Annual Report for 2006

The Montgomery County Department of History & Archives, since its establishment in 1934, has been a Mecca for genealogical researchers across the nation. The valuable resources and outstanding staff have made this research library renowned to those in search of family history. While genealogy has helped attract visitors, the department is also very dedicated to preserving Montgomery County's local history, a history that has developed over the past 2 ½+ centuries. Teaching the public on events that impacted the county's culture, society, industry, transportation, education, etc. and recognizing their place in the national arena has been a long-standing mission of the department.

As liaison to the state agencies, the County Historian provides support to and organizes meetings of the county's municipal historians. The County Historian, as Records Management Officer, maintains physical and intellectual control of the inactive records created by county departments and placed in her custody. Additionally, she provides support and assistance with writing New York State Archives grants.

DEPARTMENT STAFF

Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar - County Historian/RMO - full-time
Earlene Melious - Historical Archives Assistant - full-time
Delores Dumar - Clerk/Typist - part-time

VOLUNTEERS

Without the assistance of volunteers, there are many projects in the Department of History & Archives that would go by the wayside due to insufficient time. Volunteers have contributed 1331 ½ hours to the following projects:

Indexing the 1875 New York State census for Montgomery County
Verification of microfilm with original copies of assessment rolls
Extract articles from local newspapers & photocopy for historical files collection
34 books (church records, municipal meeting minutes, local histories) indexed
Compiling obituaries & 50th anniversary notices from local newspaper and index
Transcribing records of Fonda Methodist Episcopal Church
Inserting indexes into books & covering soft-cover books with laminate

RESEARCH LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT & PROJECTS

Assistance provided to public in the Research Library for which the total usage for the year was 1,478, including a student researching Montgomery County W.P.A. projects (Staff)
Research fees are $20 per hour. Total of genealogy research requests answered in 2006 was 61, which resulted in $2,915.00 in revenues turned over to the County Treasurer.
The Catalog of the department's collections was updated and printed, generating revenue of $245.00 that was turned over to the County Treasurer. (Earlene)
Containing a wealth of historical information, our pamphlet file collection is being entered into a database created by Data Processing. To date, of the 650+ files, 200 have been entered. (Earlene)
The collection of 977 negatives and 2,081 photographs received from the Mohawk Valley Democrat newspapers is being placed into protective sleeves, identified, and placed into binders. 95% of that collection has been identified - time spent 107 ¾ hours. (Delores)
Continued research on African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church that was incorporated in Canajoharie in 1857 - discovered newspaper article as evidence of church's existence & researching church property and surrounding deeds (Kelly)
Continued research on the history of the churches that existed in the towns of Florida, Charleston, Root, and Glen. This research necessitates cooperation, which has been generously given, from the historians appointed in those municipalities. (Kelly)
Organized photo binder relating to Montgomery County participation in Civil War (Earlene)
Appealed to 33 Montgomery County churches for copies of 19th records to place in our library - received responses from 5
Downloaded Montgomery County Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and put on CD (Kelly)
Rehoused photo collection already in archives and organized collection of donated Erie Canal photos - 24 ¾ hours (Kelly)
Continued organizing photo binders (Kelly)
10 books sent to the bindery and placed upon shelves
Indexing of Montgomery County Poorhouse records on loan from New York State Archives -- 25 hours (Earlene)
Transcribing records of Fultonville Methodist Church (Kelly)
Accessions for the department: 76 items given by donors from across the nation - 66 for the library and 10 for the archives
Retrievals of Archival Documents (both 2nd & 3rd floor) - 241
Retrievals of bound newspapers (from 3rd floor) -- 68

PUBLIC RELATIONS
1. a. Outreach programming, consisting of presentations, displays, etc. is vital to this department's success. Often, this programming takes place outside of the regular work hours. Outreach presentations included:
2. Requests for information (historical / genealogical / or general in nature) come into the department either by telephone, written correspondence or via e-mail. Requests for information come not only from the general public, but also from other county departments, various agencies (Chamber of Commerce, New York State Court System Historical Society, New York State Archives, etc.), 4th graders learning about NYS history, and media. In 2006, over 388 responses went out of this office answering these requests. (Staff)
3. Participated in Focus Group, along with local educators and historic site representatives, discussing educational programming at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site (Kelly)
4. Designed new brochures for Department and Heritage & Genealogical Society (our "Friends" group) (Kelly)
5. Developed database & began entering collected information for Assoc. of Public Historians of NYS cemetery location survey addendum (Kelly)
6. Consulted with caretakers of Maple Avenue Cemetery (Fultonville) regarding condition of their records
7. The County Historian is a liaison between all of the Town/Village/City Historians and the State. The County Historian hosted two meetings of the Montgomery County Municipal Historians at the Dept. of History & Archives. The discussion centered around what each historian had worked on during the previous year and currently, as well as improving awareness of the history in our respective municipalities. There are a number of projects that we need to work on collectively in order to make this increased awareness happen. Upcoming cooperative projects include compiling a county cemetery map with GIS coordinates and putting together a book of county historical markers.
8. The County Historian hosted a workshop for the Dutch building survey sponsored by the Dutch Barn Preservation Society and the Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Attended workshops at the Fall Conference of the Association of Public Historians of New York State (APHNYS) in Canandaigua, NY -- Oct. 1st & 2nd 2006 (Kelly)
As Co-Coordinator of Region VII (APHNYS), hosted a workshop presented by Capital District Library Council's Regional Archivist, on "The Basics of Archives" at the Holiday Inn in Johnstown. The Workshop was attended by members of local historical societies as well as 16 municipal historians. (Kelly)

