The Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana

October is Family History Month, and I am thrilled to partner with The Genealogy Center at Allen County Public Library and Visit Fort Wayne, Indiana to bring you tips to help you discover your family’s history.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by ancestry.com. Every family has a story, and ancestry.com has the largest collection of online family history records to help you discover yours. See what records you can find at familyrambling.com/familystory.

My guest is Curt Witcher, Director of Special Collections at the Allen County Public Library.

About The Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne

Located inside the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, The Genealogy Center is the second-largest family research collection in North America, behind the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. But The Genealogy Center is the largest collection in a public library.

“We have about 1.2 million physical items in the collection, but that’s not all,” says Witcher. “We actually license every major genealogical database so if you’re here, you not only have access to the 1.2 million physical items but you also have free access to all those major databases that you would find in different libraries across the country.”

The third part of the “trifecta,” as Witcher calls it, is the engaged and knowledeable staff. “With all of us, we have a couple of centuries of genealogical research experience, and we will get geeked out about helping people find their stories,” says Witcher. He says the staff are experts in matching people up with the right data to help them find their stories.

What You’ll Find in The Genealogy Center

The goal of Fred Reynolds when he began The Genealogy Center was to provide “a place where people could find their stories.” While some items that were collected “BC” (“before computers”) has been digitized, much of the information hasn’t made it online yet because it just isn’t important enough for aggregators to invest in putting it online.

“I like to say we have the ‘best of both worlds,’ ” says Witcher. “We still have hundreds of thousands of items on microfiche or microfilm. We have the legacy medium like print and microfilm, and print will never go away. There are thousands of books every year being published in paper, not online. So we have the best of both worlds.”

Everything at The Genealogy Center is free, except if you want to make a paper copy. You can even scan documents to a flash drive for free.

Databases like ancestry.com, newspapers.com and others that can become expensive to subscribe to are free at the Center. Plus, there are others that you likely haven’t even heard of that can be helpful. “We really enjoy making those available because they can really help people out,” says Witcher. “We can bounce from ancestry.com to other databases to our book collection, all through the knowledge of the staff we have here.”

Genealogy Tips for Beginners

TV shows like “Who Do You Think You Are” make genealogy look easy (and very exciting). But, it can be a bit overwhelming, somewhat difficult, and even disappointing.

“I love these TV shows,” says Witcher, “because they get people excited about genealogy. But they pick particular stories that look easy, and you can’t fit all of your research into the 47-minute or 16-minute show.”

So how should you begin your genealogical journey?

• Start with a question. Whether you want to know more about a paternal grandfather who was dead before you were born or want to know more about a cool last name in your family, it all starts with a question you want to answer about y