Tennessee Genealogical Society Blog

Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

8/13/2021

Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Second Saturday tours of the beautiful new state-of-the-art Tennessee State Library & Archives on the northeast corner of the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville are back this Saturday, Aug. 14.

The free, family-friendly Second Saturday guided tours begin every hour, on the hour, starting at 10 a.m. with the last tour beginning at 3 p.m. This event is free to the public. Reservations are not required.

“Our first Second Saturday at the Library & Archives event in July was a great success,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. “We were able to introduce more Tennesseans to the Library & Archives and show them what an incredible resource it is for our great state. I encourage anyone interested in Tennessee history and culture to join us this Saturday.”

Focusing on items about Tennessee and Tennesseans, the Library & Archives, a division of the Department of State, collects and preserves books, journals, maps, photographs, records and other documents of historical and reference value.

The Library & Archives is home to many irreplaceable historical documents, including Tennessee’s three Constitutions, letters from Tennessee’s three presidents, records from 55 former Tennessee governors and original records of the State of Franklin.

The Library & Archives also houses the annals of state government, documents and recordings from legislative proceedings, records from every Tennessee courthouse, copies of all surviving Tennessee newspapers and records from families, businesses, civic organizations, etc.

“Our staff is always excited to give visitors a behind-the-scenes look at our vast and wide-ranging collection and to share about how we preserve our state’s history for current and future generations,” said Chuck Sherrill, Tennessee State Librarian and Archivist.

The new Library & Archives is located at 1001 Rep. John Lewis Way N., in Nashville. The lobby, featuring interactive exhibits highlighting the state’s most precious historical documents, is open to the public Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT. The library, microfilm and manuscripts reading rooms are open for research Tuesday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CT.

For the latest information from the Library & Archives, follow their social media channels: Facebook: Tennessee State Library and Archives and Instagram: @tnlibarchives and the Secretary of State’s Twitter account: @SecTreHargett.

For more information about the Library & Archives or Second Saturdays, call 615-741-2764, email ask@tsla.libanswers.com or visit sos.tn.gov/tsla/plan-your-visit.

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Hurray for the WPA

8/11/2021

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Hurray for the WPA

Recently, I've been using and scanning Works Projects Administration (WPA) records at the Tipton County Museum. I needed to verify if, in fact, the records were copyrighted material. In my search, I came across Judy G. Russell's post in 2016 about WPA records and what a wonderful resource and genealogical gem they are. So, with Ms. Russell's permission, we're sharing her post again. And in case you're wondering... WPA records are not copyrighted material. As Judy has pointed out, federally funded works created by United States government employees in the course of their duties, are not copyrighted. - Sherri

by Judy G. Russell | Jun 23, 2016
More New Deal era records for us to use
Yesterday’s post on the New Deal had reader G R Berry thinking about other records from that time period that are useful for genealogy.

“The New Deal also produced records we can use,” the reader pointed out. “For example, the Work Projects Administration, Division of Community Projects, National Archives Project compiled all the data from ship registrations and enrollments in the customs district of Machias Maine and published them as a book. These records include ownership data. Looking at Hathi Trust’s catalog for that author, they also did similar books for a bunch of other customs districts. Hathi Trust has 978 full view items for a search on Works Project Administration, including titles like ‘The skill of brick and stone masons, carpenters, and painters employed on Works Progress Administration projects in seven cities in January, 1937’, ‘Landplatting in Duluth, Minnesota, 1856-1939,’ ‘Guide to ten major depositories of manuscript collections in New York State (exclusive of New York City)’, ‘Guide to vital statistic records in Arkansas’, ‘Jackson County, Indiana index of names of persons and of firms’, or ‘Annals of Cleveland, 1818-1935; a digest and index of the newspaper record of events and opinions’…”1

Oh, yeah. And those off-the-beaten-track bits and pieces pointed out by this reader don’t even begin to describe the goodies we as genealogists have because of the Works Progress Administration.

The Legal Genealogist has noted the WPA as a genealogical resource before,2 but it’s clearly time to review this topic again.

First established under and funded by the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935,3 its work wasn’t nearly done when, on 21 June 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 19384 that allowed the WPA to continue — and to create some of the most amazing genealogical resources that will ever exist.

Most of us probably know that the Works Progress Administration (“WPA”) was a massive federal project to put people to work in the depths of the Great Depression. It employed millions of Americans on public projects sponsored by federal, state, or local agencies, and as World War II loomed and then began, on defense and even war-related projects.5

And in the course of that effort to put people to work, the WPA hired teachers, historians, clerical workers, writers and photographers to document America as it was and to survey what it had been.

