While strolling along Main Street in downtown Bryan, it’s hard to miss the imposing Carnegie History Center, with its four Corinthian-style columns flanking the entrance. The center collects and stores historical data and information for Brazos Valley residents’ use, for now and for generations to come.
The second floor houses hundreds of ancestry resources for public use. The shelves are stacked from top to bottom with materials, such as state registers, slave ledgers, periodicals, and quarterlies ranging from local Bryan College Station to places across the pond — as far away as Scotland, Ireland, and even Africa. Additionally, there are resources regarding the Native American population.
Carnegie branch manager Rachael Altman says that in addition to print documents, the library offers a variety of online resources. Ancestory.com can be accessed at home with a B/CS library card. On-site library-goers can also access newspapers.com and a military database that provides information on different military campaigns.
“Some family history you can do at home, but some of the stuff you can only see here,” Altman says. “We have rare books that are out of print that are great, tangible resources that you really can't necessarily find online. I know a lot of people want to do online research, but sometimes you just have to really look at the resource.”
With the abundance of information available, Altman says she suggests those interested should start their genealogy journey by filling out a five-generation chart before following other leads. “The chart is integral to your research and for keeping records. I typically suggest as you get more in depth with research, you keep small binders on each person,” Altman says.
With each person, you will find more than just their birthday, marriage details, and children but also details like where they lived, what they did, and even things they owned, Altman says.
“You can really get expansive on just one person in your lineage. It's not just tracing the 500 people back to 1322. It really all depends on what your objective is.” But she stresses that it's really important to keep records and start simple.
People of all ages can begin research on their families at the Carnegie History Center. Altman says she sees many different reasons for people's interest in their family history, but says it all roots back to the curiosity of where their relatives came from and what they were
like. “I am starting to see more of the next generation [come into the library], which is super exciting,” Altmans says. “Our typical age range is the retired. But as people get older, they start finding out that genealogy research is so much more accessible now and can be done in your pajamas at 2 a.m.”
Many people come in when they have exhausted all of their resources, she says. That is where Altman’s favorite part comes in — to help others pursue information that may be hard to find.
“Family resources — family Bibles, newspaper clippings, obituaries — are extremely important because not every document in the world is digitized,” Altman says. “Honestly, only about 20% of your research might be digitized, so you might be able to complete 20% of your overall research with internet sources, but after that, you have to reference books and print materials.”
Altman says the hardest part is digging yourself out of a roadblock, which can take time and patience. When you get to a stopping point of a brick wall that you can’t get around, you might have to change the person you are looking for and go to a different one that can possibly lead you back to the one who got you stuck, she says. “I say it's like pulling threads on a sweater if you have to backtrack,” Altman says. “It's really just backing up and taking a different direction.”
Altman says a lot of genealogy research is “boots on the ground” where patrons travel from place to place seeking information, which is why Carnegie is a great place to start. Though you may come across a resource that is needed that is not in the library, have no fear: through the interlibrary sharing program, libraries can borrow resources from other libraries for patrons to use at the facility.
“I always say that you can be from Iowa, Indonesia, or Ireland and come in and do your research in the Brazos Valley,” she says.
Carnegie History Center
111 S. Main St., Bryan
(979) 209-5630
bcslibrary.org/carnegie
