On the cloud. Alright, alright! Thank you for joining us today, for our new Monthly series.
Not. Everything is on line. Consult your local archives, classes being provided by the Iowa genealogical Society.
Just a few reminders as we get started in the lower left corner of your zoom screen.
There's a microphone and video icons and clicking on those will turn them on and off.
Please mute your microphones during the class. If you have a question during the presentation, either write it down or put it in chat, and Kelsey will take all questions at the end.
Close captioning is available, and you can turn, move that around.
However, you want to, with controls within the zoom app.
Let me, introduce Kelsey. Kelsey.
Berry Hill is the reference librarian at the State Historical Society of Iowa's Library and Archive Research Center in Des Moines, where she has worked since August of 2021.
Prior to this she was a reference archivist at the Missouri State Archives Kelsey has a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Southern University, Southern Illinois University, a masters in Library, and Information Science from the University, of Illinois Urban Urbana
Champagne and is a certified archivist.
So with that, let's welcome, Kelsey, for our presentation today.
Hi! Everyone as Sherry said. My name is Kelsey.
We'll be talking today about different resources that are available within the State Historical Society Library and archives that you can use for your genealogical research, but most of which are not going to be available online.
Since I know that's the theme for your programming this year.
So we're going to talk a little bit about each of our sections within our bureau. And then I have a few examples of each of those types that could potentially be used for your genealogy and family history research. So
Maybe if we'll go forward
So if you click on the presentation, and then the arrows should work arrow or
There it goes. Okay, it just wasn't going. So so who we are, just a little bit about us.
The State Historical Society of Iowa Library, and Archives.
We exist to identify, record, collect, preserve, and provide access to resources on Iowa history.
That is our whole mission. That is what we do. So we are here to serve you as Iowans, or you know, people who are researching Iowans to help with that
We have 3 different bureau's within the library, and archives.
We have the Historical library. Those materials typically include our county records, our newspapers, we have books, periodicals, those sorts of things.
We also have special collections. Those are kind of divided into twofold.
We have manuscripts which consists of personal papers and diaries, business records, church records those sorts of things, and then we also have photographs and audio visual materials as part of our special collection as well in addition to that we also have our state archives so those are going to
be government records. So records created by the various agencies within State government that are then transferred to us to provide access to the public.
Each of these 3 are available through access through the research center, and I'll talk a little bit about more about accessing our facility more towards the end of the presentation.
I also wanna mention that we have 2 facilities. I know that most of Igs is most familiar with our facility in Des Moines, because we are located right across the street.
But we also have a facility in Iowa City which has their own historical library and their own special collections.
They do not have State archives over there, but they all have the library and the special collections, so as we're going through, and I'm showing you links for to explore our catalog.
And you see something that's in Iowa City.
That is another resource that is available to be there. One thing that I also want to know, mention as we kind of go forward, I'm going to be discussing records available in each.
However some of these might not be your typical genealogical materials, with names and dates and list of family members, but might just provide context for how your family members and your ancestors lives their lives, which I think, is equally important kind of as you're building up your family tree you sometimes want more than
names and dates. You also want some contacts. So just keep that in mind as a as I'm discussing some various things.
So now we'll go through each of these 3 boroughs into a little bit more depth, and some more examples
The first up we have our historical library. The Historical Library collects published material relating to Iowa, and this contains books and periodicals.
Our county records on microfilm and our newspapers.
So to first up, we have our books and periodicals.
We have a catalog available online that you can search.
So, if you are planning a visit, and you kind of want to make a game plan, you can search that catalog, get a list of call numbers and kind of explore that way.
These are going to include published family histories. So these are going to be family histories published by geologists much like you, all who have compiled there information.
So there might be something interesting in there. We have a lot of county histories.
So those are going to be different histories of the county.
A lot of them are going to be kind of like your good speeds that are published more around.
Now 1,900. But we have something for every single county.
We also have a lot of city histories and city centennial books in our collection as well.
We have a lot of city directories. These are going to be mostly on microfilm in our collection, and we have a lot for the city of Des Moines.
