the result of a special prohibition that, in 1898 and 1926, cancelled authorization for the opening of the Ashkenazi Jewish cemetery in the city. Because of this, Jews were buried between 1860 (?) – 1892 in the Second Cemetery of Dissidents in Buenos Aires, today called the First of May Park; later, between 1892 and 1900 they were buried in Chacarita sector city cemetery for Dissidents, and later from 1900 to 1935 in the Municipal Cemetery of Flores. From about 870 burials, 170 were moved with their monuments to Liniers Cemetery. The remaining graves were moved to a small house in the corner of the cemetery of Liniers as a common burial. The records of Flores inhumations were recovered by AGJA and computerized, as were the old records of the Cemetery of Dissidents of Victoria Park and the new Dissidents Cemetery in Chacarita, later divided into two cemeteries, British and German. In 1910, the Ashkenazi and Jewish community opened the Liniers Cemetery in the Province of Buenos Aires, across Avenida Gral. Paz, just outside the city limits from the neighborhood of that name. How to Search for Cemetery Information: If the person being sought was Ashkenazi, then begin with AMIA, the Ashkenazi Community of Buenos Aires. AMIA has computerized the names of people buried 124

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in the cemeteries of Tablada and Berazategui. The database of 120,000 names may be accessed via the last name or the year of death. Resulting information includes the specific date of death and location of the grave. Consultation can either be made in the central headquarters of AMIA or at the cemetery, which has a computergenerated map of the gravestones. AGJA has a copy of the database. Most of the Sefaradi burials have been computerized. This includes Avellaneda (Moroccans) with 2,200 records; Ciudadela (from Aleppo) with 4,400 burials; Bancalari (Ladino-speakers) with 3,700 graves and Ciudadela (Ladino-speakers) with 2,500 deceased, Tablada Sefaradim with 1,000 records and Lomás of Zamora Sefaradim, with 6,500 deceased. AGJA has all of the above information. NOTE Abbreviations used in the text: ACILBA: ACIS: AGJA: AHSC: AISA: AMIA: CEMLA: CIRA: JCA:

Association Community Israeli Latin of Buenos Aires Association Israeli Community Sefaradi Asociación de Genealogía Judía de Argentina www.agja.org.ar/ (accessed 2007) Hebrew Association of Mutual Aid Israeli Association Sefaradi Argentina Asociatión Mutual Israelita Argentina (Pasteur 633, Buenos Aires) www.amia.org.ar/ (accessed 2007) Center of Latin American Immigration (Independencia 20, Buenos Aires) email: [email protected] Israeli Community of the Republica Argentina Jewish Colonization Association

Other addresses: • • • • •

Dr Salvator Kibrick Jewish Museum, Libertad 769, Buenos Aires Electoral National Court, 25 de Mayo 245 1002, Buenos Aires Mark Turkow Center of Jewish Documentation, Pasteur 633, Buenos Aires Mormon Family History Center, Zavala 2005, Buenos Aires National General Archives (Archivos generales de la Nacion), Av. Leandro N.246, Buenos Aires • YIWO Institute for Jewish Research, ‘IWO of Argentina’, Pasteur 633, Buenos Aires

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HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE 2004 IN EAST RENFREWSHIRE Liz McGettigan Libraries and Information Manager, East Renfrewshire Council, Scotland and David McMenemy and Alan Poulter Department of Computer and Information Sciences University of Strathclyde, Scotland Abstract This paper discusses the implementation of a community portal and CD-Rom in East Renfrewshire Council, Scotland, aimed at commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. The area has one of the largest Jewish populations in Scotland and with some residents being Holocaust survivors, their own testimonies were used to ensure the portal was relevant to the local community. The site, which was runner-up in the CILIP/LiS Libraries Change Lives Award, also discusses other Holocausts throughout the world, and stands as a testament to all who have suffered in such atrocities. The site has been well received by the community and reflects how local immigrant communities can contribute to resources that can inform their local community and the world. Background to Project As the historic second-city of the British Empire, Glasgow and its surrounding area has seen much immigration in its long and successful history. Waves of immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe, who came to settle across the United Kingdom during the 19th century, brought thousands of Jews to Scotland, most of whom chose to make their homes in industrial Glasgow. Many of Glasgow's contemporary Jewish community have moved from the industrial parts of the city into East Renfrewshire, where many of the city's seven synagogues are located.

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The main page of the web portal As part of the commitment to this ethnic diversity in the local community, the local authority decided to build a community portal to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day in 2004, for which it was also hosting a commemorative exhibition.1 In creating this website and exhibition, content was developed in line with the National Holocaust Memorial Day, which aimed to: • Recognise that the Holocaust was a tragically defining episode of the 20th century, a crisis for European civilisation and a universal catastrophe for humanity 1

The site can be accessed on: www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/holocaust

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• Provide a national mark of respect for all victims of Nazi persecution and demonstrate understanding with all those who still suffer its consequences • Raise awareness and understanding of the events of the Holocaust as a continuing issue of fundamental importance for all humanity • Ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed during the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world • Restate the continuing need for vigilance in light of the troubling repetition of human tragedies in the world today • Reflect on recent atrocities that raise similar issues • Provide a national focus for educating subsequent generations about the Holocaust and the continued relevance of the lessons that are learnt from it • Provide an opportunity to examine our nation's past and learn for the future • Promote a democratic and tolerant society, free of the evils of prejudice, racism and other forms of bigotry • Support the Government's commitment that all citizens – without distinction – should participate freely and fully in the economic, social and public life of the nation • Highlight the values of a tolerant and diverse society based upon the notions of universal dignity and equal rights and responsibilities for all its citizens • Assert a continuing commitment to oppose racism, anti-Semitism, victimisation and genocide It was important to ensure that the broad aims for the project were in line with those of the day. The commemoration is a national annual event, and as such attempts to ensure that events all operate under the aims listed above. In this way the partnership developed could ensure that the resources created achieved the widest possible impact; satisfying national goals while also reflecting the experiences of members of the local community. It was decided that the site would be developed with representatives from the Jewish community within East Renfrewshire and include unique audio testimonies, as well as links to a multitude of material on the Holocaust and genocide. Input was also sought from the disabled, homosexual and Romany communities to emphasise their barbaric treatment during the Holocaust, sometimes less well documented. One of the main goals for the site was to help ensure that the local community and especially young people would never forget the Holocaust and were also aware of current genocides. An accompanying CD-Rom would be created containing the same resources to help support wide dissemination of the project to schools and other community groups.

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The Resources created The emerging web resource is built around five key sections: Testimonies Culture Non-Jewish victims Other Holocausts Events and resources Building the portal under these headings was a huge undertaking, as it meant working with the community to gather resources. A vital component of the site would be the oral testimonies of members of the Jewish community in East Renfrewshire who had experienced at first hand the horrors of the Holocaust. It was felt this would bring the history to the young people in the community in a more realistic fashion. Indeed, the origins and lives of the community are well documented via the oral testimonies, offering a glimpse of reality of what it was like being a Jewish person during the Holocaust. One such testimony is from Reverend Ernest Levy, who emigrated to Scotland in 1961 and was a survivor of the concentration camps. Ernest recalls the tragedy of losing his family members in the Holocaust, yet his final hope is that the sharing of such experiences can aid the healing process: All the while we have tried to share our first hand experiences. The first step to the healing process is to share your experiences and it also helps the world to know what happened to mankind, how low mankind can sink when people are reduced to beasts and manipulated by dictators. The Holocaust was an outrage against humanity. It is difficult to find an expression to describe it. It is the ultimate of human degradation and humiliation. We are trying to tell the world so this cannot happen again and we have learned a lot, although many have still not learned from the past unfortunately.

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The accompanying CD-Rom Other testimonies from East Renfrewshire residents include the full illustrated text of Dorrith M. Sim’s children’s book, In My Pocket, which recounts the story of her traveling to Britain as a child on the Kindertransport to escape the persecution of the Nazis: I was seven and a half when my visa was stamped on 26 July. There were almost 10,000 children like me, who came to the United Kingdom before World War II began. Some of us were babies; most of us were Jewish. We were each given a place on a Kindertransport out of Nazi Europe. After the War, some of us were reunited with our families. Sadly, many of us were not, and we either stayed in our new countries, where we grew up, or went to live in different countries, all over the world.

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Dorrith M. Sim's In My Pocket At the heart of the site is the message of the universality of experience of victims of ethnic genocide. While much of the emphasis is on the Jewish community, due to the nature of the day it was commemorating, the testimonials from other communities put the experiences in a wider context for visitors. Thus it was also important to the creators of the resource to allow young people to put the Holocaust in not only its World War II context, but as an example of how genocide can affect ethnic communities in the world across the decades, as well as educating them about the local impact such atrocities have. The site emphasizes other atrocities such as those seen in recent years in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia-Herzegovina that affected other ethnic groups as well as the Jewish community. Local schools in the area were included in the project and pupils were asked to create artwork and poetry built around the themes of Holocaust. This material is especially well suited to presentation via the site, and has ensured the site is a truly multi-generation community-based effort.

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User Feedback Since the site went live in January of 2004, feedback received has been immensely gratifying, not merely from visitors to the site and exhibition, but also from the wider professional community. A virtual Guest Book allowed visitors to post their own comments about the information presented on the site and on the accompanying physical exhibition which complimented the site. Below are some of the comments received about the exhibition and site: 07-JAN-04 I am proud that East Renfrewshire remembers the tragedy of the Holocaust every year, proud that we have the largest Jewish Population in Scotland and proud that we have a large and growing Muslim population. I'm most proud that we all live together as one community. Perhaps we are learning. If we are, a large part of the reason is this Memorial. 10-JAN-04 A moving and at times harrowing exhibition. I am so appreciative of the Council's expertise in putting on this display in conjunction with the other bodies concerned. I thought the venue, in such dignified surroundings, added to the poignancy of this event. I thought the way in which events in World War II were brought in to the context of present day life (Bosnia, Stephen Lawrence etc.) was especially relevant. Will we ever learn? 21-JAN-04 I learned a lot about what happened and I think it was a terrible thing. The more people who know about it the better and they should never be forgotten. 25-FEB-04 This is a brilliant website. Huge thanks to those who made this website possible, it's a great help for school projects. Cheers. Another visitor to the site who completed the Guest Book, imparted his own story about an acquaintance he met who had suffered great loss as a result of the genocide in Bosnia: 19-MAR-04 Hello. Few months ago I met a girl from Bosnia in London where I live (I am Spanish). She is in London since before the horrible war started in her country. She is in Bosnia in this moment after over 10 years without see her mom and grandma who died just days before she goes. I fell very sad for her. I cannot imagine how hard has to be live far away from your country with the impossibility to back for several years. And when you are allowed find the place where you used to live destroyed and your family house full of bullets holes with no money to take them off and forget as soon as you can what happened there. My friend is depressed and 133

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she wants come back because when she left 14 years ago her country was a nice place, now, she says the only thing she is got in there is her mother. Recounting the Rwandan genocide What horrible is the war and what horrible is leave your home your family and your friends to come back a decade after and find only destruction. Thanks very much.

One of the most beneficial aspects to creating a web resource of an exhibition that may only be in a physical location for a short time, is that the web version can remain available permanently, and be a resource that is available to a larger audience of visitors from all around the country and the world. The Holocaust Memorial Day site, then, stands as a testament for the future, and visitors to the site can access the gathered material 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, ensuring the hard work put into the development is continuingly worthwhile. It is anticipated that the material gathered will continue to be an educational resource for the community in East Renfrewshire and beyond.

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Libraries can become essential tools for education in local history by emphasising the need to create digital versions of any local history exhibitions they create. While housing such exhibitions within local community libraries is a valuable service, when such a large amount of research is invested into providing an informative gateway to the resource, it seems a wasted opportunity to allow the work to be limited only to a time when a physical exhibition can be sited. To this end, the creation of the Holocaust Memorial Day site simultaneously with the physical exhibition, has been a major success for the library service. National recognition for project In an exciting development for the service and those involved in creating the site, the 2004 CILIP/LiS Libraries Change Lives Award short-listed the project. This award recognises innovative and exciting work in the fields of social inclusion, education and life-long learning in libraries and their communities. The recognition from CILIP reflected the fact that both the CD-Rom and the web site are aimed at the whole community and have been used as an educational tool in libraries and schools across Scotland. Councillor Allan Steele, convener for community services in East Renfrewshire, said: ‘I’m delighted that the outstanding work of our libraries has been recognised and shortlisted for this prestigious award. The Holocaust Remembrance Project is part of East Renfrewshire's community portal approach, which aims to promote IT as a way of enhancing opportunity and quality of life, to improve access to citizens' information, provide education and learning opportunities and to support a sense of place in communities. The project has been welcomed by our Jewish community and the wider Jewish community throughout the world.’ Nigel Thomas from Leicestershire Libraries and Information Service is chair of the judges. He said: ‘We saw a particularly good variety of projects this year. The decision on which entries to shortlist was a tough one, as all the entries reflected the innovative ideas library and information services are bringing to their communities. East Renfrewshire is showing how community work can result in the creation of first rate learning materials on the web and CD-Rom with its work with holocaust survivors.’ Conclusion The work on the project reflects how the local aspect to an international tragic event such as the Holocaust is of paramount importance in allowing the local community to better understand their own place in history. Added to this, the opportunity to put such tragedies as the Holocaust in context with similar, and more recent, events such as those experienced in Rwanda and Bosnia, can aid the education process for children and young people, and ensure that such events are never forgotten. Worldwide 135

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events can have an enormous impact on the local history of communities, and the project has brought this home to the community of East Renfrewshire in an informative and reflective way.

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FROM EUROPE TO MISIONES: SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF IMMIGRATION Belarmina Benítez de Vendrell Department of Librarianship, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Argentina Abstract This paper brings together a bibliography of historical sources dealing with the subject of European immigration to the Province of Misiones, Argentina. These sources, documentary and non-documentary, demonstrate and record the many complex experiences undergone by the immigrants. The sources can be documents of all kinds or objects. They can be held in institutions such as universities, museums, archives, libraries, churches, and NGOs. The sources can be the testimony of historians, of university professors, of the sons, daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original settlers. As well as books and printed matter, research works and theses, the source material includes film, music, recordings and pieces of art. Introduction The Province of Misiones (AR) in Argentina occupies a relatively small area of 29.801sq.km., but it has a large population of one million inhabitants, bearing in mind that a third of the province is given over to the conservation of native flora and wild fauna. At present different cultures co-exist in the province. Each of these distinct cultures is linked to an historical wave of immigration, and to the character of the groups of official or private colonists as they established their communities in the Province. There have been several stages in the colonisation of Misiones. Each has been marked by significant historical events, such as the Jesuitical objective of a theocratic government, the French period (Bonpland, 1821; Despouy, 1827; Brougnes and Lelong, 1853), the Paraguayan occupation (1832) and the war of the Triple Alliance (1865–1870). This latter produced a heterogeneous grouping that included peoples from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Spain, Italy and France alongside people of other nationalities. Between 1870 and 1930 there was another wave of colonisation. Archaeological remains – buildings, tools and domestic utensils – have been found in a good state of conservation. The history of this time is marked by the cultural interaction of daily 137

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life, of the voices and writing of different languages, distinct proprieties, understandings and misunderstandings, alliances and struggles, individual identities and differences. The historic evidence demonstrates fragments of a history of intercultural contacts deeply marked by inter-ethnic relations. The most important European immigration took place at this time. Contracts of colonisation were registered with Augusto Vasco, Firmat, Nap, Wilcken (1876) and Otto Rosse (1877). By 1897 peasants from Poland and Ukraine arrived in the country. The lives of individual immigrants as well as that of their communities have produced specific evidence, which can be used today to give researchers an understanding of the likes, values and traditions of the missionary people. This bibliography lists a selection of primary sources, which indexes the history of European immigration to the Province of Misiones, and gives a voice to the experiences of these early settlers. Institutions: Universities, Research Centres, Archives, Libraries, Museums and other organisations collect material related to immigration. People: Historians, teachers, and the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of immigrants have a real heritage handed down through the generations. Sources: Books, periodical articles, movies, videos, music, recordings; research works, presentations, translations, works of art, and memoirs, etc. These listed sources do not include historical evidence on certain immigrant groups such as Russian, English and some others. These colonists have not produced any written records about themselves, though they are represented in some of the other works. This bibliography is in two parts: • Source material on immigration in general • Source material on particular communities Institutions are arranged by name, people by surnames, and documents by title. Abbreviations indicating the location of the documents are as follows: B-CAP Library of the German Consulate of Posadas B-CRPM Library of the House of Representatives of the Province of Misiones B-FHyCS Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences B-ISPARM Library of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya College B-JEH Library of Historical Studies Source material on immigration in general Apostoles: Origin, evolution and crisis of the agricultural European colonisation in the S.E. of Misiones: a socio-anthropological perspective / Leopoldo Bartolomé. – 138

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Posadas: Institute of Research, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, 1974. – 96p. – Research report Nº 012. – B-JEH. Contents: The ecological environment. Settlement and socio-economic features. Polish-Ukrainian agricultural colonisation. Agricultural development. Apostoles y su historia / Bernardo Alassia. – Posadas: (Lumicop), 1974.252 p. – B-CRPM. Contents: Apostoles' foundation. The arrival of the first immigrants. Colonisation from 1897. Public administration, education, religion, health, communications, transport, agriculture, cattle rearing and commerce. Atlas General de la Provincia de Misiones / Statistics and Censuses – Secretary of Planning and Control of the province of Misiones. – Posadas: 1978. – 153p. maps and plans; 38x32 cm. – B-CRPM. Contents: Population. Changes in the departmental borders. Evolution of the population. Geographical distribution of the whole population, including the immigrant families. Gross and rural population densities, Pyramid of population. Origin of the population. Internal and other migrations. Aspectos sociales de la colonia Tacuaruzú y Profundidad / Néstor David Frutos. – Posadas: Licentiate in Social Work, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, 1998. – Dissertation. – 46p. – B-FHyCS. B-CRPM. Contents: The rural family in its economic and social context. General features of Misiones Province. Soil. Flora. Population development. Different stages of the colonisation. Land tenancy until 1937. The agricultural structure. The second expansion of the yerba mate and the new crisis. Family agricultural development. The producers of Tacuaruzú and Profundidad. Producers, colonists and peasants. Occupational category of the producers. Manpower. Ethnic origins and historical references on the population of the area. Structure of the population and how this developed. Capioví / Renato Luft. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1981. – 82p.: il. Contents: Capioví. Stages in the colonisation. Social institutions. Families of Brazilian- German origin in Ruiz de Montoya, families of Swiss origin in Puerto Leoni, families of Italian and Paraguayan origin. – B-JEH. BCRPM. B-CAP. B-FhyCS. Cartas de Misiones / Rafael Hernández, Historical scientific and descriptive outline of the Misiones in Argentina. – Buenos Aires: Luz del Alma, 1887. – 153, XXXth p. – Appendices. – B-FhyCS. 139

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Colonias y colonizadores en Misiones / Leopoldo José Bartolomé. – Posadas: Institute of Research, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, 1982. -37p. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. Contents: Opening of the pioneering front. Origins of the first colonists. Colonisation of the central part of the Alto Parana valley. Characteristics and balance of the process of colonisation. ‘The colonisation in Misiones / Juan Queirel. – p. 364-485. – In his: Misiones. – Buenos Aires: Typographical Workshop of the National Penitentiary, 1897. – 506p.: il. – B-FhyCS. ‘El colono en Misiones’ / Juan B. Ambrosetti. – p. 156-160. – In: Documents of regional geohistoria. – nº 2 (1983). – Resistencia: Institute of Geo – historic Research, 1983. – 168p.: il. – Two studies on Misiones: Travel to the Misiones in Argentina and Brazil by the Alto Uruguay: Overview of the territory of Misiones. – B-FhyCS. Colonos y ocupantes: kinship, reciprocity and social differentiation on the agrarian border of Misiones / Schiavoni, Gabriela. – Posadas: University Publishing House, 1998. – 236p.: graphs – (Contemporary Collection).- BFhyCS. Contents: Social agrarian differentiation and the formation of the rural sector of the Province of Misiones. Agrarian border and social differentiation. Familiar obligations and economy. Familiar strategies and social reproduction. Social itineraries in Monte Nuevo and La Picada. Dónde durmieron nuestros abuelos?: The immigrants' hotels in Capital Federal/ Ochoa de Eguilear and Eduardo Valdez. – [Buenos Aires]: Foundation METROPOLIS, 1991. – B-ISPARM. Esmeralda y rubí: Stories of love, passion and blood / Arnoldo Troxler. -Posadas: (Creative), 1994. – 211p. – B-CAP. Contents: Stories of personal experiences and events in Misiones, Brazil and Paraguay. The expansion of the agrarian border in the North-east of Misiones: The colonisation plan of Andresito 1978–1983 / Jorge Pyke. – Posadas: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad nacional de Misiones, 1998. – 54p. – A report of the PISPAD Nº 16. Report produced by the project ALDER. – B-FhyCS. Contents: The colonisation plan, Andresito: the precedents; the geographical area 140

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and the first studies; bureaucratic organization, economic interests and military logistics; technical and political decisions: the need of population. Colonisation : Agricultural Development and national sovereignty; access to the land and profile of the colonist; owners and pioneers; the Colonel: a promoter of the colonisation; The Andresito plan in the democratic transition. Guía General de la Provincia de Misiones: 1928–1929 / Atanasio Sosa. – 2nd ed. – Posadas: A. Soda, 1928. – 320p.: il. Contents: geographical description of Misiones: general aspect, climate, hydrograph, flora, fauna, soil, minerals. Plans. Industry and commerce. Public institutions, tourism and colonisation. Agriculture. Studies of the mate and the silkworm. History of Eldorado / Cristino Chamorro. – Eldorado, 1967. – 20p. – Unpublished. Typed. – B-CAP. La Inmigración en Argentina / Juan Carlos Blassiotto; M.M.B of Holz; N. Kegler. – Posadas: Escuela Normal ‘Estados Unidos del Brasil’, 1978. – 65p.: il. – Unpublished. Seminar paper on the socio-economic cultural problems of the Region. – B-CRPM. Contents: Province of Misiones. Population of the departments and municipalities. Relief, climate, hydrograph, flora, soil. Aboriginal population. ‘Inmigración y colonización’. – p. 13-15. – Historic review of the municipalidad of Posadas: 1872–1972 / Horacio M. Belastegui. – Posadas: Departament of Social Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, 1974. – 28p. – B-FhyCS. Los inmigrantes de la zona centro de Misiones / Its influence on the economic and cultural development / Heriberto G. Ferreyra. – Oberá: (Venus, impr.), s.f. – 102p.: il. – B-JEH. Contents: The immigrants in Oberá, Misiones. Jornadas sobre poblamiento, colonización e inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior del Profesorado Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999 . – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. I Jornadas – 20–21 August. 1999. – 310p.: il. Contents: Spanish immigration in the Territory of Misiones (1867–1902): The pioneers. Population and immigration in Puerto Piray. Emigrant / Immigrant. Slavonic immigration. Polish immigration. Swiss colonisation in Misiones and the work of Dr. Markus Glatz. Testimonies of the Polish-Ukrainian colonisation. The history of San Pedro. The Swiss in San Ignacio. A German in Misiones: Egar José 141

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Luft. Emilio Poujade (1874–1935). The first families and the foundation of Santa Rita. Opening ‘picadas’ with an uncertain future. Eugenio Lagier: a visionary. 1873–1927. The social context of the German colonists in ‘the country of milk and honey’. The way of the colonist: The kitchen in the colony of Eldorado. The literature of the immigration. Reginaldo Krieger: pioneer and patriarch. Portrait of the first pioneer in Puerto Rico: Don Federico Scheifler. The Swiss colony of Santo Pipó (1919–1928). The access to the public in the National Territory of Misiones (1894–1943). Rescue of the historical memory of Eldorado. Educational politics in the official colonies of the Southeast of Misiones: 1897– 1930. A pattern of settlement: its historical evolution in the Province of Misiones. II Jornadas – 24–25 August, 2001. – 396p.: il. Contents: Characterisation of the different processes of population of the Province of Misiones: His contributions to the shape of the identity province (emphasising the role of the groups of agricultural colonisation). The Italian ones in Campo Ramón (1920–1940): an historical view. – The Picada Marcondes and the homonym San Pedro. Immigrants’ architecture in Oberá. A century of Spanish immigration in the Province of Misiones (1870–1970). German – Brazilian of the Alto Paraná in Misiones. Two Italian ones: Carlos Bosetti and Basilio de Simón and his integration to Candelaria's micro space. The National Festival of the Immigrant (Oberá) as an event of preservation and diffusion of legacies of the immigration in Misiones. Father José Bayerlein Marianski and a pioneers' colony: Azara, daily life in the colony: the domestic environment and customs of the German – Brazilian immigrants in Puerto Rico. Some testimonies of the Italian immigration in Misiones. The colonizing proposal of Juan J. Lanusse. On May 7, 1946: a people is born in The Alto Paraná: Jardín América. Memories of Ema Brañas of Artaza. Miguel Lanus. III Jornadas – 29–30 August, 2003. – 279p.: il. Contents: Ceremonial meals: some customs of the Slavonic colonisation in Misiones. The legacy: Cultural Ukrainian Association of Posadas “August 27th”. The Italian immigration to Misiones. The Vogel fest: a familiar tradition. Promises and challenges of the German colonisation in the Alto Parana. German priests in the sight. The concept of nation in the immigrant galitziano at the end of the XIX century and beginning of the XX century. Don Adolfo J. Schwelm and his colonizing project. Immigrants and political power in Candelaria. Rescuing our roots by the founders. A community of the Alto Parana: Puerto Esperanza. The contribution of the Italian community in Misiones. The role of the Ukrainian woman. The historical construction of the space from the development of an agricultural community: The experience of Helmut Knott, a farmer of Montecarlo. Genealogical tree, a contribution to the study of the family. 142

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La masacre de Oberá, 1936 / Silvia Andrea Waskiewicz. – Posadas: Publishing House: Universidad de Misiones, 2002. – 157p.: il. – B-CAP. Contents: A historical panorama 1930–1940. From protest to massacre. Places of the memory. Memoria de la gobernación de Misiones: -1899 / Juan Lanusse. – Buenos Aires: Typographical workshop of the Penitenciaría Nacional, 1900. – 53p. – B-FhyCS. Contents: Colonisation. Colonies: Apostoles, Corpus, Candelaria, Santa Ana, San Ignacio and Bonpland. Vialidad. Mate. The registry of property. Mortgages, embargos and inhibitions. Acquisition of property. Commerce. The Post office and telephones. Public education. Worship. Public charity. Budget. Memorias de Puerto Rico: 1819–1999 / Benno Reckziegel. – Puerto Rico: (Dinámica), 1999. – 185p.: il. – B-CAP. Migraciones en la provincia de Misiones / Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones; Department of Statistics and Censuses of the Province of Misiones. – Posadas, 1975. – 2 v. – B-CRPM. Vol. 1: Study of the migrations based on the national censuses of population 1947, 1960 and 1970 / Alfredo E. Lattes. – 48p.: il.: graphs. Vol. 2: The survey of migrations in the province of Misiones / César Aguirre; Mario Boleda. – 62p.: il: graphs. ‘Misiones’. – p. 90-110. – In: Argentinien: aine landeskundliche einführung / von Dr. W. Rohmeder. – Buenos Aires: E. Beutelspacher, 12937. – 216p.: il. – B-CAP. Misiones: A través del primer cincuentenario de su federalización: 1881–December 20 – 1931 / Raimundo Fernández Ramos. – Posadas, s.f. - B-FhyCS. Contents: General aspects of the territory. River navigation. People and agricultural colonies. Colonisation of the territory. The big owners. Agricultural production, the sericícula industry, the vegetable coal, cattle, mate. Famous victims of the mate : Aimé Bonpland; Moisés Bertoni; Carlos Bosetti. Forest wealth of Misiones. Notas sobre la historia de Misiones / Fernando Jaume [et to.]. – Posadas: Secretary of research , Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1989. – 51p.: il. – Paper I Project POBUR. UNaM – CONICET. – B-CRPM. Contents: The colonial formation. The interactive front. The expansion of agriculture. ‘Pertenencia étnica de la población rural’. – p. 276-287. – In: A study on the standard of living of the rural population of Misiones. – Posadas: Department of Statis143

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tics and Censuses of the Province of Misiones, 1971. – t.2, 531p.: pictures. – BCRPM. La población de Misiones : dinámica y desarrollo / Marta S. de Palou; Laura M. Cazzolli. – Posadas: Center of Studies of Population, Department of Statistics and Censuses, Secretary of Planning, 1981. 30p.: graphs. - B-CRPM. Primera Edición [Newspaper] / Francisco Javier Wipplinger, president. – 21 ago. 1991. – Posadas: Primera Edición, 1991– Contents: The Immigrants’ Festival. Articles about immigrants and pioneers in the sections: La segunda / Espectáculos / Lo que nos pasa / Suplemento Docente / Cultura, among others. Procesos de integración en una sociedad multiétnica: 1880–1985 / Roberto Abínzano. – Seville: University of Seville, 1985. – 1,200p.: pictures, graphs. – Doctoral dissertation. – Unpublished. Contents: Formation of the missionary and regional society across the different systems of occupation and colonisation. Problemas sociales y económicos de Misiones / Francisco Suaiter Martínez. – Buenos Aires: Instituto Cultural, Joaquín V. González, 1928. – 202p.: pictures. – B-FhyCS. Contents: The territory and his sources of wealth. The national feeling. Geographical nomenclature. The nature and the work of the man. Distribution of the land. The problem of colonisation. ‘Repoblamiento y nueva organización de Misiones’ / Maria Angélica Amable; Karina Dohmann; Liliana Rojas. – p. 111-158. – In their : Misiones History: an integration perspective. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1996. – 161p.: il. – B-FhyCS. Pioneros [radio program] / José Miguel Lachowski. – Posadas: Radio Tupá Mbaé, 2002–. – FM 105.9 and AM 1150; – Oberá, FM 102.7. – Saturdays from 6:00 to 8:00 am – recordings in cassettes or CDs. – Radio Tupá Mbaé. Contents: Stories about the traditions and customs of the immigrants. Music. Recipes of meals. Autobiographical stories of special characters in the different communities. Main historical events. Misiones: Tierra prometida [play] / Adhemar Bianchi, dir. – Posadas: The Band of street musicians of the Station, 2002. – Unpublished. The Band of street musicians of the Station. 144

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A historical and humorous stage play about the fortunes of the arrival and settlement of European colonists in the Province of Misiones. Institutions holding relevant research material Archivo General de la gobernación de Misiones Address: Felix de Azara nº 367.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina Collection: Laws, decrees, resolutions, official bulletins, mail from the governors dating from 1882 to the present. Budgets. Documents (books, specialist magazines, unpublished material) referring to the history of the people of Misiones; culture; immigration; the railroad; dams; atlases: censuses. Primera Edición (newspaper archive) Address: Cordoba 1738.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Articles and pictures of the immigrants. El Territorio (newspaper archive) Address: Córdoba 1738.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Supplements. Articles and pictures of the immigrants. Cathedral of Posadas (Roman Catholic cathedral archive) Address: Gral. St Martin nº 335.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Records of baptisms and marriages celebrated in churches and parishes in the diocese of Misiones. Parishioners’ records. Library of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Nacional de Misiones Address: Tucumán 1946, N3300BSP Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Books, periodicals, dissertations and monographs. Library Clotilde González de Fernández Ramos. Junta of Historical Studies of Misiones Address: Alberdi 600.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Books, periodicals, dissertations and monographs. Library Kaul Grünwald. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Nacional de Misiones Address: Tucumán 1946, 1st piso. – N3300BSP Posadas, Misiones. Collection: Books, periodical publications, dissertations and monographic works.