There are three major results of the WPA’s works for which today’s genealogists can be forever grateful.

First, the Historical Records Survey produced a wide variety of inventories of available vital records, plus bibliographies, cemetery and newspaper indexes. It produced inventories of manuscript collections in archives, historical societies and libraries, public and private. It inventoried church records. It produced indexes to censuses and naturalization records. It produced place-name guides. And these records are widely available around the country and on microfilm through the Family History Library.

You want to know about changes in street names in New Orleans between 1852 and 1938? There’s a typewritten volume, Alphabetical Index of Changes in Street Names, Old and New Period 1852 to Current Date, Dec. 1st 1938, prepared by the WPA that’s now online at the Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library.

Want an index to the Blount County, Tennessee, Burial Records? One was prepared by the WPA — it’s in the Tennessee State Library & Archives.

How about an index to birth records from Starke County, Indiana, from 1894-1938? It’s there in the Indiana State Library. Along with the WPA-prepared index to marriage records, 1896-1938, and index to marriage transcripts, 1899-1938.

Want to know what records existed — and exist — in Oklahoma? There’s a catalog of American Indian records found at the Oklahoma Historical Society, inventories of federal documents in the Veterans Administration, post offices, relief agencies, and federal courts, inventories of records in all seventy-seven counties and of municipal records, church archives and private collections within the state — and most of the records of what was done are located in the Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society.6

In Missouri, there are now 302 linear feet of records, or 817 rolls of microfilm of the Historic Records Survey — correspondence, essays, forms, instructions, lists, publications, reports, research material, and notes — at the State Historical Society.7

In Texas, the Historical Records Survey handled “the renovation and rearrangement of more than ten million documents and 362,452 volumes; the transcription of 217,323 pages of records dating from 1731; the preparation of new name or subject indices to 1,169,762 property records and name indices to over four million birth, death, and marriage records; the preparation of new name indices to supplement the original recordings of 928,900 district and county court records; and the inventory of probate case papers for 392,450 estates as a means of assisting interested persons in finding these valuable documents.”8

There are the folks who did the soundex indexing of the 1920 census, undertaken as a Historical Records Survey project of the WPA in New York City. Literally thousands of WPA workers were assigned to that project starting in 1938; it wasn’t finished until 1940.9

But that’s not all genealogists can thank the WPA for. There’s also the Federal Writers’ Project. It may be best known for having produced a series of guide books of the states now known as the American Guide Series. The U.S. Senate has a description of the series online, but focusing on the guides barely begins to do the work of the Federal Writers’ Project justice. In addition to the guide books, there were local histories produced, compilations of folklore, books and pamphlets for children and adults and — best of all — all kinds of interview reports.

Want to know where James H. Armstrong of Ogalalla, Nebraska, was born in 1828? Or what happened to the crops there before they could be harvested in 1887? Check out the interview with his daughter, Ada Case, who was interviewed 14 November 1938.10

How about Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gaston of Ogalalla? Check out the 1938 interview with Mrs. Gaston. You’ll discover that he was born 2 May 1859, at Saskatchawan, Canada, and came to Keith County in 1884. She was born 15 November 1869 at La Port Indiana. They were married at Grant Nebraska, 1888, moved to Happy Hollow and had six children: John Franklin in 1892; Isac Iver, 1894; Katherine Marjria, 1896; Charles Adam, 1890; Kenneth Lloyd, 1902; and Dicy Dorritt, 1906. Most of their life story is there.11

The Slave Narratives may be the most compelling of the oral histories. There are 17 volumes in the series compiled by the WPA entitled Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. And they’re online at the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project in a collection called Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938.

Mrs. John High of Arkansas was interviewed in 1938 and told of Emiline Waddell, former slave of the L.W. Waddell family, born in 1826 in Rabun County, Georgia, a slave of Claybourne Waddell. She was reportedly born a deaf mute but had hearing and speech restored when lightning struck a tree under which she was standing.12

Addie Vinson of Athens, Georgia, told of her father Peter being bought from Sam Brightwell by Ike Vinson. Her father’s parents were Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jacob, slaves of Obe Jackson. And she spoke of her life and the life of other slaves, such as the way the overseer beat the slaves; once her uncle was beaten so badly he couldn’t work for a week.13

And even that’s not all to thank the WPA for. There are also the photographs. Hundreds and hundreds available through the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. Thousands more available at the National Archives. Thousands more than that available through online sources such as the New Deal Photo Gallery at the New Deal Network as featured yesterday.

