There we go. And you can move that around or turn them off. You have some control with that.
The recordings will be made available as soon as our volunteer gets some processed and we'll send out an email with that link so that you can get to those.
So let's introduce our speakers today. Alyssa was hired in June of 2022 as the newly created part-time position of the Museum of Danish America's youth and community educator's youth and community educator, which became full-time youth and community educator, which became full-time in June of, 2,023 when she took over, which became full-time in June of 2,023 when she took over management
of the museum's genealogy and education center. Prior to that, she was the Elkhorn Public Library Director for 9 years.
Wanda has been with the Genealogy and Education Center for over 10 years and has performed a variety of tasks including research, cataloging, managing records.
But filling in during the manager's absence. One is a retired educator in a super sleuth when it comes to family research.
The museum is happy that she's their contracted researcher. And so with that introduction, I'll turn it over to alyssa and Wanda.
Thank you. So much. Thank you for having us here as part of the Luncheon Learn series.
We're going to go through a PowerPoint, which I believe you all have handouts for.
And so I'm going to go ahead and. Share our screen.
And like Sherry said, if you have any questions. Can I ask them? So like Sharon mentioned, we are.
The genealogy and education center. And we are located. Next slide.
So if you click on the PowerPoint and then you can use arrows or. Just click on it with your mess.
Oh, there we go. Okay. Thank you. So we are located on Main Street.
The Museum of British America is actually located on the west edge of town. About 4 blocks from from the genealogy center on the museum.
Also is home to roughly 30 acres of prairie as well. With a walking trail homesteading cabin, Danish design exercise equipment, a wetland and counsel rings.
And then they also own Bestimore's house, which, translate as grandmother's house.
Which is a historic 1910 home here in Alcorn as well. Our.
Do, genealogy and education center is open. We see through Friday from 9 to 4. But we are available to come in other days by appointment, even if you are going to come in Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and would like to come in to use the facility, use the library, have a researcher help you.
It's best to have an appointment scheduled, especially if you're driving from a distance as we want to make sure that we have someone here that's able to help you in your research and family history.
As the slide, we do have a website that has a lot of information about the genealogy and education center audit with a lot of Additional resources more than probably will even cover today as well as all the forms needed if you are interested in having any research or translation.
And then we also have our own Facebook. Facebook group which anybody can join. If you have questions you can answer, you can ask them there.
If you have something you want to share that you learned, you're welcome to do that as well there.
So. Anything to add? No. It is a good idea though to make an appointment if you wanted to research because I am actually retired.
Which means I don't come to work every day.
So at the genealogy center, what we do here is we assist patrons with research.
And we complete research and translation requests for people all over the country. We do have a fee for those research and translation requests.
And members of the Danish, of Danish American can come in and use our resources and our library and our online databases for free.
And we do have 3 computer workstations available for. Patrons to come in and use with several online.
Databases. As well. One more thing to note about the genealogy and education center is when you first come into the building that's not shown in this picture, we do have a small exhibition space.
That rotates a couple of times a a year. And right now we have, 45 years of UFS.
Which is an annual celebration health here over the evening weekend. So we have used the genealogy centers resources, as far as newspaper archives.
Go to create a display of the last 45 years. And we also have a How to have a proper, which is a Christmas lunch display as well.
So that will rotate with local history usually in that front space.
You want to talk about this one or do you want to keep going? You're doing great. Okay, so our library is organized with different bookshelves with different types of information.
So we have one bookshelf on double sided that has all of our local sources as far as directories, church books, histories, your books, cemetery records.
And then other Iowa and state records organized by county. Hi, The one thing to remember about our books and all of our items, everything has been donated to us.
So once in a while somebody will come in and ask for a certain town or county in Iowa, but if if we haven't had those items donated, we can't help those people, but we do have quite a collection.
We also have, newspapers and arbitrary collections. These are probably my favorite part of the genealogy in education center because we have the Alcor, Hamilton review that goes back to 1928 and so it's just kind of cool to be able to find more of a story about the people that you might be researching there.
As far as articles and obituaries go. We also have the Ottoman County Journal, bituaries collected and indexed.
And Danish American arbitrary collection and our We have a couple of volunteers that this is what they do when they come in each week is.
Collect those for us and file those for us and those binders that you see in the slide.
I mean, so anytime we have done or do. Spanish immigrant family history research. It is filed in one of these vertical files.
And so, you, we have these files here in this picture, but it also continues into 5 more file cabinets in another room as well.
So at this point we have over 10,000 folders. Organized by the immigrants name. And inside those files you might find research reports.
Records, photographs, family trees. Members. Anything that we found or the family has given to us is kept in that file.
And one of our. Volunteers works on if we don't have a lot of information in that file, she adds to it and tries to find additional information to add to that file.
And then do you want to talk about the course? Okay, we do keep all of this in a bit in the database.
Which we encourage people to look at before they start going through our files. In fact, we really appreciate it when people don't go through our files, but let us help them.
But this is what our database looks like. And you'll see that some of the names are in blue.
And over on this column on the very last column, they have 3 numbers. That indicates that those people.
Have been placed on the wall of honor out at the museum and the numbers tell us which column which row that they are in out there.
But this is the basic. Data that we put into the database. And sometimes like when you're looking for Peter Jensen, you might have.
10 or 15 of them in here. So it's easier for people to look in the database than it is to go start looking through all of those file cabinets.
More of our library book collection also, PINTEEN'S, DENNIS Geography.
Christian culture. Immigration, the English American culture. I'm like, right, in the English American members and biographies, the Vikings, Selas Island, Cookbooks and Design.
Alyssa, we have a question in the chat. Do you have a database for adoptions?
No.
She's looking for something in the late 18 hundreds.
No, we don't. I've been doing research for 16 years and I have not ever found adoptions, maybe one or 2, but.
They're very hard to trace.
Alright, thank you.
He's gonna add No, my first job here when I was hired 16 years ago was to catalog books.
And none of our books, they had all been accessioned, but they hadn't been cataloged.
And after you catalog them. They've got to go in to pass perfect and then you have to make the a shelf label for them.
So. That's some of my fine work there with the help of about 4 volunteers that joined us just to do that work.
It took us over 2 years to get it finished.
Okay.
And then we also have a section in our library. Housing the periodicals and newspaper collection.
So Danish American and, in that area. We also have a section that has maps, so local county platforms and maps of Denmark.
And then next to the maps we have, a microfilm machine, a couple of them actually.
And so we have a lot of the Danish Brotherhood membership information, by state and lodge.
It has the birthday, birthplace, sanituary application. Danish American Archival Library is located in Blair, Nebraska and they have, quite a bit of information.
And if we don't have the room or something's just not relevant to house here, we usually contact them and they have quite an extensive library there as well.
And I believe the Danish sisterhood. Membership is here to be worked on in 2024.
Wanda kind of mentioned that our had a lot about our catalog. I mean, We do have everything on Past Perfect and in on our Museum of theish America website.
You can actually access the Museum's collection. On the past perfect there if you have a title or you kind of know what you're looking for.
Our genealogy and education center items are on there as well. And any of our demographic information is cataloged as you see on these books.
It's done by the location where it's found. The other books. Are done by the Dewey Decimal System.
But anything that has to do with location was done. But this one is Denmark, Copenhagen, and then Copenhagen town and then the author and then the date of the book.
Okay, yep, so that's kind of what line of like our Iowa ones are done by the state by the county and then by the state by the county and then by the state by the county and then by the type of book it is and then the author's name and then the date.
Well, sometimes that's location too.
So we also have a section, of family histories and biographies. That family histories have are basically like family history books that individuals have put together.
They can look a variety of different ways just depending on that person's preference of how they wanted their family history book to look.
And so we have been donated extra copies of people's family histories and have included that as part of our collection as well.
We have another question about the database corresponding to the vertical files. If you look it up in the database, does it identify which is the correct folder to go to in the vertical file.
Yes, they are filed by last name. So they're done alphabetically.
And that's the way you would find them in the file. But at least if you look in the database first.
You would know whether or not we had a file to look for.
Thank you.
And as longa mentioned, we use the Dewey Decimal System for the other parts of our library.
For general reference materials organized by subject. DK, Christine, Danish language materials and OS are over sized materials.
So this is what, it would look like if you're looking up. An item on the pass perfect.
Okay.
This, this, database that we use is a museum database. And I know that past people have worked there have complained about it because it's Not real.
Library friendly. But this is how we catalog into our into our system.
Wanda touched a little bit on building our collection. We have currently, about 7 volunteers.
That help us in many ways. Some of them do data entry, creating the databases and indexes.
Right now we are scanning we're currently in the middle of scanning all of the vertical file information that way we have safe keeping for those records.
They help us a lot with research and collecting and organizing obituaries and articles and creating books and binders of documents.
We also have special collections. An archive of Jewish American families in organizations and institutions and publications.
These are housed at the museum, correct? Yes, I'm not too familiar with you.
Well, when a family comes in and it's maybe it's a well known family. And they have a whole collection of information.
All of their their genealogy done They have pictures, they may have books. Letters it all goes into a box and is named for that family.
And it is housed up at the museum instead of here because We, do not have environmental control here.
Like they do at the museum.
Yes, so this is a picture of one of the the climate control room in the museum. The contents are also documented in past perfect.