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Misiones Library. Instituto Superior del Profesorado Antonio Ruiz de Montoya Address: Ayacucho 1962. – 3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Books, periodicals, dissertations and monographs. Centre of Historical Studies. Secretary of Research. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Nacional de Misiones Address: Tucumán 1605.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Source documents – published and unpublished. Centre of Family History – Church of Jesus Christ and Latterday Saints Address: Av. Roque Saenz Peña 1918.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Microfilms, CDs and data bases with information on c.800,000,000 people from all countries. Available to carry out genealogical research. Centre of Historical Studies. Secretary of Research. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Nacional de Misiones Address: Tucumán 1605.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Published and unpublished source documents. Center of Historical Research. Guillermo Furlong Address: Ayacucho 1962.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: a library centre with specialist documentary sources- published and unpublished. The Band of the Street Musicians of the Station: Group of Independent Theatre Address: San Luis 1640.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. The Group stages historical and humorous plays. Cooperativo Museum Address: Av. St Martin 1879, Km.9. – 3380 Eldorado, Misiones Argentina. This is an active museum, with rooms equipped for interviews and recordings, videos. The museum also holds temporary exhibitions, courses and workshops. Collection: 250 edited videos on cassette VHS, Super VHS and DVD containing interviews with immigrant pioneers, some of whom have now passed away. Approx.1,000 unedited videos on the Eldorado colony. 30,000 photos of the settlement and its inhabitants, including the first marriage celebrated in the colony, and the first woman born there. There are also photos of the presidents of the Cooperativa Agrícola de Eldorado. Objects brought by the immigrants or acquired by them during the first stages of the development of the settlement: trunks and suitcases, flags, clothes (formal and 146

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casual clothes, baby clothes, uniforms), accessories (umbrellas, change purses, jewellery), fishing equipment, tools brought from Europe or made by the settlers, kitchen utensils, books, musical instruments. Permanent exhibition about the Gendarmeria Nacional: This institution has its own space in the museum because of its importance in the first stage of colonisation. Set of instruments belonging to the first midwife of the Eldorado colony Drawings by the first painter of Eldorado, Enrique Staubitz Published and unpublished material, including details of the pioneers, aborigines, associations, churches, firemen, property, and blueprints for the first houses. El Gayrá, Museum Address: Blas Parera 3817.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Documents on the history of navigation in the Parana River: pictures, books, periodicals, navigation charts. Historical Museum Juan Szychowski Address: C.C. nº 53350. Lot 280.-3350 Apostoles, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Material relating to the history and production of mate. Old carriages for the transportation of goods and people. Hardware for the cutting and harvesting of mate leaves. A rice mill. Machines, other objects and furniture made by a Polish immigrant, Juan Szychowski. Historical Museum Father Antonio Sepp Address: Esc. Nº 611, km 11.-3378 Puerto Esperanza, Misiones. Collection: items of archaeology, ethnography and local folklore. Historical Museum and archive of the Municipalidad de Oberá Address: Parque de las Naciones, Route 14.-3360 Oberá, Misiones. Collection: Historic material from the time of immigration, and from the period of the foundation of the city. Objects belonging to the pioneering families of Oberá: tools, hardware, photographs, and murals. Historical documents. Archaeology from the Rio Uruguay (lítico of the prehistoric period). Museo Municipal Park Schwelm Address: Park Schwelm, km 1.-3380 Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Objects and bibliographical material belonging to the first settlers, especially the German immigrants. Material lítico of the paleolithic period: tops of arrows and carved stone, boleadoras.

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Museo Provincial San Ignacio de Loyola Address: 9 de Julio 703.-San Jose, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: archaeological and ethnographic material from the Jesuit period and from the 20th century. Museo Provincial Miguel Nadasdy Address: Sarmiento 557.-3322 San Ignacio, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Ceramics, tools, and documents brought from Europe by the Romanian immigrant M. Nadasdy. Archaeological material: a censer of San Ignacio's Reductions; a Patient Christ and a Moisés. Candels; a Jesuitical column in stone bas-relief. Pieces from the periods of guaranítico and Jesuitic Guarani. Museo Raíces Address: Av. St Martin 1.450.-3334 Puerto Rico, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: local historical and archaeological finds. Documents, clothing, tools, furniture and other objects used by the first German immigrants at the beginning of century. Wood carved sculptures. Museo y Archivo Histórico Padre Diego de Alfaro Address: Belgrano 849.-3350 Apostles, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: historical material from: the prehistoric era: material lítico and ceramics from the different indigenous cultures – the period of the Jesuits: tiles, headstones, carved stones, iron and lead objects – the period of colonisation: objects demonstrating the lives of the first settlers. Primera Edición S.A. Publishers of the newspaper Primera Edición Address: Cordoba 1738.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. El Territorio S.A.I.C. y F. Publishers of the El Territorio Address: Av. Quaranta 4307.-3300 Poadas, Misiones, Argentina. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Universidad Nacional de Misiones Address: Tucumán 1601, 3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Research papers. Proofs and final reports. Contacts specialising in the history of this period ABINZANO, Roberto. Doctor in Anthropology and ethnology of America email: [email protected]

148

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BELASTEGUI, Horacio M. Doctor in History Address: Tucumán 1946, 2nd floor, Area Empresas.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina email: [email protected] GALASSO, Maria C. Historian and researcher on immigrants of different nationalities in the ex-colony of Eldorado. Address: Km.9, Av. San Martin 1879.-3380 Eldorado email: [email protected] TORRES DE NOVARESIO, Gloria Beatriz. Archivist and researcher Address: Pedernera 2037.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3752. 43-58-04, email: [email protected] KÜFFER OF HANANÍA, Mirtha Ana. Librarian, specialising in reference . Address: Chubut 2033.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3752. 45-83-53, email: [email protected] Source material on particular communities German immigration German immigrants reached the Province of Misiones at two different periods. Though these were close in time, they were a consequence of differing events. The first German group came to Misiones during the Private Colonization of 1919. The second group was part of a wave of immigration resulting from the economic problems experienced by Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during and after World War II. The colonizing companies acquired large estates and founded their colonies. Germans, entering the country by way of the Port of Buenos Aires, as well as the political and economic immigrants from Brazil and Paraguay, settled there. So Misiones was not populated exclusively by German citizens. However, their influence was strong and their legacy can be seen even today. Documentary sources Aquellos tiempos / José Maria Birkel. – Buenos Aires: s.n., 1950. – 160p. -BISPARM. Contents: The experiences of a German missionary, of the religious congregation of the Divine Word Missionaries, as he journeyed to the interior of Misiones. ‘Alemanes-brasileños en el Alto Paraná: a contribution.’ / Maria Cecilia Gallero. – p. 110-120. – In: the Segundas Jornadas Sobre Poblamiento, Colonización ... 149

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‘La ambientación social de los colonos alemanes en el país de la leche y la miel.’ / Ortiz Rafael O. – p.165-173. – In: I Jornadas de Poblamiento, Colonización … Ardua fue la lucha: Destino de colonos alemanes en la selva / Heinrich Weyreuter. – Posadas: University Publishing House of Misiones, 1992. – 136p.: il. – (Memory Books) – B-CAP. Contents: History of the Montecarlo colony, describing the arrival at Buenos Aires, Posadas, and on to the colony – accommodation, the first cow, lobsters, religion, the club, the first cinema. The Creoles, the quarrels. Así fue: Historia de una familia de inmigrantes y sus descencientes / Gisela Meier zu Bentrupp. – Buenos Aires: (Gráficos y Servicios), 2000. – 61p.: il. – B-CAP. Contents: A history of the author’s family life in Eldorado. The German colonisation in Misiones / Ingrid Wiedmann [et to.]. – Posadas: University Publishing house of Misiones, 2001. – 169p.: il. – (Memory Books). – Co-authors: M. K. Dohmann; M.M. Hirch; G. Hassel; C. Wöllert; L.E. Hilbert; H. Müller. – Second Literary Historical Contest of the German Immigration to Misiones, with the auspices of the Secretaría de Estado de Cultura de Misiones and others. – B-CAP. B-FhyCS. Contents: The German- Brazilian colonisation of Montecarlo and Eldorado. One way ticket. The dilemma. German immigrants’ testimonies. Gringo. The German Colonisation in Misiones / Teodosio Andrés Quarter [et to.]. – Posadas: Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2003. – 165p.: il. – (Books of the region). – Co-authors: E. I. German's Aretz; R. U. Otto; the Ist. Wiedmann; M. C. Aranda; P. M. Sahlin; And. Neuberger of Machado; M. Henning; C. Sikora; R. O. Ortiz; M. A. Marek. – To the Pioneering Woman. – Third Literary Historical Contest of the German Immigration to Misiones with the auspices of the Secretaría de Estado de Cultura de la Provincia de Misiones and others. – B-CAP. B-FhyCS. Contents: Elsa Ploche: a pioneer of the Alto Parana. The pioneering woman. Emilia Bischoff de Ferreyra Díaz. Mrs Emma. Edith's dreams. History of a pioneer of the Alto Parana. Brave Matilde. The correction. Immigrant women. Pioneering German women in Misiones. La Colonización alemana en Misiones: Testimonies / Consulado de Alemania – Corrientes: Junta de Estudios Históricos de Misiones, 1998. – 148p.: photos. – Coauthors: J. Heck; F. Emategui; And. Bouix of Baena; L. Gomez Escobar's Kropp; And. Bauernfeind; F. R. Unternäher. First Literary Historical Contest of the German Immigration to Misiones with the auspices of the Secretaria de Estado de Cultura de la provincia de Misiones and others. – B-CAP. B-FhyCS. 150

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Contents: Letter to a friend. Germans in Posadas. Grete’s memories. Pichi’s story. Contributions of the German community to the development of the Province of Misiones. ‘A German descendant in Misiones: Egar José Luft’ / Claudia Lorena Bait. – p.103105. – In: Primeras Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonisation and Immigration in Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. Deutsches jahrbuch fur gives High Parana / Hermann F. Hassel, dir. -Buenos Aires: F. Schenker, 1934–1961. – In German language. 16 Ediciones. 1942–1952; 1955– 1958. (not edited) Yearbook of agriculture, cattle, colonisation and sciences applied to the Alto Parana area. – B-CAP. BFhyCS. Contents: Articles by German people of the Alto Parana – these are about agriculture, cattle, medicine, zoology, religion, anthropology, literature, social sciences. Advice on crops. Tariffs of tickets by train and ship. Poetry. Report of the cooperatives, and events from both Posadas and the interior of the province. Pictures from the Alto Parana. ‘Don Adolfo J. Schwelm y su proyecto colonizador’ / Elides Haydee Arenhardt Romagosa. – p. 156-166. – In: Terceras Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización ... Gringo: Rote erde grünes gold / Hermann Müller;. – Offenburg: Jasmine Eichner Verlag, 1996. – 78p.: il. – In German language. – B-CAP. Contents: The life of a German in Montecarlo. The Daughter of the Pioneer: Memoirs / Tutz Culmey Herwing. Posadas: University Publishing House of Misiones, 1998. – 127p. original title: Die Tochter des Pioniers. – Translated by Rolando Kegler from the edition published by the Federacion dos Centros Culturais 25 of Julho (Brazil) in 1984. – B-CAP. Contents: The life of the founder of Puerto Rico, Montecarlo, Capioví and San Alberto. Infierno verde Alto Paraná : Memoirs of a pioneer in Montecarlo / Arnold Naujorks. Posadas : University Publishing House of Misiones, 1995.-75p. – (Collección Argumentos). – B-CAP. Contents: Daily life, the sufferings and happy moments of the first colonists in Montecarlo. ‘Emigrante Inmigrante‘ / Karina Dohmann. – p. 38-45. – In: Primeras Jornadas ... Familia Barth: 1923–. – Eldorado, 2004. – 5p. Unpublished. 151

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Memorias de Heiner Müller: Pionero de Montecarlo / Germán Ricardo Gustavo Müller. – Posadas: University Publishing House of Misiones, 1995. – 74 p. – (Collección Argumentos). Contents: The beginnings of Montecarlo, 1924. The first colonists. El país de mis ancestros / Maria Gastellaars. Posadas: University Publishing House of Misiones, 2001. – 274 p.: photos. – (Books of the memory). – B-CAP. Contents: My ancestors. Childhood. The war. The departure. America. My years in England. Chile. Historical background to Estonia and Latvia. Parana Post / Hermann F. Hassel, ed.; Wilhelm Rheniues, chief of writing. –31st July 1928 – 31st July 1935. Posadas: Oskar Renn, imp., 1928–1935. 170 numbers were published for the German immigrants of the Alto Parana in Misiones (AR) and Paraguay. – B-CAP. Contents: World Politics, Argentina, Misiones and from the Alto Paraná. Agriculture and cattle. Information on the foundation and development of the cooperativas, with some advice on their administration, authorities, meetings. Train and ship fare information from the Dirección general de Puentes y Caminos de la nación. Production, Import and export of mate, tung, citrus, tea. The main companies and businesses. ‘Promesas y desafíos de la colonización alemana del Alto Parana’ / Marina Karina Dohmann Braunig. – p. 105-114. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonisation ... ‘Reginaldo Ignacio Krieger, pionero y patriarca: A portrait of integration’ / Carlos Manuel Freaza. – p. 221-233. – In: the I Jornadas de Poblamiento, Colonización... Ruth y una historia más . Villa Cabello / Ruth Ingrid Schmidt. Posadas: (La Impresión), 1997. – 236p.: il. – B-CAP. Contents: Autobiography. The author was employed at the project of the Family Kolping in the city of Posadas. ‘Sacerdotes alemanes en la mira’ / Maria Angélica Amable. – p. 115-127. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigration en Misiones... ‘Vida cotidiana en los tiempos de la colonia: entorno doméstico y costumbres de los inmigrantes alemanes-brasileños en Puerto Rico’ / Leonor Kuhn. – p. 175-205. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigracion en Misiones... Vocabulario Guaraní – Alemán / Federico Christian Maytzhusen. – Capitán Meza (PY), 1948. – Unpublished. – B-CAP. 152

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‘La Vogelfest: una tradición familia’ / Cecilia Gallero de Urfer. – p. 91-114. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 29–30 August, 2003. Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2003. – 279.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. Private individuals KEGLER, Rolando. Great-grandson of German immigrants from Saxony and the Rhineland. Lawyer. Honorarkonsul der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Promoter of cultural activities. Member of the Junta de Estudios Históricos de Misiones. Address: Junín 1811, 1st floor – 3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Phone and fax: 54. 3752. 43-55-08 / 43-05-70, email: [email protected] WEBER of SANTINI, Lidia. Daughter of German and Ukrainian parents, preserves the traditions and costumes passed down from her ancestors: parties, meals, crafts, religion, memories of her childhood in the colony of Eldorado. Address: Cuyo 101. 3380 – Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3751. 42-15-06 DIEM, Rodolfo Otto. Son of German immigrants, preserves the traditions and customs of his ancestors: parties, entertainments, meals, crafts, religion. He has vivid memories of the life in the colony. Address: Callao, Km.9. – 3380 Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3751. 42-23-66

Austrian immigration In the Province of Misiones, Austrian immigration has been minimal and presents a slightly confused picture. This is due to the fact that Polish and Ukrainian people entered Argentina with Austrian passports. They were from the Galitzia region and other areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which, once dissolved, did not recognize these people as Austrian citizens. A few Austrian families did come from Austria, but did so singly and at different times. They brought neither objects nor documents with them. It is difficult to know about these people since the families soon lost their language and customs, through contact and assimilation into other cultures. Documentary sources for Austrian immigration ‘Semblanza del primer pionero de Puerto Rico: don Federico Scheifler’ / Leondina E. Scheifler. – p. 234-241. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización and Inmigración en Misiones/ Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 153

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August 1999. Posadas, Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM.

Slavonic immigration Documentary sources for Slavonic immigration Arribo de la Inmigración Eslava a Misiones: Radicación en San Jose / Maria Paulina Moroz de Rosciszewski. Posadas: s.n, 1997. – 126p.: il. -Published on the centenary of the arrival of the Poles and Ukrainians to Misiones. Contents: Slavonic emigration to Argentina. Immigration politics in Argentina: 1857–1930. Slavs' establishment in San Jose. Relatives of Slavonic immigrants. Polish immigration. Sigmunt Kowalski and Juan Szychowski’s family biography. Slavonic reminiscences. – B-FHyCS. BJEH. Los colonos de Apóstoles: estrategias adaptativas y etnicidad en una colonia eslava en Misiones / Bartolomé, Leopoldo José. Posadas, Misiones: University Publishing House, 2000. – 263p.: il.; 22 cm. Contents: Apostles, the community and his environment. The historical and cultural background: the process of turning into a ‘colonist’ (1887–1973). Agrarian life and adaptation strategies: the colonist life style. Ethnic groups and interethnic cultures in Apostles: ethnicity as a resource and as a social stigma. Apostles in perspective. – B-FhyCS. ‘Comidas Ceremoniales: Some customs of the Slavonic colonisation in Misiones’ / Claudia Wrobel. – p. 7-17. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización… ‘El concepto de nación en el inmigrante galitziano de fines del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX ‘ / Esteban Angel Snihur. – p. 128-141. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones... ‘Una contribución a la revalorización de la colonia polaca en Eldorado’ / Marianella Fahler. – p. 215-231. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización ... Cultura y tradiciones populares de la inmigración ucraniana en Apóstoles: 1897– 1930 / Andruchowicz, Adriana E. – Licentiate in History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, National University of Misiones, 1999. Research paper. – BFhyCS. Contents: The 19th century: disappointments and hopes, the culture and traditions of the Ukranian people.

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De Ucrania a Misiones: una experiencia de transformación y crecimiento / Esteban Angel Snihur. – Apóstoles: Ukraine Community of Misiones, 1997. – 218p.: il. – BFhyCS. Contents: The roots. Argentina or the search for freedom. A magnificent stage: the misionera land . The agricultural colonisation of the Southeast of Misiones. A hundred years of the epic: now in images. Accounts of the historiography and sources referred to the Ukrainian Polish colonisation. ‘La historia vivida: Testimonios de la colonización polaco-ucraniana’ / Claudia Wrobel. – p. 76-86. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20–21 August. 1999. Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FhyCS. ‘Agricultural Polish immigratio’ / Estanislao Pyzik. – p.281-334. – In: It praises Poles in Argentina 1812–1900: Some historical and biographical precedents. – Buenos Aires: (López, impr.), 1944. – 370p. – B-JEH. ‘The Slavonic immigration: The Poles ‘ / Nélida Marta Kuctz. – p. 46-54. – In: I Jornadas sobre Población, Colonisation e Inmigración in Misiones… Ukranian and Polish Immigrants in Leandro N. Alem, 1920–1999: their hopes, work, dreams / Idzi, Arnaldo Gabriel. – Licentiate in History, Faculty of Humanities, National Universidad Nacional de Misiones, 1999. Research paper. – B-FhyCS. Contents: The origin of the Slavonic peoples. The Slavonic immigration to America. Ukranians and Poles in Misiones. Ukranians and Poles in Alem. ‘El legado: Cultural Ukrainian Association of Posadas ‘August 27’ / Verónica Paola Pérez de Schapovaloff. – p. 18-33. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración… ‘El Padre José Bayerlein Marianski y una colonia de pioneros: Azara’ / Jorge Rendiche. – p. 154-174. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonisation e Imigración en Misiones… Polonia y su gente [radio program] / José Miguel Lachowski. – Posadas- Radioparque, 1993–. – Frequency FM 90.9. – TransMisiones: Sundays from 12:00 to 14:00 . Recordings in cassettes or CDs. – Operators: Juan Kuriluk; Julio Duarte; Carlos Duarte. Contents: Traditions and customs of the Polish immigrants. Polish music. Food recipes Autobiographical histories of Polish pioneers. Stories of the Polish community. 155

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Institutional repositories Museo y Centro Cultural Ucraniano Address: Suipacha 57.-3350 Apostoles, Misiones, Argentina. Collection: Objects representing Ukrainian arts and culture: books, carvings, woven cloths, ceramics, musical instruments, typical embroidered costumes, ornamented eggs, “pesanke”, necklaces, carpets and carved wood. Historical references to the Basilian sisters in Argentina and elsewhere. Private individuals DROST DE MOWINSKIL, Tecla. Daughter of Polish immigrants, continues the traditions and customs inherited from her forefathers: celebrations, food, crafts, religion. She clearly remembers life in the colony as well as the difficulties of learning Spanish at school. Address: Bogota 1065, km 8.-3380 Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3751. 42-7-89. POLOZ, Ana. Daughter of Ukrainian immigrants. Address: Vicente López 138. 3380 Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3751. 42-12-71.

Spanish immigration ‘Algunas familias de fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX’ / Alba Celina Etorena de Freaza. – 242-257. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20–21 August. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. BFHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘El asociacionismo español en Posadas ‘ / Alba Celina Etorena de Freaza. – p. 272288. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones/ Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 ago. 2001. Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396 p.: il – B-CAP. BFHyCS. B-ISPARM. Hacer la América: Autobiografía de un inmigrante español en Argentina / Juan F. Marsal. – 1st. ed. – Buenos Aires: Editorial del Instituto, 1969. – 432p. – Gino Germani's Prologue. – B-FHyCS. ‘La inmigración española en el territorio de Misiones (1867–1902): Los pioneros ‘ / Alba C. Etorena de Freaza. – p. 11-31. – In: the I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20–21 August. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. 156

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‘The Spanish immigration in territory of Misiones (1902–1920): The Spanish Society of Mutual Helps’ / Alba C. Etorena of Freaza. – p. 123-145. – In: Ist Days On Poblamiento, Colonisation and Immigration in Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘Memories of Ema ‘ / Nilda C. Brañas de Poujade. – p. 377-388. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento y Colonización en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 ago. 2001. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396p.: il – BCAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘Un siglo de inmigración española en la Provincia de Misiones (1870–1970)’/ Alba Celina Etorena de Freaza. – 89-109. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 ago. 2001. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396p.: il – BCAP. B-FHyCS.

French immigration There has been immigration from France to Misiones since the 19th century up to the present, but with no fixed pattern. The first French Consular Office in Argentina was established here in 1890. Documentary sources for French immigration Des savants Français à Misiones / Graciela Cambas. – p. 16-17. – In: Français-Info: Bulletin d'information et de liaison des professeurs de Français argentins. – nº 8 (août 1989). – B-FhyCS. Contents: The French presence in North Argentina. ‘Emilio Poujade (1874–1935)’ / Nilda Carmen Brañas. – p. 113-122. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. Institutional repositories Alianza Francesa de Posadas. Address: Rivadavia 136.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina.

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Private individuals HAURON, Teresa Daughter of French immigrants, she continues the cultural traditions and social customs inherited from her father. She clearly remembers life in the Alto Paraná. Address: Comandante Miño 2418.-3300 Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3752. 15-69-01-63 Italian immigration Documentary sources for Italian immigration ‘Algunos testimonios sobre la inmigración italiana en Misiones’ / Rosa Ofelia Zamboni de Maffini; Olga Zamboni. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones/ Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 August. 2001. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘El aporte de la colectividad italiana en Misiones: Algunas familias caracterizadas’ / – p. 207-233. – In: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misioinesin / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 29–30 August, 2003. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2003. – 279p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘Dos italianos: Carlos Bosetti y Basilio de Simón y su integration y su integración en el micro espacio de Candelaria’ / Silvia Raquel Fehlberg; Sandra Patricia Gutiérrez. – p. 121-141. – In: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonizacón e Inmigration en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 ago. 2001. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. BISPARM. La inmigración italiana en Argentina/ Fernando Devoto y Gianfausto Rosoli, compilers. – Buenos Aires: Biblos, 1985. – 270p.: graphs. – (Colección Historia.Serie Mayor). – FHyCS – library. Contents: The economic causes of Italian emigration between the 19th and 20th centuries / Sori. The migratory chain of Italians to Argentina / S. Baily. Regional demographic features and jobs of Italian immigrants in Argentina (1880–1930) / M.C. Cacopardo and J.L. Moreno. The integration of the Italian immigrants in Argentina: A commentary / T. Halperin Donghi. Looking at the Italians. Some images outlined by the elite in times of the massive immigration / D. Damus. Italian political immigration and the Argentine Workers’ Movement. / M.R. Ostuni. An Italian newspaper in Buenos Aires (1911–1913) / G. Dore. Participation and conflict in the Italian Mutual Aid societies / F. Devoto. Italian Society schools in Argentina, 1860– 1914 / G. Rosoli. Italian emigrants, banks and remittances: the Argentine case / L. 158

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de Rose. ‘La inmigración italiana en la Provincia de Misiones’ / Alba Celina Etorena of Freaza. – p. 53-70. – in: III Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 29–30 August, 2003. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2003. – 279p.: il – B-CAP. BFHyCS. B-ISPARM. ‘Los italianos en Campo Ramón (1920–1940): una Mirada desde la historia’ / Mirtha Monge. – p.43-57. – in: II Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 24–25 ago. 2001. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 2001. – 396p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. Más alla del océano : Un proyecto de identidad: The Italian immigrants in Argentina / Blengino, Vanni. – Buenos Aires: Publishing Center of Latin America, 1990.-155p. – (University Libraries. Language and Literature). – FHyCS – library. Contents: A project of a nation: the theorized immigrant. The “pampa”: a disputed frontier. Towards an oligarchic nation. A people of transmigrates: first and third class Italian travellers. The linguistic conflict: the price of integration. From acceptance to rejection. Self interview of an immigrant of the 50s.

Swedish immigration Documentary sources for Swedish immigration Del Yerbal Viejo a Oberá; los sucesos en Misiones / Lloyd Jorge Wickström. – Posadas: s.n., 1989. – 239p.: il. – B-CAP. Contents: The end and the beginning. The old yerbal and Oberá. Communication. The clubs: Viking and Social of Oberá, The Scandinavian Society Svea. The Swedish school, the Church and sports. Los suecos en la selva / Evals Guillermo Olsson. – Buenos Aires: La Aurora, 1991. – 201 p.: il. – B-JEH. Contents: Emigration and settlement. Cultural and educational activities. Swedish community and pastoral activity. The protagonists. Testimonies. Associates of the Scandinavian Society Svea. Concordia Association. Members of the first Swedish emigration that came to Yerbal Viejo. Private individuals PETTERSSON, Astrid Adrina. Grand-daughter of Swedish immigrants, her parents and grandparents came to Misiones through the south of Brazil. Personal experiences relating to life in the Swedish colony “Old Yerbal” (Department Oberá), 159

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where she lived as a child and of the Swedish Church, Villa Svea. Address: Gobernador Barreyro nº 2675 – 3300 Posadas. Misiones (AR). Phone: 54. 3752. 43-66-92. Swiss immigration Documentary sources for Swiss immigration ‘La colonia Suiza de Santo Pipó Switz 1919–1928’ / Estela Gentiluomo de Lagier. – p. 258-267. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración in Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. ‘La colonización Suiza en Misiones y la obra del Dr. Markus Glatz’ / Karina Dohmann; Jorge Francisco Machón. – p. 65-75. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigración en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il – BCAP. B-FHyCS. ‘Eugenio Lagier: Un visionario’ / Estela Gentiluomo de Lagier. – p. 156-164. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigration en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20–21 August. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il – B-CAP. B-FHyCS. ‘Los suizos en San Ignacio’ / Estela Gentiluomo de Lagier. – p. 96-102. – In: I Jornadas sobre Poblamiento, Colonización e Inmigration en Misiones / Instituto Superior Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. – 20-21 ago. 1999. – Posadas: Ediciones Montoya, 1999. – 310p.: il. – B-CAP. B-FhyCS. Private individuals KOHL, Armin. Son of Swiss immigrants, he maintains the language and culture of hes ancestors. President of the Asociación de Cultura Suiza and member of the Association of Foreign Communities ‘Melting Pot’ of Eldorado. Address: Germany 2108.-3380 Eldorado, Misiones, Argentina. Phone: 54. 3752. 42-21-04. Conclusion The displacement of human beings from one place to another, one country to another, is as old as humanity. The European colonisation of Misiones was a consequence of national and international politics. Argentina, and the Province of Misiones, for centuries accepted ‘all people of the world who want to live in Argen160

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tine’ within its boundaries. There is still a long way to go. We should devote our efforts in reconstructing the history of our forefathers. They knew about the fortunes and misfortunes involved in building a nation in a land far from their native homes.

NOTE This paper was translated by Marina Esther Basile of the Language Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Argentina.

