COGenBlog

The folks at the Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library (DPL) announced a new electronic newsletter this week. The newsletter, which will be updated monthly, will cover recent acquisitions and new materials, research resources, donation information, and upcoming events.

You can sign up to automatically receive the newsletter in your email, subscribe in your RSS Reader, or simply visit the Newsletter page on the DPL Web site.

I took a look at the first edition of the newsletter this morning and it is very informative. This is exciting news for the Colorado genealogical community.

You can check out the newsletter by going to Western History/Genealogy News.

Meet Wendel Cox. Wendel is the new face in the Western History and Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library. He starting work at DPL the beginning of March but it wasn’t until May that I had the opportunity to meet Wendel and learn a little about his background.

Wendel came here from the University of Kentucky where he managed a project to digitize Kentucky newspapers, cira 1900-1910. The project is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program, a national initiative guided by the Library of Congress and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Before that he taught at Arizona State University and University of Minnesoata Morris.

He has a degree in history from the University of Winnipeg, a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota, and a MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Obviously, Wendel is well qualified for his position.

You can’t miss Wendel when he’s working at the Western History and Genealgoy Department desk. He always has a big smile and is cheerfully helping library patrons.

Wendel was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with one brother. He is presently working on his wife’s genealogy. She has Pennsylvania, English and Slovakian roots. He has found one of her ancestors listed in the English census as a “maker of philosophical and mathematical instruments.” Wendel and his wife have three cats: Othello (16), Little Girl (15), and Pekoe (5).

Welcome to Colorado, Wendel!

Philip J. Panum retired in December from the Denver Public Library. Phil worked at the library for 37 years, 21 of those years in the Western History and Genealogy Department. Phil is a nationally recognized map expert who has helped many of us over the years.

On 13 June 2007, Phil was awarded the Eleanor Gehres Award for his outstanding contributions to the Western History Collection.

Many thanks to Phil for sharing his knowledge and passion with the genealogical community of Colorado.

Colorado genealogical researchers can access information about nearly 2,500 Colorado newspapers by visiting the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (BETA) section of the Library of Congress Web site.

There you will find a database of historical and current newspapers, plus images of twenty-five American newspapers. The images are from newspapers of the District of Columbia (14) and the states of California (1), Florida (6), Kentucky (1), New York (1), Utah (1), and Virginia (1), and only from issues published between the years 1900-1910.

However - for all researchers - the most valuable part of this site is the Newspaper Title Directory, a database which you can search based on various criteria. For instance, you can get a list of:

• All newspapers published in Weld County, Colorado (90).
• All newspapers published in the town of Como, Colorado (2).
• Newspapers published in Colorado Springs between 1890 and 1900 (36) … but the results include papers with unknown dates.
• Colorado newspapers with “Blade” in the title (20) … the results include papers where “Blade” was part of the preceding or succeeding title.
• Ethnic newspapers, such as all the African-American newspapers published in Colorado (14).
• German language newspapers published in Colorado (18).

For any newspaper in the database, you can get more details by clicking on the title. In addition to the data mentioned above, you’ll find names of publishers and frequency of publication. From this “About this Newspaper” view, you can then click on “Libraries that have it” or “Holdings” and get a list of repositories where you can see the newspaper. For instance, three libraries have copies of the Montrose Messenger, which began publishing in 1882:

• Colorado Hist Soc Libr, Denver, CO: Microfilm <1882:11:23> <1883:4:5>
• Kansas State Hist Soc, Newsp Proj, Topeka, KS: Original <1882:11:23> <1888:7:12>
• Pueblo City Cnty Libr Dist, Pueblo, CO: Microfilm <1889:7:11-9:12>

The National Digital Newspaper Program is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress. The database is derived from the library catalog records created as part of the United States Newspaper Program, 1980-2007. You can get more information about these programs at “About Chronicling America.”

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Rocky Mountain Region has announced new hours for the microfilm research room located in Building 46. The research room will no long be opened Saturdays or Thursday evenings until 7pm.

The new hours are:
Monday through Friday, 7:30 am to 3:45 pm.

NARA is located in the Denver Federal Center, West 6th Avenue & Kipling St., Denver.