Tracing Family History

On Wednesday, March 18, 2015, Kathie Otto, University of Wisconsin-River Falls archivist at the library's Area Research Center and Archives, presented a wonderful introduction to researching family genealogy and history, especially for those of us with Wisconsin roots.

Kathie explained that Wisconsin has established research centers all around the state--located in university libraries--each housing the official government documents of assigned counties, along with  other historically significant information and artifacts for its area.  UWRF is the depository for Pierce, St. Croix, and Burnett counties.

Kathie Otto, UW-River Falls librarian
and archivist

While tracing family history used to be a difficult task, state and local historical societies, area archives, and the Internet now provide a good deal of help.   Sites such as Ancestry and FamilySearch are good starting points to discover family relationships and to create family trees.  Free versions of Ancestry are available at public libraries and provide some information while the subscription service at Ancestry.com provides access to many more sources.

As we all know, not everything we need is available on the Internet.  People with expertise--librarians, archivists, historians--are a critical resource in any research project, including family history.  They are able to point out many resources we may not even know exist.  If you are from western Wisconsin, a trip to the lower level of UWRF's library would be very worthwhile.  There you can find not only a repository of county records, but also many church and cemetery records, decades of city and phone directories, local history books, plat maps, newspapers, as well as yearbooks, school censuses, and other materials.

If you are looking for information from other states, Kathie and her staff can also help.  Kathie is very knowledgeable about the Plains states, having worked in Montana, South Dakota, and Minnesota.  She also knows how to help you focus your searches, to formulate the questions you need to ask, and contact the appropriate offices and agencies who might be able to help you.

Glenn and Jeanette Potts, Illinois natives, have been pursuing their family's histories for quite some time.  Jane Harred has been exploring her family's journey from England, Germany, and Sweden to Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota.  Laura Zlogar has made some interesting contacts with village residents in Broughton, Scotland, from which her great grandmother left, eventually to arrive in Arlington, South Dakota in 1880.  Bernie Brohaugh has been working on his family history for more than 20 years, leading him and Karen to the farms of Norway where he connected with distant cousins.

Those in attendance agreed that we learned a great deal and expect to be visiting Kathie soon to continue our searches for family history.  We also look forward to seeing her again at a future meeting.  Kathie has been researching local history as it relates to the Civil War and would like to share her findings with us.