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2005 OSLO NAVIGATING THE WORLD OF OUR ANCESTORS USING GIS TO MAP GENEALOGICAL DATA: GETTING STARTED Anita K. Oser Western Carolina University Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA Abstract Since each of us is born somewhere, lives his/her adult life somewhere, and dies somewhere, genealogical data have a built-in spatial component. It is this spatial component that makes it possible to map the location/residence of an individual during his/her lifetime. The tool that allows you to do this is GIS (Geographic Information System) software. This presentation is an introduction to the hardware, software, data, and expertise required to map genealogical data. Data about cemeteries in Jackson County, North Carolina, USA are used to demonstrate how genealogical data can be mapped using GIS software. What is GIS? In very simple terms it is a computer mapping program plus a database management system that allows you to analyze data and map the results. It is what cartographers have done for thousands of years: draw maps, interpret thematic data, and add the thematic data as layers to the maps. The only difference between the old and the new is that in the past all of the work was done manually and now computers do much of the work. But the concepts and the knowledge required to draw maps have not changed. How a GIS System is Organized? The data in a GIS system are organized into layers depending on what type of feature the data represents. There are basically three types of features: points, lines, and polygons. Point features include such things as houses, springs, oil wells, etc. Line features can be rivers, roads, political boundaries, etc. Polygons represent geographic areas (continents, oceans, etc.) as well as political entities (countries, states, provinces, etc.). A layer should include only one kind of feature within a category, 163

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i.e. houses and churches should not be in one layer even though they are both point features. What makes a GIS system so flexible is that you can edit a layer without affecting any other layer. You can also statistically manipulate the attribute data associated with a layer. For example, you can group data into a number of classes and these classes can be determined by using different classification systems. But you are not restricted to analyzing one layer at a time. You can also analyze data in one layer in terms of another layer. For example, you could determine which bus routes (line layer) are within two blocks of a shopping center (point layer). Components of a GIS System In order to do GIS analysis, you will need a GIS system. The components of this system include a computer, GIS software, and spatial and attribute data. If you plan to print out any of the maps, a color printer designed to produce fairly high resolution images should be added to the list. Since maps are a form of graphic representation, the hardware requirements are similar to that for graphic programs. Hardware: For GIS software to work efficiently, you will need a high-end (powerful) computer. In a graphics program every pixel must be accounted for. This creates large files and large files require fast processors and large memory capacity. Thus a 1.0 GHz Intel Pentium Processor or higher and a minimum of 512 MB of RAM (preferably 1 GB) are recommended. Lots of RAM makes things happen more quickly. The data files from which the maps are generated as well as the end product tend to be large, so large capacity storage devices are also recommended. Most GIS software runs on a Windows operating system. If you are acquiring a new system, Windows XP (home or professional edition) would be the operating system of choice. However, the software will also run on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000. If you have the resources to acquire a more powerful computer than the minimum requirements, it would be wise to do so. New versions of GIS software tend to require more and more power in terms of processors and RAM. Software: There are many GIS software programs available. The software you choose, will depend on what your needs are. The cost varies from free to very expensive and the capabilities of the software vary from very basic to very sophisticated. There are also numerous websites that offer GIS capabilities. These usually have limited functionality and you are limited to the data that is available at that website. ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is usually considered to be the leader in the field and the standard setter. They offer three versions of their ArcGIS software. ArcView is the basic version and offers enough functionality to meet most needs. ArcEdit, in addition to the ArcView functionality, allows you to edit the spa164

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tial data. ArcInfo is the high end product and includes all of the functionalities of ArcView and ArcEdit plus many more. ArcInfo is intended for those users who do extensive analysis and modeling. The cost, of course, also increases as functionality increases. Thus ArcView is the least expensive and ArcInfo the most expensive. ESRI also offers a number of extensions that run on top of the ArcGIS products and extend their capabilities. Other GIS software programs that are available include MapInfo Professional, distributed by SPSS (Statistical Program for the Social Sciences); Geo-Media, a product of Intergraph; and AutoDesk, a product of Autocad. These software programs have various levels of functionality and the price will vary accordingly. Microsoft has also entered the GIS world with a product called MapPoint. It is aimed at the casual user and the cost is somewhat less than that of the other GIS software packages. Microsoft also offers an online service called MapPoint.Net. Many of these companies offer educational discounts to qualifying institutions. In some instances this reduces the cost of the software by as much as 80%. Data: A GIS system requires data to create maps. These data sets, both spatial and attribute, are stored in tables. The GIS software reads these tables and transforms them into layers that together create the map you see on the screen. Data are the most important components of a GIS system. Without data you cannot create a map or do any analysis. Unfortunately data are also the most expensive and the most difficult to acquire. To complicate matters even more, you need two types of data when doing GIS analysis – spatial and attribute. Spatial data sets are what the software uses to create the map. There are three types of spatial data: point, line, and polygon data. So if you want to show the cities, roads, and political subdivisions of a country, you would need all three types of spatial data. Attribute data are information about the spatial entities and must to be for the same graphic unit that is represented on the map. Thus if you have a map that shows provinces, then the attribute data would also have to be broken down by those same provinces. Frequently spatial data sets include attribute data, but this is not always the case. High-end GIS software, such as ArcInfo, allows you to edit existing spatial data as well as create your own spatial data. Low-end GIS software has limited capabilities to edit or create spatial data. However, most GIS software allows you to join existing tables of attribute data to tables of spatial data. The only requirement is that the two tables have one field in common. For example, if you have a table of attribute data about cities, you can join it to a table of spatial data if both have a field that gives the name of the city. Data can be obtained from a variety of sources including government agencies, commercial companies, and colleagues or other individuals who may have already created the data you need and are willing to share the data with you. In some countries, such as the United States, geospatial data sets from government agencies are 165

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usually free or available for a minimal fee. Government agencies in many countries, however, charge for their data. There are also many commercial companies that create or repackage data. It is often advisable to purchase data sets from these companies, even if it is a little more costly. Free data sets often contain errors and it is more costly to correct these errors than to purchase data sets that have already been edited for errors. However, if you need very specific data sets for a very specific area, they frequently are not available from any source. Your only recourse in such a situation is to collect your own. This can be both time consuming and costly. GIS and Genealogical Research So why use GIS in genealogical research? It allows you to map the spatial component of genealogical data. Mapping this information reveals spatial patterns that are often overlooked or not obvious in a table. The saying that a picture is worth a thousand words certainly applies to maps. Maps, after all, are a ’picture’ of the earth. What makes GIS even more useful in genealogical research is that you can take existing data, analyze the data in a variety of ways, map the results, and perhaps identify new patterns that were not readily apparent from the original data. The following examples illustrate how GIS software can be effectively used in a variety of ways to assist genealogists in their research. The Cemeteries of Jackson County, North Carolina, USA: a Demo Much of the data for this demonstration were taken from the publication The Cemeteries of Jackson County, North Carolina compiled by the Jackson County Genealogical Society. This publication contains a record of all of the known cemeteries in the county and represents the effort of a large number of people. North Carolina: North Carolina is located in the southeastern part of the United States, commonly known as ’the South.’ Jackson County is located in the western part of North Carolina. It is a mountainous region and until recently was fairly isolated not only from the rest of the state of North Carolina but also from the United States. The area was settled primarily by Scots-Irish settlers in the early nineteenth century. Because of the remoteness of the area, many of the customs of these early settlers have survived. One of the unique characteristics of western North Carolina as well as other areas of the South is the number of cemeteries that are scattered throughout the countryside. Many churches maintain their own cemeteries, local communities have their own cemeteries, and then there are family cemeteries as well as municipal cemeteries. In Jackson County (population about 36,000), for example, there are 231 known cemeteries. Most of them are located on hillsides and often in remote areas. 166

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The mountains are heavily forested due a warm climate and abundant rainfall. Unless the cemeteries are maintained, they are quickly overgrown with native vegetation and forgotten. Yet these cemeteries are an important link to the past. Record keeping in the early days was not always what it should have been and often the gravestones are the only source of information. With this in mind, let us see how we can map some of the information gathered from these cemeteries. Map of Jackson County: The first step is to create a base map that can be used to add genealogical data. In this case it was possible to extract the data to create the county map from a larger data set. Getting Started Step 1: Create a Map of Jackson County

Although the map appears to be one layer, in reality it consists of five layers with each layer representing a different type of feature. The layers are listed on the left side of the illustration and appear in the order in which they are arranged on the map. The polygon layer(s) (layers representing areas) are always at the bottom, followed by layers for line features, and the top layers are always point features. Thus the top layer shows the towns. This is followed by two line layers, one for roads and one for streams. The bottom two layers represent the polygon features of reservoirs and the county. Note that even though roads and streams are both line features and reservoirs and the county are both polygon features, they are in separate layers. This is because you can edit each layer independently of the other layers, but within a layer all the features are affected by any changes made. Data Collection: The second step is to add a layer to the map that shows the location of the cemeteries. However, spatial data for the cemeteries of Jackson County do not exist and thus it was necessary to collect the necessary data from various sources. In order to show the cemeteries on the map, the exact location of the cemeteries has to be determined. This is done by defining the location using a coordinate system that the GIS software understands. The most common coordinate systems 167

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used include latitude/longitude, the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) coordinates, State Plane Coordinates (for the US), and a variety of other coordinate systems. Once the coordinates have been determined, they need to be put in a table. This table should show the latitude and longitude readings (or equivalent coordinate system readings) in separate fields. It should also have a field that identifies the name of the cemetery. Other fields can be added with additional information. Once this information is in the proper format, the GIS software can then use these coordinates to plot each cemetery on the map. However, identifying the coordinates for each cemetery proved to be a difficult task. It was possible to identify the coordinates for only 78 of the 231 cemeteries in Jackson County by using the US Geological Survey’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The coordinates for the remaining 153 cemeteries (step 3) have to be determined in some other way. The modern way to determine coordinates is to use a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver. With this little marvel of modern technology you can go to the location in question, determine the coordinates for the feature, and then manually enter them into a table, or, with proper software, load the coordinates directly into the computer. The coordinate system used, however, must match that of the map. Another not so high-tech method to determine the coordinates is to use a roamer and a paper map. A roamer is a transparent template on which the degrees of latitude/longitude, UTM units of meters, etc. are broken down into smaller units. This allows one to determine the coordinates of a feature fairly precisely. Once all of the coordinates for the cemeteries are identified, the table can be converted into a layer that shows where the cemeteries are located. This layer can then be added to the existing map (step 4).

Step 4: Convert the Cemetery Table to a Layer on the Map

However, rather than just show where the cemeteries are located, it would also be useful to know something about the graves that are located in these cemeteries. 168

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Obvious information would include surname, first name, middle name, maiden name, birth date, death date, and any other information that is deemed important. Since there are many graves in a cemetery, information about the graves cannot be added directly to the table of cemeteries. But it is possible to create a new table for the graves and then link the table to the cemeteries table or add the data in summary form to the cemeteries table. If you want to use the information from the table of graves in conjunction with the cemeteries layer, the two tables must have one field in common such as the name of the cemetery where the grave is located. It is this field that will permit you to join the data about the graves to the cemeteries table. Now that the basic data is in place and in a format that the GIS software can understand, it is possible to analyze/manipulate the data in a variety of ways and then map the derived data. The following are three examples. Data Analysis Ways to Analyze & Map the Data Scenario 1: Create a Link From a Cemetery to a Picture or Other Document

Linking Documents: The first example shows how various documents can be linked together. Although not analysis in the strict sense of the word, linking various documents together often reveals interesting connections. If a field is added to the cemeteries table that shows the location of another document, it is possible to create a hot link to that document. In this case it is to a picture of the cemetery. If the picture were overlaid with a grid, a second hot link could be created to show another document (i.e. a picture of the tombstone). The linked document does not have to be a picture. It could be a table, a graph, a legal document, etc.

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Grouping by Surname: The second example identifies cemeteries according to the number of graves of individuals with the same surname. To accomplish this all the records with the same surname are selected in the table of graves. This list is then summarized by the name of the cemetery and a table that shows how many graves with the same surname appear in each cemetery is automatically generated. This summary table can then be joined to the cemeteries table and the data mapped. On this particular map a graduated symbol is used to display the distribution. Grouping by Age of Graves: The final example identifies the cemeteries with the oldest graves and groups them according to the number of graves. In this case all those records that show a death date prior to 1900 are selected and a summary table grouped by the name of the cemetery is automatically generated. The summary table can then be joined to the cemetery table, and the data mapped using graduated symbols to indicate the number of graves.

Scenario 3: Identify Cemeteries With the Oldest Graves

These are just a few examples of how GIS can be used to visualize genealogical data. Some simple analyses were performed on the original data to create new data. 170

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The newly created data were then mapped and perhaps helped to reveal patterns that were not obvious from the tables. Summary To do GIS analysis requires a high-end (powerful) computer, GIS software to meet your needs, and data. The data are usually the most costly component of the system whether they are purchased or collected by the user. The results of GIS analysis, however, can be very useful and rewarding. Unfortunately the learning curve associated with GIS is very steep, but once mastered, GIS is a very useful tool in genealogical research.

NOTE Bibliography The Cemeteries of Jackson County, North Carolina. Cullowhee: The Jackson County Genealogical Society, Inc., 1998.

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THE ENGLISH JURISDICTIONS MAPPING PROJECT Stephen C. Young, Deputy Director Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Abstract The English Jurisdictions Mapping Project (EJMP), designed by the British Reference Unit of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, was initially conceived in 1999 as a paper publication of 1851 English county maps detailing ecclesiastical parishes with transparent overlays showing overlapping jurisdictions. This original intent has since evolved into an electronic format intended to assist genealogical researchers in understanding the variety of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions and their records within the context of topography and geography, through time. At present this project has completed: – A GIS prototype of seven counties (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk) – Data collection and jurisdictional determinations for future application of the remaining thirty-three counties in England This mapping utility will greatly simplify research by consolidating data from multiple published sources into a single resource, thus removing the necessity for users to purchase or access information from countless websites or libraries. Once a location is identified, this product will allow the user to retrieve embedded data such as catalog entries, indexes, record location information, relevant local histories, published family histories, and other such genealogically important finding aids. Still necessary is the development of a user-friendly interface enabling quick and intuitive access to the embedded data. Context The tracing of family history is one of the most popular international hobbies. In the process of conducting genealogical research it is almost always found that even the most deep-rooted families migrated from place to place through successive generations. This fact can often frustrate researchers forced to deal with the complexity of new and strange sounding locality names, unfamiliar jurisdictions and their records. Frustration increases to bewilderment when family migrations cross international borders and oceans, thus introducing not only changes in political systems and jurisdictions, but also unfamiliar languages and cultures. The English Jurisdictions Map173

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ping Project (EJMP), currently under development by the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Salt Lake City, Utah, is designing an interactive map-based computer product to dramatically simplify access to the jurisdictional information needed for genealogical research. Understanding place and geographical context is critical in the genealogical research process. It is jurisdictions, be they civil or religious, from which much of the data or records were produced which identify individuals and families throughout history. In other words, in order to retrieve needed records a researcher must identify the geographical context of place and jurisdiction in which their ancestor lived. As stated above, the records describing events in even one lifetime might be produced in different languages by different jurisdictions during the generational migration process. Maps describing assorted types of jurisdictions are therefore a basic resource to genealogists. Even topographical features on maps can be important in lending clues to migration and jurisdiction. Features such as mountains, rivers, bridges and roads influenced the lives of our ancestors much more than they do now. When completed, these English GIS county maps will allow users to not only identify the relevant jurisdictions for their research, but also instantly connect them to archival and library websites, online catalog entries, indexes, and perhaps even relevant digitized primary historical records. The Project The English Jurisdictions Mapping Project began in late 1999 when the British Reference Unit of the Family History Library determined that a map-based resource might better serve its patrons in easily accessing genealogical records. The original paper publication was envisioned as parish maps upon which a series of transparent overlays would display distinct and overlapping jurisdictions. The first decision made by the project team was to determine the year on which to base the map presentations. After careful consideration, 1851 was chosen for the following reasons: 1. There is an abundance of published source material to correctly define jurisdictions 2. It was a national census year 3. The majority of parish boundaries changed little before this date 4. Most major cities had not yet grown to the size of proliferating more parishes to serve increasing populations 5. A significant wave of migration of early Latter-day Saint converts from England to Utah was just beginning 6. This time period is just beyond current living memory and therefore important and profitable for research efforts 174

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The next production step was to create and populate a data table for each of the first seven counties identifying all ecclesiastical parishes as defined in 1851 with their associated jurisdictions. The county of Norfolk was chosen as the pilot because it provided both enough challenge in terms of numerous parishes and limited complexity in dealing with only three contiguous county borders. Microsoft Word was chosen for this table construction due to it compatibility with in-house printing presses. With the first table completed, the next phase was to draw a basic county map showing each parish in Norfolk using Adobe Illustrator software. The transparent overlays were created with appropriate register points/marks to ensure accuracy is presenting overlapping jurisdictions. By mid-2001 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire were completed and tested to rave reviews from both professional and novice genealogical researchers.

The first seven counties chosen for the English Jurisdictions Mapping Project. At this point project plans took a dramatic turn. During a research trip to England one of the Library’s British reference consultants discovered that the History Data Service of the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex had produced a set of English parish maps on CD-ROM in January 2001. The electronic map uses as a base the 115 sheets of the Ordnance Survey one inch to one mile (1:63,360) New Popular Edition maps (1945–8) with National Grid. It contains the boundaries of about 18,240 places and is arranged as three electronic ‘layers’.1 1

Roger J.P. Kain and Richard R. Oliver. The Historic Parishes of England and Wales, An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and metadata (Colchester: History Data Service, UK Data Archive, 2001), p.6.

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Here was a ready-made product duplicating the expensive and tedious labor of drawing parish maps for the Family History Library’s project. Contact with the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex was made immediately and permission obtained to use their product as the basis for the paper-based genealogical maps. The pre-1850 definition of the electronic maps matched almost perfectly with the 1851 designation already chosen by the project team. However, the History Data Service map contained some jurisdictions superfluous for the Library’s product, such as townships and civil parishes, which did not produce records of relevance to family historians. Using Adobe Illustrator, a graphic designer deleted unnecessary boundaries and modified others according to project locality criteria. The layers of jurisdictional boundaries include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Basic ecclesiastical parish Chapelry or extra-parochial place Non-Church of England (Nonconformist) denominations in each parish Civil registration district Hundred Probate court Market towns

The University of Essex electronic map accelerated project production and allowed a level of detail not previously possible. In November 2002 the whole direction and potential of the project again dramatically sifted when a library volunteer with mapping expertise suggested the application of GIS technology. The potential of producing computer-based maps with links to web-based resources persuaded the project team to shift efforts in this new rection. The EJMP approached Gateway Mapping, Inc., one of the first GIS consulting firms in Utah, to investigate the feasibility of transferring the graphic images to a GIS format. There was no software available to do this, so new software was developed to first convert Adobe Illustrator maps to Computer Aided Design (CAD) format, and then to ArcView, a GIS software. This new software can link data to specific points, lines, or enclosed polygons on a map. The EJMP required that jurisdictions be shown as polygons encompassing the appropriate space on the maps. Unfortunately the dual image conversion process from Adobe Illustrator to ArcView introduced digital ‘noise’ in the electronic maps. Parishes with overlapping boundaries, and those with unenclosed or unfinished boundaries, as depicted in the illustration below, were not defined polygons. Points or pixels of deleted borders introduced additional digital noise within some parish polygons, thus rendering them unusable. Gateway Mapping, Inc., successfully cleaned up this noise by manually and painstakingly completing or erasing pieces of the polygon boundaries, sometimes on the pixel level. 176

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Examples of digital noise introduced in the software conversion process, including unenclosed polygons, overlapping lines and leftover pixels. The map images were only one set among several elements requiring software conversion from Microsoft Word to Microsoft Excel, which is more compatible with GIS software. The new tables needed specific formatting to enable the ArcView software to create jurisdictional layers. During this process the tables were enhanced to allow the creation of additional layers of jurisdictions polygons. England has many place names duplicated within the same county, thus requiring each parish to have a unique identifier in the data table. Using ArcView, Gateway Mapping, Inc., next linked the polygons to the appropriate identifier. Project personnel reviewed the map images to check for mistakes in the linkages. A specific challenge included searching for detached parishes as illustrated below (p. 178). In such cases it was necessary to join each separate polygon to one parish identifier so than when any piece of a detached parish is selected on a map, all pieces will be linked in the presentation. The parish boundaries on the map, combined with the metadata in the table, provided the basis upon which the new jurisdictional layers were created. New polygons were developed for the maps by incorporating the smaller parish boundaries in building larger jurisdictional boundaries, such as for civil registration districts. Again, as with detached parishes, county and parish borders did not always align perfectly with the new jurisdictions. Each of these new polygons also had to be checked manually to ensure accuracy between the data in the table and the drawing. 177

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The polygons outlined in blue depict the three pieces of the detached parish of Great Sampford in Essex. Each of these pieces required linkage to the same unique identifier in the data table. Of great significance to genealogical researchers is the ability to identify a jurisdiction on the computer maps, no matter how large or small, click on it with the cursor, and view the embedded data. This metadata might include in the future: y Parish register name indexes and associated digital images y Catalog entries with hyperlinks to digitized original and published sources y Digitized census images y Local publications and photographs y Websites specific to the jurisdiction y Online historic directories y Collaborative genealogical extraction projects

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Civil Registration boundaries are displayed in red. Note that these boundaries don’t necessarily imitate county or parish boundaries. City and county maps were separate files in the History Data Service electronic map. The EJMP has integrated the city maps with their parent county maps seamlessly, thus allowing the user to zoom in to view details down to the street level. The finished EJMP product will include all parish boundaries with: y Type of place (parish, chapelry or extra-parochial place, etc.) y Changes to parish or chapelry boundaries prior to 1851 (including the year the parish was created from or combined with another parish) y Year extant Church of England parish registers and bishop’s transcripts began y Non-Church of England (Nonconformist) denominations in the parish. y Civil registration district y Hundred or wapentake, borough, or liberty y Probate court and decision table giving prioritized listing of courts creating records for a parish y Church of England diocese y Rural deanery y Poor law union y Market towns y Villages and hamlets y Other jurisdictions, records and information yet to be defined y 1850 Ordnance Survey 179

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Metadata for Great Sampford parish in Essex. No user interface currently available. Future Development Although powerful, the GIS software used to present the digitized maps is not user friendly. A user interface must still be developed which will allow intuitive access to the data described above. In its present format, the county maps require training and experience in order to navigate the many layers and features of the software. It is apparent that building this kind of digital resource is very labor intensive and expensive. Expanding this map product beyond the borders of England to Wales, Scotland and Ireland are the next logical projects. With its introduction to the genealogical community, eager researchers everywhere will quickly demand this technology be applied to jurisdictions around the world. Data Sources for the Maps Following are some of the general sources used to determine jurisdictional boundaries in England. Many more specific sources were used to pinpoint boundaries from locally focused gazetteers, maps and other publications. Camp, Anthony J. Wills and Their Whereabouts. 4th ed. London: Anthony J. Camp, 1974. 180

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GENUKI Church Database. www.genuki.org.uk/big/parloc/search.html Gibson, J.S.W. and Else Churchill. Probate Jurisdictions : Where to Look for Wills. Baltimore, Maryland : Genealogical Pub. Co., c2002. Gibson, J.S.W. Wills and Where to Find Them. Chichester: Phillimore and Co., Ltd., 1974. Lewis, Samuel. Atlas to the Topographical Dictionaries of England and Wales. London: S. Lewis & Co., 1831. Mason, Oliver, comp. Bartholomew Gazetteer of Places in Britain. Scotland: John Bartholomew & Son, Ltd., 1986. Public Records Office. Class List 1841 Census. [London: Public Record Office, 19– ]. Public Record Office. Class List 1851. [London: Public Record Office, 19– ]. The Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey Gazetteer of Great Britain. 3rd ed. Southampton: Ordnance Survey, 1992. Youngs, Frederic A. Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. 2 vols. London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1980, 1991. Wilson, John Marius. The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & Co., [1871].

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PRESENTING MAPS AND OTHER SPATIAL INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET Peter Korsgaard, Head Archivist National Survey and Cadastre, Denmark Abstract Maps and other kinds of spatial information belong to an expanding subject area at this time. This article should be seen as a first attempt for an archivist to get a grip of the problems and solutions. It focuses on the maps but it should be remembered that in the future there will be many data bases containing spatial references, e.g., addresses. One of the focus points for an archivist as well as for the users is the means of searching, what possibilities are available. Another focus point of this article is the need of the user – in many cases an archive service is better than the presentation of a number of maps. The article stresses the need for co-operation – the portal, the metadata etc. This article is a slightly rewritten version of the original lecture, since the speed of development in the area under discussion is quite great. The conclusion, that there is a considerable need for cooperation and standardization has, however, not diminished, because each organization is still going on in its own direction – but at a greater pace. My point of view is influenced by the organization where I work. The National Survey and Cadastre does have quite a number of maps, but in volume it might not be that big. Our special problem is that most of the maps are in steady use e.g., we lend out 20,000 of the cadastral maps from the archive to the case officers of the institution every year. Thus the institution cannot be compared to an archive or a library – and in a way the focus is more upon access than on adequate treatment (though by digitization we shall be able to solve this problem). The archive consists mainly of: Cadastral maps (1806–1997) 50,000 maps Other land economical maps (1760–1900) 10,000 maps Topographical maps (2760–2000) 30,000 maps Naval maps (1650 to date) 5,000 maps Aerial photographs >200,000 photos Surveying documents (maps) (1844–2006) >1,000,000 maps 183

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The main users are within our institution. They account for more than 95% of the use. The citizens’ use would be much larger if 1) they had knowledge of the maps, their existence and what they can tell and 2) they had easy access to the maps, either through the Internet or through buying digital copies. It is not an easy task to make to maps accessible through the Internet. First, the maps are very different in size and search keys. Secondly, they are not all registered that well – the quality of registration depends upon the frequency of their use within the institution, and this does not correspond to the external needs. Thirdly, the group of external users is very inhomogeneous ranging from the specialized user at the Department of Forest and Natural Resources to the just started family historian. They have different interests and different knowledge of the material. On the other hand the archive has a solid foundation in the National Survey and Cadastre. The institution does not make paper maps anymore – all the topographical, cadastral and naval maps are now digital. This year, also, digital cameras take the aerial photographs. Furthermore, it is the institution taking care of the spatial data infrastructure of Denmark, ensuring that every institution of government is able to use the other institutions’ spatial data. Thus the archive has the advantage 1) that there is a focus on the use of spatial data, as well as the historical evidence, and it is able to piggyback on the software made for the handling of modern data and 2) it can draw upon the knowledge of the other people of the institution. We have now scanned approximately 50,000 maps and are in the process of putting the 40,000 onto the Internet. This is not done for historical awareness, but because it will be of great value to certain groups such as land surveyors, property dealers and the like. Digital maps are of two kinds: raster maps and vector maps. It is important to know this in order to understand their use on the Internet. Raster maps are usually produced by scanning the paper maps. But these maps can be made a little bit smarter. It is possible to add coordinates to every pixel of the raster map. Then by searching through coordinates you can find the point upon the map. You can also put metadata of the map into the file – e.g. the year of surveying.

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A service on the home page of the National Survey and Cadastre is ‘Danmark før og nu’ (Denmark then and now). You find a point by choosing the name of the road (here ‘Stillidsvej’). As there are several roads of that name, you have to choose the municipality from the list made by the database. Then again, you have to choose the number in the street. Note that not all numbers, only the existing ones, are listed. The database used is the national Address Database containing all addresses in Denmark and adding a coordinate to them. When you have picked the complete address, the database gives the coordinates that point to a certain pixel in the map – similar to many map pages throughout the world. The distinction in this case is that you get two maps, to the left a modern map and to the right a historical map (and you can choose between historical maps). The marker points out the exact address, and then you can click on the vertical line in the middle – this line decides which map shall be on top, so if you pull it to the left, more of the historical map will emerge. Vector maps are also based upon coordinates, but in at different way. They consist only of points, lines and polygons. These can be arranged in multiple, separate layers – e.g. one for buildings, one for roads, one for municipalities, etc. You can say that a vector map is a pictorial representation of a database. On the Internet it has the advantage that you can use the ‘mouse over’ technique or click on a pixel in order to make a request, thus making the map a good search vehicle. You shall later hear about the National Survey and Cadastre using this to make a search engine for cadastral maps.

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Example of the layers in a vector map. At the bottom there are the administrative units as polygons, next there are woods, also as polygons. The roads are lines. To these attributes as names or numbers could be added, but also restrictions such as speed limits, one-way streetts etc. The uppermost layer is timuli, given as points. You determine yourself which layer shall be on top, and you can also decide whether a layer shall be visible or not e.g. the lines showing the middle of the roads are not visible on many maps on the Internet, but these are used when you ask the distance by car from one address to another. A kind of derivative of the vector map is the ‘bounding box’. It consists of a polygon or a circle. Usually it is a rectangle, but it does not need to be. The bounding box is used either to indicate a search area or a target area (in this case it is a kind of attribute to a map, indicating the area of the map. As many maps have not been made for modern indexing systems, the ‘bounding box’ comes quite handy.

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Example of an archive service on the Internet. The blue lines and numbers are the Danish Cadastral Map of Southern Jutland, updated every night. The green polygons are ‘bounding boxes’, each representing a surveying document in the archive. By clicking within the polygon, a new page will show the surveying document(s). In this way, the surveyor working in the field can – when in the field – check whether there are relevant documents or not and, if there are, view them. It is possible to add attributes to the polygons of the vector maps as well as to the bounding boxes. For the bounding boxes this could be information like ‘this bounding box is only relevant for a certain kind of map (e.g. cadastral maps)’ or ‘this bounding box shows the extent of the municipality of Elsinore’. Another important attribute, usually, is the date ‘this bounding box is only relevant for the years 1880– 1917’. In this way it is possible to minimize the number of hits when making an inquiry – if you are looking for cadastral maps for 1920–1950 you will get neither topographical maps nor cadastral maps from 1885.

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Peter Korsgaard 2243 04089 139941.243 078395.416 139937.602 078391.775 139952.165 078126.916 139673.653 078140.569 139679.114 078407.248 [Main] GeoTIFFProjectionCode=32632 UnitransMiniLabel=utm32_wgs84 ProjectionUnits=9001 ImageDescription=S00101T GroupId=Sognekort InvertXAxis=0 ImageId=S00101T MapScale=20323.2098 Edition=0 [AdmNotes] Entry1=Kortserie=Minorerede Sognekort Entry2=Kortbladsnavn=Gjentofte Sogn Entry3=Sogn=Gentofte Sogn Entry4=Herred=Sokkelund Herred Entry5=Oprindeligt amtsnavn=København Amt Entry6=Kortbladsmålestok=1:20.000 Entry7=Tegnet / Trykt=Trykt Entry8=Fra år=? Entry9=Til år=? Entry10=Bemærkninger=Nordvest

Example of bounding box. The first two lines are to identify and categorize the bounding box. The next five lines are coordinates of the corners of the polygon. In some programs, the first and the last are the same. The rest is metadata. You may notice that the original scale of the map (Entry 6) is 1:20.000, whereas the scale of the scanned map is 1:20.323,2098. The map has shrunk a bit. The map is a ‘sognekort’ (parish map), a special kind of derived cadastral maps. The entries give the name of the map, the name of the parish (not always identical), the administrative information. Entry 7 says whether the map is printed or hand drawn. Entries 8 and 9 give the date of the map (from – to), in this case we do not know the dates. Tthe last entry is for remarks. All this metadata can be shown in different ways, and there will be an example later.

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Example of a bounding box of a parish map. It is simply a polygon drawn around the significant part of the map. It is a cost/benefit decision as how many points the bounding box should include. If it is close to the border, as in this case, the number of false hits would be small. But it takes a little more time to make the bounding box. Remember that the bounding box only indicates the target area, the whole map with all the information should still be examined. Being responsible for making the maps accessible through the Internet you have to make a lot of cost/benefit decisions. How precise should the search results be? Can you in any way improve the search methods through drawing on registers or databases already made? How much can you expect the user to know? And so on. One main feature of our organisation is that it does not belong to the cultural organisations, but to the administrative organisations, so the focus is not mainly upon the heritage, but upon the administrative use. The advantage of working with administrative users is that they know the material, so it is fairly easy to create search engines for these people. For the general public you have to think and act differently. You also have to consider that in many cases the user is not interested in the map, but in a piece of information, e.g. what did a certain farm look like in 1870? Where was the windmill of the village Ullerslev situated? How did my village look like in 1920? For all these questions the solution is not as much going through the archive for maps and checking each for the answer, but rather having services providing the answer. 189

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Although this article gives some indication for users as to what to expect in the near future, the most important focus group is the map curators, such as librarians and archivists. They are the ones who have to decide if and how it shall be done. It is not easy getting started. It takes some know-how and some money to put up and especially to keep going. It is very common for map curators to take the institution’s point of view, and far more emphasis should be on the users’ needs. Why should the institutions not work together through a common portal, maybe using the same standards of metadata? In Denmark, a special, very important type of map (showing the land enclosure around 1800) is scattered among maybe 50 institutions, almost randomly. This is very difficult for the user to know. It also makes it difficult for the user to find the right institution that holds the right map. The EU initiative Inspire (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) has worked upon standardization over several years. In 2006 the Inspire Directive was approved and in the future it will set the standards for the spatial data infrastructure. Inspire has a geo-portal with different kinds of spatial information1. This portal should not be the final answer and it may need something in the question of interface, but it gives some examples of what would be contingent for making a search portal.

The Inspire starting page for searching for maps. To the left is the geographical key, to the right thematic and chronological keys. 1

http://eu-geoportal.jrc.it/

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In the National Survey and Cadastre we have just scanned almost 40,000 cadastral maps – that is all paper cadastral maps of Denmark except the very first ones. A search interface has been created and is now being tested externally by some land surveyors. The search key is usually the cadastral district, a system that has been rather stable since its introduction 200 years ago. Thus we have taken the part of the vector cadastral map showing the boundaries of the cadastral districts, that is, it is not to be seen, but lies underneath the topographical map and pointing into the database.

The National Survey and Cadastre, Denmark – the starting page for searching for cadastral maps on the Internet (prototype). To the left are ways of searching: either by name or number of the cadastral unit or by map (which pops up in another window, with zoom possibilities). The main part shows the search results with some metadata making it easier to identify the wanted map. Through clicking on ‘Vis’ (‘show’) to the left the wanted map pops up in a new window. The database is scaleable, thus many other map types can be added without problems. If too many are added, it shall be considered that – like the Inspire portal – you are able to mark the map types you are interested in. Viewing maps can many times be complicated, especially knowing what part of the map you are looking at when, at the same time, you want to zoom in to see details. Sometimes the boundaries have changed over time, and which cadastral district is then the right one? Maybe you would like to know some more metadata of the map? Maybe you would like to measure a distance on the map? These and more other questions should be taken care of. Fortunately, we learn from different portals and, in our case, the case officers sitting close to us. 191

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Example of part of cadastral map seen through the Internet. 254 dpi jpg2000 is used. We are considering 508 dpi jpg2000, but it will take quite some time to convert to this – and maybe the users are satisfied with 254. If anyone wonders about the number 254, it is because we use the metric system. It also gives some fine numbers when you shall say how many centimetres a pixel corresponds to. I have here opened all the relevant help boxes. To the left are metadata, at the top of the map, underneath those of the scanning. To the right is at top navigation tools: zoom in, zoom out, zoom to whole map, move. Underneath is a thumbnail of the whole map, the red rectangle showing the part of the map that is on the screen. At the bottom is a map showing the cadastral unit (brown) and the surrounding cadastral units with their names. You can regulate the size of the two last windows. All windows except the window for navigation can be opened or closed at wish. A tool for measuring distances shall soon be added.

