I appreciate the responses I have received publicly and privately. Subsequent to my post, I happened across Tom Jones "Perils of Source Snobbery" article from OnBoard (May, 2012). Although his article does not mention old queries except in a footnote, it eloquently makes the point I had in mind. It seems to me that old queries are the abbreviated "online family trees" of a bygone era, and may be the only surviving record of a deceased genealogist's work (or personal knowledge of family). I've found some queries to be detailed, and even if they are not, they have given me clues, especially about members of a "FAN" club, that I otherwise might not have had. They have also helped me date or track down possible origins for "rumors" or "clues" found in online trees. While reading unindexed locality-based newsletter queries may not be the most efficient use of research time, I do periodically browse through them for familiar surnames and the information they contain, even if I am no longer able to contact the writer or his/her family. If anyone has specific examples of the use of queries and similar "disdained sources" in addition to those mentioned in footnotes 4 and 5 of Tom's article, I would like to hear about them. Perhaps I am overreacting to finding out that more than 300 titles were recently deaccessioned (thrown in the trash) from a collection because "what good are old queries; they are so old the people who wrote them are dead." Hopefully, the lost publications are in Fort Wayne and I'll just have to travel farther to do my browsing. I may have a new mission in life to try to educate others about the value of "disdained sources." Connie Sheets Phoenix, AZ > I am interested in hearing whether and how you have used queries from old genealogical publications such as newsletters, and if so whether you found them to be valuable? If yes, why were they valuable? Can you give some examples of how they helped? > > On a wider but related note, should old society newsletters be archived or thrown in the trash? If your society or library keeps some but not all such publications, what criteria do you use for deciding what to keep and what to dispose of? >

Connie -- Yoicks! I'm confident that Fort Wayne would not de-accession such titles for such reasons. The best way to check for particular items is to visit http://search.findmypast.com/search/periodical-source-index (membership is not required to search the PERSI database). Harold Harold Henderson, CG midwestroots.net *Finding Ancestors in Fort Wayne: The Genealogist's Unofficial One-Stop Guide to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center * http://www.midwestroots.net/ <http://www.midwestroots.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ACPLGC-April-2013.pdf> Certified Genealogist (SM) No. 1029 Certified Genealogist and CG are proprietary service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® used by the Board to identify its program of genealogical competency evaluation and used under license by the Board’s associates. On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 10:28 AM, Connie Sheets via < [email protected]> wrote: > I appreciate the responses I have received publicly and privately. > Subsequent to my post, I happened across Tom Jones "Perils of Source > Snobbery" article from OnBoard (May, 2012). Although his article does > not mention old queries except in a footnote, it eloquently makes the > point I had in mind. > > It seems to me that old queries are the abbreviated "online family trees" > of a bygone era, and may be the only surviving record of a deceased > genealogist's work (or personal knowledge of family). I've found some > queries to be detailed, and even if they are not, they have given me clues, > especially about members of a "FAN" club, that I otherwise might not have > had. They have also helped me date or track down possible origins for > "rumors" or "clues" found in online trees. While reading unindexed > locality-based newsletter queries may not be the most efficient use of > research time, I do periodically browse through them for familiar surnames > and the information they contain, even if I am no longer able to contact > the writer or his/her family. > > If anyone has specific examples of the use of queries and similar > "disdained sources" in addition to those mentioned in footnotes 4 and 5 of > Tom's article, I would like to hear about them. Perhaps I am overreacting > to finding out that more than 300 titles were recently deaccessioned > (thrown in the trash) from a collection because "what good are old queries; > they are so old the people who wrote them are dead." Hopefully, the lost > publications are in Fort Wayne and I'll just have to travel farther to do > my browsing. I may have a new mission in life to try to educate others > about the value of "disdained sources." > > Connie Sheets > Phoenix, AZ > > > > I am interested in hearing whether and how you have used queries from > old genealogical publications such as newsletters, and if so whether you > found them to be valuable? If yes, why were they valuable? Can you give > some examples of how they helped? > > > > On a wider but related note, should old society newsletters be archived > or thrown in the trash? If your society or library keeps some but not all > such publications, what criteria do you use for deciding what to keep and > what to dispose of? > > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >