"Its Not all on line: Researching in Archives"

Melissa Barker

AKA

The Archive Lady

Monday, February 8, 21

Members ONLY

Melissa Barker is a Certified Archives Manager and Public Historian currently working at the Houston County, Tennessee Archives. She is affectionally known as The Archive Lady to the genealogy community. She lectures, teaches and writes about the genealogy research process, researching in archives and records preservation. She conducts virtual presentations across the United States and other countries for any historical or genealogical group. She writes a popular blog entitled A Genealogist in the Archives and is a well-known published book reviewer. She writes a bi-weekly advice column entitled The Archive Lady published at Genealogy Bargains. She writes history pieces for her local newspaper, The Houston County Herald, called From the Archives. She has been a Professional Genealogist for the past 16 years with expertise in Tennessee records and she is currently taking research clients. She has been researching her own family history for the past 30 years.

“Statistics say that there is less than 10% of all the world’s genealogical records are online”. This statement has been said by many genealogy professionals and archivists, including myself. The truth be told, that percentage is probably more like 3%-5%. As genealogists, we are living in a time when there are huge amounts of genealogy records being put online on a daily basis. We can do research in the comfort of our own homes with our pajamas and fuzzy slippers until 3 o’clock in the morning if we want to. Unfortunately, we have been lulled into thinking that “everything is online”. When in reality, the majority of all genealogy records are sitting in repositories waiting to be discovered by the genealogist. This presentation will show why you need to contact or visit an archive and seek out those records that are not online.