Post by cheryl on Aug 2, 2007 12:55:13 GMT -5
... is one of the good things in Freehold Borough.
HISTORY BY THE BOOKS
www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/REPORTER03/708020318/1099
Historical association a repository of information
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/2/07
BY JOSEPH SAPIA
STAFF WRITER
On some days, people look for information. Other days, they don't.
"It seems to be sporadic," said Gail Hahn, 61, a Freehold Township volunteer at the Monmouth County Historical Association library in Freehold. "Some days, I'm by myself. Some days, a roomful."
Overall, though, an estimated 45 people come through a month, seeking information, said librarian-archivist Carla Zimmerman. Their focus is something related to Monmouth County.
The library has about 7,000 books, scores of maps, an estimated 15,000 photographs, county newspapers, Revolutionary War materials, miscellaneous collections (account books, diaries, scrapbooks, correspondence) and gravestone listings.
The library also has various county-related books for sale.
"It was very helpful to me," said Ruth E. Alt, 82, a Marlboro historian-genealogist. "Any library you go to, you've got to see what's there. I think it's a pretty good little library. Good local stuff."
"It's great, it's a wonderful place," said Kevin Coyne, 48, Freehold's official historian and a nonfiction book writer. "It's small, it's not lavish, but it has a tremendous collection of local history."
"Our most popular collection is the North American Phalanx," said Zimmerman, speaking of the Utopian lifestyle community that existed from the early 1840s to middle 1850s in Colts Neck.
The library has North American Phalanx meeting minutes, deeds, stockholders papers, menus, photographs and rules.
Coyne has used the library for years, mainly for his volunteer work as Freehold historian and for one of his books. It was his main resource for his World War II era book, "Marching Home: To War and Back with the Men of One American Town" — that "town" being the Freehold area.
"I spent a lot of hours there," Coyne said. "I look up from this bound volume (of newspapers) and it was 1945. I walk out expecting to see Hudsons and Packards."
Coyne — who, for a time, was an association trustee — recalled seeing people from elsewhere stopping by as they vacationed in Monmouth County. They were researching their families, he said.
Times around the library have changed since about 2000, as the Internet increased in popularity. Ancestry.com, for example, is dedicated to history research.
"It used to be you had to come here," Zimmerman said.
Be careful and verify information, especially information from the Internet, said Zimmerman, 45, who started with the association in her current job in 1996.
Popular now is research on houses, she said. "That's the current in-vogue."
Often the researchers are people who recently bought a home or are in the process of buying, Zimmerman said. Houses are difficult to research because deeds record real estate transfers, not buildings, for example, according to the association librarians.
Also popular are studying genealogies, researching histories of locales, students doing serious research and the study of 20th-century boats, according to the librarians. The interest in the boats varies from divers interested in shipwrecks to model-makers replicating ships.
"The whole genealogical thing got started with "Roots,' " said Zimmerman, referring to the the 1970s book by Alex Haley that was based on his family's history and the television mini-series.
Hahn began volunteering in 2001 and normally works Wednesdays. But she was a library user first.
"She was a researcher who came frequently," Zimmerman said. "She knew what she was doing."
Hahn, a retired mathematics teacher at Red Bank Regional High School, was doing her family genealogy. Her family — the Stout family — came to Monmouth County in 1664 and settled in the Holmdel area.
"I think the Arcadia books have done for local history what "Roots' has done for genealogy," Zimmerman said.
Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" books series focus on photographs to chronicle communities in the United States.
The library also looks for items to take in.
"If people are cleaning out their closets and they have high school yearbooks, class photos, student newspapers, organization newsletters, really anything about Monmouth County," said Zimmerman, speaking of items the library is interested in having. "I have a really broad net."
If the library does not meet a researcher's needs, it may be able to direct the person elsewhere.
"It's good to feel us out," Zimmerman said. "Even if we don't have the materials they are looking for, we may know where we can send them, what other repositories may be helpful."
HISTORY BY THE BOOKS
www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/REPORTER03/708020318/1099
Historical association a repository of information
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/2/07
BY JOSEPH SAPIA
STAFF WRITER
On some days, people look for information. Other days, they don't.
"It seems to be sporadic," said Gail Hahn, 61, a Freehold Township volunteer at the Monmouth County Historical Association library in Freehold. "Some days, I'm by myself. Some days, a roomful."
Overall, though, an estimated 45 people come through a month, seeking information, said librarian-archivist Carla Zimmerman. Their focus is something related to Monmouth County.
The library has about 7,000 books, scores of maps, an estimated 15,000 photographs, county newspapers, Revolutionary War materials, miscellaneous collections (account books, diaries, scrapbooks, correspondence) and gravestone listings.
The library also has various county-related books for sale.
"It was very helpful to me," said Ruth E. Alt, 82, a Marlboro historian-genealogist. "Any library you go to, you've got to see what's there. I think it's a pretty good little library. Good local stuff."
"It's great, it's a wonderful place," said Kevin Coyne, 48, Freehold's official historian and a nonfiction book writer. "It's small, it's not lavish, but it has a tremendous collection of local history."
"Our most popular collection is the North American Phalanx," said Zimmerman, speaking of the Utopian lifestyle community that existed from the early 1840s to middle 1850s in Colts Neck.
The library has North American Phalanx meeting minutes, deeds, stockholders papers, menus, photographs and rules.
Coyne has used the library for years, mainly for his volunteer work as Freehold historian and for one of his books. It was his main resource for his World War II era book, "Marching Home: To War and Back with the Men of One American Town" — that "town" being the Freehold area.
"I spent a lot of hours there," Coyne said. "I look up from this bound volume (of newspapers) and it was 1945. I walk out expecting to see Hudsons and Packards."
Coyne — who, for a time, was an association trustee — recalled seeing people from elsewhere stopping by as they vacationed in Monmouth County. They were researching their families, he said.
Times around the library have changed since about 2000, as the Internet increased in popularity. Ancestry.com, for example, is dedicated to history research.
"It used to be you had to come here," Zimmerman said.
Be careful and verify information, especially information from the Internet, said Zimmerman, 45, who started with the association in her current job in 1996.
Popular now is research on houses, she said. "That's the current in-vogue."
Often the researchers are people who recently bought a home or are in the process of buying, Zimmerman said. Houses are difficult to research because deeds record real estate transfers, not buildings, for example, according to the association librarians.
Also popular are studying genealogies, researching histories of locales, students doing serious research and the study of 20th-century boats, according to the librarians. The interest in the boats varies from divers interested in shipwrecks to model-makers replicating ships.
"The whole genealogical thing got started with "Roots,' " said Zimmerman, referring to the the 1970s book by Alex Haley that was based on his family's history and the television mini-series.
Hahn began volunteering in 2001 and normally works Wednesdays. But she was a library user first.
"She was a researcher who came frequently," Zimmerman said. "She knew what she was doing."
Hahn, a retired mathematics teacher at Red Bank Regional High School, was doing her family genealogy. Her family — the Stout family — came to Monmouth County in 1664 and settled in the Holmdel area.
"I think the Arcadia books have done for local history what "Roots' has done for genealogy," Zimmerman said.
Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" books series focus on photographs to chronicle communities in the United States.
The library also looks for items to take in.
"If people are cleaning out their closets and they have high school yearbooks, class photos, student newspapers, organization newsletters, really anything about Monmouth County," said Zimmerman, speaking of items the library is interested in having. "I have a really broad net."
If the library does not meet a researcher's needs, it may be able to direct the person elsewhere.
"It's good to feel us out," Zimmerman said. "Even if we don't have the materials they are looking for, we may know where we can send them, what other repositories may be helpful."
