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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/27/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
August 9, 2004 Embrace the history bug at UWGB, county libraries By Tom Perry
But often, people start fishing around for historical information out of curiosity and find themselves getting hooked on diving deep into the past.
Trisha Cooper of Green Bay began a quest about five years ago to research her family history. She has traced her ancestors all the way back to 16th-century England, and she's still gathering information.
"It can be like finding buried treasure," Cooper said of uncovering new facts from the past.
Fortunately for people bitten by the history bug, there are treasure troves in the Green Bay area that make it easy to travel back in time.
Two of the best launching pads to the past are the Brown County Central Library's Local History and Genealogy Department in downtown Green Bay and the Area Research Center at the Cofrin Library on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.
Mary Jane Herber, local historian at the Brown County Library, said the local history and genealogy area now has more than 10,000 far-reaching volumes.
"A lot of people who come in here assume we only have information about Brown County," Herber said. "But we have census data for all of Wisconsin from 1820 to 1930, and we have lots of plat maps and easy access to newspapers from all over the state."
In addition, the library has books specializing in German, French-Canadian, Dutch, Czech and Belgian families.
Jan Broderick of Green Bay has been researching her Belgian ancestors at the Brown County Library, which she describes as "excellent" for the kind of work she's been doing.
She began her quest in earnest about six years ago, but her interest in her ancestors goes back to her youth.
"When I was younger, my mother had done a baby book and had written certain parts of the family in it," Broderick said. "I remember looking through the book and thinking, 'Are those really grandparents? Where do they come from?'"
Kathy Balza of Ledgeview frequents the Brown County Library for a project that involves the first-ever compilation of War of 1812 veterans who settled in Wisconsin.
"I started two years ago when a friend asked me if I could find out about General William Blake, who lived in Dodge County," she said. "From there, it just snowballed. I found him, and then I found someone else."
Balza plans to put together a book that she will submit to historical societies around the state.
At the Area Research Center, on the seventh floor of the Cofrin Library, Debra Anderson oversees a cooperative project between the university and the Wisconsin Historical Society.
She said she's seen the history bug bite a lot of people as they go through the passages of life.
"Maybe you're putting your parents in a nursing home and you come across something in the attic and you start wondering, 'What is it?'" Anderson said. "Then you realize, 'Gee, I don't have any information ... and I don't even know my mother's grandparents name.'"
Her advice for people interested in local history is "to start with what you know ... and explore all the different possible resources and different types of resources."
The Brown County Library and Area Resource Center can help put the past at a person's fingertips, but that doesn't mean every mystery will be solved.
"It's a puzzle," Broderick said of genealogy. "It's a great puzzle, and it's never finished."
Two places to travel back in time
Brown County Library
The department's collection includes:
• The database Ancestry Plus, an online resource offering complete and full-scale searching of genealogical information
• Federal census data for Wisconsin dating back to 1820
• Newspapers on microfilm for Brown County dating back to 1833 as well as the Door County Advocate from 1862 to 1935
• Specialty books, military records, Wisconsin Blue Books, local high school yearbooks and assorted passenger lists and indexes
• Atlases, including plat maps of Brown County back to 1889, as well as other Wisconsin counties.
For more information and hours, call (920) 448-4400, Ext. 394.
UWGB's Cofrin Library
A cooperative project of the university and Wisconsin Historical Society, the center preserves historical records from Brown, Calumet, Door, Florence, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie and Shawano counties.
Holdings include:
• More than 450 series of local government records, including circuit court records for Brown, Manitowoc and Oconto counties
• Records of rural school districts in Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Shawano counties
• Proceedings of the Green Bay City Council and the Brown County Board
• Records of the towns of Preble and Scott, Brown County; village of Luxemburg and town of Lincoln, Kewaunee County; and town of Brussels, Door County
• More than 180 collections of papers and records produced by organizations and individuals, including records of 12 local labor unions and 16 religious groups
For more information and hours, call (920) 465-2539.
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