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Solving Family Puzzles in Fort Wayne

By Janine Pumilia

“Wear comfortable shoes.” That friendly piece of advice, posted on the website of the Genealogy Center at Allen County Public Library in downtown Fort Wayne, is a clue to what’s in store for visitors: A collection so vast that it inhabits a space equal in size to a football field. Only the famed LDS genealogical library in Salt Lake City is larger.

“I believe in each of us there is a longing to know our stories,” says Curt Witcher, the nationally recognized genealogist who’s managed this Fort Wayne gem for 34 years. “Our primary task – and we don’t really view it as a task because we love doing it so much – is to help people succeed in discovering their family stories.”

To that end, his team of seven professional genealogists help novices and seasoned researchers alike to navigate the sprawling facility that welcomes 100,000 visitors each year from across the U.S. and beyond. The caliber of staff, the quality and breadth of both physical and digital collections, and unwavering community support that began long before genealogy exploded in popularity, add up to the Center’s national reputation for excellence.

At the heart of the Genealogy Center is Witcher’s team of super-sleuth genealogist librarians.

“Each member of our team not only has broad and deep expertise in the field of genealogical research, but also specialty areas such as ‘Irish and British lineage’ or ‘people of color in North America,’” he says. “One person is an expert on how to use DNA results in your search. And what’s really exciting to me is that, if we don’t know something, we can find out who does know it because we’re so well connected with other specialists in the field across the country.”

Among items in the massive physical collection are city directories, passenger lists, maps, periodicals, U.S. Census lists, military records and much more.

The digital database collection includes free use of several commercial sites like Ancestry.com and FindMyPast.com. A visit to the library is an ideal way to “test drive” brands before committing money to a personal subscription. Some people ask why a Genealogy Center is needed in this digital age. Can’t we just find everything we need online from home? “The resources available publicly online are like the very tip-top of an iceberg,” Witcher explains. “There’s a whole world of resources below the surface that aren’t yet digitized and won’t be within our lifetimes. It’s just too large. And many important databases that are digitized are accessible only through libraries like ours that have special licensing agreements.”

“Almost without fail, every person who comes through our door learns something about their family that they didn’t know before,” says Witcher. “It’s so exciting for us to watch them as the lightbulb goes off and they have that ‘aha!’ moment and learn how to put pieces of information together. We librarians just love that. Connecting people with meaningful information is the heart of what we do.”

Novices and seasoned researchers alike can feel at home in the Genealogy Center, says Witcher; beginners need not be intimidated by the mammoth collection. And all visitors use the collections and services, including consultations by appointment with genealogists on staff, at no charge.

“There are no barriers to using our resources, whether you live here or across the world,” says Witcher. “The only cost is dimes for making copies on a machine.”

Sometimes people are curious about their ancestry but don’t know how to begin learning about it.

“It all begins with one question,” Witcher says. “What is it you’re trying to learn?”

Some people worry they’ll discover something shameful in their family histories. Others may be adopted and wonder if genealogy has any value for them.

“Your family history doesn’t have to be your bloodline, it can be your heartline,” says Witcher. “It’s perfectly fine, exciting and informative to research the ancestry of the family in your heart – the family that raised you, or to research only Mom’s line if Dad is not in your life. Every family story has twists and turns in it. One thing we know for sure: There’s no such thing as a ‘normal’ family.”

Learn more, sign up for a newsletter and find a list of upcoming virtual presentations at genealogycenter.org. ❚