We also have a lot for a few other cities in Iowa as well, which is particularly helpful because then you can put your ancestor at a particular time.
A particular your plans or particular business. We have a lot of geological newsletters.
Those are going to be kind of through all throughout the State.
Those get sent to us, and then we have also a lot of government reports.
I know that that doesn't really screen genealogy.
When I say, Yeah, you should really look at government reports.
However, they do include a lot of great information. We have, for as just as an example, we have various railroad annual reports, various mining, annual reports.
So, if you have an ancestor who died in a railroad or mining accident, those are going to potentially be listed in there along with a date of death, a place of death and potentially more information on that accident, also, if you had a ancestor who worked in state government at
All, you can once again kind of provide a little bit more contextual information as to what their day-to-day lives might have been. All within these government reports that are available in our historical library
Component of our historical library, which I think a lot of folks who have visited us in the past are familiar with our county records on microfilm.
So on our website, we have a list of what we have by county.
We have records for every single county, all 99 of them in the State of Iowa.
And like, I said, these records are on microphone.
What we have per county is going to vary, so make sure that you look at this list, and then it.
These are also going to include final records and other items that are available online, that I'm not going to really talk about.
But I am going to talk about some other different types of county records that may not be online may not be on ancestry, and are a little bit more oddball which I really recommend to folks to kind of
To explore, so I'll be focusing on probate some land and some other items as well.
I a lot of easy we can access. If your family search affiliate, which I know Igs is. But some of them aren't, and sometimes it's for me, at least, it's easier to look through the microphone
So first up we have probate records appropriate records are really really important.
And we have probate records, I'm pretty sure, for every single county on our microphone list.
These are dealing with an estate after someone has died.
Types of records that it could include in at our facility include wills, record books, inventories, appraisals, bonds, all these sorts of things.
As an example on the screen. Here I have an example of a will, and also a probate record book from Howard County.
These are really important because it does give clues to errors in your family, and potentially other family members.
So not just a direct line of descent, but potentially other, like nieces and nephews, or a random cousin.
And those sorts of things, and I always find particularly wills really fascinating, because it does give information on an individual's day-to-day life.
I was helping a researcher, and their ancestor was a clock maker, so their will had just lists of different types of watches that were given to various members of their family because that was their occupation, and she didn't know that before.
So these give a lot of insight into how folks live their lives because it is dealing with property and what they owned. So you're able to kind of get more contacts just through these documents
Other types of county records that are particularly important, that we have that important genealogists are various types of land records, the ones that is probably the most voluminous is going to be land deeds.
So that's going to be selling from person A to person B.
We also have some homestead records, some real estate transfers and some other land options.
Those you look at the list that we have on our website work.
Come in and look at our indexes, and you can kind of see per county what we have.
But the most common is going to be deeds. So these clues are genealogists could include.
Sometimes you'll see deeds that are sold for a dollar, or they're sold for love and affection that's going to be a real big clue.
That the person they are selling their land to is a son or a daughter, or something like that, because, at least for me, I'm not going to be selling my property for love and affection to just any Jo Schmo off the street, so so just kind of something to keep in mind as you are looking through these
documents, and those sorts of things it and this is also really great, because it provides a place in time, because, you know, sometimes you just can't find folks.
And so deeds. If they are buying property, you can kind of solidify down a place and a time
And then. Now we get into the particularly fun stuff that I think is great.
We have a lot of kind of other things that folks don't typically think about.
This the other records are going to depend largely on the county.
This is just a selection of things I was able to find so definitely look in our indexes.
Other items in the county records on microfilm may include cemetery records, church records, name, change, records.
The teachers or physicians, or dentist or lawyers, registers.
I know that we have some like G. A. R. Records in these county records on Microsoft, the Grand Army of the Republic, who was an essentially alumni Association of Union Veterans, and there are other sorts of things as well like I said, this is just kind of a smattering so on this page
We have in register of teachers from a county, and this gives the name, the age, the post office address.
How long they've taught, where they got their education, and all of that information.