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LIBRARY AND INFORMATION LITERACY FOR ‘NON-TRADITIONAL’/MATURE STUDENTS: SOME ASPECTS OF THE IRISH THIRD-LEVEL EXPERIENCE Vibeke Kallar Assistant Librarian, Oslo, Norway and Mícheál Ó hAodha Librarian (Informatics), University of Limerick, Ireland Abstract This paper describes a number of ’back-to-education’ and Information Literacy initiatives currently underway at the University of Limerick and as initiated within the University of Limerick (UL) Library to reach out to two small minorities in Ireland – Irish Travellers and the Roma (Gypsies) and the large immigrant population (over one hundred different ethnic groups) who currently make their home in Ireland. Both Irish Travellers and Roma exhibit a long tradition of social marginalisation from the ‘mainstream’ population and they score high on all indices of unemployment, poor health and child mortality. Since 2003, the University of Limerick has been in receipt of Higher Education Authority (HEA) funding for the Traveller/Roma Initiative Programme. This paper describes a range of innovative information access and literacy initiatives as implemented within UL Library, describes the setting-up of the Traveller-Roma Access Resource Collection, in addition to a range of other initiatives as relating to Library information skills and Information Literacy generally. Traveller and Roma Initiatives at the University of Limerick Since 2003, the University of Limerick has been in receipt of HEA funding for the Traveller Initiative Programme. This initiative has been run through the Library and Information Services Division, the Department of History, the Department of Business and the Irish World Music Centre. UL has shown great vision and initiative in leading the way in the study of Ireland’s oldest minority group, a group of people who make up less than one per cent of the Irish population and about whose history, little is known. Irish Travellers number approximately 28,000 people in the Republic of Ireland and 1,500 in Northern Ireland. There are also large Irish Traveller communities in Britain and North America. This paper describes a range of innova193

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tive information access and literacy initiatives as implemented within UL Library and describes the setting-up of the Traveller-Roma Access Resource Centre. This Centre located within UL Library includes a wide range of material relating to the history/culture of Travellers and Roma and includes books, prints, audio, multimedia, video and music materials. Information relating to information literacy and childrens literacy material has also been bought for the Centre which will serve the needs of both ’settled’ and Traveller students who attend the University of Limerick and use the Library here. The HEA Initiative has also funded the furnishing of this Centre. Funding from these Initiatives has also resulted in the publication of two books about the cultural history of the Travellers.1 An indigenous population of ’non-traditional’ Users now accessing Third-Level Education–some information about the Irish Travellers Irish Travellers are an indigenous minority or ethnic group who make up less than one percent of the population in Ireland. They number approximately 28,000 people in the Republic of Ireland and 1,500 in Northern Ireland. There are also large Irish Traveller communities in Britain and North America. Their family structure, nomadism, employment patterns and language are all distinctive and have ensured their survival as a minority group on the margins of Irish mainstream society for generations. There is little information or research available on the question of Traveller origins and a range of theories have been put forward by scholars including the possibility that they are the descendants of travelling bards who were joined by families who ’took to the road’ because of eviction, war, famine and the social upheaval that was a consequence of colonisation. Some suggest that their culture may have originated in the 1600s with the break-up of the traditional feudal society that was prevalent in Gaelic Ireland then. It is no coincidence that many historical sources mention the appearance of Irish Travellers along with a range of other indigenous nomadic groups (including the Norwegian Resande and Swedish Tattare) at a similar historical juncture in European history, which saw the splintering of the feudal way of life, the enclosure of land and the burgeoning of a very large migrant and nomadic population in many countries. Travellers are synonymous with self-employment, occupational flexibility and nomadism. In the nineteenth century tinsmithing was a trade that was particularly associated with Travellers. This gave rise to the sobriquet ’tinker’, which is now often used only in a derogatory sense. Tinsmithing was only one trade that was associated with Travellers however. They are also horse-dealers and recyclers and are synonymous today with activities such as market trading, scrap collection, tarmack1

www.ul.ie/~library/publications.html

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ing, the resale of second-hand goods, tree-topping and landscaping. Historically, Travellers have been largely invisible among the Irish poor, but their language, known as Cant or Gammon, shows evidence of bardic influences, indicating that some of their ancestors may have belonged to bardic families that played a central role in Gaelic culture prior to the imposition of colonisation. The fact that Travellers is how the group refers to themselves is indicative of the importance of travelling or nomadism in Traveller culture. A new and ‘immigrant’ population of ‘non-traditional’ users now accessing Third-Level Education – some information about the Roma (Gypsies) The Roma (Gypsies) who are a ‘new’ immigrant community to Ireland number at least twelve million people and are located in many countries worldwide. They are one of the largest immigrant groups currently in Ireland. The success of UL’s work on disadvantaged and ‘non-traditional’ groups has led to external recognition and was cited as one of the reasons why UL scored very highly as a University in the last Sunday Times review of Irish Universities. It is part of the Government's remit for education to reach out to groups who have been traditionally disadvantaged. Like the Irish Traveller community the Roma, with whom Irish Travellers share a similar (previously nomadic) history and many similar cultural tenets, are acknowledged to score high on all indices of disadvantage in the areas of health, employment and education. Limerick has one of the largest Traveller and Roma populations in the Irish Republic, many of whom live in areas of high unemployment and social disadvantage. It is acknowledged that the break-up of the former Eastern bloc and ethnic tensions in the Balkans have contributed to increased persecution of Roma in these countries, a factor which has encouraged their migration in greater numbers into Western Europe. The Roma are an ethnic minority distinguished by Rom blood and the Romani, or Romanes language. The Roma or Romani people have been known by many names including Gypsies (or Gipsies), Tsigani, Tzigane, Cigano, Zigeuner, and others. Most Roma have always referred to themselves by their tribal names, or as Rom or Roma, meaning ‘Man’ or ‘People’. The Roma have included many different groups of people from the very beginning, and have absorbed outsiders into their culture throughout their history. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, the first Europeans assumed that they came from Turkey, Nubia, Egypt, or any number of vaguely acknowledged non-European places, and they were called, among other things, Egyptians or ‘Gyptians, which is where the word ‘Gypsy’ originates from. There are four Rom ‘tribes’, or nations (natsiya), of Roma: the Kalderash, the Machavaya, the Lovari, and the Churari. Other groups include the Romanichal, the Gitanoes (Calé), the Sinti, the Rudari, the Manush, the Boyash, the Ungaritza, the Luri, the Bashaldé, the Romungro, and the Xoraxai. 195

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There have been several great migrations, or diaspora, in Romani history. The first was the initial dispersal from India about a thousand years ago. Some scholars suggest there may have been several migrations from India. No one knows for certain why the original Roma began their great wandering from India to Europe and beyond, but they have dispersed worldwide, despite persecution and oppression through the centuries. The second great migration, known as the Aresajipe, was from southwest Asia into Europe in the 14th century. In Europe, Roma were either kept in slavery in the Balkans (in territory that is today Romania), or else were able to move on into the rest of the continent, reaching every northern and western country by about 1500. In the course of time, as a result of having interacted with various European populations, and being fragmented into widely-separated groups, Roma have emerged as a collection of distinct ethnic groups within the larger whole. The third great migration of Roma was from Europe to the Americas in the 19th and early 20th centuries after the abolition of Romani slavery in Europe in 1856–1864. Some scholars contend there is a great migration occurring today since the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. The Romani language is of Indo-Aryan origin and has many spoken dialects, but the root language is ancient Punjabi, or Hindi. The spoken Romani language is varied, but all dialects contain some common words in use by all Roma. There have been many large-scale, state-sponsored persecutions or pogroms, against the Roma throughout European history. The Nazi terror of World War II is the most infamous and is responsible for the deaths of up to 1.5 million Roma in the Porrajmos (Holocaust). The recent collapse of the communist governments of Eastern Europe has rekindled anti-Roma sentiment in Eastern and Western Europe. Violent attacks against Romani immigrants and refugees have been permitted to occur with little or no restraint from government authorities. The Romani people remain one of the least integrated and most persecuted peoples in Europe. Almost everywhere, their fundamental civil rights are threatened. Racist violence targeting Roma is on the rise after the fall of Communism. Discrimination against Roma in employment, education, health care, administrative and other services is observed in most societies and hate speech against them deepens the negative anti-Roma stereotypes, which are typical of European public opinion. Traveller/Roma Resource Collection UL library was successful in accessing funding from the HEA to create a Traveller/Roma centre within the library. This is due to be officially launched in May, 2005. This Collection is the first Collection in Ireland narrating the history of the Travellers and the Roma. It includes a wide range of material relating to the history/culture of Travellers and Roma and includes books, prints, audio, multimedia, 196

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video and music materials as well as furniture and computer equipment. Financial backing for this venture has been provided by John Heneghan, Kemmy Business School, who is the Coordinator of the HEA Traveller Access Initiative at UL. Dr. Bernadette Whelan of the UL History Department has also been involved in the purchase of scholarly resources for this Collection. The Collection is intended as a resource for both Traveller/Roma students and UL students generally. In addition to historical/cultural material the Collection also includes children’s material and literacy material which is available to the Traveller students who are attending UL and their families. Materials from this Collection have been used in a number of very successful documentary films and TV series on RTE television – including the documentary ‘Cant’ on RTE1 and TG4 and the music series ‘Ceol na bhFánaithe’ (The Music of the Travellers) on TG4. The educational and cultural remit of this Collection is as follows: ▪ Continual development and acquisition of resources such as videos, books and journals to form as comprehensive a collection as possible of material relating to the history and culture of both the Irish Traveller and the Roma (Gypsy) communities. This Collection would help to enhance the educational experience of Travellers and create a supportive environment for them within the University ▪ Acquire resources of particular relevance to Traveller/Gypsy education, literacy skills, the education of children in the home, special needs etc ▪ Acquire ‘popular reading’ material for children, so that the Collection can be an educational and literacy tool for Traveller women and their children ▪ Ensure the acquisition of research material that is ‘culturally-sensitive’ to the particular needs of the Traveller/Gypsy community by consulting with Travellers/Gypsies on the acquisition of various materials ▪ Expand the Collections to build its breadth and range of formats (books, CDs, DVDs in areas such as Migration Studies, Ethnicity Studies, Roma, Fairground Travellers, Circus, Community etc. ▪ Assist Travellers in the use of the library facilities – organise small groups of Travellers to visit the library on a regular basis so that they might become familiar with the environment of the library and aware of the many research facilities on offer there ▪ Make links with the relevant bodies in the University (i.e. the Access Office) and in Limerick city who are already doing outreach work to the Travel197

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ler/Roma communities. Groups included in this remit would be the Limerick Traveller Development Group, Doras, Paul Partnership etc. Visit these groups with a view to publicising the Collection and give talks outlining the richness of the material available in the Collection ▪ Assist Travellers in enhancing their awareness of the Traveller Collection and ensure, in as far as possible, that the Collection serves the needs of both literate and illiterate Travellers ▪ Ensure that the Collection is a stepping-stone that will facilitate learning and research on the Traveller/Gypsy communities by both Travellers and ‘settled’ people ▪ Ensure that the Collection remains correctly housed in the library so that the Traveller Collection can become a focal point within the Library ▪ Arrange the sourcing and purchase of all material pertaining to the Traveller Collection. Search bibliographies, make out order forms, monitor expenditure. Ensure that material acquired is bound and catalogued according to the correct bibliographic standards. Arrange for the acquisition of a permanent space in the library – including an exhibition space – where the Collection can be housed

Tranches of funding allocated in future years may be used to explore the following possibilities: ▪ Continue the updating of the website to promote the Collection and Archive ▪ Promotion of the Collection outside the University – travel to Traveller development groups, schools, conferences to promote the Collection, the first of its kind in any Irish University ▪ Promote the Collection within the University amongst Faculty and students. ▪ Investigate the possibilities for the establishment of an archival project whereby a vast collection of archival material including newspaper cuttings, photos, tapes, etc. (about 80,000 items in total) pertaining to Travellers and their culture would be made available to researchers on a searchable bibliographic database. This database could be then be searched using such criteria as author, title, research topic, notes field and so on ▪ Investigate the possibilities for a joint catalogue or ‘virtual’ collection with other Universities with specialist collections in this area either within Ireland or abroad 198

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Enhance links with other similar resource collections and investigate increased possibilities for collaboration – throughout Europe, e.g. In Northern Ireland, the University of Jordanstown, in the UK, the University of Liverpool Gypsy Collections and in the Asia – Mudra Institute, Ahmedabad, India and the U.S. There is information relating to some recent research publications based on the resources of this Collection.2 The University of Limerick Library’s Traveller/Roma Collections were also used in a research capacity in a recent documentary film about the language of the Irish Travellers, known as Cant or Gammon – about which little is known.3 The NOMAD Project Nomad is a very successful project co-ordinated by the Irish World Music Centre, University of Limerick. For the past four years Nomad has recorded and promoted many aspects of the Traveller music and singing traditions, produced CDs and organised concerts of Traveller culture. For the past number of years the University of Limerick has had a number of Traveller musicians including Johnny Keenan and Pecker Dunne as artists-in-residence. It has also produced CDs of highly-regarded musicians such as Pecker Dunne himself, the Keenan Sisters, Mickey Dunne and recorded concerts of Traveller music with musicians such as the Dunne family, Finbar Furey, Teresa O’Reilly, and Bridget Casey4. Encouraging access in UL Library The University of Limerick is has gained a particular reputation for its innovative approaches to Access issues for students from ‘non-traditional’ or marginalized backgrounds. In order to facilitate this process of social inclusion the Access Office has introduced a direct entry policy for students from backgrounds that are underrepresented at the University. In order to do this it is necessary to complete the UL Access Course. Each year the Access office organises regular Information tours at UL Library for secondary school from ‘disadvantaged’ areas of Limerick city in order that these students can become more familiar with the UL campus and feel more comfortable in an educational setting.

2 3 4

www.ul.ie/~library/publications.html www.ul.ie/~library/film.html Further information at: www.ul.ie/~iwmc/ens_pro/ or by contacting Kirsten Alstaff at [email protected]

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Other projects for the inclusion of “non-traditional” Students at UL brary – Disability Services at the University of Limerick Library The University of Limerick Library is home to a specialist unit known as Disability Services. This unit employs eight members of staff and it supports the research and developmental needs of those students with disabilities who are currently studying at the University of Limerick. A particular focus is technological development in the area of Disability. Staff at the unit are currently working on a major project incorporating the conversion of text-to-audio for visually-impaired students. Further information on the range of Disability Services at UL can be accessed online5. Derek Spaight (Disability Officer, UL) and Mícheál Ó hAodha, (Librarian Informatics, UL) recently co-operated on a disability awareness audit of the University of Limerick’s buildings and campus6. Widening educational access: some aspects of the Library’s role in the Irish Third-Level Context In addition to the question of enhanced prosperity, the e-learning and the widening of educational access beyond the confines of the cohort who traditionally ‘always went onto third-level’. Recent events in Dublin and Limerick have shown that there are still big social and educational gaps in the way that the ‘knowledge society’ has been implemented in Ireland however. In fact, contrary to the image which the media often put forward in Ireland regarding our educational system, Ireland only ranked 11th out of the top-20 countries in the world in terms of educational access and the quality of our education services generally7. The University of Limerick Library, as with many similar organisations in Ireland, in addition to examining plans for the new Library building, has also examined the question of how the library can re-position itself more generally in terms of remaining ‘relevant’ in the future. It is generally acknowledged that Ireland is a country which has changed beyond all recognition – and particularly as relating to its population’s (increasingly-multicultural) composition. These changes are already beginning to become evident in the types of educational access the Library is now supporting through its Information Services. Where once the number of mature and non-traditional Students attending UL might have comprised only a handful of people, this year saw 30 ‘non-traditional’ students enter the University via the Mature Students Office (Access Programme) and nearly 200 students who were accepted as mature students and who will go on to study for a degree. This is a momentous 5 6 7

www.ul.ie/~inclusion/ or Tel: 061-202346. Further information on this report from [email protected] or [email protected] OECD figures, 2002.

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change in terms of educational access, all of which has taken place within the space of just a few short years. To get an idea of the fast-changing nature of our society, it is worth citing a few facts as regards Irish education and attendant information provision: ▪ Over half of Irish school-leavers now go onto third-level. ▪ Overall participation has increased for the children of nearly all occupational or class groups. ▪ Higher education in Ireland is being forced to undergo rapid change with an increasingly diverse student demographic and changes such as the following: – More credentialised learning – More modularised and flexible/interdisciplinary learning – including elearning and distance learning – More credit for voluntary work; initiatives with local communities The increasing cohorts of ‘non-traditional’ and mature students have particular requirements in terms of information provision/access and learning generally and the Library’s Information Services department has been playing a key role in this for the last couple of years, through the provision of enhanced services for the increasing numbers of ‘non-traditional’ and mature students now attending the University of Limerick Library. This is an area of this Library’s activities which is likely to expand greatly in the years ahead as we endeavour to overcome those significant barriers that still remain for this ‘newer’ group of (mainly adult) third-level students, sometimes referred to as ‘second chance’ students trying to get into third-level. These barriers are wide-ranging and include the following, to name but two: • Many mature students have different schedules as compared to the ‘traditional’ student who has attended third-level to date • Some of these students ‘can be put off’ by the fact that their earlier experiences of schooling were very poor or they suffered from prejudice or discrimination based on who they were or where they came from. • Some ‘non-traditional’ students can feel “overwhelmed” or intimidated by the whole ‘set-up’ in third-level education. The Quickstart: The Library Step-by-Step Tutorial This was devised to help all students (‘non-traditional’ or mature students included) use the Library efficiently.8

8

www.ul.ie/libraryquickstart/

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The Disability Unit There is regular liaison with this unit. Annual school tours These introduce the Library to students from disadvantaged Limerick schools as run by the Access Office and the Library. ‘Information Skills’ Classes for Mature, ‘Non-Traditional’ and Access Students These members of the public may have missed out on substantial portions of their first and second-level education and could be attempting to ‘catch up’ on their library and literacy skills as quickly as possible. These classes cover such areas as: • • • • • • • •

Literacy skills Accurate referencing Time management Beyond Google- academic research skills Academic writing – (grammar, punctuation, writing styles) Training on certain databases that are held within the Library Information skills e.g. Referencing – print and online How to write up your research

Immigrants and Asylum-Seekers These now make up about one eighth of the Irish population and the Library is working with the Mature Students Office, the Access Office and the Higher Education Authority to ensure enhanced Information Service provision to these members of the Irish public.

NOTE Details of the Roma Collection can be accessed on the UL Library’s web pages at: www.ul.ie/~library/travellers/ or by contacting: Project Manager, Mícheál Ó hAodha (Librarian, Informatics and Electronics), University of Limerick email: [email protected]

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CHINESE-CANADIANS IN SEARCH OF IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS: CURRENT AND POTENTIAL RESOURCES Janet Tomkins Genealogy Librarian Vancouver Public Library, British Columbia, Canada Abstract Although interest in genealogy has increased significantly in recent years, ChineseCanadians make little use of library-based genealogical resources and services, and remain outside the Canadian genealogy mainstream. This is possibly due in part to a strongly British/European focus in the prevailing Canadian genealogical culture. There are indications that Chinese-Canadians are very interested in exploring their family roots. But while the community has recently begun to reclaim its place in Canadian history, Chinese-Canadian genealogists face a considerable challenge, due not only to a lack of relevant resources and services, but also to unique aspects of Chinese-Canadian history and culture. The paper examines the nature of this challenge, using specific examples of genealogical resources, including civil registration, census, and other records. It then describes several initiatives, some librarybased, which indicate that a more promising context for Chinese-Canadian genealogical research is emerging. With the example of Chinese-Canadians in mind, public libraries are urged to expand their genealogy services to a broader range of immigrant groups. The paper concludes with practical suggestions. Introduction The impulse to explore identity by researching one’s personal connection to the past has gained tremendous momentum in recent years, fuelled in part by the growth of the Internet. Research commissioned by Library and Archives Canada in 2003,1 determined that almost a third (32%) of Canadians planned to trace their genealogy within the year, within the next few years, or when they retire. Another 8% said that they had already done this type of research, bringing the total of those with an interest in genealogy to fully 40%.

1

Tracking Public Views on the Library and Archives Canada and Genealogy: Final Report. Ipsos-Reid Surveys – Canadian Genealogy Centre canadien de généalogie. Dcember 2003. Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque Archives Canada, Ottawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada.ca/genealogy/ 022-201.003-e.html

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The report also determined that those expressing this interest were mainly of Aboriginal, British Isles, Italian or German background, a finding consistent with the fact that the prevailing genealogical research culture in Canada is strongly oriented towards those of British Isles and, to a lesser extent, Continental European immigrant ancestry. This is reflected in public libraries, whose collections of genealogical materials typically comprise substantial holdings relating to research in the British Isles, Continental Europe, and United States, but few materials relating to other parts of the world. Handbooks and other resources focusing on Canadian sources are also slanted towards those of British and European immigrant ancestry. The lack of balance in collections reflects a general lack of published materials – there is little for libraries to buy. A bias is also seen in the membership and activities of genealogical societies. An interesting example is the case of a family history society in British Columbia, which has undertaken the indexing of Canadian passenger lists from 1900 to about 1921. It might be expected that a society located on Canada’s west coast would direct its efforts locally, towards passenger lists for ships arriving at Vancouver, Victoria and other Pacific ports, which often carried Asian immigrants. However, the project’s initial efforts have focused on arrivals at the Atlantic ports of Halifax and Quebec, ports which received large numbers of immigrants from the British Isles and Europe. In considering the case of one of Canada’s most significant and historic communities, the Chinese, it is interesting to note the experience of the largest public library in British Columbia. British Columbia (B.C.) is the historical magnet of Chinese immigration to Canada, but although genealogical services and resources at the Vancouver Public Library have expanded considerably in recent years, ChineseCanadians have been conspicuously absent from the legions of genealogists who regularly visit to make use of genealogical services and resources. ChineseCanadians are also rarely seen at local genealogy events organized by the LDS Family History Centers and British Columbia Genealogical Society. The community was unrepresented at a genealogical symposium held in Ottawa in 2002, to help guide the development of the new Canadian Genealogy Centre, launched in 2003. There are, nonetheless, indications that Chinese-Canadians are in fact very interested in exploring their family roots. Although no specific research has been conducted to measure attitudes among Chinese-Canadians towards genealogical research, the Chinese-Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, founded in November 2004, has been very active in local history and genealogy. The October launch of a new book of family histories, Finding Memories, Tracing Routes,2 was very enthusiastically received. Interest in Chinese-Canadian genealogy has also been 2

Worrall, Brandy Lien, ed. Finding Memories, Tracing Routes: Chinese Canadian Family Stories. Vancouver: Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia, 2006.

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fanned by the Canadian government’s formal apology in June 2006, for a discriminatory tax levied on Chinese immigrants between 1887 and 1923. The possibility of financial redress drew many Chinese-Canadians into libraries to research historic Canadian federal government records documenting the payment of the tax. But the search is difficult. In addition to being poorly served by existing resources and services, Chinese-Canadians face unique and specific obstacles in the search for their roots. A closer look at the nature of these obstacles illustrates the considerable task facing librarians and information specialists seeking to develop quality resources and services that will address the needs of all genealogists, including those of non-European origin. Challenges for Chinese-Canadian genealogists Historical factors The unique challenges facing Chinese-Canadian genealogists are partly explained by the history of the Chinese community in Canada. Although some Chinese arrived at Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island on British fur-trading vessels in the 1780s, the first wave of Chinese immigrants leading to the establishment of a permanent residential community did not appear until the 1850s. These early Chinese migrants came to B.C. by way of California, drawn by the Fraser River gold rush. Large-scale immigration, directly from China, did not begin until the early 1880s, when Chinese labourers were recruited for construction on the western section of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Although many of the contract workers eventually left, the size of the resident Chinese population substantially increased. In addition to railway construction, Chinese were employed as miners, merchants, domestic servants, farm labourers, food canners, forest workers, and store owners. The 1901 Canadian census recorded 16,375 people of Chinese nationality, 14,201 of whom lived in B.C.3 The Chinese were not, however, welcome immigrants and faced social hostility as well as overt discrimination, in the form of legislative controls that were never applied to any other group of immigrants to Canada. Almost forty years after the infamous ‘head tax’ was imposed, another notorious piece of federal legislation, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, excluded Chinese from entering the country and imposed new regulations on those already residing there. These measures had a profound impact on family history, and the ability for Chinese-Canadians to successfully trace their roots.

3

Canada. Census Office. Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. 4 vols. Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, 1902-1906: Volume I: 406.

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Chinese personal names While it is important to consider historical background in relation to immigrant ancestor research, other factors, such as language and culture, also play a significant role. In the case of Chinese-Canadians, complexities relating to personal names demonstrate this very clearly. Traditional Chinese naming customs pose the first challenge. While people of British ancestry typically have a ‘given’ (or first) name, a middle name, a surname, and in some cases a nickname, a Chinese man traditionally had several different given names throughout life, including a milk (baby) name, school name, marriage name, and perhaps others. Women acquired fewer names, and essentially lost their given names at marriage, after which their names were commonly written as their maiden surname, followed by Shih, Shee, or See, for example, Chow Shee, meaning, ‘a married woman who came from the Chow clan.’ Although surnames remained the same throughout life, dialectical differentces affected the way in which the same name was pronounced. In an article on Chinese names in Hawaii, Wai Jane Char describes a Chinese family, featured on an American television program. Three members of the family were variously introduced as Daniel Ching, his aunt Mrs. Chinn, and an uncle, Mr. Chen. Despite these differences, the three individuals shared the same written Chinese form of their surname; the differences reflected dialectical and romanization variations.4 Even the written Chinese forms vary, however, as there was no standardized national written form of Chinese until 1919, when Vernacular Chinese was adopted. Name order also followed a different custom from that practised in the British Isles and Europe. In Chinese, surnames appear first, followed by given names. In dealings with Westerners, however, Chinese migrants might reverse the traditional order, following the custom of the adopted country. It was also common for Chinese in Canada to take a ‘Western’ name. Another basic characteristic of Chinese names with significant implications for Chinese genealogical research is their relatively small number. About 2000 are in use today5 most of which occur rarely, with the result that Chinese people share a very small number of surnames. It is a truism of genealogy that, the more unusual a name, the easier it is to trace through documentary sources. Conversely, it can be very difficult to identify an individual in historical records if he or she has a common name. The small Chinese surname pool thus puts those of Chinese ancestry at a disadvantage. 4

5

Char, Wai Jane. ‘Chinese Names in Hawaii’. in: Lai, Kum Pui Lai, and Lai, Violet Lau, eds. Researching One’s Chinese Roots: Proceedings of the 1985 Genealogy Conference in Hawaii. Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center, 1988. Lewellen, Mark. ‘Chinese Family Names.’Dictionary of American Family Names. 3 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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The degree of difficulty associated with researching individual names is further increased by the fact that Chinese names were unfamiliar to the English-speaking and writing clerks, registrars, enumerators or other persons who initially created the records that are now of interest to genealogists. It is extremely unlikely that such individuals understood the complexities of Chinese names and language. Although there may sometimes have been translators, the rendering of Chinese names into English was often questionable. The prevalence of the name ‘Ah’ in many nominal references to Chinese people in original sources is a good example of the way in which English speakers and writers mis-interpreted Chinese names. ‘Ah’ is not, in fact, a proper Chinese name, but a prefix added to the personal name as a familiar or informal manner of address. (In the English language this is somewhat equivalent to the addition of a suffix [-ie or -y] such that Ann becomes ‘Annie’ or Jim becomes ‘Jimmy’). Finally, the use of ‘paper names’ has obscured the documentary trail. Many Chinese moved back and forth between China and Canada, and in some cases, identity documents papers were exchanged or sold and used by others. This was a means of circumventing discriminatory legislation. Identity changes, however, inevitably create challenges for subsequent generations of genealogists. Exploring the documents and records A closer look at specific examples of key genealogical resources illustrates more clearly the potential impact of historical, cultural and language-related factors on genealogical research prospects for Chinese-Canadians. Civil registration Civil registration records are among the most useful sources for all genealogists. In British Columbia, civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in British Columbia began in 1872, under the Births, Marriages and Deaths Act. The early Chinese population, however, was specifically excluded from civil registration under the Act, which was not amended to include Chinese people until 1897. Because of privacy restrictions, B.C. birth records are not publicly available after 1903, and no new records will be released until 2025. As a result, Chinese birth records are currently available for only six years, beginning in 1897, when the Chinese were first included in the system, until the end of 1903. A larger number of marriage records (to 1929) and death records (to 1983) are available, although again, the Chinese records only officially begin in 1897, fully twenty-five years after the beginning of the B.C. civil registration system. Despite the initial exclusion of the Chinese, it is possible to find some older Chinese birth, marriage and death records. Searches of the online indexes to B.C. civil 207

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registers6 have identified the records of over 100 birth, marriage and death registrations of Chinese individuals prior to 1897, and the total number of pre-1897 registrations was certainly higher. The reasons that some Chinese were registered prior to 1897 are unclear, but it may simply be that not all registrars were aware of the provisions of the legislation. The possibility of locating a pre-1897 record for a Chinese person is remote, but cannot be discounted. The records themselves demonstrate some of the problematic aspects of Chinese names described above. This is seen in the case of Won Alexander Cumyow, the first baby of Chinese origin born in Canada. His birthdate of 1861 predated the start of civil registration in 1872, so his birth was not registered. However, there is a civil record of his marriage to Ye Chan in 1889 (Fig 1), notwithstanding the fact that it took place prior to the official inclusion of Chinese in the civil registers.

