Dear List Members, I am responding to the comment about the Butte Archives being "very expensive." I don't necessarily agree. I think that it depends on what you ask of the Archives. I believe the Archives research fee is still $15.00--which is much more reasonable than if you were to hire a local genealogist or researcher to research for you--and a lot less expensive than if you were to travel to Butte to do your own research. The Archives charges an additional fee for making copies. The copy fees differ because of the large binders that they have to copy from. These binders are old and fragile, and each time they take them off the shelf, open them, and then put them on a copy machine, it causes a little more "wear & tear". It is expensive to have these binders repaired, so I don't feel that their charges for copies are unreasonable. I think preservation of these old records and newspapers is a valuable service that they provide. Regarding their research fee, if you ask them to look in the cemetery index for a name and they charge $15 just to do that, then yes, I would say that was expensive; however, I don't believe that is the way they charge. Ellen Crain has assured me on several occasions that they are reasonable in charging for their services. If they don't find anything--they don't charge. But if you ask them to search their records, go to the courthouse and get copies of birth, death, or marriage certificates, and mail the information to you, then I think the $15.00 fee is very reasonable. I would not hesitate to recommend the Archives for research--I do it all the time. I have had many people tell me that they were so pleased with the information that they received. If you have concerns about their fees, then I would recommend that you ask up front what the charges will be for what you want done--then you have a choice of whether or not to have them do your research. I'm sure you would check the price before you buy an item, correct? It's the same with research--ask what it will cost. By copy of this e-mail, I am inviting Ellen at the Archives to respond to this if she has any additional information, or if I have unknowingly made any false statements, she should correct them. It would be great if someone on this list who is in Butte would have the time to do lookups. I haven't been able to find anyone that has the time or is willing to do this voluntarily. There have been a couple of people in the past who have done this, but it is time consuming and eventually they either got tired of it or had more important things to take care of. Hey, if there is anyone out there that would be interested in volunteering to do lookups in Butte, I would be happy to hear from you. I don't have time to do very many, and my work hours coincide with the work hours of the Archives so I don't make it over there very often. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Suzanne Andrews MTGen Web County Coordinator for Butte-Silver Bow, Anaconda-DeerLodge, & Powell Counties http://www.mtech.edu/silverbow ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----Original Message----- From: wimzi@in-tch.com [mailto:wimzi@in-tch.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2003 12:34 PM To: MTSILVER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Rachel or Leah Witofsky This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Message Board Post: The following is a listing from the 1952 Polk City Directory for Butte, Montana: WITOFSKY, Mendal A. (Henrietta K; National Trunk Factory), home in rear 2610 Harrison. The following is a link to researching Butte: http://www.mtech.edu/silverbow/ There is a link at the above site to the Butte-Silver Bow County Archives, including an e-mail address. Let me caution, however, that requesting any records or information from this agency is very expensive. Good luck! ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237