So once again. It's not really when you are thinking of some typical genealogy records, you're, you know, trying to bounce back between parents and child.
But this also gives a place in a time, and it gives more information about an individual's authorization which I find really interesting.
So this is specifically for teachers. I know that we also have physicians registers, and dentist registers and lawyers, registers depending on the county.
So if you have someone who was one of those in one of those professions, you might want to check this out and see if you can find something other types of records that we have include rit widows, pension records.
So this is from the 1,900 twentys for a widow.
Her name is Mrs. Mary Moore, in Adams County, and what is interesting about this is that on this list there is a list of children under the age of 14, with their dates of birth.
So this is all of these children were born from 190.
9 to 1918, I believe is kind of the year range.
There, and even though Ios started vital records in 1880, as I'm sure we all know, there are a lot of holes for a lot of people got missed up until kind of the 1,900 thirtys for birth, and death records so if you're looking for someone this has
a name and a date of birth. On this particular record, which is really great.
If you are one of those people who is missing a birth record for an individual.
So just you never really know what you're gonna find
Or of the other types of records that we have, we have a name, change record from Black Hole County.
I know that we have name changes for a lot of different counties which is particularly helpful.
If you have an ancestor who potentially disappeared, and you think that you have a person.
But the name is wrong, something to check out, because then you can see persons you know, name before, and then what they changed it to.
We also have some funeral home records. These are good.
The funeral Home Records is going to provide much the same information as a death certificate.
But it's just kind of another thing to amp up all that information that you already gathered potentially from the desk certificate.
Or if you can't find a desert certificate, you can find a funeral record, then, that it does supplement that as well, because this one from Medicine County gives the individual's name their address where they died where the funeral was where they are buried, all that good, information and it also
gives some information about, like the price of the casket, the price of the flowers, which isn't necessarily once again, isn't like proving those current to child relationships.
But it's still just interesting to me, at least. And then we also have some soldiers discharged records.
This is from a Dere county after the Civil War, so if you have an individual who was in the Civil War, those might be an option as well.
In our county records. So
Another section within our historical library collection is our newspapers on microfilm.
These, I think, are probably one of the most used. It's not one of the most use it probably is our most use collection that we have at our facility.
We have a list on our website of what we have at our Des Moines facility by county and also by town.
So if you were kind of trying to. If you're looking at a particularly small community or a small county, you can see what towns have newspapers at a given time to kind of game plan that link which I believe is also in the handout that was passed out yesterday, also includes links.
To our partners that we work with for digital newspapers, which I know that this presentation is all about things that aren't online.
But the a lot of the communities do work with us to get newspapers digitized.
But there are a lot of them that are still not online.
So those are particularly for smaller communities or smaller newspapers and things that are still in copyright so as at a few examples, we have just a couple of newspapers from Des Moines here.
So the Iowa bystander, which is, I was African, African, American newspaper.
It's online up until I believe 1,921.
But after, 1,921, it is not available online.
It is only available on microphone. And we have that microphone that you can use.
So it gives an interesting perspective for folks looking at a specific community and kind of what was going on in that community.
And then we also have the Le Town News, which, if you are an ecider of Des Moines, was a very small newspaper that was reporting primarily on what was going on on.
The east side, and that is also not available online. So you can see what was going on.
And go through that
Pivoting a little bit from the historical library collection to to the special collections.
As I said earlier, these are divided into 2 kind of so first off, we're going to talk about manuscripts.
So our manuscript collection might include diaries, letters, bit business records, personal papers, all relating to Iowa hit.
I was history. Some of the heavy hitters include, we have a Civil War manuscript collection which includes a lot of letters and diaries.
You might get lucky and find your particular ancestors, letter or diary.
But more often than not, for that you can find a particular regiment and kind of read what was going on with an individual.
We also have Yonkers, business records which a lot of people find interesting.
We have some William Voyd Allison, who was a Us.
Senator, correspondence, Robert Ray. Personal papers, and those sorts of items, as well.
We have a full listing available on our website that you can kind of browse.
