VAUGHAN, ETC N EW S L E T T ER
JANUARY & APRIL 1984
EDITOR; Verna Baker Banes
Page 21
VOL. II, #3, July 1984
PRESERVING HISTORICAL RECORDS
Genealogists are indebted to the "Great Depression" for preservation of many historical records which
might not otherwise be available for research, in an attempt to create jobs in the 1930's, the government
began a program to collect and house data of historical significance.
Dixon Wecter, in his book THE AGE OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION 1929-1941, published by The
Macmillan Company in 1948, wrote;,
"In 1934 Congress created the National Archives to preserve federal records deserving permanent care.
Housed in a handsome building completed by 1937, it henceforth became an indispensable workshop for
many aspects of American studies.
"The WPA*s Historical Records Survey, instituted in 1936, sent :forth relief workers to take inventories
of local public records stored in city-hall courthouses, garrets and library lofts, to index old newspaper
files, to make abstracts of court cases wherein nuggets of local history were embedded, to examine
business archives and church records and even to scrutinize moldering tombstones for vital statistics.
The allied survey of federal archives combed the land for national historical documents. Luckily, the
recent perfecting of micro film rendered possible the photograhic preservation of millions of pages
crumbling into decay. A special division measured some twenty-three hundred historic buildings,
making thousands of diagrams, sketches and photographs for posterity. In this way the negligence
of many communities in preserving their past was to an important degree redressed.
"The major emphasis was placed upon collective tasks, chiefly the preparation of guidebooks to states,
cities, highways and waterways. Several volumes of folklore were garnered, ranging from ex-slave
narratives to tall tales of South Dakota and special studies like those of Swedes and Finns in New
Jersey and Armenians in Massachusetts, with photographs embellishing each volume. The GUIDES
proffered a rich documentation of the American map. mile by mile, unearthing legends and bypaths that
might otherwise have perished, or silhouetting local economic situations with sudden clarity."
Without records copied in those days, genealogical research would be greatly hampered.As that kind
of government program is no longer available, patriotic and historical groups have assumed the
responsibility for preserving records. On the next page a few of these societies are listed. They perform
an important function for their local communities and for the nation as a whole. Please send me names
of others.
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