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Have
you checked out the vertical files held in the community where you are doing
research?
One
of my earliest and best finds were tax lists for Wake County (NC) for 1810
& 1820. These had been published in
publications not readily available and copies were placed in a vertical file in
what is now called the Government and
Heritage Library (State Library
of North Carolina). These tax lists are
important because the census doesn’t survive for this county for those years! Copies of those copies proudly sit in my
library.
This
article Six
genealogy secrets found in the library's vertical file gives you some insight into what you might find if
you haven’t ever looked at vertical files in the course of your research.
And,
vertical files aren’t limited to local libraries and archives, university
libraries often also have some, such as the University
of Michigan and The
University of North Carolina Greensboro, as well as historical society libraries like The Filson
Historical Society. These have online indexes so that you can see
what material might be available in vertical files.
Can’t
get to a local repository to check out its vertical files? First, check for an online index (as mentioned
above) and then you can query about how you might gain access. Second, a really neat trend over the last few
years has been the digitization of vertical files. Now, due to copyright and privacy issues not
everything in a vertical file can be digitized and you still want to check out
such efforts.
For
example, here are some NC examples of vertical files which have been digitized!
Just
because vertical files are low tech and often not online, does not mean you
shouldn’t consider looking into them.
Every
time I start a project on a new family, I check the vertical files at the
Government and Heritage Library (yes, in person, even though they are
digitized, because I can ) to see if there is a folder for that
family. I have found family association
newsletters, copies of family bible pages, family trees, newspaper cuttings,
and so much more!
What is your greatest
find in a vertical file?
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