British Columbia civil marriage record for Wan Alexander Cumyow and Ye Chan, 18897 6

7

Vital Event Indexes. January 2007. Royal B.C. Museum, B.C. Archives, Victoria. 30 January 2007 www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/textual/governmt/vstats/v_events.htm from: British Columbia, Division of Vital Statistics, Marriage Registrations, 1872-ongoing, Reg. No. 1889-09-114432, B.C. Archives Microfilm Number B11381

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The original record shows a variant spelling of Wan (for Won), while his wife, although registered at the time of marriage as Ye Chan, was subsequently registered as Eva Chan on her death certificate in 1939. The marriage certificate also records Won Alexander Cumyow’s parents’ names as Wan Ling Ling and Wong Shee, the latter meaning ‘a married woman from the Wong clan.’ Won Alexander’s death certificate, in 1955, however, records his father’s name as Yen Won, although his mother, as on his marriage certificate, is Wong Shee. In the case of the bride, in 1889 her parents’ names were recorded as Chan Sing Kai and Chow Shee, while on her 1939 death certificate, there is a slight variation in her father’s name, Chang Sing Kai, and her mother is Unknown. Another example is found in the birth registration of Chang Yat Jun8, later son-inlaw of Yip Sang, one of the most prominent members of B.C.’s early Chinese community. Chang Yat Jun was born on January 26, 1895. However, the name originally registered on his birth certificate was Yat Tsan, with his father’s name recorded as Chan Choy, and his mother as Lo Ngan Choi. Attached to the record, is an affidavit sworn by his father. The affidavit specifically states that, in relation to the registration of his son, Yat Tsan, the family surname Chang should be inserted in front of the word Yat, the word Tsan deleted, and the name Jun inserted in its place, so as to make the correct name Chang Yat Jun. It also states that his (the father’s) own name should be spelled Chang Toy instead of Chan Choy, and that, in relation to the birth registration of one of the other sons, the mother’s name is mis-spelled Lo Ngan Choy whereas it should be Lo Ngan Choi. Chang Yat Jun’s subsequent marriage certificate (1915) provides another variant spelling of his mother’s name, Loo Ngi Choy. Although name changes and inconsistencies are also found in non-Chinese records, the degree to which this occurs is probably higher in Chinese records, due to the unfamiliarity of the names, both to the officials (of mainly British origin) who originally created the records and to subsequent generations of transcribers and indexers. Inevitably, this has implications for accessibility. Thus, Won Alexander Cumyow’s marriage record eludes the researcher attempting to find it by using the online indexes to B.C. records, since it is entered into the database as Wan rather than Won. Although this matches the form of his name on the original marriage certificate, it creates a problem for researchers familiar with the more usual spelling of his name. Wan (Won), moreover, is indexed as the Given Name, although it is the Surname. This appropriately reflects the fact that it does appear to have been used by him as a given name. The indexes apply a different standard, however, to his wife’s entry, assigning Chan to the Given Name field and Ye to the Surname field, 8

British Columbia. Division of Vital Statistics. Birth Registrations. Reg. No. 1895-09-117659. B.C. Archives Microfilm Number B13811.

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despite the fact that the original marriage registration recorded her as Ye Chan. Furthermore, the index entry for her 1939 death record, Eva Cumyow, is not linked to this earlier record, while in the case of Chang Yat Jun, no index entry is found under the name that originally appeared on his birth certificate, Yat Tsan. Census records Census records, another mainstay of genealogical research, are potentially useful to Chinese-Canadians, as to many genealogists, but again, specific obstacles are encountered due to historical, social and cultural factors. This is clearly illustrated by several examples, including the following 1881 census extract, for Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, which records a household in which virtually every individual reportedly had the surname ‘Ah’, not an actual Chinese name.

Canadian census record for a household of Chinese labourers in Nanaimo, British Columbia, 18819 The Chinese surnames are actually the ones appearing after ‘Ah’, and given names are completely omitted, probably reflecting the enumerator’s lack of familiarity with Chinese names. In general, it is likely that enumerators recorded many Chinese names phonetically and inaccurately, frequently transposing surnames and given names. 9

from: [Manitoba and Northwest Territories Census Returns, 1881], Microfilm Number C-13285, District 191, Sub-district A, Page 89, Household 574.

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Returning to the example of Won Alexander Cumyow, it is impossible to tell how closely the enumerator’s record of the family in the 1881 census approximates the actual names of members of the family, as no other records of the Chinese names of Won Cumyow’s siblings are available, although it is known that some adopted western names.

Canadian census record showing Won [Alexander] Cumyow living with his parents and siblings in New Westminister North, British Columbia in 188110 The Cumyow family schedule does, however, offer a distinct advantage to the genealogical researcher in that it describes a nuclear family. When researching historical Canadian census records, it is immediately noticeable that most Chinese people were individual males, often living together in hostels or work camps. This reflects the transient nature of the Chinese immigrant community – many originally came to Canada temporarily, in order to earn money to take back to China – as well as the financial constraints placed on Chinese immigrants by discriminatorily low wages and the head tax, which discouraged them from bringing wives and children to Canada. The absence of spouses and children from most records makes it very difficult to verify individual ancestors and reconstruct family groups. The task is impossible 10

from [Manitoba and Northwest Territories Census Returns, 1881], Microfilm Number C-13284, District 187, Sub-district B, Page 55, Household 245.

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in the case of the 1891 census of Victoria, which had the largest Chinatown in B.C. Every individual of Chinese origin was documented simply as ‘Chinaman’.

Canadian census records for Chinese people living in Victoria, British Columbia in 189111 Researchers must also be alert to possible inaccuracies in the transcription and indexing of entries relating to Chinese people in the many available print and online databases of Canadian census records. While all census records are subject to error, again, the margin is unusual in the case of Chinese individuals. The aforementioned 1881 entry for Won Alexander Cumyow and his family, enumerated in the New Westminister District, clearly presents a challenge to any transcriber. The corresponding record in the widely-used 1881 Canadian census database on the LDS FamilySearch12 website transcribes Alexander’s father name as Won Liu Ling, although the original record could also be read as Won Lin Ling, closer to the name on Won Alexander Cumyow’s marriage certificate (Won Ling Ling). Won Alexander’s mother’s name, Wong Shee, is clearly mis-transcribed as Won Shu. Regardless of the accuracy of the transcription, another troubling aspect of the Won family records is the manner in which they are indexed in the popular FamilySearch Canadian 1881 census database.

11

12

from: Census of Canada, 1891, Microfilm Number T-6292, District 4, Sub-district B-2, Page 1, Household 1. FamilySearch. 1999-2005. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. 30 January 2007 www.familysearch.org/

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In the case of all eight family members, the only indexed nominal term is the surname Won, indexed in the First Name field. None of the other names – Cumyou – etc., are retrieved by an index search in either the First Name or Last Name fields. The indexing of only one name, in the First Name field – even when several names are seen in the original record – is evident in numerous entries relating to Chinese individuals. A similar example of inconsistent standards applied to the treatment of records containing Chinese names is seen in a database of 1881 Vancouver Island census entries13 created by Malaspina University-College on Vancouver Island. Nominal census indexing usually reflects the original census record, in which the surname appears at the beginning of the entry. Thus, in the case of a person recorded as Robertson, Duncan in the original schedule, Robertson is indexed in the Family Name field and Duncan in the Given Name field. This does not occur in the case of Chinese names. For example, in the case of an individual named Yick Soong, Soong is assigned to the Family Name field, and Yick to the Given Name field. Directories There are also unique aspects to the way in which Chinese people are treated in historical directories. Early provincial directories listed members of professions, trades and other prominent citizens, thereby excluding many people, Chinese and otherwise. As city directories evolved and became more comprehensive, Chinese listings were sometimes segregated in separate sections at the back, reflecting concern for status and racial differentiation, according to George Young and John Lutz,14 who have researched the directories extensively. This is useful from a Chinese-Canadian research perspective, although the number of Chinese individuals listed is minuscule, as a proportion of the overall Chinese population at the time. A significant barrier is seen, however, in other provincial and city directories. The occupants at many addresses are identified simply as ‘Chinese,’ ‘Chinese store,’ ‘Chinese dwelling,’ or ‘Orientals’.

13

14

‘Census.’ viHistory.ca. n.d. Malaspina University-College and the University of Vitoria, Nanaimo / Victoria. 30 January 2007 www.vihistory.ca/content/bd/directory.php Lutz, John S., ed. and Young, George, comp. A Researcher’s Guide to British Columbia Nineteenth Century Directories: A Bibliography & Index. Victoria, B.C.: Public History Group, University of Victoria, 1988.

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‘Orientals’ on Pender Street in Vancouver, listed in Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory, 1932, p. 1555. Recent efforts to provide online access to directory information include a database created at Malaspina University-College in Nanaimo, derived from the Nanaimo and Victoria sections of The British Columbia Directory for the year 1882–83 and the Williams' Illustrated Official British Columbia Directory for the Cities of Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo and New Westminster,1892.15 The database is searchable nominally, and includes the few Chinese names found in the directories. However, 15

‘Directories’ viHistory.ca. Malaspina University-College and the University of Victria, Nanaimo/ Victoria. 30 January 2007 www.vihistory.ca/content/bd/directory.php

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the most notable Canadian directory initiative does not include any information relevant to Chinese history and ancestry. Canadian Directories: Who Was Where,16 a project of Library and Archives Canada, has digitized and generated a fully searchable database comprising 95 selected directories. However, none of the selected directories appears to include any Chinese listings. Most date from a period prior to the first major waves of Chinese immigration in the 1880s. Cemetery records There are also unique aspects to cemetery records and monumental transcriptions for Chinese people in Canada. This is attributable to several factors, including the relatively small number of old Chinese graves in Canada, due in part to the traditional Chinese practice of burying a body twice. Burial occurred in a shallow grave, soon after death, and after seven years, the bones were removed and placed in a box or urn, which was then placed in the family tomb. Chinese who died overseas were buried in the country in which they died, and the bones exhumed after seven years and sent to China for second burial. Many Chinese immigrants, nonetheless, were buried in the historic Ross Bay Cemetery, opened in 1873 in Oak Bay, a suburb of Victoria. The first Chinese person buried in the cemetery was interred on March 18, 1873, and was identified simply as ‘Chinaman No.1,’ as were several others. The Chinese graves at Ross Bay were segregated in a separate section of the cemetery, near sea level, and many were exposed and disappeared during violent storms in the winter of 1909. Nonetheless, many Chinese names do appear in the records of Ross Bay Cemetery, indexed in a searchable online database covering the years from 1872 to 1980.17 In 1903, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association purchased another graveyard at Harling Point in Oak Bay, a suburb of Victoria. Most Chinese in Victoria were buried at Harling Point Cemetery before it closed in the 1950s, and it contains the graves of about 400 Chinese, as well as the unmarked remains of another 900, whose remains were to have been shipped back to China. Although the site was neglected for many years, it has now been restored and named a National Historic Site. The cemetery is one of several Chinese cemeteries in B.C., none of which are among the 264 B.C. cemeteries represented in the B.C. Cemetery Finding Aid,18 a 16

17

18

Canadian Directories: Who Was Where? 7 July 2005. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada.ca/canadiandirectories/index-e.html “Ross Bay Cemetery Records, 1872-1980.” Vital Statistics Search. n.d. City of Victria Archives, Victoria. 30 January 2007 www.victoria.ca/archives/archives_vit.shtml BCCFA: British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid. Ron Demary. Vers.2. 2000. 30 January 2007 www.islandnet.com/bccfa/homepage.html

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searchable database comprising hundreds of thousands of cemetery records and inscriptions collected by genealogical societies and other groups. The Finding Aid does, however, include Chinese burials found in some of the other cemeteries. Military records Canadian military records, another perennial favourite of genealogists, are distinguished for Chinese researchers primarily by their absence. This is attributable both to the small numbers of Chinese people relative to the overall population and to discrimination. Despite the fact that they were denied the vote and were the victims of discrimination in their adopted country, Chinese-Canadians – both Canadian-born and naturalized citizens – volunteered to serve in the First and Second World Wars. The potential number of recruits in the First World War, although inevitably small, was further decreased by the fact that those who attempted to register in British Columbia were turned away, although both Alberta and Ontario accepted Chinese recruits willingly. While the federal government’s Military Service Act of 1917 introduced conscription, this did not extend to Chinese-Canadians. The total number of Chinese-Canadians who enlisted has been estimated as 300 by some historians, a tiny proportion of the Canadian force,19 A ‘Soldiers of the First World War (1914– 1918)’ database,20 compiled by Library and Archives Canada, comprises searchable digitized attestation (enlistment) papers relating to approximately 650,000 soldiers who served from 1914–1918. The ability to locate records for the few ChineseCanadians in the database is constrained by the fact that the original records do not indicate ethnicity or place of birth, and in any case, are searchable only by name and regimental number. A good example of the challenges that may confront ChineseCanadian genealogists is seen in the case the case of two brothers, Wee Hong Louie and Wee Tan Louie, from Shuswap, B.C. Despite the fact that Chinese recruits were not generally accepted in B.C., Wee Hong Louie managed to enlist in Kamloops, while his brother, Wee Tan Louie, travelled to Calgary to enlist.

19

20

Wong, Marjorie. The Dragon and the Maple Leaf: Chinese Canadians in World War II. London, Ont.: Pirie, 1994:3. ‘Soldiers of the First World War (1914-1918)’ ArchiviaNet : On-Line Research Tool. 26 October 2005. Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Otawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada.ca/02/02010602_e.html

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Canadian Expeditionary Force attestation (enlistment) paper of Wee Hong Louie, 1917.21 Wee Tan Louie had adopted an English moniker, from a name he had seen on a post box he passed on the way, and is entered into the ‘Soldiers of the First World War’ database as William Thomas Louie, with no indication of his Chinese name. The index entry for his brother, however, is Wee Hong Louie, Walter Henry (AKA). The English alias does not appear on Wee Hong Louie’s attestation paper, but was evidently located elsewhere in the file by the indexer. Voters’ lists Historical voters’ lists are a further example of genealogical source material whose value differs significantly for Chinese researchers. Earlier generations of ChineseCanadians do not appear in the lists, due to disenfranchisement of the Chinese at all levels of government beginning in the 1870s and continuing until 1947, when the Chinese finally received the right to vote in federal elections.

21

ibid. Regimental Number 2323392.

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Perhaps the most important records for Chinese genealogists are immigration records and documents. Although immigration records present access problems for Chinese and non-Chinese researchers alike, Chinese-Canadian researchers – unusually – enjoy an advantage in some circumstances. Passenger lists A major source of immigration information is ship passenger lists, held by Library and Archives Canada. There are very few pre-1865 passenger lists, and most date back to the early 1880s, although in the case of Vancouver, Victoria, and other Pacific ports, they only begin in 1905. Many of the records include large numbers of immigrants from East Asian ports, particularly China, India, and Japan.

Extract from passenger list, S.S. Africa Maru, arrived Victoria, British Columbia, December 30, 1918 However, access to all passenger lists is constrained by a lack of indexing. To find anyone in the passenger lists, it is essential to know almost the exact date on which the person arrived, and it is best to know the name of the ship as well, details that are often unknown. One set of Canadian passenger records has been made available as a searchable online database by the Pier 21 Society in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 218

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cooperation with Library and Archives Canada.22 However, the database is derived from records covering 1925–1935, a period which entirely falls into the exclusion period when Chinese were barred from entering Canada under the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. Thus only a few Chinese individuals are recorded in the database, most likely returning former residents of Canada, or those who had exempt status. A silver lining: records of the Federal Department of Chinese Immigration If discriminatory legislation had significant implications for Chinese-Canadian families and contributed to the degree of difficulty in researching Chinese-Canadian family history, one of the best sources for Chinese-Canadian research emerged from these very measures. The legislation resulted in the detailed documentation of virtually every Chinese person entering or leaving Canada during the period from 1885 to 1949. Chinese immigration records held by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), include ledgers of exempt admissions, outward registration records, lists of persons readmitted, and many others. Although access to case files from 1900–1993 and some other records is restricted by law, the earlier records are open to the public, and contain a considerable amount of genealogically useful information.

1919 Chinese immigrants records 22

‘Immigration Records: 1925-1935.’ ArchiviaNet : On-Line Research Tool. 2 February 2004. Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Ottawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada. ca/02/020118_e.html

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Perhaps the most important collection of Chinese immigration records is the General Register of Chinese Immigration, created at the headquarters of the Chinese Immigration Service in Ottawa. In theory, the register lists all immigrants who arrived in Canada from 1885 to 1949, a total of about 97,000 records. The information recorded for each individual includes name, port or place where registered, sex, age, city or village and district of birth in China, occupation, last place of domicile, port of arrival in Canada, vessel, railway or other conveyance on which the person arrived, physical marks or peculiarities, and in some cases, the person’s eventual destination in Canada. Despite the unique quality of the General Register of Chinese Immigration as a resource for Chinese-Canadian genealogists, however, access is very difficult due to lack of indexing, a characteristic shared by other records found in the Chinese immigration series at the LAC. The records comprising the General Register of Chinese Immigration are arranged numerically, by Ottawa serial number and declaration number, and are in rough chronological order according to the date that the notice of the immigrant’s arrival was submitted to Ottawa. Researchers may be assisted by the fact that the detailed documentation of Chinese arrivals and departures was accompanied by the issuing of various types of certificates, the most famous of which was the C.I.5 or head tax certificate, issued when the tax was paid. The certificate can be a vital link to the General Register and passenger lists, since it lists both the date of arrival, and the name of the ship. Families in possession of head tax and other certificates may be able to locate their ancestors’ immigration records easily, but without one, it is much more difficult to locate an ancestor in either passenger lists or the General Register.

Head tax certificate issued to Lee Don, age 22, arrived Victoria,, B.C. on July 23, 1918, Vancouver Public Library Historical Photograph 30626 220

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Chinese-language records All of the types of materials considered so far have been English-language, but inevitably, as Chinese-Canadians trace their roots, they may wish to locate and examine Chinese-language materials. In Vancouver, the Chinese community published a Chinese-language newspaper, the Chinese Times, from the early 20th century until 1992, and clan associations have issued Chinese-language publications which sometimes include material of genealogical interest. There is also a very strong genealogical tradition within China itself, and some Chinese-Canadian families have produced their own Chinese-language genealogies. Access to the above materials is problematic, however, due to lack of indexing and the fact that some are not formally published. New directions While it is evident that both the nature of the documentary sources themselves – in some cases determined by historical and cultural factors – as well a bias in the mainstream genealogical culture compromise the ability of Chinese-Canadians to successfully research their roots. However, there are signs that a more supportive context for Chinese-Canadian genealogical research is emerging. Chinese-Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia Registered in May 2004, the Chinese-Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia’s main objective is ‘to bring out the untold history of ethnic Chinese within the history of British Columbia. We will do this through sustained efforts at document preservation, research, family and oral history promotion, public education programs, an active web site, and . . . other initiatives.’23 Many of the Society’s activities to date have had a genealogical focus, and future projects may include the creation of an inventory of existing Chinese-Canadian genealogies. The Society also facilitates the exchange of information between members by providing space on its website for members to informally post their research interests. Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada launched a new searchable database in 2005 comprising an index and digitized images of the New Westminster Port of Immigration Register.24 The Register documented 430 Chinese immigrant arrivals at the Port of New 23

24

CCHS: Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C. 20 January 2007. Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C., Vancouver. January 2007 www.cchsbc.ca ‘Port of New Westminster Register of Chinese Immigration (1887-1908).’ ArchiviaNet : On-Line Re-

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Westminster, mainly from 1887–1898, although there are a few later records. In comprising records specifically related to the Chinese, the database is unique among LAC’s large suite of genealogically useful databases. On a larger scale, a database corresponding to the General Register of Chinese Immigration is currently being developed, with partial support from Library and Archives Canada. Led by an academic research team at the University of British Columbia, the project involves transcribing, indexing and digitizing all records in the General Register. The data will be used to analyze trends in the physical heights of Chinese immigrants who entered Canada between 1887 and 1949, and to map the circular migration flows between southern China and Canada. While these goals are not genealogical, the information will be made available on Library and Archives Canada’s website as a free and a fully searchable electronic database, and is expected to be of enormous value to those researching Chinese-Canadian ancestry. Historical Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia: an Electronic Inventory Historical Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia: An Electronic Inventory,25 the second phase of which was completed during 2005, is a joint project of the Asian Library and the Centre for Chinese Research, both at the University of British Columbia, and the David See-Chai Lam Centre for International Communication at Simon Fraser University. As of January 2007, the project database comprises over 13,000 records of Chinese-language items such as manuscripts, newspapers, correspondence, genealogical and family records, business transaction records, association records, certificates, receipts, textbooks, photographs, and other items. These were documented throughout the province, and represent contributions from seventeen resource centres, and nine pioneer families, as well as a number of individuals. The database also incorporates more than 500 images of archival materials. The Multicultural Canada Project Another exciting initiative, The Multicultural Canada Project,26 is a collaborative effort involving Simon Fraser University Library, in Burnaby, B.C., and the University of Calgary in Alberta, in partnership with several other organizations, including

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search Tool. 30 March 2006. Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Ottawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/new-westminster/index-e.htm Historical Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia: An Electronic Inventory: 2000-2005. n.d. Asian Library, The University of British Columbia. 30 January 2007 www.sfu.ca/davidlamcentre/ hclmbc The Multicultural Canada Project. n.d. Simon Fraser University, University of Calgary, Burnaby / Calgary. 30 January 2007 www.multiculturalcanada.ca/

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the Sien Lok Society, a Chinese-Canadian heritage organization in Calgary. The Chinese are among several distinct cultural groups encompassed by the project, one of whose aims is ‘to contribute to the appreciation of Canada’s diverse heritage by using the Internet to provide increased access to shared histories and experiences.’ Projects include the digitization of the Chinese Times, published in Vancouver from 1914 – 1992. Thousands of pages have already been scanned, and a prototype demonstrates how searchable English summaries will provide links back to page images. Another project, involving the preservation, digitization, and translation of records of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Victoria, 1884–1922, is also under development. The Multicultural Canada Project, although not primarily aimed at genealogists, could ultimately generate a wide-range of resources, including genealogically useful materials. Other initiatives Elsewhere, the Chinese Canadian Military Museum in Vancouver is engaged in an oral history project funded by Canadian Heritage, which will record the stories of Chinese-Canadian war veterans,27 while the Kamloops Chinese Cultural Association is developing the Heroes of Confederation Project.28 The latter will focus on the sacrifices and contributions of Chinese railway workers during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. The goal of the project is to build a Kamloops Chinese Heritage Railway Museum, one function of which will be to store the records of Chinese railway workers so that family members can trace their roots. A dedicated website: Chinese-Canadian Genealogy29 With its specific focus on genealogical research, a Chinese-Canadian Genealogy website developed by the Vancouver Public Library is unique among ChineseCanadian heritage projects. Initially launched in November 2005, and expanded during the first half of 2006, with support from Library and Archives Canada, the site offers an introduction to genealogical research, using Chinese examples. It also provides an overview of Chinese-Canadian history and explores name-related complications and other obstacles. Its most important component is a detailed overview of 27

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The Chinese Canadian Military Museum. 2005-6 edition. Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, Vancouver. 30 January 2007 saltwatercity.bc.ca/ccmuseum.htm Heroes of Confederation. 1 February 2007. Kamloops Chinese Cultural Association, Kamloops. 1 February 2007 www.ccak.ca/english/index.php Chinese Canadian Genealogy. 2006. Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver. 30 January 2007 http://www.vpl.ca/ccg/

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the characteristics of key documentary sources, such as historical census records, introducing them from a Chinese-Canadian perspective. Genealogy services for immigrant communities: a strategy for libraries In light of promising indications that the prospects for Chinese-Canadians interested in genealogical research are improving, it is appropriate to consider the role of public libraries in relation to genealogy in general, and the genealogical research needs of specific immigrant communities in particular. The place of genealogical services and resources in a public library setting is undoubtedly a matter for debate, and many factors affect the manner in which individual libraries choose to respond to genealogists’ needs. Given the burgeoning interest in genealogy, however, public libraries may have a compelling interest, particularly as they struggle to define their place in an information culture radically transformed by Google. In the June/July 2001 issue of American Libraries, Bernard Vavrek of the Department of Library Science at Clarion University in Pennsylvania identified the enhancement of local history and genealogy collections as one of a number of core strategies for libraries to consider in the face of this changing environment.30 Some libraries, such as the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have already developed very extensive collections and services for genealogists. But as noted previously, genealogical collections and services in public libraries tend to reflect a strongly British Isles/European focus, offering little to those from other historic immigrant groups. The question inevitably arises as to whether public libraries have a special responsibility in relation to these other groups. Certainly the specific needs and wishes of genealogists are almost limitless. But while libraries must attempt to meet the needs of the widest possible range of genealogical patrons, the focus of their efforts should also be informed by the consideration that those of European origin are already very well served by existing print and electronic sources. It is worth noting ‘Guidelines for Developing Beginning Genealogical Collections and Services’, prepared by the Genealogy Committee of the History Section of the Reference and User Services Association. The guidelines specifically state that: a genealogical collection should be developed and maintained to support the basic research needs of the community served by the library. An assessment should be made concerning the ethnic background and countries of origin of the members of the community served by the library in order to determine the scope of the genealogical collection. The scope of the collection should represent, at least, the majority of the community, but not be limited to it. The collection should include basic mate30

Vavrek, Bernard. ‘Wanted! Entertainment Director.’ American Libraries Jun/Jul. 2001: 70-71.

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rials on genealogical research procedures. These materials should include the widest possible range of nationalities and ethnic groups represented in the community.31 In a multicultural country such as Canada, in which the overwhelming majority of the population traces its roots to immigrants in a mosaic encompassing many ethnic groups, these guidelines present a considerable challenge. As the example of Chinese-Canadians has demonstrated, responding to the needs of just one group requires a high level of expertise, an understanding of the particular history and characteristics of the group, and a specialized knowledge of the manner in which it is reflected in documentary sources. Moreover, this knowledge must be acquired without the help of secondary materials such as the genealogical guides and highvalue websites available for British and European research. The lack of resources relating to ethnic immigrant origins also points to the need for public libraries to act proactively and become involved the actual creation of specialized guides, indexes and other resources. In view of limited budgets and the very broad nature of their mandates, the question arises as to what might be a realistic approach for public libraries to take towards developing equitable, high-quality services in the area of multicultural genealogy. Initially, it might be useful to focus efforts on just one or two nationalities or ethnic groups. This should be based on a community assessment, as suggested by the ALA Guidelines, but should also take the historical context into account. Thus, since British Columbia is the historical magnet of Chinese immigration to Canada, it is logical that library-based genealogical initiatives would focus on the ChineseCanadian community. In Nova Scotia, on the other hand, parallel initiatives might focus on the historic African-Canadian population, descended from ancestors who left the United States at the time of the Revolution. Ideally, groups to be targeted would be selected in the context of a broadly-based co-operative strategy, perhaps set by a formally established genealogy and local history interest group within the national library association (there is currently no such group within the Canadian Library Association). Collaboration with community groups would be the next essential aspect of any effort to develop high-quality resources and services. In the case of ChineseCanadians, groups such as the newly-formed Chinese Historical Society of British Columbia and the Chinese Canadian Military Museum can play an essential role in planning services and promoting them to their own constituencies. Just as importantly, community groups can make a significant contribution due to their knowledge of community history, and related documentary and other sources. 31

‘Guidelines for Developing Beginning Genealogical Collections and Services.’ RUSA Reference Guidelines. 21 January 2007. American Library Association, Chicago. 30 January 2007www.ala.org/ala/rusa/ rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesdeveloping.htm

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Having solicited the participation of external organizations, it would be a useful exercise to craft a vision of genealogy services for a target group or groups, identifying specific resources and features that might be included. An ideal feature of services for Chinese-Canadians, for example, might be fully transcribed, indexed and digitized versions of all genealogically useful and publicly available records of the Federal Chinese Immigration Service. Although implementing such a detailed – even idealized – plan might seem an elusive goal, it would act as a useful reference point for the purpose of formulating funding requests and exploring collaborative opportunities. While expensive and ambitious digitization and indexing projects may be beyond the reach of public libraries, due to budgetary constraints, other, more modest, types of projects could prove a useful first step towards developing equitable services. The Vancouver Public Library’s Chinese-Canadian genealogy website, described above, is an example of such a project. Rather than attempting to transcribe, translate, digitize, or index original records, it provides basic tools, information, examples, and links to existing resources. Finally, partnerships with other agencies, such as museums, archives, academic libraries, and individual researchers are very important. Some such partners may not be primarily interested in genealogy, but may be interested in other projects which will produce genealogically useful by-products. The University of British Columbia’s General Register of Chinese Immigration database is an example of such a project. Another is the large collection of databases created by Malaspina University-College and the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island. While intended to be ‘a research & teaching tool and a vehicle for exploring the larger field of Canadian history during the late 19th and early part of the 20th century,’32 the databases include large amounts of genealogically useful data derived from local sources, including a significant number of entries relating to Chinese-Canadians. Conclusion As the example of Chinese-Canadians demonstrates, the goal of providing highquality, equitable genealogical resources and services in a society with a long tradition of multicultural immigration is an ambitious one. However, commitment, collaboration, and imagination may result – if only by incremental steps – in meaningful progress towards fuller participation and greater success for genealogists researching immigrant ancestors from beyond the British Isles and Europe.

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viHistory.ca. n.d. Nanaimo, Malaspina University-College and the University of Victoria, Nanaimo / Victoria. 30 January 2007 www.vihistory.ca/content/bd/directory.php

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NOTES This paper was written in April 2005 for presentation at the IFLA Genealogy and Local History open session, World Library and Information Congress, Oslo, Norway, August 2005. It was updated and revised by the author in early 2007. Illustration Source Notes Fig 1 – British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency. Marriage Registrations, 1872– 1929. 55 microfilm reels. Victoria: Microfilmed by the Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah at British Columbia Archives,1998. Figs 2 and 3 – Census Returns for the 1881 Canadian Census. 125 microfilm reels. [Ottawa: Public Archives Canada, 1950–1959]. Fig 4 – Census Returns for the 1891 Canadian Census. 138 microfilm reels. [Ottawa: Public Archives Canada, Central Microfilm Operations, 1950–1959]. Fig 5 – Wrigley’s British Columbia Directory, 1932: Buyer’s guide and a Complete Classified Directory of British Columbia. Vancouver: Wrigley Directories, 1931. Fig 6 – ‘Soldiers of the First World War (1914–1918)’ ArchiviaNet : On-Line Research Tool. 26 October 2005. Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, Ottawa. 30 January 2007 www.collectionscanada.ca/02/02010602_e. html Fig 7 – Victoria and Other Pacific Ports Ships’ Manifests, [1905–1922]. 27 microfilm reels. [Ottawa: National Archives of Canada, 1950–1970]. Fig 8 – General Registers of Chinese Immigration, 1885–1949. 7 microfilm reels. Ottawa: Public Archives Canada, Central Microfilm Operations, 1978–1983. Fig 9 – Special Collections Historical Photographs. 20 July 2005. Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver. 10 February 2007 www3.vpl.vancouver.bc.ca/spe/ histphotos/

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Bibliography In addition to the sources internally cited, the following provided useful background and information: Adams, John. Historic Guide to Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, B.C., Canada. Victoria: Sono Nis, 1998. Bumsted, J.M. The Peoples of Canada: A Post-Confederation History. 2nd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2004. Bumsted, J.M. The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History. 2nd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2003. Byers, Paula K., ed. Asian American Genealogical Sourcebook. Detroit: Gale, 1995. Chao, Sheau-yueh J. ‘Chinese Genealogical Research: Coordination and ResourceSharing with a Global Perspective.’ in: Library Collections, Acquisitions, & Technical Services 27 (2003) 225-241. ---. In Search of Your Asian Roots: Genealogical Research on Chinese Surnames. Baltimore: Reprinted for Clearfield by Genealogical Pub., 2000. ‘Chinese.’ in: The Encyclopedia of British Columbia. Madeira Park: Harbour, 2000. 126-127. Con, Harry, et. al., and Edgar Wickberg, ed. From China to Canada: A History of the Chinese Communities in Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart in association with the Multiculturalism Directorate, Dept. of the Secretary of State and the Canadian Govt. Pub. Centre, Supply and Services Canada, 1982. Francis, Daniel. ‘Peoples of BC.’ in: Encyclopedia of British Columbia. Madeira Park: Harbour, 2000. 539-544. Kalbach, Warren E. ‘Population.’ The Canadian Encyclopedia: Year 2000 Edition (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2000) 1869. Lai, Chuen-Yan, David. ‘Home County and Clan Origins of Overseas Chinese in Canada in the Early 1880s.’ in: BC Studies 27 (Autumn 1975) 3-29.