PUBLICATIONS & WRITING

Writing is a significant aspect of any historian's job. In 2004, I compiled a 128-page photographic history of Montgomery County that was published by Arcadia, world renowned for publishing local and regional history books, as part of their Images of America series. This book received widespread publicity. The revenue generated from the royalties and turned over to the County Treasurer in June 2006 totaled $270.91. Royalties for the second ½ of 2006 will not be received until the spring of 2007.
Along with co-author Scott Haefner (Old Fort Johnson Historic Site), researched and compiled photographic history of Amsterdam, published by Arcadia in October 2006.
In June, began writing monthly column of Montgomery County local history, titled "Looking Back," for the Leader-Herald newspaper. (Kelly)
Edited "Steeple Chase" Minden churches history for second printing (Kelly)

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

Transfers - County departments transferred a total of 59 cubic feet of inactive records to Records Management.
Dispositions - A total of 53 cubic feet of inactive county records were destroyed by shredding after reaching their scheduled retention period.
Deaccessioned from the Archives 0.039 c.f. of material with no direct connection to Montgomery and/or Tryon Counties. (Kelly)
Prepped assessment rolls for microfilming & sent to vendor for preserving these permanent records on microfilm and freeing up potential future office/storage space - 60 ¼ hours (All)
Retrievals of Inactive Records (requests from depts.) -- 55 (Kelly & Earlene)
Refiling of Inactive Records requests - 20 (Kelly & Earlene)
Hosted NYS Archives workshop "Disaster Planning" at Old Courthouse (Kelly)
As a result of the June flooding, I acted as contact with Document Reprocessors (vendor) and FEMA representatives for the recovery of flood-damaged records and associated cost estimates. I coordinated, with each department affected, an inventory and NYS Archives recommended retention of those records. In December, 3 other departments and I made a site visit to Middlesex, NY to organize the records by department and recommend certain records for destruction (Kelly)
Grants -

Finished up 2005-06 NYS Archives Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund (LGRMIF) grant project in which $24,559 to begin renovations on Old Boiler House, improving building and making it usable for adequate storage of the County's archival and inactive records. Grant funded leveling up concrete floor, replacement of windows and doors, interior framing and insulation and installation of sheetrock on walls and ceiling, and installation of climate control (HVAC).
Awarded 2006-07 NYS Archives LGRMIF grant for second phase of Boiler House conversion to Records Storage Center. Received funding in amount of $34,072 for purchase of fire/sprinkler system, shelving, and a personal computer and printer. (Kelly)
Awarded $25,000 from Senator Hugh T. Farley in the form of a Legislative Grant to assist with Boiler House/Records Storage facility conversion. (Kelly)
Awarded $20,000 from the NYS Archives LGRMIF for a Disaster Recovery Grant to assist with the costs associated with the recovery of the active records damaged in the flooding of the Montgomery County Annex building.

COMMITTEES

The County Historian/RMO served on the following committees:

Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Promotional Committee (Tourism)
Association of Public Historians of NYS (APHNYS) Cemetery Addendum Committee - Chair
Planning committee for Western Frontier symposium - to be held Oct. 2007
Records Advisory Board - Chair
Mohawk Valley Museum Consortium Nominating committee

In May of 2006, on behalf of the Montgomery County Bar Association, I received the Liberty Bell Award in recognition of my contributions to preserving local history.

The late spring and early summer of 2006 had tremendous effects upon the Department of History & Archives. First, we lost a dear friend and long-time volunteer, Volkert Veeder. He had been a daily fixture at our office for more than twelve years, binding and repairing books and documents, and being our font of knowledge. His loss is felt by staff and visitors alike.

Secondly, our department, along with the rest of Montgomery County, felt the impact of the June flooding. Fortunately, we did not suffer damage to any of our records, however, as a result of being closed for almost two weeks, our visitation was hindered.

We did acquire, from the Montgomery County Clerk's Office, the microfilming camera and equipment. It is our hope that we can utilize this equipment for the preservation of Montgomery County's long-term and permanent records without having to go to an outside source to do so.

For 2007, we look to continue improving public access to our records and expanding our collection. We also look forward to completing the renovations on the former Boiler House and moving the inactive and archival records into a more adequate storage environment.

I wish to thank the Board of Supervisors, our volunteers, donors and Legislators for their continued support of this department and the Records Management Program.

Respectfully submitted,
Kelly A. Yacobucci Farquhar
County Historian/RMO

Annual Report for 2005

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