Archivists and Genealogists Working Together

Archivists and genealogists working together is the subject of my keynote for Utah Archives Month’s Family History Day. Staff at Utah State Archives and Records Service have planned a great day of presentations, beginning at 10 a.m. Mountain on October 23rd. Please register for this free event on Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/3kxFPdo

Beyond “Peaceful Coexistence”: Archivists and Genealogists Working Together

Redmann, Gail R. “Archivists and Genealogists: The Trend Toward Peaceful Coexistence.” Archival Issues 18, no. 2 (1993): 121–32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41101858.

When I was asked to deliver the keynote, my thoughts cast back to my earliest days in the profession in the late 1970s. I remember several instances and heard of others where genealogists were given short shrift.

But how did these sometimes fraught relationships develop between archivists (and librarians) and genealogists? How had it ever been acceptable for librarians or archivists to judge the value of a user’s research goals?

One clue lies in academic literature. Whether genealogy was “serious” or not was debated there and in popular publications. For example, in 1942, E. S. Craighill Handy and Elizabeth G. Handy published their article, “Genealogy and Genetics,” which begins:

E. S. Craighill Handy, and Elizabeth G. Handy. “Genealogy and Genetics.” The William and Mary Quarterly 22, no. 4 (1942): 381–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1923336.

Utah Archives Month’s Family History Day

Register to join me on Saturday to explore the origins of these patronizing views. We’ll discover how attitudes began to change. And, perhaps most importantly, how have things improved? And what can we accomplish as we continue to work together in future?

Here’s the lineup of speakers:

 Keynote from Nancy Loe of Sassy Jane Genealogy entitled Beyond “Peaceful Coexistence”: Archivists and Genealogists Working Together

 Presentation from the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation entitled Discovering, Preserving and Telling the Stories of African Americans in Utah

 Presentation from Ryan Lee, curator of 19th Century Mormon and Western Manuscripts at BYU entitled Family History Resources in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections

 Presentation from Utah State Archives staff entitled Insights from a Life: Engaging with Records to Trace Your Family History

Please register for this free event on Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/3kxFPdo