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Wisconsin Archives Week 2001--Family History Theme



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jonathan Nelson, (608) 264-6446
October 8, 2001 (jrnelson@mail.shsw.wisc.edu)

ARCHIVES WEEK IN WISCONSIN OCT. 20-27 SEEKS TO PERSONALIZE
VALUE OF HISTORICAL RECORDS IN STUDY OF FAMILY HISTORY

 Archives, by their very nature, may evoke images in some folks?
minds of rare and little-used papers, but during Archives Week in
Wisconsin, Oct. 20-27, the Wisconsin Historical Society hopes to change
that.  The Wisconsin State Genealogical Society and the Wisconsin
Historical Records Advisory Board will join the Society as co-sponsors of
Archives Week.
 ?Wisconsin Family History: Digging Our Roots,? the theme of
Archives Week, hopes to bring about a better understanding of the vital
role historical records play in the ever-popular field of family history.
The Historical Society and the WHRAB are calling on archives, libraries,
museums, and local historical societies around Wisconsin to show off their
original historical documents during Archives Week. To do that, the Society
itself? and its network of 13 Area Research Centers located throughout the
state ? will conduct a series of statewide public programs leading up to
and during Archives Week.
    These public programs range from a two-month-long exhibit
of funeral, ordination and other memorial-related items at White Pillars
Museum in De Pere (October through November) to family history workshops in
Cudahy, Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Menomonie and Superior.  The dates,
times, locations, sponsors and other pertinent information about each event
are posted on the Wisconsin Historical Society?s Web site at
www.shsw.wisc.edu/archivesweek/.
 The bulk of the Society?s genealogical collections (both archival
and library collections) reside at the Society?s headquarters building in
Madison.  These collections rank among the top five genealogical holdings
in the nation, making Madison a mecca for family history researchers
throughout the Midwest.  But the Society?s decentralized network of local
Area Research Centers also make important regional collections available in
communities across the state.
 These centers house local government records, census and tax
records, Civil War diaries, pre-1907 vital records, oral histories,
naturalization records, photographs and other material vital to family
history research.  The network brings historical records to the people by
collecting, organizing and preserving records of interest to each of 13
regions, then housing those records in a facility within easy reach of
researchers.
 A major goal of Archives Week is to complete the Society?s
collection of all citizenship and naturalization records in the state.
These records provide critically important pieces to any genealogical
puzzle, and family history researchers rely on them heavily.  And while
completion of the collection is a primary focus of Archives Week, it
represents only the beginning of a campaign to preserve and improve access
to the records that will take months, perhaps years, to accomplish.
 Wisconsin State Archivist Peter Gottlieb says the Society hopes to
soon gain commitments from county clerks? offices, local historical
societies and other repositories of these records to make them available to
the Society for creation of a uniform state index.  Ultimately, probably
years distant, the goal is to digitize these records to make them available
to family history researchers on the Internet.
 That visionary goal would afford a level of access to
naturalization records that researchers can now only dream of, says
Gottlieb.
 For more information contact Archives Week 2001, Wisconsin
Historical Society, 816 State St., Madison, Wis. 53706-1482, (608) 264-
6446, or visit the Archives Week Web site at
www.shsw.wisc.edu/archivesweek/.

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