Finding needs are created with box inventories and they're organized in family collections by organization publication or topic.
And so this this is an example of a special collections past perfect record. And what that would look like.
And this is an example of a boxes inventory list and what might be housed there.
So things that you can do to preserve, family history records that you have is using you know archival paper and folders and boxes and appropriate sizes.
Tuff folders labeled in pencil and not ink. Removing things like paper clips and river bands.
You know, just sleep the sleeves that you use to protect them. And there's a link to some of the.
Materials that might be better. Okay.
Yeah, and what you can do for your own family collection now. Digitize in both sides of photos and documents and label your titles clearly make photo copies transcribe Star material safely.
Into asset free sleeves, folders and boxes. Don't laminate because this can cause the documents to deteriorate faster.
Write down the people, the places, the time of your photographs. And organize them by person and family.
And please identify photographs with dates also. Names and dates are what's usually missing.
So both Wanda and I have contact information there. You could email us if you have any additional questions or want to visit us and make an appointment.
You're welcome to email us to give us a call. That's the general genealogy and education center.
Phone number there.
I wanna respond to the gentleman's comment. Before the session started about being. Again, I am a Dean.
I'm a Trudeau. I'm all Dane. Even though my name is spelled like that.
That was my ex husband's last name and it was done like this by a teacher in a school who told the children it would be easier to spell like this.
And half of the family kept it and half the family kept the original spilling. My maiden name was actually much easier because it was Jensen.
But both of my dad was an immigrant and my mother's parents were immigrants. So I am all in.
And I'm half. I was a Johnson. So I just married someone that's not Danish.
Okay.
Roberts got a question in the chat on is the database available online and And then, can we also get access online to pass perfect?
I'm not sure about that. You can't view our election. But I think you have to have to be a member of the museum.
And they assign you I know a number that you have to use to get in there.
For the vertical files. Goes past perfect or for anything, isn't it to view our collection is what it's called.
On this on the home side of the museum, they have something called view our collection. And I think, I think anybody can access that.
It'll just pull up the record just like we were looking at. A few slides ago.
And I believe you can search by keywords.
Okay. Debbie is asking, how do you become a member?
Morning.
Is there an application process?
Yes, you can find it online too at the home site for the museum. It'll have copies of.
Of the of the membership. And it will have copies of all of our. Documents that we use like a research request or a translation request.
Or different things, but they are available online. But you have to go to the home site. Yeah.
Okay.
And Colleen has sharing that her husband is Danish. He's a Lawson. And his paternal side are all Danish.
Okay. There's a few of us around.
So from a historical perspective. Settlement in Iowa were the Danes mostly in the western part of the state.
It was a huge settlement area in southwestern Iowa of And one of the reasons they say that is because the terrain is very similar to parts of Denmark.
But it's sort of probably a chain migration thing where somebody came over here. Got farmland and then sent home for more people.
And And I do know that my husband's grandfather. Used to. What do you call it?
Sponsor people to come over and he would pay for their passage over here. They would work for him on the farm until they paid it off and then.
That's how they got over here.
Great. Jennifer, go ahead and open up your mic and ask your question.
Hi there. I'm, inquiring about my grandmother who came to, Iowa in 19.
11 from Denmark, but at the time she came. Was Germany, I, according to the ship records and when I look at the map now of the same area is part of Denmark again.
So What I likely to find anything about that area. I think it was. Schleswig Holstein and Yeah.
Yes. Was ruled or over its site by the King of Denmark. In 1864. There was the, no pressure of war.
And Germany took back that southern part. They took back unless they, and it became part of Germany. In 1920 they held a clever site and the people voted whether they want it to be Germany or Denmark.
And there are 4 counties down there that voted to go back to Denmark. The only problem with doing research there.
Oh.
Is that those years that that part of the country was under German rule, they took no censuses. And that's my specialty is Danish research.
And it's very hard to find a family grouping. Since there are no census records, you can find the church books still.
Are valid and they have. Births and confirmations and weddings and deaths. But there's no census records down there.
Okay, thank you for that.
A lot of those people that immigrate. Also are identified as German, but they may really be
Yeah. Yeah, they were very proud of their Danish heritage, but. I never heard him talk much about anything specific.
So thanks.
I know a lot of immigrants did not talk about it. I don't know if it was because it was too.
Traumatic to leave their country and and start over. My dad wouldn't even talk about it.
Hardly at all. So.
You.
Thank you.
Alright, thanks. Thanks, Jennifer. Debbie puts in the chat, do you work with the Cedar Falls Historical Society?
There's a large sentiment there.
I've never worked with them.
Okay.
But that area, in over in that eastern part of Iowa, Blackhawk counting.
There were a lot of Danish immigrants that settled over there.
