A person on another list raised an important point about the expense
of ordering from the Wisconsin State Historical Society. It is
expensive and some of this cost is mandated by recent state
governmental legislation which requires a $15.00 additional charge
for each out of state order. Even society membership can not bypass
this fee because it is not at the discression of the WSHS. I am all
for finding the least costly way to obtain public information, so
please read on.
My idea was that a person could find the existance of data that is
possibly connected to their
research. Example:
I put in one of my branch surnames, KURZ, and 12 records about that
surname in Wisconsin come
up. I can see the names of the individuals, of the books, years
involved, authors, publishers, page
numbers and where in Wisconsin these people lived. With the
obituaries from their Wisconsin
Necrology, the full name, birth and death year and location of the
person at death is given. If any of
these 12 look like possibilities I would first try to find the books
in my local library, or through
interlibrary loan, and check that info out further myself for
connection to my KURZ family. Or ask on
line the Area Resource Center (ARC) for that place to make
photocopies of the specific pages, since
these are books that are generally in university libraries and
larger central public libraries. For
obituaries, contacting the local WIGenWeb County site is a good
place to start when looking for the
name of an old newspaper that would have printed the original
obituary. There are lots of good ways,
once you know that the information exists, to get copies, and that
part is free at this site. A little
work can go a long way in saving money. Good Point! Rita