Allen County Public Library

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:genealogy@acpl.info genealogy@acpl.info] Blog: ACPL blog Facebook: ACPL Facebook page Address:


 * 900 Library Plaza
 * Fort Wayne, IN 46802

Telephone: 260-421-1225 Website: ACPL Website

Hours:


 * Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur: 9am-9pm; Friday, Saturday: 9am-6pm; Sunday*: Noon-5pm
 * For holiday schedule, click here.

Directions and public parking map:


 * Directions (Google map)
 * Parking map

Internet sites and databases:


 * Allen County Public Library Internet Site, locations, hours, events, newsletter, research, services.
 * ACPL Catalog Online by keywords, author, title, subject, series, magazines, or ISBN. Also available in WorldCat.
 * ACPL Genealogy Center Catalog searches just the holdings in the Genealogy Center; can be useful when planning a research trip
 * ACPL Genealogy Center, getting started, programs, county-state-international links, research topics, databases, brochures, research or article request forms, pathfinders.

Collection Description
The Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Collection is the second-largest genealogy collection in the United States and the largest genealogy collection in a public library. Its holdings include more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items on microfilm and microfiche. Users in Fort Wayne also have access, for a small fee, to more than 2 million additional microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. ACPL creates the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), a subject index to genealogy and local history periodicals from all over the United States and Canada, including French Canadian journals. PERSI is created from the Center's premier collection of more than 5,100 current genealogy periodical subscriptions, as well as runs of numerous ceased serial titles.

Major online subscription databases at ACPL that patrons may use onsite include: Ancestry.com· African American Heritage· Footnote.com· HeritageQuestOnline.com· AmericanAncestors.org· Origins Network-British, Irish, and Scots· Paper of Record-Historical Newspapers.

The Genealogy Center primarily is a North American collection, with a complementary focus on British Isles and some German materials. It also holds guidebooks, methodology works, heraldry titles and similar items of general focus for other countries. ACPL has more than 50,000 family histories, nearly 200,000 local histories, a significant number of North Carolina records on microfilm, and numerous important collections such as the Draper Manuscripts, the Drouin Collection, the Barber Collection, and many National Archives microfilm collections. The Genealogy Center also has significant resources for Native American and African American research. Specifically, the African American Gateway is a database of several thousand links to African American resources on the Internet, coupled with a bibliography of resources for African American research in the Genealogy Center's holdings. A large collection of early city directories on microfilm complements the hundreds of post-1960 print directories obtained by the Genealogy Center as a repository for the Polk Directory Company. For more details see Genealogy Center and the ACPL Genealogy Center catalog.

Not surprisingly, because the Genealogy Center physically is located in Allen County, Indiana, the collection includes a vast amount of resources for Fort Wayne, Allen County and the surrounding area. The Center's website features a number of Allen County, Indiana Resources that are freely available to anyone with an Internet connection.

The Genealogy Center also has a growing number of resources for Indiana and other states.

Collection Development

The staff bibliographer regularly monitors current journals, booklists and the Internet for newly published genealogy and local history books to add to the collection. In addition, the Genealogy Center welcomes donations of materials such as high school and college yearbooks, church histories and directories, self-published family histories or indexes to local records, or any other publication of interest to genealogists. A number of genealogists have named the Center as the repository for their genealogy book collections as a part of estate planning. The growing popularity and ease of digitization has made it possible for the Center to accept donations of originals or photocopies of many items that were not part of its collection development policy previously, such as photographs and individual documents. In particular, the Center welcomes submissions for Our Military Heritage and Family Bible Records. The Genealogy Center also welcomes the submission of computer databases of records pertaining to any geographic location to be made available to the public on its website.

One of the creative ways the Genealogy Center collection grows is through its Photocopy Exchange Program. Individuals submit a manuscript copy of a family or local history they have written and the Genealogy Center photocopies the document twice, placing one hardcover copy in the Center's collection and returning one hardcover copy and the original manuscript pages to the author

Services
Reference Service

The most important resource of the Genealogy Center is the attentive and experienced reference service offered to on-site patrons by its seven full-time reference librarians. They have a combined total of more than 150 years of genealogy research experience. From providing suggestions for untangling a tricky research problem, to aiding in the use of the collection, to instructing how to use the equipment in the Genealogy Center, the librarians are happy to assist patrons.

