[Genealib] addresses on information requests

[Susan Scouras]

We accept research requests for a fee and maintain files by name of the
researcher.  As new letters are received from the same person, they get
stapled on top of the old and returned to the file, often with copies of
information found by the staff and kept for future reference.  Some
prolific researchers have their own file folders. The files are purged
annually, with the old letters from anyone we have not had any
correspondence from in five years pulled and discarded. We do not
require proof of relationship and we take personal checks on faith, so
when people send us copies of drivers licenses we destroy the copies,
and  we redact the Social Security numbers on documents of living people
that are submitted with letters. 
 
If we realize that any two researchers could perhaps help each other
(whether they have been letter writers or library patrons), we contact
the first one and ask if we may give their contact information to the
newer person, or send the contact info of the person we spoke with in
the library to the letter researcher, and so on.  
 
We have a Surname File consisting of folders for individual surnames in
which we collect items found by the staff or donated by patrons.  A
folder may contain newspaper or magazine clippings, photocopies of
photographs and documents, one or two-page family tree charts, brief
family histories, funeral cards, etc.  We do not pull anything from
research letters for placement in this file without the permission of
the writer.  The Surname File provides a good alternative for a
researcher who wants to preserve and make available the basic genealogy
or history of a family without compiling a book. 
 
We assist surname researchers in finding each other with our Genealogy
Surname Exchange, which started as a card file years ago, progressed to
a database that could be printed out when updated, then to an online
listing [http://www.wvculture.org/history/surintro.html] that currently
has contact info for 3230 researchers.  New members can submit their
registration online, listing up to five surnames.  We do not require a
West Virginia connection, but most people who find us do so because they
have family lines here anyway.  
 
Susan Scouras
Librarian
WV Archives and History Library
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV  25305-0300
(304) 558-0230, Ext. 742
 
 
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