Thought this might help someone. -----Original Message----- From: RHollis123@aol.com <RHollis123@aol.com> To: MSTIPPAH-L@rootsweb.com <MSTIPPAH-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 11:28 PM Subject: (no subject) >This came in on another List and thought you would enjoy. > >Rosemary Nichols Hollis >*************************************** > >A website with immense research potential is online ... and the wonderful >Cynthia Van Ness explains it below ... >-------- > > ... I just learned about an underpublicized website that has great >potential for genealogists. Those of you who know the Library of Congress's >website inside and out are already way ahead of me on this one, so I beg >your patience. > > I heartily recommend visiting the "National Union Catalog of Manuscript >Collections," also known as NUCMC, at: ><http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html> > > The print version, which we librarians call "nuck-muck," has been a >reference standby for years. I didn't know it was available online, and >boy, did I print out reams of records from it. > > So why should you be interested in NUCMC? First of all, let me explain >what a "union catalog" is. A union catalog is what you call the result >(whether in print, microform, or online) of recording and describing the >holdings of multiple libraries, archives, or similar repositories. For >example, I worked in a public library that had a county-wide union list of >periodicals, which enabled us to refer patrons to another local institution >(college, university, historical society, etc.) if our library happened not >to subscribe to a certain periodical (magazine, journal, etc.) and someone >else did. > > Now, most of you know that the colleges, universities, historical >societies, archives, and libraries across this country have all sorts of >one-of-a-kind items, usually from people, places, and things that aren't >there anymore. People who are deceased, companies that are defunct, >charities that folded, and so on. Items such as: > >* family bibles >* family papers >* business records >* church records >* charity records >* ethnic organization records >* arts & cultural organization records >* photographs >* political and advocacy organization records >* maps, posters, charts >* architectural plans >* letters, correspondence, diaries > > What NUCMC did was survey these repositories large and small--across the >entire US--and publish the results in many, many large volumes, which are >still available in libraries. And now NUCMC is online, meaning that you can >do a search on your family names, place names, and institutions connected >with the people you are researching. You can search the companies they >worked for, the clubs, societies, and fraternal organizations they belonged >to, the churches they attended, and so on. > > Now, there's *never* any guarantee that the records you seek were given to >a proper repository instead of going in the furnace or dumpster, or that an >ancestor left important papers, but try a simple search on your (US) >hometown and see if you were familiar with half of the stuff that turns up. >Then try a search on "_______ family" (your surname). Those with Anglo >names will probably have the most success. > > I did an easy word search on "Buffalo, New York" and got over 500 hits, >several of which told me that some religious charities' records are now held >by an archive elsewhere in the state; that the papers of a few prominent >Buffalo citizens are likewise in out-of-town repositories. > > Every record in NUCMC gives a detailed description of the item and >identifies the institution that owns it, either using a code or, in most >cases, giving the full name and address. The institutional ("RLIN") codes >are available on the site. > > IMPORTANT distinction to keep in mind: the original documents (letters, >diaries, photographs, maps, etc.), are NOT online at NUMCMC--just a >detailed, written descriptions. What we in the library biz call catalog or >bibliographic records. To get copies of original documents, you must >contact the institution that owns them or, if you hit a gold mine, plan a >research trip. > > Other goodies at NUCMC include links to conservation and preservation >information, a perennial question on the genealogy newsgroups. > >Happy digging! >