And so, if there are names, or churches, or businesses that really stick out to you, you can always come in or work with one of us to get a finding aid or anything like that, and then many of these collections are available in our online catalog which that link is in your handout with finding aids so you can kind.
Of once again have a game plan for boxes and folders.
So now I'm going to give a couple of examples of collections that we have that are really great for genealogy.
In my opinion.
So first up we have the Iowa Methodist School of Nursing Collection that we have, and so this is, we have a whole series on this for a alumni files.
So if you have an individual who went to the Iowa Method of school, of nursing, it is possible that we have an alumni file for her.
So these are going to be an output order. This is, for I have a Bandfield who is in the class of 1918, and so these are always interesting, because, you know, we have a few different letters.
We have a personal report which gives information as to what schools Iva went to, where she would, is living, and all that kind of good stuff.
So if you have someone who is a nurse, this is a special collection that we have, which is particularly interesting.
Another collections that we have include. Like. I said, some church records.
This is for Calvary, back to church, which the most recent location was located, kind of behind Ids, actually, but that close a while ago.
But we have a lot of scrapbooks for this church.
So this is once again kind of building up your family history whip beyond your vital records.
Person to child, so this could include marriage records or marriage announcements or engagement announcements or funerals, or, as an example, there is this club called The Priscilla Circle of Calvary Baptist Church, and so, if you have an Ancestor who was part of
This club, then you might be able to find a little bit more information.
So these are just particularly interesting. I was a big fan of when I was going through this for this presentation, finding the 1,950 bridal shower games and what they were doing with that, because it's always it's always fun to find some photos with that other collections that I
Know that we have in our collection that are particularly great for genealogists.
We have the L. Fowler Funeral Home Records, which was a funeral home located here in Des Moines that primarily served the African American community.
I know that we have a few day AR chapters. We have a few G.
A. R. Chapter records, and some other sorts of social groups.
So those are things that like definitely peruse that listing that we have online and then making, then you can come on in and look through those and see if there's anything that are related to your family history
So on the other end of special collections is that we have our photographs.
We have a lot of photographs, and they are only a very small percentage is available online.
This is the special collection section of the catalog.
We do have some digital images like I said. However, we also have a lot of finding aids, and then you can kind of explore the images that we do have in house.
I will say we probably will not have an image of your specific ancestor, but we might have images of the community.
They were in of a certain time, in place of certain businesses that they were maybe a part of or nearby so we probably won't have a portrait of your person, but we might have other photographs that we have.
We do have a portrait file of notable Iowans.
So, if here, ancestor was particularly famous, we might, but on the whole we generally do not have portraits of every single island.
So just some examples of those in your. We have a quite a few photo subject files which I find helpful for folks.
So some of these include our city file, our Des Moines subject file, and our general reception file.
So I pulled one of each just so that way you could kind of see what sorts of things are available.
So our city file is just photographs of different cities.
So these are going to be of different times and places. So if you have a certain community that you're looking at, you can, you know, kind of see what this was like.
So this was of Charles City. This is just an image of that.
So if you have someone who is in Charl City, you could kind of see how they were living their lives.
Our general subject file in both our divine subject, file are organized by topic.
So we have a lot of things related to business and industry in both of these subject files.
So this is of a dri good store. I unfortunately did not write it down up to what the town was so sorry about that.
But so if you, these are things that you can kind of peruse by topic, and it might not be your specific ancestor.
But it could be very, very similar, and sometimes I think that that is also helpful same with the deployment sector file image that I have here regarding the railroad.
So it's possible that if your ancestor was working on the railroad that he might be in that photo, but if you know that he was a railroad person, he was railroad man, you might not be in that photo. But you can kind.
Of get the gist of what we're going for here.
So if that all makes sense
So, pivoting a little from special collections to state archives, so state archives are going to be records of State government.
So those are going to be the 3 branches of State government.
So we have executive, judicial, and legislative.
The majority of them are going to be of the executive branch, and all of the various State agencies that that entails.
But we also have some judicial things and some legislative things.
