Your Help is Needed to Create a Genealogy Library in Logan City, Utah

The following is an e-mail that I received from Holly T. Hansen of My Ancestors. Holly has kindly given me permission to republish it here:

Hello Dick,

As you know, Logan City received, through donation, the resources of the Everton Library (approximately 80,000 books, periodicals, etc).  There IS a room available in the new City building and funds available in Logan Library's budget to prepare the room to house the collection and make it available to the public.  However, there is some concern among city council members whether the public will really use the collection if it is made available.  We need to thank them for acquiring this priceless genealogical research collection and making it available as soon as possible.

The council does not understand how genealogists will use this collection; they don't believe that anyone would come from out of state.  So they are content to leave the bulk of it in storage. We need to let them know that genealogists plan their vacations around great research repositories such as this. I'm sure many of you are anxious and willing to participate in conferences being planned around this enormous collection.

To let them know that you, as a genealogist, NEED this collection and would use it if it were available to the public, please send an email to jparrish@loganutah.org or send a letter to Mayor Doug Thompson 255 North Main St., Logan, Utah 84321 before January 31, 2005.

Thank you for taking time to let others know about this situation. Please pass the word.

Best Regards,
Holly

Holly T. Hansen
My Ancestors
www.myancestorsfound.com

Comments

[Melonie Crnich]

As an avid genealogyist in the State of Utah, I want to thank you for perserving any and all records from the past. I have been researching an ancestor who immigrated from Scotland to one of the small towns around Logan. I was unable to find any information in the usual records but came to Logan and was able to view a local history which talked about my ancestor and gave me the clues for which I had been searching for many years. Please make these records available to the public. If a link to the catalog of items is put online, I am sure they will be used. Logan area has a great history of some of the first settlers of our state. Let's preserve it and make it available to those ancestors who want to remember them. Thanks

[Donna Bray]

Dear Mayor and City Council:

I would make trips to Logan City because I am a genealogist.

I have already made trips to Salt Lake for the Everton Library and the LDS resources. Genealogists go where the material is. I go to Salt Lake, Fort Wayne, Wichita, Lexington, Ky. West Virginia and Dallas, and whereever the library is that has the material. I take my family along, and we need hotels and meals and other services....all to learn who my ancestors are!

Not making this world famous library available to the public would cause the loss of valuable family history to millions of people in this world. And I feel the reputation of your city would be forever known as the city who did not make it available. Why would you want that stigma. Open your hearts and make way for us, because we will be there.

I consider all the money I have spent on genealogical trips to see resources like the Everton Library as an investment in my family, as well as see to this wonderful country.
P.S. Please, please, consider getting a genealogist on your city council, or city staff, or in your public relations department. They would understand in a heartbeat!!!

Sincerely
Donna Bray
Lee's Summit, Missouri


Donna Bray
braydon29@kc.rr.com

[DeAnn G. Simonich]

I will email the address listed. I have two polgamist ancestral lines from Wellsville. I would use the family history information if it were stored made available.

Thank you for letting us know that it is available. If it is in storage, it does not do anyone any good.

DeAnn Simonich