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Lai, Kum Pui Lai, and Lai, Violet Lau, eds. Researching One’s Chinese Roots: Proceedings of the 1985 Genealogy Conference in Hawaii. Honolulu: Hawaii Chinese History Center, 1988. Li, Peter S. ‘Chinese,’ Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples. ed. Paul Robert Magosi. Toronto: Published for the Multicultural History Society of Ontario by University of Toronto Press, 1999. 355-373. Low, Jeanie W. Chooey. China Connection: Finding Ancestral Roots for Chinese in America. rev. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: JWC Low Company, 1994. McCardle, Bennett. ‘The Records of Chinese Immigration at the National Archives of Canada.’ in: Canadian Ethnic Studies XIX (1987) 163-171. Wickberg, E. B. rev. Chan, A.B. ‘Chinese’ in: The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988. 459-460.

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DNA AND GENEALOGY Ugo A. Perego, Jayne E. Ekins, and Scott R. Woodward, Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA and Ann Turner, Genealogy-DNA Abstract All individuals carry a record of their ancestors in molecules found inside almost every cell. Analysis of this complex chemical compound – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) – can help genealogists trace male-line and female-line ancestors, prove and disprove relationships, reveal undocumented illegitimacies and adoptions, and identify familial ethnic and geographic origins. DNA is packaged in threadlike structures called ‘chromosomes’. Humans receive twenty-three chromosomes from each parent and, in turn, give half of their own DNA to each of their children. Parents, therefore, funnel a molecular record of their ancestors to their descendants.1 More than 99 percent of each person’s DNA is identical to that of all other people. This shared inheritance defines humans, yet the remaining one percent contains enough variation to make each person unique. The DNA of two closely related people has more similarities than that of distant cousins. Consequently, similarities and differences in DNA can show how closely individuals are related. Molecular genealogists – also called ‘genetic genealogists’– test DNA samples from living individuals. Used in isolation, DNA test results have little value for family historians. Combined with documentary genealogical research, however, DNA evidence can help researchers identify ancestors and reconstruct family histories and lineages. Suppose, for example, that research reveals a candidate for a male ancestor’s father but does not prove the relationship. If DNA samples from living male-line descendants of both men are different, they will disprove the hypothesis. If the samples match, however, the DNA alone does not prove a father-son relationship but, in combination with documentary evidence, it could make the case persuasive.

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Several recent books cover the basic biology of genetics and DNA as they apply to genealogical testing. See, for example, Chris Pomery, DNA and Family History. Toronto, Ont.: Dundurn, 2004; Thomas S. Shawker, Unlocking Your Genetic History. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill, 2004; and Smolenyak and Turner, Trace Your Roots with DNA.

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Genealogically Useful Pathways of Genetic Inheritance Each parent contributes approximately half of their child’s DNA. Scientists usually cannot identify which parent provided which part of the child’s DNA without testing one or both parents. Two important exceptions, however, allow researchers to answer many genealogical questions: the Y chromosome, which is found in each cell’s nucleus in males only, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is found in each cell’s cytoplasm. (See Fig 1).

The Paternal Lineage Pathway Sons receive a Y chromosome, usually unchanged, from their fathers. Occasionally, however, a slight alteration (called a ‘mutation’) will occur in a random male’s Y chromosome. A man with such an altered Y chromosome will pass it to his sons and they to their sons. Subsequently, all of their male-line descendants will pass that slightly altered Y chromosome to their sons. Further random mutations may occur occasionally in subsequent generations. Thus, every living male’s Y chromosome today carries a cumulative history of many small changes that have occurred in his paternal lineage over thousands of years and generations. Because different changes occurred in different males over the millennia, their male descendants bear Y chromosomes with distinctive patterns, called haplotypes, which can differentiate their families and ancestors. The Y chromosome is useful for answering genealogical questions because it is passed intact from generation to generation and its inheritance follows surnames in many western and some non-western societies. All male-line descendants of the same male ancestor – typically those with the same surname in these societies – will 232

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have the same or a very similar Y chromosome.2 For example, residents of Tristan da Cunha, which has genealogical records from 1816, bear eight Y-chromosome haplotypes corresponding to seven of the island’s founders, whose surnames the residents bear, and an apparent visitor with an unknown surname.3 In cases where the Y-chromosome haplotype does not correspond to the surname, it indicates ancestry more accurately than documentary genealogy or oral history. Searching a database of Y-chromosome haplotypes paired with surnames can enable genealogists to identify relatives and disprove erroneous lineages. Males with the same surname and different haplotypes probably descend from different lines bearing the same surname. Conversely, similar haplotypes of males with different surnames might indicate adoption, illegitimacy, or other situations where names may have been altered somewhere in a male-line descent. For example, men with Lorentz and Lawrence surnames and the same Y-chromosome haplotype very likely descend from the same male-line ancestor.4 Two studies popularized applying Y-chromosome analysis to genealogical research, the highly publicized Jefferson-Hemings case and a study involving the Jewish priestly class of Cohen: The question of whether Thomas Jefferson fathered some or all of his slave Sally Hemings’s children arose during his lifetime, and it is still the subject of debate today. Jefferson left no male issue through his wife, but living male-line descendants of his father’s brother, who carried the same Y chromosome as Jefferson, were tested to determine the Jefferson haplotype. Also tested were male-line descendants of the following: (1) Jefferson’s brother-in-law John Carr (because of rumors that members of his family had fathered Hemings’s children); (2) Sally Hemings’s son Thomas Woodson; and (3) another Hemings son, Eston. Of the three lines, only the male-line descendants of Eston Hemings carry the Jefferson Y-chromosome haplotype.5 The DNA evidence alone does not prove that Jefferson was Eston’s father, but it complements evidence drawn from other sources.6 Researchers found that a noticeable fraction of Jewish priests share a common Ychromosome haplotype, no matter whether they are part of the far-flung Ashkenazi 2

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Bryan Sykes and Catherine Irven, ‘Surnames and the Y-chromosome,’ in: American Journal of Human Genetics 66 (2000): 1417–19; and Mark A. Jobling, ‘In the Name of the Father: Surnames and Genetics,’ in: TRENDS in Genetics 17 (June 2001): 353–57. Himla Soodyall and others, “Genealogy and genes: tracing the founding fathers of Tristan da Cunha,” in: European Journal of Human Genetics 11 (September 2003): 7059. Ann Turner, ‘One or Many? Ann Turner Looks at the Role of DNA in the study of Surname Origins,’ in: Family Chronicle (March/April 2005): 46–49. Eugene A. Foster and others, ‘Jefferson Fathered Slave’s Last Child,’ in: Nature 396 (5 November 1998): 27–28. Helen Leary, ‘Sally Heming’s Children: A Genealogical Analysis of the Evidence,’ and Thomas W. Jones, ‘The ‘Scholars Commission’ Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Matter: An Evaluation by Genealogical Standards,’ in: NGS Quarterly 89 (Sept 2001): 165–207 and 208–18.

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or Sephardic communities.7 A later study found the same haplotype in the Lemba of southern Africa, a tribe with customs reminiscent of Jewish practices and an oral tradition of coming from the north by boat.8 Finding the same haplotype in geographically dispersed groups implies descent from a single common ancestor. Businessman Bennett Greenspan hoped that the approach used in the Jefferson and Cohen research would help family historians. After reaching a brick wall on his mother’s surname, Nitz, he discovered an Argentine researching the same surname. Greenspan enlisted the help of a Nitz cousin. A scientist involved in the original Cohen investigation tested the Argentine’s and Greenspan’s cousin’s Y chromosomes. Their haplotypes matched perfectly. Furthermore, the haplotype did not match any of two dozen samples collected by Greenspan to serve as controls. Fortified by this demonstration that DNA could reflect a common lineage, Greenspan founded a private company offering DNA tests for genealogical purposes. His business was shortly followed by a half-dozen similar companies in the United States and Europe.9 More than two thousand Y-chromosome surname studies are currently underway, some with hundreds of participants.10 Family historians interested in joining a particular project can find lists of active investigations on commercial testing companies’ Web sites and Ancestry.com and Genforum.com message boards.11 Many surname-project Web sites report genetic findings, and genealogical periodicals are beginning to carry case studies that include Y-chromosome analysis. Several examples demonstrate different genealogical uses of Y-chromosome data: Hundreds of men named Wells participated in Y-chromosome testing. Genealogical data collected prior to the project suggested twenty-four distinct families. The Ychromosome surname study, however, demonstrates that five presumed connections, based on similar names, dates, and places, are separate lines.12 Y-chromosome samples from just two people solved a problem that had baffled researchers for years. Justin Howery and Fred Hauri, who believed that everyone with 7 8

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Mark G. Thomas and others, ‘Origins of Old Testament priests,’ in: Nature 394 (9 July 1998): 138–40. Mark G. Thomas and others, ‘Y-chromosomes Traveling South: The Cohen Modal Haplotype and the Origins of the Lemba—the ‘Black Jews of Southern Africa’,’ in: American Journal of Human Genetics 66 (February 2000): 674–86. Bennett Greenspan, ‘An Insider’s Look at the Genealogy DNA Field,’ in: New England Ancestors (Summer 2004): 21–23. Bill Davenport, ‘Surname Projects: ‘Over Fifty List’,’ in: World Families Network, http://worldfamilies.net/over50list.html: accessed 20 July 2005. The largest companies with family DNA projects are DNA Heritage www.dnaheritage.com , Family Tree DNA www.familytreedna.com, and Relative Genetics www.relativegenetics.com. more complete listing can be found at Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, ‘Genetealogy resources,’ in: Genetealogy.com http://genetealogy.com. Ken Wells, ‘Relative Advance: DNA Testing Helps Find Family Roots,’ in: Wall Street Journal (March 6, 2003), page A1.

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a variant of their surnames descends from a man who lived in the 1400s in the Swiss village of Beromuenster, could not document a family connection. Genetic testing, however, revealed that both men have the same Y-chromosome haplotype, even though their ancestors came to the United States from different countries in different centuries.13 Despite the fact that all Smolenyaks seem to trace their ancestry to one small village in Slovakia, they have four Y-chromosome haplotypes, indicating four distinct ancestral lines.14 The ancestral haplotype of Edmund Rice, who immigrated to Massachusetts in 1638, was established by matching DNA results from descendants of five different sons. The testing also revealed a ‘non-paternity event’ – possibly an unrecorded adoption or illegitimacy – in one line of male descent.15 The Maternal Lineage Pathway In addition to the DNA found in the nucleus of most cells, DNA also is found in structures called mitochondria in the cells’ cytoplasm. (See Fig 1). Cells have hundreds of mitochondria, each containing many DNA molecules called ‘mitochondrial DNA’ or ‘mtDNA.’ The mother’s – but not the father’s – mitochondria are present in the fertilized egg that is the first cell of a new human being. Thus, a mother passes her mtDNA to her sons and daughters. Her daughters, but not her sons, pass their mtDNA to the next generation. Consequently, mtDNA, inherited exclusively from mothers, is passed intact from generation to generation. Just as with the Y chromosome, slight random changes in mtDNA molecules over many generations have resulted in different patterns or haplotypes. However, these mutations occur less frequently than in Y chromosomes. The mutation rate has been measured in Iceland, which has genealogical records covering many generations. Only three mutations occurred in 705 ‘transmission events’ (opportunities for a mutation to occur between generations). Some of the residents with matching mtDNA haplotypes were twelve generations removed from their common female-line ancestor, who was born in 1560.16 13

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Justin Howery, ‘Howery DNA Project,’ message board posting, November 17, 2000, GENEALOGYDNA-L Archives http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2000-11/0974503831 accessed 10 July 2005. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, ‘DNA Testing Dispels a Genealogical Myth’ in: Everton’s Family History Magazine 56 (May/June 2002): 44–48. Robert V. Rice and John F. Chandler, “DNA Analyses of Y-chromosomes Show Only One of Three Sons of Gershom Rice to be a Descendant of Edmund Rice,” in: New England Ancestors (Fall 2002): 50–51. Sigrun Sigurgardottir and others. ‘The Mutation Rate in the Human mtDNA Control Region,’ in: American Journal of Human Genetics 66 (May 2000): 1599–1609.

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The popularity of mtDNA for genealogical purposes followed the use of mtDNA to confirm the identity of remains thought to be those of the wife and children of Nicholas II, Czar of Russia. The mtDNA extracted from the remains matched that of living relatives who shared a common maternal line with the Czar’s wife.17 Such testing can disprove relationships as well: the mtDNA of Anna Anderson Manahan, who claimed to be Nicholas’s daughter Anastasia, did not match that of the Czar’s family.18 Ethnic and Geographic Pathways ‘Autosomes’ are twenty-two pairs of chromosomes that children inherit from both parents, and the DNA they contain is called ‘autosomal DNA.’ Autosomes do not include the sex chromosomes (X and Y) and mtDNA. In contrast to mtDNA and Ychromosome molecules, which parents pass intact to their children, autosomal DNA comprises a random combination of both parents’ genetic makeup. Each parents’ autosomal DNA recombines so that the half that each transmits to a child is a mixture of the DNA that the contributing parents received from their parents. Consequently, if neither parent’s autosomal DNA is studied, it is not possible to determine which parent or ancestor contributed any segment of the child’s autosomal DNA. In addition, the proportion of ancestral genetic contribution to a descendant today decreases with the number of generations between the ancestor and descendant. Both the recombination of autosomal DNA and its decreasing proportion over generations create challenges for using autosomal DNA for genealogical purposes. Autosomal DNA is the focus of techniques to determine origins more generally than paternal and maternal lines allow. Genealogists can submit DNA samples to a company that tests autosomal DNA to identify continental or sub-continental origins.19 In a broad sense, individuals can use the results to reconnect with family roots that may have been previously unknown to them. Other research has focused on inferring ancestry more specifically than broad geographic or ethnic classifications. A recently proposed approach allows a participant’s assignment to a hierarchical set of populations. For example, the first-level 17

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Peter Gill and others. ‘Identification of the Remains of the Romanov Family by DNA Analysis,’ in: Nature Genetics 6 (February 1994): 130–35. Recent publications have challenged the findings on the basis of difficulties involved in recovering and analyzing ancient DNA. See Alex Knight and others. ‘Molecular, Forensic and Haplotypic Inconsistencies Regarding the Identity of the Ekaterinburg Remains,’ in: Annals of Human Biology 31 (March–April 2004): 129–38. Peter Gill and others. ‘Establishing the identity of Anna Anderson Manahan,’ in: Nature Genetics 9 (January 1995): 9–10. Tony Frudakis and others. ‘A Classifier for SNP-Based Racial Inference,’ in: Journal of Forensic Science 48 (July 2003): 771–82. For further information, see Tony N. Frudakis. ‘Powerful but Requiring Caution: Genetic Tests of Ancestral Origins,’ in: NGS Quarterly 2005; 93(4): 260-268.

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test results may imply European origins. Subsequent levels may narrow the inference successively to the British Isles, a region in southwest Wales, and perhaps an extended family from the area. Such inference of ancestry from all areas of the world is possible, but accuracy depends on the depth of sampling from each region. Participants receive ‘likelihood scores’ for each level, which enables them to give appropriate weight to the results. Assignment to broad ethnic and geographic classifications applies to questions of deeply-rooted ancestry. In contrast, inferring membership in finer-scale populations can provide information on a genealogical time scale.20 DNA in the laboratory Today commercial laboratories apply techniques that are spin-offs from the Human Genome Project, the massive international collaboration to analyze the complete set of chromosomes.21 Nevertheless, current technology has not yet advanced to the point where laboratories can report an individual’s entire genetic makeup.22 Instead, specialized tests analyze limited sections of DNA to help solve problems in areas including crime investigation, paternity, identification of human remains, and genealogy. Mitochondrial DNA sequences DNA consists of long sequences of four chemical compounds. These building blocks – called ‘bases’ or ‘nucleotides’ – are often abbreviated as A (adenine), C (cytosine), G (guanine), and T (thymine). Scientists were initially skeptical that such a limited set of chemicals could account for the complexity of life. However, the four bases can be arranged in many different orders, just as letters from the English alphabet can be shuffled in many different combinations (for example the words ‘pat,’ ‘apt’, and ‘tap’) and chained together into a complete book. The human genome contains about three billion bases. Some sections can be decoded, but a surprisingly large amount, perhaps as much as 98 percent, appears to be meaningless. Genealogical tests focus on these regions of ‘junk’ DNA, and thus they cannot reveal any personal traits or medical conditions. For an example of a short sequence of DNA bases. (see Table 1 over) 20

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J. E. Ekins and others. ‘Inference of Ancestry: Constructing Hierarchical Reference Populations and Assigning Unknown Individuals,’ in: Human Genomics 2006; 2(4): 212-235. ‘The Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently Asked Questions,’ in: National Human Genome Research Institute, www.genome.gov/11006943 accessed 10 July 2005. Corie Lok, in ‘Deciphering DNA, Top Speed,’ in: TechnologyReview.com, www.technologyreview.com/ articles/05/05/issue/forward_dna.asp?p=1, writes ‘using about 100 state-of-the-art sequencing machines to fully sequence the 3.2 billion DNA letters that make up one person’s genome would take six months and cost $20 million to $30 million.’

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A cell’s mtDNA contains 16,569 sequenced bases but, for genealogical questions, laboratories typically study segments containing only 400 to 1,100 of the most informative bases. These sections are called ‘hypervariable’ because they show more differences among people than mtDNA’s other regions. Because a report listing even 400 bases would be difficult to interpret, laboratories conducting mtDNA tests customarily report only the bases that differ from a standard sequence called the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS). For example, a report of an ‘HVR 1’ test result as ‘16093C’ would mean that the subject’s mtDNA in hypervariable region one (HVR 1) – an mtDNA segment containing bases in positions numbered 16024 through 16365 – differs from the CRS because it has a cytosine (C) base at position 16093. Most people have a few differences from the CRS.

The Smallest Changes in DNA As described above, mutations are modifications in DNA molecules that occur randomly. Mutations can have positive or negative effects, but they typically occur in sections of DNA that have no effect. A mutation that replaces just one base (nucleotide) with another is called a ‘single nucleotide polymorphism’ or ‘SNP’ (pronounced ‘snip’). For an example, (see Table 2). The changes in the mtDNA molecule described above are literally SNPs, but more often the term is applied to changes sprinkled throughout all of the chromosomes, including the Y. SNPs, which tend to be rare, often represent unique events. Given their low rate, SNPs are used in anthropological studies for tracing extremely deeply-rooted pedigrees, for example, determining matrilineal or patrilineal descent from one of several ancient ‘clans’.23 Using multiple SNPs, researchers can determine the order in which the SNPs occurred and estimate when two ancient lineages diverged. (See Table 3). The vari23

Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science that Reveals our Genetic Ancestry. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.

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ability of SNPs among descendants of a ‘founding father’ gives a rough estimate of when he lived: the more SNPs the descendants have, the more time has elapsed since their lineages diverged. For example, The Y-chromosome Consortium has identified a set of SNPs useful in classifying males into hierarchically related clusters. Small clusters with identical haplotypes can be combined into larger groups with similar but not identical haplotypes and so forth until all of the groups are joined into a tree representing all humankind. The clusters, labeled in a systematic alphanumeric fashion similar to an outline, comprise haplogroups and subhaplogroups.24 Because different haplogroups predominate in different regions of the world, Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroups suggests ethnic and geographic origins of patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry – for example a man in Y-chromosome group R1b might have male-line ethnic origins in Western Europe.25

The Most Genealogically Useful Changes in DNA The genetic information that genealogists most often employ is the ‘short tandem repeat’ (STR). The term refers to the repetition of a short sequence of bases. For instance, a sequence of four bases, like G-A-T-A, might occur seven consecutive 24

25

‘A Nomenclature System for the Tree of Human Y-Chromosomal Binary Haplogroups.’ The Y Chromosome Consortium http://ycc.biosci.arizona.edu/nomenclature_system/frontpage.html J. Douglas McDonald. ‘World Haplogroup Maps.’ McDonald Group, http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/ ~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps.pdf

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times in a particular segment of DNA. When an STR mutates, the number of repetitions changes – for example seven repetitions of G-A-T-A at a particular location on a father’s Y chromosome might change to six repetitions of the same sequence at the same location on his son’s Y chromosome. (For an example, see Table 3). Such mutations pass unchanged from parent to child until another mutation occurs.

As different STR mutations accumulated in different lineages over many centuries, each developed its own pattern of STRs. Consequently, people with different lineages have different inherited STR patterns. Individuals with identical patterns are said to bear the same “haplotype,” such as the Jefferson Y-chromosome haplotype of Eston Hemings’s male-line descendants. Minor differences in haplotypes are compatible with descent from a common ancestor.

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Genetic tests determine the pattern of STRs on the Y chromosome. Locations or segments on the chromosome have labels starting with the letters DYS (for example, ‘DYS439’), which stands for ‘DNA Y-chromosome sequence.’26 Genetic laboratories test between twelve and forty locations on the Y chromosome. Their reports list the DYS numbers of the locations tested and the number of STRs in each location – such as 13 at DYS 393. For example, the DNA test that determined the Jefferson haplotype reportted the number of STRs at eleven DYS locations on a Jefferson descendant’s Y chromosome. (See Table 4). DNA on the Internet Y-chromosome Databases Most Y-chromosome tests take place on a small scale within surname projects, such as the Edmund Rice study described above. However, large assemblies of Ychromosome data are available on the Internet, which can place an individual’s test results in a wide global context. Such public databases might generate privacy concerns, but they do not reveal personal identities, and their data do not contain information about personal traits or medical conditions. The rapidly accumulating volume of online genetic information can aid investigations of genealogical questions. Results from the 1998 study of Carr, Jefferson, and Woodson haplotypes illustrate the useful information that can be gleaned from online databases. A centerpiece argument was the rarity of the Jefferson haplotype, suggesting that the JeffersonHemings match was not coincidental. When the article was written, the database of Y-chromosome haplotypes contained 670 European records, with no matches to the Jefferson haplotype.27 Today, however, such databases have vastly larger numbers of records: The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF) database includes nearly 70,000 DNA samples collected worldwide. Currently, a subset of 16,595 Ychromosomes linked to nearly 4 millions ancestors is available for search at the Foundation website (www.SMGF.org). With 9,783 unique surnames and over 90 percent of the Y-chromosome haplotypes tested at 30 or more markers, it is the largest searchable Y-chromosome database for genealogical purposes in the world. SMGF analyzes samples contributed by volunteers, who can order a free participation kit from the website or participate in the many field collections planned regularly around the world.28 DNA samples for SMGF are processed by Sorenson Genomics.29 26

27 28 29

John M. Butler, Forensic DNA Typing: Biology, Technology, and Genetics of STR Markers. Burlington, Mass.: Elsevier Academic Press, 2005. 23–25. Foster and others, “Jefferson Fathered Slave’s Last Child,” 27–28. Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation www.smgf.org : accessed 2 January 2007. Sorenson Genomics www.SorensonGenomics.com accessed 2 January 2007.

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Y-chromosome Haplotype Research Database (YHRD) is an anonymous database of records submitted by forensic laboratories, collected to provide a crosssample of people in specific locations. It contains 46,720 world-wide records typed at 11 or fewer markers and linked to a geographic location of origin. No genealogical data is provided.30 Ybase was the first publicly accessible database that allowed individuals who had used different testing companies to enter their data and compare results. It contains 8,618 Y-chromosome haplotypes, 9,157 surnames (but no pedigree data), and useful statistical summaries showing the range of STRs for tested Y-chromosome locations.31 Ybase is provided by DNA Heritage, a commercial DNA company serviced by Sorenson Genomics.32 Ysearch is a publicly accessible database containing approximately 35,000 Ychromosome records with the large majority having test results for 12 to 24 markers. Anyone can manually add data obtained from any company, with an automated procedure available for Family Tree DNA customers. Users can add genealogical information to their Y-chromosome records (currently 3,482 unlinked GEDCOM files).33 Most of the recently added records are the results of National Geographic's Genographic Project participation (12 markers test).34 Easy Y-match is one of the newest Y-Chromosome databases available online. It is a service provided by Relative Genetics and the majority of the currently available 7,000 records have been tested at 43 markers. The database allows individuals tested from other laboratories to search and contact possible matches in the database and provides a Y-Chromosome haplogroup predictor. No genealogical data available.35 None of the above sources contains a match for the Jefferson haplotype. In contrast, the Sorenson database has several hundred records, with many different surnames, matching the Carr haplotype shown in table 4, which was based on eleven markers (seven markers, when applying modern standards). Testing more markers on the Carr sample, as various companies do today, probably would reduce the matches to those mostly closely related to the Carrs who were tested. The results for the Woodson haplotype, depicted in table 4, are instructive. The Sorenson database has 265 matches, mostly from Africa. These results suggest that the haplotype is more typical of African ancestry than European. Such geographical 30

31 32 33 34

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‘About the ‘YHRD – Y Chromosome Haplotype Reference Database’,’ YHRD.org http://yhrd.org accessed 2 January 2007. Ybase: Genealogy by Numbers www.ybase.org accessed 2 January 2007. DNA Heritage www.DNAHeritage.com accessed 2 January 2007. Ysearch http://www.ysearch.org accessed October 2006. Genographic Project https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html accessed 2 January 2007. Relative Genetics http://relativegenetics.com/relativegenetics/index.jsp accessed 2 January 2007.

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information may shed light on ancestral lines that lack documentary evidence for their origins. Mitochondrial DNA Databases Just as with Y-chromosome analysis, a person with mtDNA test results can compare them with various databases available online. DNA data for the ‘Ice Man’ demonstrate the information available. A body discovered in 1991 at the edge of a melting Alpine glacier was initially thought to be a climber who had met with an accident in modern times. Scientists soon determined, however, that the remains were some five thousand years old.36 The Ice Man had a relatively common mtDNA haplotype that is present in 1 to 2 percent of Europeans. Containing two differences from the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS), his sample had cytosine (C) bases at positions 16,224 and 16,311 in hypervariable region 1.37 The following online databases contain mtDNA test results: The Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation's recently launched database of correlated mtDNA and genealogical data has already become a leader among the currently available mtDNA databases. With 11,285 mtDNA sequences (10,090 surnames) and approximately 4 million ancestral records, it is the largest of its kind. Nearly all the sequences have been typed in excess of the complete Control Region (from base position 15841 to base position 720), which comprises the hypervariable segments known as HVR1, HVR2, and HVR3.38 When querying the SMGF mtDNA database using the Ice Man's haplotype we found 2,369 individuals with at least his same two mutations in the segment tested. Oxford Ancestors by Dr. Bryan Sykes offers guest access to its database, however even though there is no data available about the exact size of the database, it is safe to estimate that it contains a little over 10,000 sequences. No genealogical data is available and only HVR1 is offered for comparison.39 Dr. Sykes has also a new database of mtDNA data (3,687 records typed at HVR1 only) for his recent study on the British Isles origins: The Blood of the Isles.40 Entering the Ice Man’s mtDNA 36

37

38 39

40

Oliva Handt and others, ‘Molecular genetic analyses of the Tyrolean Ice Man,’ in: Science 264, 17 June 1994: 1775–78. Michael D. Coble and others, ‘Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Over the Entire mtdna Genome that Increase the Power of Forensic Testing in Caucasians,’ in: International Journal of Legal Medicine 118, June 2004: 137–46. Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation www.smgf.org accessed 2 January 2007. ‘Oxford Ancestors’ Databases,’ Oxford Ancestors http://oxfordancestors.com/members accessed 2 January 2007). Total number of sequences was estimated on the number of matches per query when compared to other databases. The Blood of the Isles www.bloodoftheisles.net/results.html accessed 2 January 2007.

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test results shows 250 matches. Oxford Ancestors classifies him as a member of the ‘Katrine’ clan, a pseudonym for mitochondrial Haplogroup K. Mitosearch is a public-access database of individually contributed and unlinked GEDCOM files and mtDNA test results that have not been independently verified. The database contains 37,993 mtDNA sequences, with the vast majority being tested for HVR1 and uploaded from the National Geographic's Genographic Project.41 A survey of the database produced fifty-eight matches for the Ice Man. It also yielded 150 members of Haplogroup K. They had the Ice Man’s two differences from the CRS plus various additions, demonstrating variation within a haplogroup. The mtDNA Log functions like a guest book. Contributors may leave free-form comments along with their mtDNA test results. The site does not have a search function, but the Web browser’s ‘Find’ function substitutes. Visitors often provide data about their ancestral names and geographical locations. The site currently contains 961 entries.42 The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains an ‘mtDNA Population Database,’ which incorporates sequences from the Mitochondrial DNA Concordance as well as more recent contributions from accredited forensic testing laboratories. This anonymous database can reveal whether a haplo type is common or rare and it contains 4,839 records typed only for HVR1. No genealogical data is available.43 GenBank is a repository at the National Institutes of Health for raw mtDNA sequences from technical literature containing 36,023 records. However, a goodly number of those might be just small fragments, not even complete HVR1. With some effort public users can align their sequences to the published data and compare the results. No genealogical data is available.44 The Uppsala University (Sweden) maintains a free accessible mtDNA database called mtDB. This database contains 2,600 complete coding region mtDNA sequences. No genealogical data is available.45 Easy Mito-match is one of the newest mtDNA databases available online. It is a service provided by Relative Genetics and the majority of the currently available 2,000 records have been tested for HVR1 and HVR2. The database allows individuals tested from other laboratories to search and contact possible matches in the data41 42

43

44

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Mitosearch www.mitosearch.org accessed 2 January 2007. Charles F. Kerchner Jr., Mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) Test Results Log (BLOG) www.mtdnalog.org accessed 2 January 2007. Keith L. Monson and others, ‘The mtDNA Population Database: An Integrated Software and Database Resource for Forensic Comparison,’ Forensic Science Communications 4 April 2002, electronic edition www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/april2002/miller1.htm accessed October 2006. ‘GenBank Overview,’ National Center for Biotechnology Information www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ Genbank accessed 2 January 2007. mtDB – Human Mitochondrial Genome Database http://www.genpat.uu.se/mtDB : accessed 2 January 2007.

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base and provides a mtDNA haplogroup predictor. No genealogical is data available.46 DNA testing in the future Some changes are likely to occur because they involve extensions of existing technology. In years to come DNA tests probably will be faster and cheaper and will include more markers than today’s tests. Publicly accessible databases of compiled genetic information will also continue to grow, allowing genealogists to correlate DNA test results with population-based studies, such as the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project.47 Large databases containing mtDNA and Ychromosome matches could suggest research pathways that might unblock a lineage problem that seems unsolvable with documentary research alone. The bulk of current tests for genealogical purposes are limited to the Y chromosome and mtDNA. This is a severe constraint because straight paternal and maternal lineages represent only a tiny fraction of anyone’s total ancestry and DNA. The other parts of the pedigree harbor vast amounts of information that future genetic testing might unlock. Laboratories are beginning, however, to study the use of autosomal DNA for genealogical purposes. Conclusion Molecular genealogy synthesizes traditional genealogical research and relatively new technologies developed to explore genetic characteristics of the world’s people. The combination enhances traditional genealogical methods, especially when ambiguities and roadblocks in written records impede documentary research. Scientific methods are just beginning to tap into the invaluable repository of ancestral information that is carried in every individual’s DNA. Molecular methods can help individuals uncover previously unknown family relationships, verify or refute claims to ancestry, and shed light on questions that have puzzled genealogists for years. Currently the two most active areas of genetic testing for genealogical purposes are focused on mtDNA and the Y chromosome. DNA projects for family history purposes can use samples from only two participants or hundreds. Many questions can be approached by querying online searchable genetic databases to find genetic matches to a known DNA profile. These remarkable resources are freely available and continuously expanding. Molecular genealogy methods eventually will enable genealogists to explore lines beyond strictly matrilineal and patrilineal ancestry. In 46 47

Relative Genetics http://relativegenetics.com/relativegenetics/index.jsp accessed 2 January 2007. NationalGeographic.com, The Genographic Project https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ genographic accessed 19 October 2005.

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the near future genealogists can expect a burgeoning expansion of this field. Genetic testing will be more widely available, increasingly economical for the individual, and more informative for answering a greater variety of genealogical questions.