So Bill files, and at those sorts of items, most of what I'm going to be talking about is going to be under the executive branch.
The items in State archives that I think are the most particular interest to genealogists are going to be the adjutant general materials that's going to be military records.
So we have a lot of civil war records within our educational which of our of particularly interest to genealogists, I think we also have a quite a few grand army of the Republic records.
So those like I said, are a little bit earlier are going to be records of Union soldiers, and, like a little bit later in the 18 hundreds who were in a veterans group.
We also have records regarding the Board of Nursing and the Board of Medical Examiners so much like those county records that I was referring to earlier.
If they were a nurse or a doctor we might be able to find their record that, you know they had to file with the State.
We also have, like, as I mentioned, records of the General Assembly.
So if you have an ancestor who was a state Rep or a State Senator, we might be able to have bill files or other sorts of material that you could look at to once again provide some more context and we also have some records of the state fair I know that that is something that is of particular interest a lot.
Of times as I had someone who showed something at the State Fair, and it kind of depends on the year, and something that we have to look into.
But we do have a lot of state fair materials as well.
We have a full listing of record groups on our website.
That is what the screenshot of so you can kind of explore different sorts of things.
As to what we have, and then we also have a lot of boxless and finding aids available in the archive section of the catalog.
I find in particular, that if you are not in the in the government world, sometimes the language arc of archives is a little confusing, so I'm gonna say this a few times in a few slides.
But please reach out if you have any questions about what any of this means.
So.
Just a few examples of things that we do have in our State archives.
These are both military records. So we have, but in our edges, in general record group we have National Guard personnel files.
This is for Neil Baronson in the Thirtys.
I believe, is when he was discharged. So it gives a little bit information about where he was living.
It gives his when he enlisted where he enlisted.
What unit he was in, and then a little bit more information regarding that.
So those are records that we have, and that a lot of folks find of particular interest.
And then we also have, just as an example, something from our Civil War series.
This is for the personal effects and final statement. Inventories.
So this is, for as wind soldiers died, you can check this series to see if there is something there.
So this is for Nehemiah Devore. I could be saying his name incorrectly, but this gives after he d.
Ies it, gives a list of what his possessions were, and basically who got them.
So sometimes there will be money involved. They were sending to their wife or their mother.
This he has a blanket a pair of boots, a cotton shirt, another pair of shoes, and a hat.
So those were his possessions at the time of his death, but which is particularly great, is that this does give a date of death.
And since this is the these are going to be before death.
Records were available in Iowa. So this is definitely a series that you can check out if you have a ancestor that died in the Civil War, and this also gives an enlistment date and some other source of information.
So just as an example, we have a lot more civil war records.
But this is just an example that I thought was particularly interesting
Other State archives records that we have that may be of interest in our Governor's record series.
We have a Criminal correspondence series. So these are regarding folks that were typically incarcerated with the State penitentiaries.
And there could be. It kind of depends on the person on the year.
What is included in these, we do have an index available on our website for the series.
But this could include letters of support letters from the Warden.
Various applications. So here we have an application for requisition, and then this also includes a copy of something from the District Court of the county of Marion.
So you can get other information regarding that I have seen letters from wives and mothers in these as well as it listing.
This man has 5 children, and here are their ages, so he needs to not be incarcerated anymore.
So if you find something, someone who was in the Iv State penitentiary take a look at that index.
We can certainly pull to see if there is a file, and then you can peruse it and see if there's any good genealogical information in there.
The one thing that I know has probably been the question on most people's minds, because if you are aware, we were closed a little bit for Covid, and then we were in a temporary research center, due to construction, we are back upstairs in our permanent space on the second floor of
the State Historical Building, so our current hours are Wednesday to Friday, from 9 to 4 30 we are back open so you can come on in pop in whenever, and go ahead and browse.
We do say we do still have an appointment form available on our website.
We recommend that if you're looking at anything from state archives or special collections to make an appointment, just so that way, we can have it ready for you when you walk in the door, which will give you more time to work with that.
