Hi folks, In the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of visiting several different county archives of counties within the ROOTWALKER region. We visit a lot of archives, but never thought of sharing anything about them. There are a lot of great archives in different counties. Montgomery, for example, is wonderful, but right now I am going to tell you about three other county archives. A number of counties are taking a lot of interest in their archives. I have heard that the state of Tennessee is contributing money to the individual counties to assist them in preserving their court house records and other archival materials. I don't know how much money is given to the counties, or if any is given in every case, but that is what I have been told. No matter where they get the funding, I would like to thank all of the archivists, county employees, and volunteers who have been working so hard to preserve a past for all of us. Sumner County has a great archives. We visit them often. The people there know us by now and are always ready to help in our research. We truly do enjoy visiting the good people in Gallatin at the Sumner County Archives. If you wish to visit the Sumner County Archives, here is the address: Sumner County Archives 155 East Main Street, Gallatin, Tennessee 37066 Phone: (615) 452-0037 Hours: Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 PM If you wish to visit the Sumner County Archives web site, the address is: <A HREF="http://www.sumnertn.org/archives/">Sumner County Archives webpage </A> http://www.sumnertn.org/archives/ Recently, I have had the pleasure of going to the Robertson County, Tennessee archives in Springfield, Tennessee. This is a new location for the Robertson County archives. The people here are very nice and extremely helpful. I had no trouble at all finding some documents I was looking for. The building is sparkling and clean and the temperature is very comfortable. There is a small area for people to use when doing their own research. The Roberson County archives is on Locust Street, only a block down the hill from the court house. If you are on Locust Street, you can't miss the archives. The building is well marked. There is also plenty of parking. If you would like to visit the Robertson County archives web site, here is their address: <A HREF="http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnrobert/archives/welcome.htm">Welcome to the</A> http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnrobert/archives/welcome.htm Yes, that is all it says, "Welcome to the"..but this will take you there! The address for the Robertson County Archives is: 504 S. Locust Street Springfield, TN 37172 615-382-6928 Last Friday, while Rootsweb was having some down time for hardware upgrades, I went over to the friendly town of Lebanon to the Wilson County archives. WOW! That should sum it up for you. This place is wonderful! They have different types of records in different rooms with work areas for everyone's use. Clean and neat, this archives looks like something you would only see in a movie. You could eat off the floors they are so clean. The Wilson County archives is the first I recall seeing refreshment machines in. Not that they are really needed. You are only a block off the town square with eating places not far away. If you get bored, (now, who would do that?) there are a lot of antique stores just around the corner, and on every corner of the town square, I believe. The people working in the Wilson County archives are friendly and helpful, and have offered their hand whenever needed to help the ROOTWALKER family that is researching folks from Wilson County. If you are in Lebanon and want to go to the archives there, here is their address: 111 S College St. Lebanon, TN 37087-3622 Telephone: 615-443-1993 Hours: 9:00 - 2:00 Monday - Friday I don't know of a web site for the Wilson County archives. If any of you have an address for them, please share it with us. To get there, go to the town square. Look at the Burger King on the NW corner, and turn around 180 degrees. You will see a road going out of the square going toward Carthage. Go out of the square one block on this road and turn right on College Street. The Wilson County archives is the first building on the left. I park in the square and walk around to the archives because the parking in the square is free and I think plentiful. If you are in any of these three counties, please visit the folks in their archives and don't forget to thank them for the great job they are doing. We visit a lot of archives and libraries, and will let you know about them, too, in the future. Sincerely, Stan Magnesen ROOTWALKER site/list coordinator