NOTE This is a revised and updated version of an article previously printed in the NGS Quarterly, December 2005. p. 245-59 with the title The Science of Molecular Genealogy.

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CAN ARCHIVISTS, LIBRARIANS AND CURATORS JOIN HANDS TO DO A BETTER JOB? Sanjica Faletar Tanackovic Research Assistant, Information Sciences Department, University J.J. Strossmayer, Osijek, Croatia Abstract Development of information and communication technology in the second half of the 20th century has opened up unprecedented possibilities for memory institutions around the world. It has also posed a new demand on these institutions, namely archives, libraries and museums, to make collections widely available and accessible outside their institutional (and national) boundaries. Their users no longer care where the information carriers (book, audio recording, video recording, image, 3D object etc) are located (in archives, library, museum) just as long as the resources they are looking for are well-integrated, well-organized and easily accessible. In the second half of the 20th century, under the impact of new technology and user demands, similarities and differences between archives, libraries and museums have been looked at in a new light. Many memory institutions have realized that they can perform their tasks (preservation and communication of world heritage) more successfully if they collaborate with other cultural institutions and work together on joint strategies for the preservation of and access to cultural heritage material. The paper will outline a framework for the collaboration of memory institutions and present several successful collaborative initiatives of Croatian memory institutions. Framework for collaboration of memory institution : challenges and possibilities Archives, libraries and museums have been defined in many different ways during their long history. However, all definitions have one thing in common and that is: these three institutions are recognized as institutions that collect, process, organize, preserve and communicate the world heritage or world memory. Dempsey, as many others, defines them as memory institutions1:

1

Hjerppe has already used the term ‘memory institutions’ in 1994 to denote libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions such as monuments and places, botanical gardens, zoological gardens and all kinds of ‘collecting institutions’. (Hjørland, 2007).

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Archives, libraries and museums are memory institutions: they organise the European cultural and intellectual record. Their collections contain the memory of peoples, communities, institutions and individuals, the scientific and cultural heritage, and the products throughout time of our imagination, craft and learning. They join us to our ancestors and are our legacy to future generations. (Dempsey, 2000). Although ‘what they did and how they did it’ changed over a long period of time, depending on the prevailing social, cultural, economic, technological and political contexts (Hooper-Greenhill, 1995), their mission has always been to collect, organize, preserve and facilitate the use of the material they kept. These three institutions have always been regarded as social institutions that contributed to the cultural, economic, educational and democratic advancement of individuals and society in general. These memory institutions are deeply woven into the fabric of our modern societies as sources of information, knowledge and wisdom but also as social meeting points. The main difference between archives, libraries and museums, which triggered the development of all other differences, is the format of the information which each of these institutions (primarily) focuses on. However, differentiation of archival, library and museum collections is of a relatively recent date. Data about organized and systematic care of the material collected by today's memory institutions, dates back to 2,500 B.C. to the Middle East where in the ruins of ancient towns traces of so-called archives-libraries were found. (Stipcevic, 1985) As this name suggests, it is believed that at the time when those collections were developed, differentiation of material as being archival, library or museum material – a differentiation which has been accepted in later historical periods – was not recognized. Findings show that in that earliest period different kinds of material (administrative records, literary works, artistic artefacts) were kept together in royal castles and temples, mainly inaccessible to the wider public (which was mainly illiterate at that time). (Stipcevic, 1985) There is substantial evidence to prove that archival, library and museum material has been gathered side by side in renaissance cabinets of curiosities (also known as Wunderkammer or wonder-chambers) by rich men and scholars. Charnes states that those early heterogeneous collections2 ‘lack a conceptual division between what we would call museum, archival and library materials’ because wealthy rulers and scholars accumulated collections which ‘were undifferentiated in the form of the information held within them’. (Charnes) Rayward further notes that different artefacts, texts, and objects were accumulated which were ‘appropriate to the broad multidisciplinary intellectual interests of the individual collector’. (Rayward, 1995) 2

Due to their broad scope these collections have often been called ‘theatrum mundi’. (Maroevic, 2004).

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However, in 17th and 18th century, as a result of various societal issues (development of complex state administration, emergence of new areas of research and study etc.) materials gathered in these collections have been separated, most often on the basis of the format of the information. This was followed by the development of distinctive institutions, which took over primary, but not exclusive, responsibility for specific types of material. Eventually, specific methods and techniques for processing, organizing and communicating specific material to users were developed. As a result of this physical and then conceptual separation and differentiation of archival, library and museum material, different professions and theoretical disciplines emerged, focussing on different procedures and methodologies. Borgman, however, points out that archives and museums fulfil many of the same tasks for the same or similar user communities and notes that what differentiates libraries from other information institutions are their professional principles and procedures and not their tasks. (Borgman, 2002) According to Rayward ‘this differentiating process reached its high point in the 1950s and 1960s before the advent of computer revolution’. He also emphasizes, and we must agree, that this development does not reflect the need of an individual researcher or interested member of the general public because ‘for the individual the ideal is still the personal cabinet of curiosities that contains whatever is needed for a particular purpose or to respond to a particular interest, irrespective of the nature of the artefacts involved – books, objects, data, personal papers, recorded image, government files’. (Rayward, 1995) In the second half of the 20th century, the development of information and communication technology (ICT), which profoundly affected all areas of human life (business, industry, economy, education, leisure, culture, etc.) has brought about an enormous twist in operations and services of memory institutions. Archives, libraries and museums have become true components of global information infrastructure (GII) and have once again turned naturally to each other. It can often be heard that the new technology has opened up unprecedented possibilities for memory institutions, in particular in relation to the presentation and communication of their materials. But it has also posed new significant, but similar challenges. It is generally agreed that ICT and the new media advance new conceptual approaches to the understanding of the nature of heritage material but also to its selection, organization, preservation, communication and utilization. (Willer, 1997) Werner explicitly states that ‘the form of information, a distinction so important in differentiating the work of archivists and librarians (and curators) in early years, is becoming less important, and in many cases the distinction is disappearing entirely’. (Archives and Library Administration, 1986) Furthermore, Martin notes that if we agree that archives, libraries and museums collect documents3 and that, in the 3

Documentalists' definition of a document is that a document is ‘any source of information, in material

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digital environment, documents are ‘talking things’4 (Levy in Martin, 2003), and that the distinction between text and image and artifact diminish, we can say that the boundaries between museums, libraries and archives disappear (Martin, 2003) and that through presentation of their collections online these institutions are becoming a ‘seamless web’. (Rayward, 1995) As a result of this ‘electronification of information sources’ as he calls it, Rayward points out that ‘an extension, a realignment, perhaps a transformation of functions is occurring between these historically determined reorganisational arrangements for handling information artefacts’. (Rayward, 1995) If one follows predictions that, in the future, specific differences between the three professions, archivists, museum curators (museologists) and librarians will remain in ‘approaches to their jobs, one can assume that their disciplines will increasingly become subcomponents of a larger discipline of information handling. Theoretically, all three professions have to realize that they are concerned with the collection, storage, and facilitation of access to information in a wide variety of formats to meet divergent publics and responsibilities“. (Archives and Library Administration, 1986) Interdependence of archival science, librarianship, museology and information sciences has been discussed on many occasions ever since the advent of information sciences in mid 19th century. We can say that it has been, more or less, accepted that library science, archival science and museology are all part of information sciences, based on their similarities and their mediatory role in the communication process (Aparac-Gazivoda, 1993; Hjorland, 2007). Furthermore, in 1982 Sola has, so far unsuccessfully, suggested that a common philosophy for these three different but related institutions and disciplines within the information sciences, be named ‘heritology’, or, as he proposed later in 1989, ‘mnemosophy’5. He defined heritology as a study of the future of collective experience – a science focused on the concept of total heritage. (Sola, 2003) Evidence of the convergence of these three sectors, already announced by theoreticians, can also be tracked in the education of future professionals for the heritage sector. Schellenberg advised that the archives and library profession, and beyond doubt, we can add the museum profession as well, should co-operate – both in ‘administration of their holdings, in the development of their methodology and in provision of training facilities’. (Archives and Library Administration, 1986) Moreover, Werner emphasized that ‘it is in the area of education where archivists and librarians (and curators) will finally come together’. (Archives and Library Administration, 1986)

4

5

form, capable of being used for reference or study or as an authority’. Examples: manuscripts, printed matter, illustrations, diagrams, museum specimens, etc. (Buckland, 1997). ‘(D)ocuments are quite simply talking things. They are bits of the material world – clay, stone, animal skin, plant fiber, sand – that we've inbued with the ability to speak’ (Levy in Martin, 2003). Term ‘mnemosophy’ is coined out of words memory+philosophy (Sola, 2003).

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A recent survey of the formal education of professionals in the heritage sector has proved that heritage professionals are in need of some common general knowledge and skills necessary for work in this broad sector, and it identified a number of university programs and wide range of content of interest to all three professions. 6 (Aparac, T., et al, 2005) Although the training of archival, library and museum professionals is still in most countries located in different departments and schools, there are exceptions – for example, the Department of Information Sciences at Zagreb University in Croatia offers, among others, a Bachelor and Master degree in library, archives and museum studies. It is specific to this programme that for the first four semesters all students are taught the same courses and only later do they choose their specialization in archival, library or museum studies.7 Also, in terms of continuing professional development (CPD) this collaboration might be more evident. An innovative training programme has been developed in Britain, under which professionals from archives, libraries and museums are given an opportunity for professional development through secondments in cultural institutions other than their own.8 Heritage professionals have understood, it appears, that they can carry out their main task – care of heritage material and its communication to users – especially in networked environment, much better if they work together and agree on common strategies. It must be recognized that, although archives, libraries and museums do not have the same tradition of sharing and collaboration, this blurring of boundaries between memory institutions, initiated primarily by information and communication technology and user needs, provides a useful environment for exploration of collaborative endeavors. (Martin, 2003) Many policy and decision makers, nationally and internationally, have also realized the value of cultural heritage and the importance of collaboration between memory institutions in its successful preservation and efficient exploitation, so that support was provided at the strategic level as well. The professional community pooled its expertise in several initiatives whose aim has been to provide necessary leadership and help the cultural heritage sector in solving burning issues, directly or indirectly connected to ICT. Included are the European Commission on Preservation

6

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The study indentified the following broad subject areas taught at archives, library and museum schools world wide: Design, development and use of information systems, ICT, Organization, presentation and analysis of knowledge/information, Management of information systems and services, Access to collections and information sources, Research and research methods, Relationship of information/information institutions and society, Preservation of collections and data, Historical studies, Optional ALM courses, Courses according to the type of institution, Other Courses. More information is available at Zagreb University website www.ffzg.hr/infoz/eng/index_e.html More information available from a Report ‘Sharing Skills : Evaluation’ at www.mla.gov.uk/documents/ skillshare.pdf

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and Access – ECPA,9 the European Heritage Network – EHN,10 the U.S. based National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage – NINCH 11 etc. Many resolutions, action plans and programs have been drafted and developed in last couple of decades with the ultimate goal of promoting the use of new technology in culture and encouraging collaboration of memory institutions. Among many initiatives, project MINERVA12 and the National Representatives Group – NRG13 should be mentioned. This was established with a mission to monitor progress regarding the objectives encapsulated in the Lund Principles. Its aim has been to tackle the challenges related to digitization in memory institutions and it has suggested specific actions to identify and implement a successful strategy for the development and use of a digital cultural heritage. The European Commission has started to support innovation and collaboration in this sector with its Libraries Programmes in 1988 which focussed primarily on libraries. It then continued with its Framework Programmes (FP3, FP4, FP5, FP6 and FP7)14 which now include not only libraries, but also archives, museums and other cultural institutions. One of the interesting collaborative actions within the last framework program has been CALIMERA.15 CALIMERA (Cultural Applications: Local Institutions Mediating Electronic Resources Access) was a coordination action under the European Union's Information Society Technologies Framework Programme 6 (IST FP6)16 and its goal has been to assist local cultural institutions – public libraries, museums and archives – to develop and apply innovative technologies and joint strategies for serving ordinary citizens in their everyday lives. It saw local memory institutions as a means of combating social inclusion and bridging digital divide

9 10 11 12

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15 16

More information available from www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ More information available at www.european-heritage.net/sdx/herein/ More information available at www.ninch.org/ MINERVA (Ministerial Network For Valorizing Activities In Digitisation) is a network of EU member states' ministries, established in 2002, and its task is to discuss, correlate and harmonise activities carried out in the digitisation of cultural and scientific content for creating an agreed European common platform, recommendations and guidelines about digitisation, metadata, long-term accessibility and preservation. Starting from October 2006 the MINERVA Project has been enlarged to MINERVA EC, MInisterial NEtwoRk for Valorising Activities in digitisation, eContentplus – Supporting the European Digital Library. More information is available at www.minervaeurope.org/home.htm A National Representatives Group (NRG) is made up of officially nominated experts from EU member states and has been established to act as a steering group for the activities related to the co-ordination of digitisation policies and programmes. On 22nd December 2006, the Commission published the first call for proposals under FP7. Among the research objectives addressed by this call are ‘Digital libraries and technology-enhanced learning.’ More information is available at http://cordis.europa.eu/ist/digicult/fp7_overview.htm More information is available from project CALIMERA web site www.calimra.org More information available at www.cordis.lu/ist/directorate_e/digicult/events.htm

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through ‘the creation, use and delivery of local cultural content to meet specific local information and learning needs.’17 The most recent initiative by European Commission has been a European Digital Library (EDL) where special attention shall be given to the role of digital cultural heritage in education and economic advancement of European information society. It also emphasizes the importance of national strategies for digitization of cultural heritage and states that joint, collaborative and harmonized effort of all EU member states is required.18 As a result of these and many other efforts, substantial resources have been allocated and many, more or less successful, digitization projects were launched. However, the practice has shown that success is guaranteed only if there is planned use of ICT and purposeful investment of resources which result from a clear national strategy. Only with the strategy is it possible to secure accessibility and understanding of cultural heritage and create resources of permanent value. It is, therefore, up to relevant public bodies to respond to these possibilities in consistent and coherent way, led by needs of heritage communities and not technology. (Ross, S., Economou, M., 1998) However, our research shows that although there are many collaborative projects of digitization of cultural heritage material across Europe, these partnerships have until recently only sporadically resulted in joint or cross-sectoral strategies. There are exceptions, such as national agencies in the UK (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council – MLA)19 and Norway (Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority – ABM-utvikling)20, which have been established as strategic and advisory bodies promoting partnership and collaboration between archives, libraries and museums in their respective countries and acting as an intermediary between these and the government. Nevertheless, nowadays, ever more countries are starting to draft their strategic digitization programs in which input from all three sectors is evident.21 Collaboration of memory institutions in Croatia Analysis of the the current situation in Croatian cultural heritage sector shows that Croatia is in the second phase of the knowledge society, as defined by Ekholm.22 17 18

19 20 21

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from: Citizen's Charter www.calimera.org/staticpages/citizens-charter.aspx Update information about ths iinitiatvie is available at http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/ digital_libraries/index_en.htm More information is available at www.mla.gov.uk/ More information is available at www.abm-utvikling.no Countries which have already developed or are working on development of national digitization programs are: Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Malta etc. K. Ekholm distinguishes three types of knowledge society based on three main elements: national strategies, collaboration and finances. According to Ekholm, the first phase of knowledge society ended

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Namely, Croatian cultural heritage institutions are present more and more online and they intensively employ ICT in their management and service delivery. Also, a national digitization program has only recently been drafted and a national digital heritage collection is being considered. The lack of a clear vision has so far been the main problem of the Croatian cultural heritage sector in this period, followed by the lack of skilled personnel and adequate finances. However, it can be said that Croatia is one of many countries in which political and strategic support came after the initiatives and demands for collaboration and joint strategic leadership had been voiced by the memory institutions themselves. It is to be hoped that the relevant public bodies will now ‘respond to these opportunities in a consistent and coherent way, driven by the information needs of the heritage community and the public, rather than the technology’. (Ross, S., Economou, M., 1998) Although the drafting of the Croatian national digitization program was initiated relatively late (2004/2005), the first appeal for the development of such a national digitization strategy was voiced by Aparac-Jelusic as early as 2000. She emphasized that the creation of a national digitization strategy is a prerequisite for rational and efficient access to national digital material and the preservation of a Croatian digital heritage. (Aparac-Jelusic, 2001) The actual initiative for the creation of a national programme to digitize archival, library and museum material arose four years later. The National and University Libraries and the Croatian Library Council initiated the establishment of the working group on digitization, consisting of 13 professionals from Croatian archives, libraries and museums. This group prepared the Draft national programme of digitization. (Krizaj, Seiter-Sverko, 2005) This strategic document tried to identify goals and content for the national digitization programme in cultural institutions, to describe preconditions for its introduction and implementation, and to assess possibilities and determine its specific activities and effects. Furthermore, it ‘aims to encourage and facilitate systematic and balanced approach to digitization in cultural institutions, development of digital cultural content and services, preservation, processing and use of material. It is focussed on creation of long-term digitization policy and advancement of institutional, technological, professional and organizational capacities and infrastructure which are prerequisite for programme implementation and in mid 1995s and was characterized by fragmentary and unsystematic collaboration of heritage institutions which was fuelled by tradition and rare contacts of individuals and institutions; small-scale digitization projects, no general digitization plans. Majority of countries is still in the second phase, in which cultural heritage institutions are increasingly present online; they intensively use ICT in their management and service delivery, digitization plans and programs are designed and larger national collaborative digital collections are developed but finances are still a problem. Lastly, Ekholm states that only few countries are in phase three of the knowledge society. Characteristics of that phase are: permanent collaboration of cultural heritage institutions, secured finances for digital projects, long-term preservation, valuable digital resources for science, education and pleasure. (Ekholm, 2005).

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development and managment of individual digitization projects.’ (Prijedlog nacionalnog programma digitalizacije arhivske, knjižnične i muzejske građe = Draft of the national programme of digitization of archival, library and museum material, 2005) It also emphasizes that the national digitization programme is not envisioned as a single all-encompassing digitization project which will produce specific digital content, but as a set of activities geared towards achievement of set goals. It could be said that this document offers a framework for planning and organization of national, institutional and cooperative digital projects and is targeted at professionals undertaking such projects but is also a required reading for policy and decision makers and financiers. This strategic action was preceded by another national document, entitled Strategy For Development Of ICT In Croatia, adopted in 2001. This emphasized the need for the modernization of archives, libraries and museums, in particular in relation to their management, material processing and services, through the use of modern technologies. This document further emphasized that high-quality digital cultural and national content should be created on the basis of material held by archives, libraries and museums in order to satisfy the needs of all citizens, including students, researchers, etc. In order to achieve that, the most important cultural and national treasures (manuscripts, books, magazines, museum artifacts, archives, maps, photographs, sound recordings, sheet music etc.) should be digitized and built into digital libraries. (Hrvatska u 21. stoljeću: informacijska i komunikacijska tehnologija = Croatia In The 21st Century: Information And Communication Technology, 2001) However, professionals working in Croatian archives, libraries and museums had recognized the need for and the benefits of working together. In 1997, all three professional communities became aware that it was no longer sufficient ‘for each memory institution to seek out paths for solving their most acute problem on their own: how to transform its functions and secure its quality of service in a situation of a sudden technological boom into overall globalization’. (Willer, 1997) A joint effort was needed to overcome common challenges and provide quality service to the ever more demanding users. In that year, thanks to the visionary Mirna Willer at the National and University Library in Zagreb and her colleagues, the first seminar focusing on the collaboration of cultural heritage institutions was organized jointly by the Croatian Archival Society, the Croatian Library Association and the Croatian Museum Association. This seminar, entitled ‘Archives, Libraries, Museums – Possibilities for Co-operation Within the Environment of the Global Information Infrastructure’23 has been organized every year since then, and has become a central meeting place for cultural heritage professionals in this region. It originally came out of the 23

More information available from ALM Seminar website http://public.carnet.hr/akm/english/index.html .

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idea that libraries need to ‘open up toward related institutions so that the users could get as complete, precise and professional answer as possible to their question through a singular, coherent approach to various information sources’. (Willer, 1997) Thus, the main objectives of the seminar have been to ‘research, present and discuss a whole range of issues, both theoretical and practical, in the vast field of interoperability within cultural heritage sector, as part of the global information infrastructure context’. (Willer, 1997) The purpose of the seminar is to ‘bring together experts who work with theoretical assumptions and their application in the automatized processing and usage of materials in archives, libraries and museums, to motivate the participants to exchange their ideas, knowledge and experience as well as to recognize the fields and levels in which co-operation is possible in creating and accessing information’. (Willer, 1997) Ever since the first seminar, practical workshops attract many participants because it became evident that in such environment ‘the idea of possible co-operation between archives, libraries and museums might be best tested in concrete situations and examples’. (Willer, 1997) One of the conclusions of the second seminar was that discussion of common issues only is not sufficient and that joint working groups, more actively involved in solving specific problems, should be formed. Their task would be to work more intensely on specific tasks facing all three sectors. Thus, since standards and metadata, and the issue of interoperability in general have been identified as burning issues for all three communities, a working group focussing on those topics has been formed. Its members come from all three professional communities and their work can be seen at the Seminar home page. Furthermore, a small glossary of basic archives, library and museum terms and an Internet glossary has been developed and is also available on the seminar web site. Also, the creation of informal communication modes, such as an online discussion list, which would provide a useful way of exchanging ideas and information on various topics, is planned. This seminar has been well received by the professional communities in Croatia. This is evident from its ever growing audience and the many practical benefits for the sector. A survey of digital services in the Croatian cultural heritage sector (as marketed on their websites) shows that libraries, due to their early adoption of ICT and the very nature of their work and tradition of sharing and collaboration within the sector, are most advanced in this area.24 Museums follow, and archives, as in many

24

Many libraries are digitizing their local history collections. They hold old and oftentimes unique material of great interest and importance to the local community. For example, the local history department at Slavonski Brod public library developed their digital library collection (conisting of text and old postcards) as a stand-alone pilot-project based on the open-source, multilingual software Greenstone Digital Library (GDL). ‘(t)his project relied on this free accessible software which helped gain the experience necessary for planning and implementation of future digital projects in Croatia and face the challenges posed, in particular those of technical nature. It has also identified knowledge and skills

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other countries, lag behind. It must be said that in Croatia there are still no large-size digital collections of national significance although the Croatian Ministry of Culture has recently launched the web portal Croatian Cultural Heritage25 (see Fig. 1) whose aim is to become the central web site which will facilitate access and retrieval of digital collections developed within the project Croatian Heritage. The site will also provide valuable information and guidelines for digitization so as to support all projects, individuals and institutions who wish to digitize archival, museum and library material.

Fig. 1: Croatian Cultural Heritage portal Also in 2005, the Croatian National and University Library launched the results of its digitisation project. The collection entitled Digitized Heritage26 consists at present of 350 digitised units from the libraries' most valuable collections, mostly manuscripts, rare books, maps, graphics, notes and audio material (see Fig. 2). The digitised material is presented in the context of other works by the same author, subject, time period, or is related to other similar resources on the Internet and can be browsed by subject, author or type of material. The collection is also searchable through the library catalogue.

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needed by librarians and IT specialists if they want to keep pace with current developments.’ (Bosancic, 2005). Available at http://daz.hr/bastina/ accessed January 2007. More information about the project is available, in Croatian only www.nsk.hr/HeritageUnits. aspx?id=197 accessed January 2007

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Fig. 2: Digital collection Digitized Heritage In terms of specific collaborative projects, two small-scale digital collections, the results of the close work of a number of memory institutions in Croatia (and abroad), should be mentioned. Both collections focus on popular Croatian 19th century poets and bring online selected material from libraries, archives and museums. Silvije Strahimir Kranjcevic27 is the first digital collection to be developed in Croatia (2002) and is available free of charge to anyone with Internet access. The idea for this digital collection, dedicated to the famous Croatian poet, came from Daniel Miscin, then research assistant at Zagreb University. With material collected from many Croatian and Bosnian repositories and digitised with the help of studentsvolunteers, access to Kranjcevic's life and work has been made possible: many more can read his poems in the original writing (see Fig. 3), listen to his poetry, watch videos on his life and work, see photographs from his family album (see Fig. 4), examine his private and official correspondence, read what was written about him in his time, read critical commentaries of his literary work, or embark on a more serious research by reviewing an exhaustive bibliography. The Collection can be either viewed according to thematic areas (biography, legacy, poetry, speeches, correspondence, study, etc) or searched by simple input queries which can be limited to either the whole collection or to certain thematic areas. Technical support for this project has been provided by Croatian academic research network (CARNet). The second digital collection (consisting of text files, photographs, autographs, sketches and illustrations, sheet music, audio and video recordings, critical commentary and a bibliography of the poet's work) was launched in 2004. Petar Preradovic

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Available online at www.sskranjcevic.hr

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on Internet28 is, in the words of its enthusiastic authors – public librarians – a database on a local poet which aims to promote his work in an interesting and innovative way and bring it closer to Croatian citizens. (see: Fig. 5). All material has been obtained from Bjelovar Public Library, the National and University Library in Zagreb and the Preradovic's Memorial House-Museum in Grabrovnica.

Fig. 3: A poem Hrvatskoj (To Fig. 4: The poet and his wife – from their Croatia) in the poet’s original hand family album The Croatian digital projects described above show that in most cases the initiatives for such collaborative ventures come from an individual. In interviews with their initiatiors, authors and project managers, it became evident that a lack of resources (staff, knowledge, skills, time, finance and technology) can be overcome by enthusiasm and good will. It is also symptomatic that two out of three authors emphasized that it is their aim to encourage others to undertake similar projects, which would ultimately result in a large comprehensive digital library of national significance29, They want, also, to share their experiences with other colleagues in the cultural heritage sector. 28 29

Available online: http://preradovic.bjelovar.com accessed January 2007. Unfortunately, usage of these collections has not yet been studied and there is no data available at the moment which would help us understand who uses these materials and for what purpose.

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Fig. 5: Digital collection Petar Preradovic on Internet Despite their differences, archives, libraries and museums share the same goals and tasks: they collect, preserve and facilitate access to world heritage and information about it. Boundaries that have, more or less, always existed between these three professions seem to be diminishing and disappearing altogether, under the influence of new user demands and information and communication technology. We can certainly agree with Aparac when she says that today ‘(a)ctivities, products and services of memory institutions have become intertwined, just as it has already occurred on several occasions in earlier stages of their development’ (Aparac et al, 2005). The professional initiatives of Croatian memory institutions show that the cultural heritage community in Croatia, faced with practical problems, recognized fairly early the need for collaboration and joint strategic and professional leadership. They also showed that the lack of leadership, skills and finance did not prevent institutions from pioneering valuable digital colections. The community had what mattered most: enthusiasm and good will. In that respect we can agree with Rayward who says that ‘being able to respond to contemporary challenges effectively may largely depend on how well the different kinds of ‘professionals’ are able to transcend the limitations that their highly developed cultures imposed on them so they can work across the ever diminishing boundaries that separate them.’ (Rayward, 1995).

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Bibliography Aparac-Gazivoda, T. Teorijske osnove knjižnične znanosti. Zagreb : Zavod za informacijske studije, 1993. (Theoretical Foundations Of Library Science). Aparac-Jelusic, T. Digitalna baština u nacionalnim programima zaštite baštine (Digital Heritage In National Preservation Programes). // Arhivi, knjižnice, muzeji : mogućnosti suradnje u okruženju globalne informacijske infrastrukture : zbornik radova. / editors M. Willer & T. Katić. Zagreb : Hrvatsko muzejsko društvo, 2000. p.112-122. Aparac-Jelušić, T.; M. Dragija-Ivanović; S. Faletar; F. Pehar. LIS Programs Reflecting The Needs Of ALM Community. // Coping with Continual change – change management in SLIS – ALISE/EUCLID Joint Meeting / edited by Linda Ashcroft. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing, 2005. p. 46-58. Archives and Library Administration: Divergent Traditions and Common Concerns. / editor Lawrence J. McCrank. New York, London : The Hayworth Press, 1986. Borgman, C. L. Od Gutenbergova izuma do globalnog informacijskog povezivanja : pristup informaciji u umreženom svijetu. Lokve ; Zadar : Naklada Benja, 2002. Bosančić, B. Pilot-projekt oblikovanja digitalne zavičajne zbirke Gradske knjižnice Slavonski Brod pomoću Greenstone programskog paketa, 2004. (Pilot Project: Development Of Digital Local History Collection At The Slavonski Brod Public Library Based On Open Source Software Greenstone). // 8. seminar Arhivi, knjižnice, muzeji : mogućnosti suradnje u okruženju globalne informacijske infrastrukture : zbornik radova / uredila Tinka Katić. Zagreb : Hrvatsko knjižničarsko društvo, 2005. p. 170-182. Charnes, G. G. Museums, Archives, And Libraries: Estranged Siblings. http://home. comecast.net/tildageorgenagogo/musarchlib.html accessed January 2007. Dempsey, L. Scientific, industrial and cultural heritage : a shared approach : a research framework for digital libraries, museums and archives, 2000. www.ariadne. ac.uk/issue22/dempsey/intro.html accessed January 2007. Ekholm, K. The Road To A Digital Nation : A Framework For Sharing Our Skills. (2005) Private correspondence.

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Hjørland, B. Memory institution. (2007) www.db.dk/bh/Core%20Concepts%20in%20LIS/articles%20a-z/memory_institutions. htm accessed January 2007. Hooper-Greenhill, E. Museums And The Shaping Of Knowledge. London and New York : Routledge, 1995. Hrvatska u 21. stoljeću : informacijska i komunikacijska tehnologija / Croatia In The 21st Century : Information And Communication Technology. (2001) www.hrvatska21. hr/ict%2018_7_2001.pdf accessed January 2007. Križaj, L.; Seiter-Šverko, D. Digitalization of cultural heritage in the Republic of Croatia : from the current situation assessment towards the national strategy, 2005. www.min-kulture.hr/bastina/skupovi_manifestacije/dokumenti/Digitization%20of% 20Cultural%20Heritage%20in%20the%20Republic%20of%20Croatia.doc accessed January 2007. Martin, R. S. Cooperation And Change : Archives, Libraries And Museums In The United States. / World Library and Information Congress : 69th IFLA General Conference and Counil, 1–9 August 2003, Berlin www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/066eMartin.pdf accessed January 2007. Maroević, I. Baštinom u svijet. Petrinja : Matica Hrvatska Ogranak Petrinja, 2004. Prijedlog nacionalnog programa digitalizacije arhivske, knjižnične i muzejske građe = Draft of the national programme of digitization of archival, library and museum material, 2005 http://daz.hr/bastina/uvod.htm accessed January 2007. Rayward, W. B. Libraries, Museums And Archives In The Digital Future: The Blurring Of Institutional Boundaries. // 2nd National Preservation Office Conference: Multimedia Preservation – Capturing the Rainbow, in Brisbane, 28-30 November 1995 www.nla.gov.au/3/npo/conf/npo95wr.html accessed January 2007. Ross, S., Economou, M. (b). Information and Communications Technology in the Cultural Sector : The Need for National Strategies. // D-Lib Magazine, June 1998 www.dlib.org/dlib/june98/06ross.html accessed January 2007. Stipcevic, A. Povijest knjige. Zagreb : Nakladni zavod Matice hrvatske, 1985. Sola, T. Eseji o muzejima i njihovoj teoriji : prema kibernetičkom muzeju. Zagreb:

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Hrvatski nacionalni komitet ICOM, 2003. (Essays On Museums And Their Theory : Towards Cybermuseum). Willer, M. Archives, Libraries, Museums – Possibilities for Co-operation Within the Environment of the Global Information Infrastructure 1. (1997) http://public.carnet. hr/akm/english/index.html accessed January 2007.