Programming

A goal of the Genealogy Center is to provide regular educational programming. To that end, the Center offers at least one lecture or workshop each month on-site at the Allen County Public Library. In March the Center offers "March Madness," a week's worth of seminars. In October - Family History Month - there is a lecture or other educational opportunity at the library during each day of the month. In many years, October's special events culminate with extended hours on one Friday night, unofficially referred to as "Midnight Madness." For more information about upcoming programs, interested individuals may consult the Events page on the Center's website.

Tours

Librarians in the Genealogy Center are happy to give tours to visiting groups of 10 or more. Please call 260-421-1225 in advance to schedule a tour. The Center has an orientation area where individuals or smaller groups of researchers may view a DVD tour of the Center.

The Research Center

Those who cannot visit the Genealogy Center in person may need copies from specific sources held by the Center, broader research done in the collection, or copies of articles found by searching the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). The Genealogy Center has a Research Center arm that provides these services and long-distance patrons may use the Quick Search, Research Request and Article Request forms on the Center's website to request copies or research.

History
What is now known as the Genealogy Center opened as the Indiana History and Genealogy Room of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County on 3 January 1961. However the collection's history predates that time. As early as 1903, the Mary Penrose Wayne chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) sought shelf space in the library for the society's lineage books and other historical works. During the Great Depression, library administrators roamed used bookstores throughout the Midwest, bringing back to the library many books and periodicals of a local history nature that with the DAR books, became the core of the genealogy collection when it was formed in 1961.

Library Director Fred J. Reynolds was instrumental in the growth of the genealogy collection from about 400 DAR books at its inception, to more than 100,000 volumes by the time of his retirement in 1978. The collection was renamed the "Reynolds Historical Genealogy Collection" in 1971. Ironically, Reynolds was not a genealogist himself, but saw the value in the study of family history. Some of his methods of expanding the collection were unorthodox, such as the trading of duplicate materials with other libraries, and photocopying partnerships. One such partnership was with the Newberry Library in Chicago, whose books were becoming worn from overuse. Reynolds arranged with Newberry's curator to borrow station wagon loads of books from the Chicago facility, which college students copied throughout day and nighttime hours. The library in Fort Wayne kept and bound a copy of each book and the Newberry received a new bound copy, plus its worn original, which was retired to storage. Through this partnership, the Genealogy Collection copied perhaps as many as 30,000 of the Newberry Library's books. Several other photocopying partnerships have been forged since that time.

The physical area covered by the Genealogy Center has grown several times during the past 50 years. This included an expansion that nearly doubled seating capacity and floor space in 1990, and the most recent renovation of the main library building in the mid-2000s that resulted in "open stack" shelving for virtually all genealogy materials.

During its nearly 50-year history, the Genealogy Center has been the recipient of a number of grants and many monetary and materials donations, large and small, from individuals. However, it remains overwhelmingly funded by local county taxes. The local chapter of the DAR and the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana have been supportive in a variety of ways throughout the Center's history.

Tips for Your Visit

 * Do your "homework" before visiting the Genealogy Center. Gather basic information about your family - names, dates and places - from home sources and by interviewing relatives.
 * Make a research plan by deciding what specific information you would like to find during your visit.
 * Prepare for a genealogical trip to the ACPL by using The Genealogy Center catalog online in advance of your visit.
 * Also consult the microtext catalog before you go. The Genealogy Center has an extensive microfilm and microfiche collection, some of which is not included in the main ACPL catalog.
 * It also helps to prepare by using the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) at HeritageQuestOnline available at many U.S. public libraries. The Genealogy Center creates PERSI and therefore has all of the periodical titles referenced in it. Some periodical call numbers are available in PERSI; others may be obtained by searching the library's catalog using the title of the journal.
 * Make the most of your time in Fort Wayne, Indiana and plan your stay with Visit Fort Wayne's resources.

Bringing a Group?