Okay, great. Carol Anne asks, do you know offhand what types of information you have on Danish immigrants to Ottawa, Kansas.
We would have to look up that person's name. And I don't know how many books we actually have on Kansas out here.
But that's, I mean, we could start there to see if we have any reference material about Kansas.
But usually people just come in with a name and a place and then we start researching to see if we can find them.
In a certain place.
Okay, Stephen asks, my great uncle by marriage. I am not gonna try to pronounce his first name, VAGN Sorensen.
Was from Rome, Rhone. Okay, I can't pronounce that either. If you guys could look in the chat, you could see the place.
He has a he was a cheese maker in Southern and Louise Louisa County. He arrived here in 1929 and later served the US Navy during World War 2.
Do you have military records in your collection?
We'd have some.
But the US maybe.
Not a great deal we don't have.
What's the database that we usually go through for that? Is that the? The Danish National Archives.
You're asking about the United States, aren't you?
Is that? Yes. So would that you be looking at fold 3?
Well, I don't know. I've not used for 3. I'm trying to think of the What's the database in?
Is it in Kansas City?
Oh.
Good question.
Midwest genealogical.
Or the National Archives.
Oh yeah.
No. National Archives, I think. That's where most people are. No.
Okay. Bill asks, are there any council bluff church records available online?
Hi, I would have to go out and look at the shell.
Yeah.
And see if there are any.
If you're doing research in ancestry, sometimes it will come up with. Church books for a different day or yes.
And then Bill's just saying hello to my friends in El Cart. So. Alcorn.
Hi, Bill. Okay.
Okay. Any other questions? Go ahead and open your mics and go ahead and ask your question directly.
I just wanted to say hello to Savann too. I see him there, so.
Okay.
You're easy. He's up at the museum.
We're also fortunate enough to have, Danish interns that come, to different parts of the museum.
So Sland is actually out at the museum, until January and we have Marius here in H.
And he's been here since August and then if he's blessing for us and he leaves in a few weeks, sorry.
But he's been doing amazing work with translations and has really caught on quickly too. Searching different family history.
Sites and information. So it's been fun to have.
I'm not seeing any other questions. Anybody want to make a comment? Go ahead.
Yes, I have a question. I live in the southeast US, so I'm a long way away from Iowa and I hope to visit the museum someday, but in figuring out whether how much time to schedule for a visit.
What what kind of information? Should I send you? To say You know, can you check and see if you have anything should I?
Come and see the museum one day or should I schedule 3 or 4 or 5 days or something because you have a lot of information.
It kind of depends on what you're looking for. I guess first you would just send us a name maybe to see if we have any information on that person.
The museum itself I would say you need a couple hours at least to go through.
Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm thinking about. How much I would need to extend. For genealogical information.
So, okay, but maybe sending you all an email and basically buying a a couple hours of somebody's time to do a little research and then from there figure out.
You find if I need to make a long visit or a short visit. How you know what's what's the best approach.
Right.
We do have, forms available on the website too if you wanted to do collaborative research with Bonda and that would give you an information the idea what kind of information we're looking for for why the idea what kind of information we're looking for for why that even start to see but having collaborative is if you're If you're ordering research, it's a different.
A different form, a different form to use.
Okay, I'll go look at the forms. Thank you.
Okay, yeah, they're online But I would say to just even find out basic information, correct me if I'm wrong, but it takes.
3 h probably don't you think or just well, We have never charged enough for our services according to other genealogy people.
We have a man walk in here about a year and a half ago who had a hired a professional genealogist.
And paid him $1,500. And then he hired us to do it again because he wasn't satisfied with the way the guy had done it.
We don't do our reports. Any professional genealogy type form. What do a narrative report?
Which is. And we include all of the documents that we have found to substantiate all the information that we have found.
3 h of research might get you. One generation in Denmark, but might not.
Well, I actually know a lot more about the family in Denmark than I know about what happened after they came to the US.
Well, if you've got access to ancestry, you could probably find them in the US.
Okay, well, I will. Pursue that too. Thank you.
Okay. Any other questions?
Good.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not seeing any. Well, I just want to extend a huge thank you to Alyssa and Wanda for sharing about your collection and your your facilities.
Since they're kind of in 2 different places. I didn't know that. And then the encouragement to use the website and find out more about what's available and join if you're Danish join the society over there.
And again, I wish. Want to thank them and wish everybody happy holiday safe travels if you're traveling to meet with family But I always hope this brings you an idea on how to extend your family research.
And make a plan for when you're going to come to Iowa.
Hmm. Thank you, Sheriff.
Thank you.
Alright. Thanks, everybody.
Hi.
Okay. That was great, guys.
Yeah. Thank you.
And
Okay