Learning your family's history is made easier thanks to local donors
9:19 p.m. Thursday, November 1, 2007
Susan Marchant, manager of special collections at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, says everyone there is excited about the generous gift to support genealogy research.
"Usually those genealogists are really quiet, but when they hit pay dirt, it's good," Marchant said.
The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library dedicated the Dr. Phillip and Betty Baker Genealogy Center today. The dedication honors a gift to The Library Foundation of $100,000 by the Bakers’ to ensure that the community has 21st century resources for genealogy and family history research.
"This gift to the library foundation to form a Genealogy Center is our opportunity to say thank you to the library and the community," the Bakers said.
Related link
Learn more about how you can do a family search online at the Topeka Library. Simply, log on to TSCL.org for information on when and where you can study your family's history at the library.
Phillip wrote and published three books of family history, with more to come. And he did it with help from the library. He even found out that an ancestor was a neighbor to two United States presidents, Jefferson and Monroe.
The Baker's gift will improve services for the public and upgrade technology.
Marchant says the most important trend is digitization. The internet allows individuals, libraries, schools and other organizations to share resources. Uploading everything to the Web expands the pool of genealogical resources.
The library recently combined Special Collections and genealogy services. The genealogy resources and services can be found on the second floor of library, into the Topeka Room.
Marchant says the gift will help them serve the additional users plus the baby boomers.
"They're beginning to wonder about their backgrounds and their roots and where people came from the how they got here," Marchant said. "It's really picking up. It's a trend a national trend, and we're gonna be ready for it."
The Bakers have lived in Topeka since 1970s.
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