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LOCAL HISTORY WORLD WIDE: AN INTERNATIONAL INTERNET INVENTORY Ragnhild Hutchison Research assistant The Norwegian Institute of Local History, Norway Abstract The Norwegian Institute of Local History is making an internet presentation of local history as it is practised around the world. We have called the project ‘Local History World Wide: An International Internet Inventory’ (LHWW)1. LHWW wants to raise awareness about the international perspectives of local history and establish a network for co-operation and for the exchange of knowledge between those who are active and interested in local history issues. The paper argues about why local history should have an international perspective, focusing on historical explanations as well as on changes in modern society. LHWW is actively seeking co-operation with local history communities around the world in order to collect information and presentations. World Wide Local History: local history with an international perspective? The Norwegian Institute of Local History is making an internet presentation of local history as it is practised around the world. We have called the project ‘Local History World Wide: An International Internet Inventory’ (LHWW). LHWW wants to raise awareness about the many international perspectives of local history and to establish a network for the co-operation and exchange of knowledge and ideas between those who are active and interested in local history issues. That local history should take a more international perspective is perhaps, to some, a bit surprising. However, this paper will argue that an international perspective in local history is a matter of course and should be an integrated part of all local history studies. This is because international impulses have influenced choices and actions in local communities around the world at all times. It is also because international perspectives on local history, as well as comparisons, can give us new insights and explanations. Further more, an international perspective in local history studies is a way of adapting local history to some of the challenges of present-day internationalisation and globalisation.

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Is there such a thing as an isolated community? All communities, however small, have been influenced by others, even those far away. Trade, work, war and death as well as culture are some of the ways in which this occurred. Trade has always been an important form of contact, both trade with the neighbouring village, and trade with distant places. There has been trade in dried fish between the Iberian peninsula since the 14th century; peddlers have always traded home produce across borders, and since the Middle Ages merchants have travelled international trading routes such as the Silk Road or the maritime trading systems in South-East Asia. Traders exchanged regional specialities and staple goods between, not only states and regions, but also villages. Exotic products, such as metals, silk and spices, as well as new technologies like paper making was spread through towns and communities.2 Many local communities were influenced by work migration to foreign countries. Large number of emigrants from Europe and Asia migrated to the US. This not only had national consequences, but also impacted on both the donor and recipient communities. One example is the remittances which the emigrants sent home. These were often of great economic importance for the home communities. Also, local communities have experienced the benefits of immigration, both from neighbouring villages and other places in the country, as well as immigration from abroad. Another example is the impact of those travelling as part of their work. Sailors were one such group. In the 17th century they brought back new products, such as tea, which had serendipitous effects for local communities. Tea was heavily taxed in Britain until 1784, thus it was profitable to smuggle it into the country through the coves along the coasts of Kent, Sussex and the Western country. Locals collected the tea chests, and before the tea was passed on inland through the smugglers trading systems, they would take a small sample for themselves. Tea was thus spread through the British population not only from the top down, but also from the bottom up, or more accurately, from poor wives and criminals in the local communities along the coast.3 International wars or wars with other countries have also had an impact on local communities. Villages could be in the path of military activity, as happened along the Franco-German border in World War I. The consequences for the afflicted 2

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Aschehoug og Gyldendals Store Norske Leksikon, Oslo, 1989.; Ahlberger, C.: Konsumpsjonsrevolusjonen. Om det moderna konsumsjonssamhällets framväxt 1750-1900, Humanistiske fakulteten, Göteborgs universitet, 1996; Millquist, F: ‘Torps handelsmän och industrigrundare del II’, in: Från Boråa och de sju häraderna, 1987, nr 40, Kulturhistoriska Förening, Sweden; Dahl, S.: ‘Travelling Pedlars in Nineteenth Century Sweden’, in SEHR, vol VIII, nr. 1, 1960; Ashita, T: From the Ryukyu to the Hong Kong Networks, in: Sogner, S: Making Sense of Global History, Universitetsforlaget 2001. Wallvin, J. Fruits of Empire, exotic Produce and British Taste, 1660-1800. MacMillan Press, London 1997.

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communities were grave and far-reaching. Sons returning from service abroad also impacted their home communities, bringing with them ideas and experiences from the outside world. Disease could also be an international event with great local consequences. The Black Plague is one example. It knew no borders and did not discriminate on the size of the community. The results were devastating, at times leaving whole villages empty. Culture in local communities has not been isolated, either. Ideas from abroad have been transferred through books and letters, as well as through the education of the priests and doctors. An example to consider is clothes and fashions. Fabrics such as woollens from Flanders4 have been traded across borders, influencing fashions in the local communities as well as stimulating technical improvements in home production in order to compete or substitute. Fashions in Paris were spread to other cities, as well as to the European periphery. Some were just fads, but others became incorporated in the local dress customs. A second example is the spread of cotton from Asia and America in the 19th century; cotton was lighter and easier to wash than wool and linen, and thus it influenced not only local fashion, but also improved hygiene.5 Music has also influenced local communities. Elvis and rock had a great impact on the lives of many young people in small communities all over the world. A final example is languages and dialects. There are many similarities and shared words between languages in regions which have had much contact.6 Pidgin languages have also developed in order to facilitate trade and contact in some regions. The ‘Pomor’ language which evolved in the Barents region is one such example.7 Even though local societies have been influenced by international happenings and phenomenon, they have been expressed in a variety of ways reflecting the local communities they affect. Thomas Hylland Eriksen uses the Winter Olympics as an example of this. The Olympics is a global institution, but depending on which community one is in, one experiences it differently.8 Another example is the idea of democracy, which is practised very differently around the world.

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de Vries, J. og A. Van der Wooude. The First Modern Economy, Success, Failure and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815, Cambridge, 1997, p.279-90. Hutchison, R. Enigheten- tekstilfabrikken i Østerdalen, Fabrikkdrift og teknologioverføring i det norske bondesamfunn på slutten av 1700- tallet, Hovedoppgave i historie, UiO, 2003. van Voss, L. Heerma. North Sea Culture, 1500-1800, in: The North Sea and Culture (1500-1800), 1996, p.25. Broch, I. and E. H. Jahr. Russenorsk- et pidginspråk i Norge, Novus, Trømsø, 1981; Broch, I.: ‘Davai po skip kom, brat! Russenorsk- kontaktspråket mellom nordmenn og russere i nord’, in: Büchten, D., T. Dzjakson, J.P. Nielsen (red). Norge- Russland. Naboer gjennom 1000 år, Scandinavian Academic Press, 2004, p.94-95; Schrader, T.: ‘Pomorhandelen’, in: ibid., p.92-93. Eriksen, T. H. Small places, large issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, Pluto Press, London, 1995, p.285.

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Global trends pushed and pulled Demand and supply, as well as trends and changes in society have always influenced local communities in some way or another. These factors both pulled and pushed, steadily increasing and strengthening the ties, and sometimes the mutual dependence between global trends and local communities. Warfare, as well as increased trade within Europe and with distant continents had serendipitous effects even in the farthest places. One example was the increased demand for ships due to the growth in European trade, as well as in international exploration and colonization. This led to increased demand for metals, which again not only led to growth in iron works in, for example, Sweden, but also to the migration of many Swedish peasants to previously sparsely populated areas in order to take part in supplying fire wood for the iron works.9 Another example is the Spanish and Portuguese, who in the 14th and 15th centuries financed their expansion through the exploitation of metals and other natural resources from South America. This impacted on local native-American communities. Many died due to foreign diseases brought from Europe, whilst others were used as slave labour to reap the land’s riches. In the end, this had had catastrophic effects for the local native-American communities.10 The Opium War in China is a third example of how global trends pushed local communities to take part in global trends. Europe’s demand for Chinese goods led to a ruthless strategy of supplying opium to the Chinese people in the early 19th century. The growth in opium addiction weakened decision making structures, as well as the traditions of the local Chinese communities, thereby removing some of the major barriers for the European traders. Thus in many ways, Chinese local communities were forced to interact with the rest of the world.11 Global trends and events have also pulled peasants and local communities into participating in the gradually developing world market. In the 18th century, demand for timber led to new opportunities for income for peasants in peripheral, but forested, parts of Europe, such as Russia. Timber was cut down in e.g., Arhcangelsk and Karelia, and transported to Amsterdam and other large European cities, where it was used to build ships going to Asia or Africa. The wages, which the lumberjacks and all others involved in the trade earned, made it possible for them to partake in a growing consumer market.12 9

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Söderberg, J. ‘A Long-Term Perspective on Regional Economic Development in Sweden, c.a. 15501914’, in: SEHR, vol XXXII, nr. 1, 1884, p.9-16. Diamond, G. Guns, Germs and Steel, a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years, Vintage, London, 1998. Nordborg. L-A. ‘Det sterke Europa 1815-1870’, in Helle, K., J. Simensen, S. Tägil, K. Tønnesson (red). bind 11, Aschehougs Verdenshistorie, Aschehoug, Oslo, 1986, p. 101-102. Palmer, R.R., J. Colton. A History of the Modern World, Mc Graw-Hill, USA, 1995, p.261; Peresadilo, R. ‘Særtrekk ved Pomorhandelen i Nord-Norge 1814-1917’, in: Büchten, D., T. Dzjakson, J.P. Nielsen (red). Norge-Russland. Naboer gjennom 1000 år, Scandinavian Academic Press, 2004.

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This new income could be spent on the new products from Asia and America, such as cotton, porcelain, sugar, tobacco, potatoes, coffee and tea. Today we take these products for granted – however, their impact on local communities should not be underestimated. Sugar and potatoes had great effects on local diets, dishes, dental health and nutrition. Tobacco also had impacts on the local communities, both by becoming a new source of income for those who grew and traded it, but especially by creating addicts. Coffee, tea and sugar also create their own demand. The new products became important parts of many social rituals and gatherings in local communities. Can you even imagine a family gathering without coffee and cake? Or a local pub without smokers (either they have to stand outside like in Norway and Ireland, or are permitted to smoke inside as in Denmark and Russia)? The need for new incomes, as well as the wish to consume, can lead to a reorganisation of household resources. In the 18th and 19th centuries this took the form of increased efficiency and work. In Europe, increased efficiency occurred as technological improvements, such as the increased mechanization of agriculture, which had far reaching effects on rural society. Increased work could take form as a reorganisation of work through specialization. Many farmers in Slesswig-Holstein did this when they chose to focus on meat production. Many also began utilizing formerly unemployed labour resources, such as children and old people. Further more, time spent working increased in 16th century because the protestant reformation removed a number of holidays. Increased efficiency could lead to an economic surplus in the household, which was spent on necessary staple goods, but also on consumer goods such as ribbons or tobacco. However, specialization also leads to less time for the household to be self sufficient, thereby increasing the demand for pre-fabricated goods. Together the drive to consume and produce fed into and onto themselves. For the local community and the individual household this meant that people spent more time working, but also that more products were available on the market, making it possible to specialize.13 Local techniques and products became important in order to have a competitive edge, such as Meckelburgian wool in the early modern period, and Parma ham or Champagne today. Comparisons teach us more about ourselves No matter where or when they have lived, people have always occupied themselves with obtaining food, shelter and material things in order to sustain and improve their standard of living. Comparisons of how these common challenges have been met in 13

de Vries, J. og A. Van der Wooude. The First Modern Economy, Success, Failure and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815, Cambridge, 1997.

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different local communities may explain why they have evolved so differently or so similarly. Global historians usually restrict their studies to materialistic approaches, because of a danger of generalisation due to the aggregated levels of their studies.14 Local historians, on the other hand, being closer to the details, can more easily choose social and cultural approaches in cross border studies. By comparing and contrasting societies at a local level, details become clearer. Thus comparisons at a local level make the unique and the general in our local communities more visible. Furthermore, comparisons at a local history level are often also easier to make for an individual attempting to understand another society. Burial traditions or the impact of electricity in a local community are easier to comprehend than national comparisons dealing with figures such as a country’s gross domestic production (GDP) or inter-governmental issues such as diplomatic negotiations and tactics, both of which are examples of issues which most people find distant from their own, everyday lives. It is, however, important to note that comparisons should be made on equal grounds. One community should not be held as the norm or ideal, as this will only lead to a biased narrative. Instead one should view ‘both sides of the comparison as ‘deviations’ when seen through the expectations of the other.’15 For the more ‘professional’ historian, international comparisons of local communities can be used to test explanations and theories.16 To test explanations, we can go one step further than the simple comparisons, and find ‘other positive explanatory factors for the phenomenon’. Kjeldstadli identifies two ways in which this can be done. One, ‘maximum similarity’, is to find cases which are similar in all but one factor. The latter then becomes the explanatory factor. The other, ‘maximal difference’, is when the chosen cases only have one similar, deciding factor. An example can be, comparing the impact of the first medical doctor in an Italian and a Kenyan village. International local history studies can also be used to test theories. By comparing different objects and factors in parallel local history examples, we can demonstrate a theory’s explanatory power. Based on numerous local history studies we may also be able to aggregate trends and sometimes create new theories. An international perspective, a modern narrative Today globalisation is tying local communities across the world closer together through such things as the Internet, travel and common culture, especially youth cul14

15

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O’Brian, P. ‘The Status and Future of Universal History’, in: Sogner, S. Making Sense of Global History, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2001, p.28. Pomeranz, K. The Great Divergence, China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2000, p.8. Kjeldstadli, K. ‘Komparasjon og byhistorie’, in Heimen 1:92, s.27.

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ture, such as film and music. Local communities and frameworks are changing due to these global trends, and local historians are needed to place these changes and implications in a historical context and perspective. Local history with an international or global approach can thus be said to be a modern and contemporary way of teaching and studying history. Furthermore, young people today have the global culture as an integrated part of their lives and identity. Many have travelled to distant places and cultures, and most are curious about ‘other’ places. The evening news often tells more about what is happening abroad, than about what takes place at home. In the words of the economic and global historian, Patrick O’Brian, young people are therefore less ‘tempted to feed on diets of national, let alone parochial histories’.17 Therefore, drawing international parallels in local history and placing local communities in an international context will be a narrative more suited to how today’s young people perceive the world. Local history; the most practical level for international history studies? The contact between local communities has changed over time. In the past, contact often occurred at a personal level, e.g., between individual traders. Today, contacts are increasingly institutionalised. Villages and towns have foreign ‘friendship communities’, and regions have entered into strategic alliances in order to forward themselves in global, political and economic life. An example of this is the North Sea area alliance, consisting of the regions of Jæren in Norway, Northern Scotland and parts of the Netherlands. The Benelux countries are another example. The relationships are maintained by institutionalised networks, both on the local community level, and on more aggregated levels, such as the European Union’s support of European regions. Local communities have always been exposed to international influences in some degree or other; therefore an international perspective should be an integrated part of local history studies. It is to facilitate an international perspective and consciousness in local history issues that we have established LHWW. Our aim is to make LHWW a resource and network for people involved in local history activities, local history research organizations, and genealogy and cultural heritage projects, as well as libraries. LHWW will be a doorway for those who wish to explore and include international perspectives in this work. The country introductions make it possible not only to learn more about local history in other places, but also to make contact with local historians and organizations 17

O’Brian,P. ‘The status and Future of Universal history’, in: Sogner, S. Making Sense of Global History, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2001, s.23.

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outside one’s own country and to inspire discussions about differences and similarities. Thus, LHWW makes it possible for genealogists to access sources outside their national borders, for local history groups to meet and perhaps publish jointly or cultural heritage groups to exchange best practice experiences. During 2004/2005 the Norwegian Institute of Local History plans to publish presentations of local history in different countries on the ‘Local History World Wide’ pages. Presently we have presentations from Sweden, Norway, Flanders (Belgium), Hungary and the US, and we are expecting content from Russia, Iceland, Ukraine, and the UK. The primary language is English; however, we hope to have the presentations available in other world languages as well. LHWW is actively seeking cooperation with local history communities around the world in order to collect information and presentations. You can find your way around the LHWW site by going to: www.localhistory.no/ Bibliography Ahlberger, C. Konsumpsjonsrevolusjonen. Om det moderna konsumsjonssamhällets framväxt 1750–1900, Humanistiske fakulteten, Göteborgs universitet, 1996. Aschehoug og Gyldendals Store Norske Leksikon, Oslo, 1989. Ashita, T. From the Ryukyu to the Hong Kong Networks in: Sogner, S: Making Sense of Global History, Universitetsforlaget, 2001. Broch, I. and E. H. Jahr. Russenorsk-et pidginspråk i Norge, Novus, Trømsø, 1981. Broch, I. ‘Davai po skip kom, brat! Russenorsk- kontaktspråket mellom nordmenn og russere i nord’, in Büchten, D., T. Dzjakson, J.P. Nielsen (red). Norge- Russland. Naboer gjennom 1000 år, Scandinavian Academic Press, 2004. Dahl, S. ‘Traveling Pedlars in Nineteenth Century Sweden’ in: SEHR, vol VIII, nr. 1, 1960. de Vries, J. og A. Van der Wooude. The First Modern Economy, Success, Failure and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 Cambridge, 1997. Diamond, G. Guns, Germs and Steel, a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years. Vintage, London, 1998. Eriksen, T. H. Small places, large issues. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. Pluto Press, London, 1995. 272

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Hutchison, R. Enigheten- tekstilfabrikken i Østerdalen, Fabrikkdrift og teknologioverføring i det norske bondesamfunn på slutten av 1700– tallet, Hovedoppgave i historie, UiO, 2003. Kjeldstadli, K. ‘Komparasjon og byhistorie’, in: Heimen, nr.1:92. Millquist, F. ‘Torps handelsmän och industrigrundare del II’, in: Från Boråa och de sju häraderna, 1987, nr 40. Kulturhistoriska Förening, Sweden. Nordborg. L-A. ‘Det sterke Europa 1815–1870’, in: Helle, K., J. Simensen, S. Tägil, K. Tønnesson (red). bind 11, Aschehougs Verdenshistorie, Aschehoug, Oslo, 1986. O’Brian,P. ‘The status and future of universal history’, in: Sogner, S. Making Sense of Global History. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, 2001. Palmer, R.R., J. Colton. A History of the Modern World. McGraw-Hill, USA, 1995. Peresadilo, R. ‘Særtrekk ved Pomorhandelen I Nord-Norge 1814–1917’, in: Büchten, D., T. Dzjakson, J.P. Nielsen (red). Norge- Russland. Naboer gjennom 1000 år. Scandinavian Academic Press, 2004. Pomeranz, K. The Great Divergence, China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2000. Schrader, T. ‘Pomorhandelen’, in: ibid. Büchten, D., T. Dzjakson, J.P. Nielsen (red). Norge-Russland. Naboer gjennom 1000 år. Scandinavian Academic Press, 2004. Sogner, S. Making Sense of Global History. Universitetsforlaget, 2001. Söderberg, J. ‘A Long-Term Perspective on Regional Economic Development in Sweden, c.a. 1550–1914’, in: SEHR, vol XXXII, nr.1, 1884. Thue, L. ‘Hvorfor ble Norge et rikt land? Lokal kooperasjoner og økonomisk vekst’, in: Marthinsen, L. Gå til kommunearkivet med lokalhistoriske problemstillinger. NLI, Oslo, 1990. van Voss, L. Heerma. ‘North Sea Culture, 1500–1800’, in The North Sea and Culture (1500–1800), 1996. Wallvin, J. Fruits of Empire, exotic Produce and British Taste, 1660–1800. MacMillan Press, London, 1997.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS Paul Armony Born in Uruguay, but, at 11 years old, moved to Argentina. Here he graduated as a Civil Engineer. For 37 years, Paul Armony was professor of Mathematics at the National Technological University of Argentina. After retiring, in 1996 he founded and is the President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Argentina, which collects and works for the preservation of the Jewish Community in Argentina. The Society compiles many databases, principally of Argentinian Cemeteries. Paul has been the editor of the journal, Toldot for the last ten years. He has also written many articles and given many lectures on the subject of Genealogy.

Margareta Bovin Born in 1943. She is a librarian, and has worked in the reference library and the bookshop at the Swedish Archives Information since 1991.

Patrick Cadell Was Keeper of the Records of Scotland, Scottish Record Office (now National Archives of Scotland) 1991–2000. Previously he worked in the manuscripts departments of the British Museum (1966–68) and the National Library of Scotland (1968–90), where he was appointed Keeper of Manuscripts in 1983. He has contributed to many historical publications, including 'A sense of place: studies in Scottish local history' (1988). Awarded CBE in 2001.

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Sanjica Tanackovic Faletar Teaching/Research Assistant at the Library and Information Sciences Department, Faculty of Philosophy, J.J. Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia. Sanjica Faletar is President of the Croatian Reading Association 2006–2008 and has acted as a deputy Country Co-ordinator for Croatia in the EU IST FP6 co-ordination action CALIMERA 2003–2005. She was given a Ljerka Markic-Cucukovic Foundation Award in 2000 for the Best Librarianship Student, and in 2006 she won the Eva Verona Award, given by the Croatian Library Association to the best young library professionals in Croatia. Her research interests include: the collaboration of memory institutions, library services for socially excluded people, and volunteers in memory institutions.

Rhidian Griffiths He joined the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth in 1980 and occupied several different posts before becoming Keeper of Printed Books in 1993. Following reorganisation in 2002, he became Director of Public Services, and acquired responsibility for a wide range of Library services including Reader Services, marketing, education and exhibitions and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales. He was trained as a historian, and enjoys family history, but is also interested in the history of music in Wales.

Ruth Hedegaard As a librarian, Ruth has worked at the Historical Archives at Vendsyssel Historical Museum, Hjoerring, Denmark since 1983. She is presently Head of the Historical Archives and the reading room of the Museum and Archives, and is responsible for the registration of photos and printed matters. She has a great interest in collaboration between archives, libraries and museums and has presented papers 276

Biographies of authors

on the issues at several international conferences. She has also published papers and articles on the subject. She was an original member of the IFLA discussion group on Genealogy and Local History, and she has been a member and the secretary of the IFLA Genealogy and Local History section since its inauguration in 2003.

Ragnhild Hutchison At the time she presented this paper, Ragnhild was working as a research assistant at the Norwegian Institute of Local History. She is presently a PhD researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, investigating economic history in the early modern period.

Peter Korsgaard Born in 1951, Peter gained an MA in History and Social Anthropology in 1978. He has worked at several Danish museums and archives. From 1982–94 he was Head Archivist at Holbaek Local (and later Town) Archives 1982–94, in 1994 he became Head Archivist at the National Survey and Cadastre of Denmark. Peter is a member of several historical and archival associations, and is presently on the board of the Rural History Society. He has written several articles and books, mostly about rural and urban history. In 2006 he wrote the introduction book to Danish maps: ‘Kort som kilde’ (Maps as a Historical Source).

George MacKenzie Keeper of the Records of Scotland (Chief Executive of the National Archives of Scotland) since January 2001. The National Archives of Scotland is a world leader in digitising original archive material for internet access, and is working with the General Register Office for Scotland to create the Scotlands People centre for family history in Edinburgh. 277

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He is a member of the Programme Commission of the International Council on Archives, with responsibility for co-ordinating worldwide projects on electronic records and archive automation. He has carried out consultancy work for UNESCO, and the World Bank, specialising in archive preservation and electronic networking.

Liz McGettigan Has a track record in Information Science, content management and knowledge sharing. Based in Scotland, she now heads up East Renfrewshire’s Library and Information Services. She manages a Charter Mark multidisciplinary service including the corporate and community web portal, on-line service development, public information services, libraries, heritage and learning services. She is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland, a member of the Society of IT Managers and a member of the Scottish e-Content team. She has held key roles with the Scottish Executive Standards Advisory Group, as Head of The Scottish Library and Information Services boards, and as Scottish Representative to Society of Public Information Networks.

Robert Sidney Martin Distinguished Professor of Library Science in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University in the United States. His previous positions include Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Director and Librarian of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and Associate Dean of Libraries for Special Collections at Louisiana State University. He currently serves on the National Council on the Humanities, on the US National Commission on UNESCO, and on the Executive Board of the Urban Libraries Council. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles. 278

Biographies of authors

Elizabeth Anne Melrose With an MA in History, and University Diplomas in both Librarianship and Regional and Local History, Elizabeth has managed reference and Local Studies services, latterly for North Yorkshire Libraries in the UK. While Chairman of the national Local Studies Group of CILIP she made links between the UK Group and local studies librarians on the continent, most notably in Hungary where she was awarded the MKE medal for her contribution to Anglo-Hungarian librarianship. She was national chairman of the NEWSPLAN newspaper microfilming project, and she represents the Local Studies Group on CILIP Council. She is on the committee of the Genealogy and Local History section of IFLA and is editing the Section Newsletter. She has been a speaker at international and national conferences; has contributed to collections of essays on local studies librarianship; and has written articles for journals and other local history publications.

Micheal O'hAodha Serves as an Informatics/Electronics Librarian at the University of Limerick, Ireland. His PhD and subsequent book ‘Irish Travellers: Representations and Realities’ (2007) was on the history and culture of the Irish Travellers, a small and traditionally nomadic minority who have migrated across Ireland for many centuries.

Anita K. Oser Before she retired, Anita K. Oser was the map librarian at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North Carolina, USA for 32 years. She has a degree in Spanish. In addition to her responsibilities as a map librarian, she also taught courses in Map Interpretation, Cartography, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at Western Carolina University. Her professional activities include the publication of several articles and presentations at national library conferences. She is among others a mem279

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ber, the American Library Association, the Western Association of Map Librarians, the Association of American Geographers, and numerous other professional organisations.

Ugo A. Perego Director of Operations and Study Research Coordinator for the non-profit Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ugo is also working on a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Pavia in Italy. With the Foundation, Ugo has supervised the collection of nearly than 75,000 DNA samples and corresponding genealogical records worldwide. In addition, he has given more than 100 lectures and published several articles to promote interest in the new field of genetic genealogy.

Alan Poulter Formerly a Cataloguer at the Bibliographic Services Division of the British Library and Deputy Systems Manager at the Science Museum Library, Alan is currently a lecturer at the Department of Computer and Information Studies at Strathclyde University, Scotland. He has taught librarianship at other library schools in the UK and overseas. He is Secretary of the Library and Information Research Group and on the CILIPS Council. His research interests focus on ICT applications in libraries.

Bozena Rasmussen Born in Poland but has lived in Norway since 1972. Head of Gjerdrum Public Library since 1999. Bozena has worked for many years as a consultant and co-ordinator for development projects connecting Norway and Poland, such as economics training for SMEs (small and mediumsized enterprises) in Poland (Vestlands-forsking), cultural cooperation, training in banking and finance subjects (the Institute for Computer-aided Management, Stockholm 280

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University). Bozena has also worked as a librarian at the Nursing College in Førde, at the Handicap Aid Center in Sogn and Fjordane and at the Norwegian Library for the Blind.

Judith Prowse Roach For three decades Judith Prowse Roach worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, USA as the Library’s British Isles and Irish genealogy reference specialist and Recommending Officer. For the last ten years she headed the Local History and Genealogy Reading Room, before retiring at the end of April 2007. She was a frequent presenter at national and international conferences and published widely on genealogical librarianship. Among her publications are Genealogical Research in England’s Public Record Office: A Guide for North Americans (2000), co-authored with Simon Fowler, and Family Ties in England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland: Sources for Genealogical Research (1998). For many years she served as the genealogical book reviewer for Library Journal.

George R. Ryskamp Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University in the United States. George is currently is the director of two projects relating to emigration, the Immigrant Ancestors Project and the Basque Family Heritage in the USA Project. As an Accredited Genealogist, he specialises in Spanish language research and United States probate and legal systems. He is the author of numerous books and articles, former co-editor of the Genealogical Journal and a regular lecturer at national and international conferences.

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Janet Tomkins Janet has been the genealogy librarian in the Fine Arts and History division at the Vancouver Public Library since 2002. Previously, she spent two years as a volunteer librarian at the National University of Lesotho in Africa, and worked for a number of years as a children's librarian. As genealogy librarian, she offers genealogy programs for the public and leads professional workshops for the British Columbia Library Association. She also produces a popular ‘Genealogical Resources Newsletter’ and has written articles for genealogy magazines. In addition, she teaches a course on Genealogy for Librarians at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. Special projects have included creating a website on ‘ChineseCanadian Genealogy’.

Belarmina Benítez de Vendrell Argentinian specialist in library and documentation. Belarmina is licensed and is completing her doctorate in Documentation and Scientific Information at the University of Granada in Spain. She is the author of books and articles specialising in Information Science.

Gu Yan Librarian, researcher of genealogy in the Ancient Documents Center, Shanghai Library. Gu Yan has studied Chinese Genealogy since 1998. She is one of the main editors of the ‘General Catalogue of Chinese Genealogy’ (soon to be published) and the ‘Summary Catalogue of Genealogy of Shanghai Library’ (2000).

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Stephen C. Young Born and raised in London, Ontario, Canada, Stephen now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He earned a Bachelors degree at Brigham Young University in Family and Local History in 1985, and a Masters degree in American History (emphasis in Public History) at Bowling Green State University in 1990. An employee of the Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1988, Stephen has enjoyed several assignments during this time in the Family History Library administration, especially a special four year appointment (1992–1996) in England supervising the British 1881 Census Project.

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APPENDIX GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY SECTION STRATEGIC PLAN 2007–2008 Mission Our mission is to be a voice for genealogy and local history librarians in the international information community, to facilitate networking among subject specialists and libraries, archives, museums, and related societies and institutions, and to encourage the development of genealogy and local history collections and user services. Goals GOAL 1: Be a voice for genealogy and local history librarians in the international information community. (Professional Priority: supporting the role of libraries in society. Pillars: society, profession.) Actions 1.1 Organize open session programmes on genealogy and local history topics and, where appropriate, do so in collaboration with relevant IFLA sections to reflect the relevance of these topics across the information community. 1.2 Develop and promote a unified response to major developments in the international information community, where they impact on genealogy and local history library services. GOAL 2: Facilitate and promote global networking among genealogy and local history professionals and between libraries, archives, and museums serving genealogists and family and local historians. (Professional Priority: developing library professionals, supporting the infrastructure of library associations. Pillars: profession, members. Partnerships: libraries, archives, and museums.)

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Actions 2.1 Promote and increase active participation in the GENLOC listserv by making it a useful source of ideas and information for genealogy and local history librarians. 2.2 Improve content of the semi-annual issues of the Section newsletter by attracting articles from a broader range of contributors. 2.3 Promote Section membership by contributing articles to key genealogy and family and local history journals and speaking to interested user and professional groups. 2.4 Create an information packet and develop a strategy to promote the formation of genealogy and local history sections in national library associations. 2.5 Promote cooperation between libraries, archives, and museums by developing relationships and joint projects with relevant international organizations. GOAL 3: Support and promote improved traditional and electronic genealogy and local history reference services. (Professional Priority: promoting resource sharing, developing library professionals, promoting standards, guidelines, and best practices. Pillars: society, profession.) Actions 3.1 Survey national libraries for genealogy and local history services. 3.2 Collect guidelines for genealogy and family and local history collections and services via GENLOC and professional contacts. 3.3 Share information about genealogy and family and local history resources and best practices through IFLA conferences, the Section newsletter, the GENLOC listserv, links on the GENLOC home page, and joint programs with archives and museums. GOAL 4: Proactively address data privacy and information access concerns that affect genealogy and local history collections and services. (Professional Priority: supporting the role of libraries in society, defending principles of freedom of information. Pillars: society.)

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Actions 4.1 Use the GENLOC listserv to identify and share information about data privacy issues and legislation and other issues affecting access to information. 4.2 Work with FAIFE to develop a code of ethics or guidelines for responsibly providing access to genealogy and local history indices and source documents on the Web. 4.3 Establish communications with international and national archives, library, and museum associations to encourage working with the proponents of data privacy in developing legislation that addresses their concerns while preserving access to information for legitimate genealogical and local historical purposes. 2 July 2007

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