52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy
Week 4 – Free Offline Genealogy Tools: For which free offline genealogy tool are you most grateful? How did you find this tool and how has it benefited your genealogy? Describe to others how to access this tool and spread the genealogy love.
The Tool I am most grateful for is the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (The MAC). It is a part of the Eastern Washington Historical Society and its archives has some early funeral home records of funeral homes that have closed, one of the largest collections of photographs around, most by Charles Libby who was a good photographer and he kept records to identify the date and place of each photo. They have oral histories of many local celebrities (the one Bing Crosby did is missing), collections of early pioneers, and a wonderful staff some paid and some volunteers. The do have a small admission fee and do charge for copies, but hopefully they will continue to stay open. Due to the economy the state has told them they must find their own funding within the next two years as the state will no longer give them funds to operate.
The biggest exhibit of the MAC is the Campbell House, a house built using funds from mining in the Coeur d'Alene mining district and preserved as it was when the Campbell family lived there. The MAC came to our genealogical society looking for some help in finding out about the people that worked for the Campbells as servants, chauffeurs, gardeners, etc. So several of us did some research on a few of the people that worked for the Campbells. We got free access while doing the research so got to see a lot of the archives they have. Has it helped my research? No, but I have sent a lot of people there to further their research.
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