Material. However, that is not required. So one thing I will also mention is that the space will look different from the last time you were up here.
So please do not be alarmed. We did a lot of really great thinking and renovating to the space.
So we have some new microphone readers. That if you want to bring a flash drive when you're looking at those county records or at the city directories or at those newspapers, you can save to a flash drive and then take it with you and so that way, you can make some
Pdfs. And we have a lot more power in the space.
So I know that that was an issue as well of people.
You know, need to charge their laptops or their phones while they're in here, and we also have some exhibit space as well.
So I, yeah, we are back in the second floor, so you can use that.
Grand Avenue door. The door also did shift.
So please, you know. Be aware of that. But we are open Wednesday to Friday, 9 to 4, 30, and you can pop one in whenever you want
I also mentioned another way to access us is through our online calendar.
If you are not able to make a visit, or if you just want a game plan before your visit.
So this is what our catalog page looks like. If you I highly recommend to go into each of the modules that you are looking for and search that way.
So if you know, you're looking for books, click onto the library collection module.
Search that way. If you go to the search, all collections, it searches everything which is great, but if you're looking for something like regarding the State Fair, it can be very, very overwhelming, and it also includes the Museum material.
So this is a screenshot from our website regarding the catalog.
And I highly recommend that you kind of go into each section individually.
When you do your search so that way, it's a little bit more limited. It's not so overwhelming
I'm also sure that all of you that there's some of you in this group that are not of in Des Moines.
And so, if you can't visit in person, that's okay.
We have an email and an online form which is available in your handout that you can submit your questions.
We ask that you be, you know, fairly specific. So that way we can try to help you out.
We can't do searches for any record available, but we can do lookups for specific items or we can give you page counts and copy costs, for if there's a book that you find or a chapter out of a book that you want or a specific file in a state archives collection we can do
That. And we can also do genealogical workups.
So if you are looking for a deed record regarding John Smith in Lin County, in 1,875, that's something that we can do as well, and we do ask that you just try to be as specific as possible.
So that way we can do our best to find you.
The answer that you need. So if you have questions, you can feel free to contact us like I said, we have a reference request form available on our website.
We also have an email. That is history research at Iowa. Gov.
If you go through any of those your request will be routed to the most appropriate staff member, and then will you get an answer?
And then we also have our phone numbers up here for both our Des Moines Research Center and our Iowa City Research Center.
And this photo is just a nice new window that we have.
So we have an I, CEO, of the capital now, but and then I'm sure there are questions from all of you.
So if we wanna go ahead and you can start doing those
No right. Sounds good. So let's take a quick peek at what we've got in chat.
We've got a couple? Anne had asked early in the presentation about.
Yes.
Iowa, Civil War Unit and Company records are kept, and if you want to open up your mic and say, ask, confirm if that's already been answered, or if you wanted to go into more detail
Yes.
Can you hear me? I I was like specifically I don't know what they're called, but like each unit would write up like where they were and what they did.
I mean, I've seen those records, for like World War One and World War Ii. I don't know if they kept those kind of records
Yeah, I know that we have some regimental histories.
That's, I think, that's what I'm looking for.
Yeah, so.
And then we also, yeah, we have some regimental histories.
Okay.
I know that we have some that are published, and some that are on microfiche, and we also have in our State archives some more reports and some other sorts of reports that do similar things that would be something that would have to look up and do a little bit digging just i'm not entirely sure
of the answer right off the top of my head, but I know that we have that sort of information.
Okay.
Yeah, our Civil War section of records are quite voluminous.
So we have correspondence. We have morning reports. We have other sorts of things.
So we would definitely be able to answer your question with the records that we have
Okay. Thanks.
Alright. The next question in chat is from Annette.
She says, do you know, if there are any files pertaining to the Iowa School of the Blind, something like the alumni files you mentioned for this nursing school
That I am not sure of that. I would have to look into and see.
I would have to ask one of our archivists on staff to see if that's something that we have.
I know that for some of the other schools, and for some of the hospitals those are still with department of human services, so I would have to do some looking.
