Have You Heard the Latest About PERSI?

 

PERSI—the Periodical Source Index—is “the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals.” This valuable resource provides over 3.2 million citations to tens of thousands of periodicals across North America, the British Isles, and Europe. Produced by staff at Allen County Public Library (ACPL) Genealogy Center, it resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Curt Witcher, Director of Special Collections at ACPL recently shared exciting news about PERSI at the NGS 2026 Family History Conference. Fully 22% of the articles in PERSI are now linked to digitized articles. Researchers no longer have to travel to Fort Wayne to find and copy journal articles or pay ACPL for copies to be made and mailed to them.

To use this amazing repository, go to PERSI.

Choose one of the search options including Article Title Keyword.

Articles that have been digitized will show an icon that you can click and download the article. 

Once you click on that icon, you will be directed to the digitized article.

Articles are either digitized by ACPL and available via PDF or you will be re-directed to a website that has the article digitized, such as in this example where the article has been digitized by the Kansas Historical Society.

You can learn more about how to use PERSI for your genealogical research by watching the NGS video, Member Connects: Up Close and Personal with PERSI featuring Jeanette Sheliga, Dawn Slater, AG, CG and Cari Taplin, CG.

Not all articles have been digitized but that is the perfect excuse to check off one more destination on your family history bucket list: a visit to the Genealogy Center.

In the meantime, thanks to the dedicated staff at the Genealogy Center, we can mine even more resources from the comfort of our homes with the promise of additional digitize articles over time.

New Genealogy Center in Wytheville, Virginia

After reporting several times last year of the closing of libraries, facilities and repositories used by genealogists (for example, see Sadly, Another Genealogy Room Has Closed ... and Reference Room Closing -- Oregon State Library), it’s nice to be able to report that a New Genealogy Center in Wytheville, Virginia has opened!  Congratulations on the efforts of all those involved.

More than 70 people gathered on Sunday, 16 November 2014, at 165 S. 11^th Street in Wytheville, Virginia, to celebrate the opening of the Wythe County Genealogical & Historical Association’s new Regional Research Center. Some visitors came from Pennsylvania and North Carolina to join in the celebration.

            Several months of remodeling have taken place since the purchase of the Center in mid-August ...

            A major contribution of $250,000 from out-of-state anonymous donors raised the building fund to a level where, after six years, the organization could afford to make the purchase. Although the Association has raised a total of $335,000, they have not yet received any government donations and no grant money or loans were used to purchase the building or remodel the interior. The facility contains over 8,000 square feet of library and meeting space ...

            The Association houses genealogical and historical records for Wythe County, and the other sixteen southwest Virginia counties ...

            Volunteers are available during regular business hours to assist visitors with their research: Mondays and Tuesdays Noon to 5 p.m., and Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Center is closed for holidays and inclement weather. For more information, contact the Center at 276-228-3445 or Beverly Repass Hoch at 276-228-2258, or bev.hoch@adhenterprises.com.

Do you know of other newly opened or soon to be opened research centers catering to family historians? 

We'd sure love to report more good news as 2015 unfolds!

           

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