If your group is planning a visit to the Genealogy Center, please call 260-421-1225 and let the staff know the date(s) of your visit, what time you plan to arrive and depart, the approximate number in your group, and to provide the name and telephone number of a contact person for your organization. This allows the Center to ensure that an adequate number of staff will be available to answer questions your group may have. During this initial telephone contact, you may wish to schedule a tour of the Center for your group as well, or ask that a packet of informational material be sent in advance of your visit. If the dates for your group's visit are flexible, you might ask when you call whether other groups have chosen the same dates and then modify your plans accordingly if you prefer a less-busy time. Having a contact name and telephone number allows the Center to contact your group in the case of a weather-related or other unscheduled closing of the library.

Guides

 * Genealogy Gems: News from the Fort Wayne Library (E-zine). Sign up to receive the E-zine by sending a message to GenealogyGems_subscribe@GenealogyCenter.info.
 * ACPL, The Genealogy Center: A Tradition of Excellence (brochure).
 * Genealogy Center, Allen County Public Library, part 1 (You Tube online video, 9:17)
 * Genealogy Center, Allen County Public Library, part 2 (You Tube online video, 7:30)
 * Cavanaugh, Karen B. A Genealogist’s Guide to the Ft. Wayne, Indiana, Public Library. Owensboro, Kentucky: McDowell Pub., 1980.
 * Henderson, Harold. "Finding Ancestors in Fort Wayne: The Genealogist's Unofficial One-Stop Guide to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center", Midwest Roots. April 2013 edition (booklet, 26 p)
 * Slater-Putt, Dawne. Beyond Books: Allen County's Public Library History, 1895-1995. Fort Wayne, Ind.: Allen County Public Library, 1995. See "Historical Genealogy Department," pp. 88-98.

Research Guides

The following are guides to doing specific types of ethnic, record-specific or theme-specific research and include citations for helpful materials in the Genealogy Center's collection.


 * French-Canadian
 * English &amp; Welsh
 * Scottish
 * Irish
 * Newspaper
 * German
 * Census
 * Adoption
 * Modern Research
 * Swiss
 * Heraldry
 * Church
 * Eastern European

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a record at the Allen County Public Library, a similar record may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * ACPL branches of the Main Library
 * National Archives at Chicago federal censuses 1790–1930; selected military service indexes, pension indexes, passenger lists, and naturalizations. Free computers for Ancestry, Heritage Quest, or Footnote.

Similar Collections


 * Newberry Library a large Chicago repository with genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, &amp; British Isles.
 * St. Louis County Library, mostly Missouri, but includes St. Louis Genealogical, and National Genealogical Society's collections, online databases, federal censuses, African American records, access to FamilySearch microfilms.
 * Mid-Continent Public Library Midwest Genealogy Center, Independence, MO, national censuses/indexes, 80,000 family histories, 100,000 local histories, 565,000 microfilms, 7,000 maps, and extensive newspaper clippings.
 * Library of Congress, Washington, DC, Local History and Genealogy Reading Room is part of the world's largest library including 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, rich in collections of manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and published material, strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources
 * New York Public Library international genealogy, heraldry, personal and family names (in Roman alphabets), family papers, Dorot Jewish collection, maps, periodicals, American history at national, state, and local levels.
 * Family History Library, Salt Lake City, 450 computers, 3,400 databases, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books of worldwide family and local histories, civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and records pertaining to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 * New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, national in scope. Over 100 million name database, of vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts with emphasis on New England since the 1600s.

Neighboring Collections


 * Indiana State Library, 40,000 family histories, indexes, how-to books, cemeteries, periodicals, federal censuses, Indiana county records, passenger lists, and military pension information; emphasis east of the Mississippi.
 * Indiana State Archives, territorial-state records, old soldier homes, prisons, Wabash &amp; Erie Canal land records.
 * Indiana Historical Society, history, personal papers, business records, oral histories, photographs, postcards.
 * Indiana Genealogical Society, how-to articles, member-only databases, events, blog archive, research, projects.
 * United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, federal court records.
 * Allen County Courthouse, birth, marriage, death, and court records.
 * Allen County-Ft. Wayne Historical Society, museum, 23,000 artifacts, photographs, documents, digital images.
 * Indiana University Library, Bloomington, biography, images, indexes, newspapers, periodicals, U.S. government.
 * University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Libraries, biography, periodicals, newspapers, oral history.