I am not sure off the top of my head. I'm sorry about that.
So for Annette to follow up on that question what would be the best path for her to do that
Would be to shoot us an email or to submit that reference, request, form, and then we can do that.
And I can do some preemptive searching on my end.
If I, since I know that that'll be coming down the pipeline
Okay. Florence has had her hand up for quite a while, so I'm gonna go ahead and, Florence, go ahead and open up your mic and ask your question.
Sometimes it's not easy finding all the right buttons
I understand.
Okay? And while she's coming online, we've had a question about, is there a way that we can get a copy of the Powerpoint because it shows things in context
Sure I can certainly send you the Powerpoint Sherry, and then, if you want to distribute it that works for me.
Yep, and I can share it. Okay? And then there's a question about, is it? Okay?
If we share your hand out with other people.
I don't have a problem with that. Yeah, because it's essentially a handle that we have at our reference desk.
So if you want to pass that along, that is perfectly fine by me.
Okay. And then Florence, still hasn't come online.
So maybe she accidentally clicked her hand, raised hand, but so at this point, we've covered everything that's in the chat.
There will be a copy of that as part of the video file.
So you guys will have that. But go ahead and open up your mic and introduce yourself and ask your question.
If you've got an got one.
I'm not hearing anything this
Oh, goodness! I I was trying to keep in the presentation for because I'm sure there would be lots of questions.
So now now I feel like I could have talked more about things.
Kel Kelsey, I have a question for you.
Yeah.
Do you accept my materials on a genealogical or historical documents that we may have in our personal collection
So I'm going to say that it depends, and if that is something that you are interested in, you can always like, I said, shoot us an email, fill out that form which I know that it's kind of repetitive for me to keep saying that because those decisions are made by other members of our
Okay.
Staff. So most of the books that we have in our collection are have been donated to us, and those includes the family histories.
We typically like, and for the family histories, those are published files.
Okay.
We typically do not take focuses like notes of things. And then for the historical documents, that is the decision of our special collections, archivist, so if you shoot us an email kind of describing what you have, it will get routed to the appropriate staff member and then they will ultimately
Make that decision. But we do have lots of things that are donated to us.
So it kind of depends on what it is. If we have something, it yeah, there's lots of factors and stuff.
Alright. Thank you.
But we do accept donations. So yeah, of course.
We do have a question came up in chat from Reba.
Is the information in the Des Moines center, the same as the Iowa City Center
So it is going to be similar. So we both, as I said, kind of at the top.
We both have historical library collection. We both have special collections.
The special collections in particular are going to be different because the special collections are through manuscript material.
They're one of us. So those are going to be different.
I know that the Iowa city in particular has, like quite a few really voluminous photograph collections.
Paul Jewel. Pathetic, those sorts of things, and they have other sorts of manuscript material.
The historic library material there is more overlap. We have some copies of the same book, some copies of the same newspapers, but they do have volumes that we don't have, and vice versa, and I will say that if you find something at iowa city that you want to look
At but you're located in Des Moines. I can work with Iowa City's reference librarian.
Her name is Hang, and we can courier things back and forth between facilities depending on condition and those sorts of things.
If something is too fragile, then we can't career courier it back and forth.
We typically have someone go to that facility every couple of weeks.
We don't have a set schedule, but if you find something in the catalog that's only available in Iowa City, but you can only really make it to our divine location, reach out, and we can potentially make that work so we have similar items.
But we do have some different items as well. Hopefully that answered your questions.
Linda, you want to go ahead and ask your question.
Yeah, are you aware if the probate records include guardianship records
I believe so. I think I've seen some separate record books, and I've also seen, just like in the Probate record books like mentions of guardianships.
So I'm also not going to guarantee that that's going to be every year. Every county cause I know sometimes counties and years are set up differently, but I know that is something that I have seen, so it's worth it worth a shot.
So got a question from from Anne that says, Does it matter what location you're looking for?
So I think it's partly the online index and the catalog.
Yes.
Does it indicate which collection it's in? Okay.
Hmm.
