How Much Microfilm are We Losing?

During my morning routine I regularly read articles shared on Twitter by Deb Ruth and other genealogy colleagues. This morning I was reading an article from BuffaloNews.com called "No Place Like Home" by Charity Vogel. It's an article about a woman who was an archivist for the Smithsonian and traveled the world only to find that she ultimately wanted to settle in her small home town of Cherry Creek in Western New York.  The article goes on to detail all that she has done to transform the historical scene in Cherry Creek.

What popped out at me was this line,

"Researching the history of her own home and other structures and incidents in Chautauqua County -- in part by using old copies of the Cherry Creek News from the 1880s through the 1930s, which she found in the local museum on 17 rolls of decaying microfilm and has since had converted to a digital format."

Decaying microfilm?!!

Ok, I admit, when it comes to microfilm my view of the  world is fairly limited.  My general sense, though I know it is erroneous, is that all microfilm comes from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

This article sent a shock wave through my body.  What if the microfilm in Cherry Creek is unique and copies aren't held by the Family History Library?  The thought of decaying microfilm is so scary.  How many small historical societies have film that might be disintegrating?  Are we losing important resources?

In this particular case Sharon Howe Sweeting, the subject of the story, came to the rescue and converted the microfilm to digitial format.

That makes me wonder too.  How did she convert the microfilm?  Did she do it herself?  Did she have to go to a company that converts microfilm?  Is it expense or difficult to do?

I hope that this one historical society with its decaying microfilm is not typical of historical societies in New York or beyond.  If it is, I hope that we can save the deteriorating microfilm before it's too late.  I can't help but selfishly think of my own New York ancestors and have fear for my ability to solve my brick walls. In this one case, the folks of Cherry Creek were lucky.  Their microfilm was saved.  But how many won't be so lucky?


Photo Credit: Photo by Deborah Fitchett and used under the creative commons license.

Do You Prefer Books or Microfilm?

Yesterday I found myself at the Essex Registry of Deeds in Salem, Massachusetts.  I had to pause and think hard before I made the trip. 

You see, I had a choice.  I could drive all the way to Salem and look at the books or I could hop on a train and visit the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) in Boston which has all the early deeds and indexes on microfilm.

The advantage of going to NEHGS is that all the microfilm is available in one room with knowledgeable staff ready to help me.  Another big advantage is that I can save the images to my thumb drive and bring them home to store on my own computer.  In addition, I can get other research done because NEHGS has so much more than just deeds.

The disadvantage is that I don't really like using microfilm.  It's time consuming pulling the rolls one by one, reeling through them, moving to another station to save the images.  And I'm always so worried that if I'm not extra gentle that I might tear one of the films. It's just slow.  And not to mention that sometimes the microfilm images just aren't as clear as what is available from the books.  And the advantage of being able to research so many other things at NEHGS can be a real disadvantage if you need to focus on one thing.  The temptation is too strong!

I opted for a two tier plan of action.  I decided to go to the Registry building and do my deed research.  It is so much faster pulling books off shelves, flipping through them and then re-shelving.  Because of the way the Essex Registry is set up I can rest my books for viewing in the same row where I am searching which makes wheeling around and pulling multiple books very easy.

For the second part of my plan I decided to save NEHGS for later in the week.  That way if I didn't finish my deed research I could always do it there. At the same time, I could move on to probate research.

It's not really about deed books.  I have been using microfilm for many things lately, pulling obituaries from newspapers and checking town records.  But somehow I still prefer the option of using books whenever I can.

What about you? Are you a book or microfilm person and why?

Photo Credit: Photo by Plutor used under the creative commons license.