And then there are all those off-the-beaten-track bits and pieces pointed out by reader G R Berry.

All of these wondrous bits and pieces and resources of the WPA.

Where would we be without them?

SOURCES
Image: Arizona child, photographed by WPA, 1930s.

GR Berry, Comment to Judy G. Russell, “Such a deal!,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 22 June 2016 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 23 June 2016).
ibid., “Thanks for one government ‘boondoggle’,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 21 June 2012 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 23 June 2016).
49 Stat. 115.
52 Stat. 809.
See generally Final Report on the WPA Program 1935-1943 (Washington, D.C. : Government Printing Office, 1947); digital images, Library of Congress Digital Collections (http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html : accessed 22 Jun 2016). See also Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Works Progress Administration,” rev. 16 Jun 2016.
“Historical Records Survey,” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society http://www.okhistory.org/publications/encyclopediaonline.php : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
U.S. Work Projects Administration, Historical Records Survey, Missouri, 1935-1942 (C3551), State Historical Society of Missouri (http://shsmo.org/ : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas Online, “Texas Historical Records Survey,” (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
Claire Prechtel-Kluskens, “The WPA Census Soundexing Projects,” Prologue Magazine, Spring 2002, Vol. 34, No. 1; online, Archives.gov (http://www.archives.gov : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
Ada Case, interview, 14 Nov 1938; transcript and digital images, “American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940,” Library of Congress, American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
Ibid., Mrs. Charles Gaston, interview 5 Sep 1938.
Mrs. John G. High, interview, 20 Oct 1938; transcript and digital images, “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938,” Library of Congress, American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html : accessed 22 Jun 2016).
Ibid., Addie Vinson, interview, 23 Aug 1938.

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Updates from the Jonesborough Genealogical Society

8/5/2021

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Jonesborough Genealogical Society
200 Sabin Drive
Jonesborough, TN 37659

Aug. 12 - Genealogy Help Night: Jonesborough-Washington County Library, 200 Sabin Drive, Jonesborough, from 6 to 7 pm.

Aug. 16 - ZOOM meeting for Washington County, TN Heritage Fair update: Aug. 16, 2021 at 7pm Eastern Time (US and Canada) we will have a ZOOM meeting for those interested in the Washington County, TN Heritage Fair with all the updates of the event and will try to answer all questions. Please contact the Society if you are interested. They are only allowing 20 in each presentation due to the capacity of the room, so pre-registration is required. Volunteers are needed for this event. Also sign-up for the presentations you want to attend at jgstn.org/annual-heritage-fair/ - click on the registration form and then submit. Chad Bailey is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82689915433?pwd=U0tUcmo2OHljcTdJeWd1c3pIOG8wUT09

Meeting ID: 826 8991 5433
Passcode: 004665
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,82689915433#,,,,*004665# US (New York)
+13017158592,,82689915433#,,,,*004665# US (Washington DC)

Dial by your location
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 720 707 2699 US (Denver)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 826 8991 5433
Passcode: 004665
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbpYkIvohl

Aug. 21 - Genealogy Day: Dr. Donald Shaffer, History of African-Americans in Washington County, Tennessee. He will discuss the work on two upcoming books on African-American History including a book on Hezekiah Hankal and a volume on African-American History in Washington County, TN. Langston Centre, 315 Elm Street, Johnson City at 9:30 am.

Sept. 3 & 4 - Washington County, Tennessee Heritage Fair: Friday, Sept. 3 & Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center and Emporium. “The streets of Jonesborough will turn back in time.”

SOCIETY CONTACT INFO:
jgstn.org
info@jgstn.org
www.facebook.com/tnjgs

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Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

Hurray for the WPA

Hurray for the WPA

Updates from the Jonesborough Genealogical Society

Jonesborough Genealogical Society
200 Sabin Drive
Jonesborough, TN 37659

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Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

Second Saturday Tours of the Tennessee State Library & Archives Continue this Week

Hurray for the WPA

Hurray for the WPA

​Updates from the Jonesborough Genealogical Society

​Jonesborough Genealogical Society200 Sabin DriveJonesborough, TN 37659

Ansearchin' News Home

Archives

Categories

Updates from the Jonesborough Genealogical Society

Jonesborough Genealogical Society
200 Sabin Drive
Jonesborough, TN 37659

Ansearchin' News
Home