Yes, yes, so if you look like in the library section of the catalogue as an example at the bottom, there will be a location field, and it will say, You know, Des Moines stacks or Iowa city stacks or something like that, and same with a lot of the
Manuscript material it'll say IC or DM.
State archives is only at Des Moines, but everything else should be indicated which facility it is located.
And if you're confused, always just reach out and just say, Hey, is this you?
Or is this them? And we will answer your call either way, like that is, find that is why we're here.
Stuff.
Okay, great Carol, can you want to ask a question?
Carol. Grant. Oh, yeah.
Yes, thank you. I was having trouble on meeting. We'll be adjutant general Records.
Include information from the For Des Moines? Are we auxiliary core from World war? 2
I know that we I know that we have some information on that.
I think most of what we have is going to be like newsletters from the women's Army Corps in World War Ii.
And I know we have some photographs. I would have to double check, because I know that there's been researchers working with that relatively recently.
But I do. The later we get in time. The less voluminous or urgent general records are.
But I know that we do have some newsletters, some photographs, and some other miscellaneous material.
But it's not as luminous as our Civil War things, unfortunately.
So that would be something that I once again I'd have to look into.
Thank you.
Of course.
Okay. Judy suggests that for those that happen visited before, could you mention information about parking
Sure. So there is a garage on the corner of grand in Pennsylvania.
The entrance to that you can enter on the garage.
I believe, on Grand, but the main entrance is on Des Moines Avenue, actually so, if you park in that parking garage, that parking garage is free, you will cross the street, walk down the hill a little bit.
You will see some ramps and some stairs up to that grand level entrance, and then you can enter through that.
You can also, on seventh, which is technically Pennsylvania.
But it's the street that's right in front of the capital there is some free street parking there as well, and then there is metered parking around the facility, but I highly recommend try to get the free parking if you can.
So, but recommend, at the garage on the corner of Brandon, Pennsylvania.
Great, thank you. And Stephanie asks, are the county land and probate microfilm items?
The same as those found at family search
Yes, they will be
Alright!
And we've now finished up the questions on chat.
I thank everybody for continuing to add them there. Any other questions for Kelsey
We are so excited that you're in your new space.
I'm I am excited as well. So yeah, please, if you are around and want to visit us during our open hours, please do, even if it's just to kind of get the lay of the land and see where things are, cause like I said, it will look good. A little different from what you're
Used to. So if you just want to pop in and see like I said, we have a quite a few cool exhibits and some other displays that might be of interest.
So I highly recommend you. Just kind of pop in. Yeah.
And then, if folks think of questions after the after the lunch and learn is over, you can always like, I said, shoot us an email, do all the online form.
And if it's a question, specifically about the presentation, you can just make sure to address it to me, and I will make sure that it gets routed to me but cause I know sometimes when it's something like this, you think of a question like 20 min later, and then it's oh, no
So. So please please reach out if you think of something a little bit later on.
I mean, all right. The question has popped up about how many microfilm readers do you have
So we have 8 total. Currently, there are 6 of the newer machines that you can save to your items, to a flash drive.
And then there are 2 of the machines that we had previously.
They're not the crank ones, but they are the machines that you can print on.
So there are 2 of the ones that folks are more familiar with at our facilities, and 6 of the new ones so, and if you're scared about using the new microphone readers don't be, they are very similar to the older ones.
And whoever is at the desk will be able to walk you through it.
Super alright any other questions I'm not seeing any other questions.
Just a quick reminder. The recording, the chat, the close captioning, and the the chat and the closed captioning will be available on the website.
Once we get the video process. So look for an email from me. With Kelsey's presentation, we thank you, Kelsey, for all the work you did to put this together and and introduce us again to the Historical Society of Iowa.
Yeah, this was really great. So glad to speak with you all like I said, if you think of more questions, please please reach out, and we will do our best. So
Great. All right. Thanks. Everybody. Have a good rest of your week.
Thanks to everybody.
And we've got some hand clapping going on so
Alright. So you need to stop sharing so that I can.
Okay.
Perfect, excellent.