Old Bones Family Research of New England: Index to Collections at the Museum of Springfield History

The Lyman & Merrie Museum of Springfield History is what I would call "The Best Kept Genealogical Secret in Western

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Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum Of Springfield History (Photo credit: pecooper98362)[/caption]

Massachusetts." It is a facility that is part of the Springfield Library system and is situated across the street from the Quadrangle of museums: the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, the Springfield Science Museum, the Michelle and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts and the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum (currently under an extensive remodeling program). The Museum of Springfield History houses the History Library & Archives, the subject of the PVHN blog linked here: Index to Collections.

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The Connecticut River and Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. Looking south from Mt. Sugarloaf in Deerfield, toward the towns of Sunderland, Amherst and Whately. The buildings of the University of Massachusetts Amherst can be seen in the distance to the left, and farther off, the Holyoke range of mountains. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

The PVHN (Pioneer Valley Historical Network) is coordinated by one of the the archivists, Cliff McCarthy. Cliff posts e-mails of historical and genealogical activities throughout the Pioneer Valley by maintaining a large e-mail contact list. What I want everyone to be aware of is the PVHN Research Finding Aids Project. To quote the blog :

Many of the Pioneer Valley’s museums and archives, both large and small, have printed “finding aids” for certain collections, or for their entire holdings. These finding aids, once a standard practice for museums and archives, are used by museum staff to locate specific items from those collections. For the researcher, they provide insight into the holdings of that museum or archives. Frequently, these finding aids are not digitized and are nowhere to be found on the world wide web.

This project will enable researchers and the general public to utilize archival resources of the Pioneer Valley that are currently languishing because finding aids for many important collections have not been made available on the Internet.

It's another site that's well worth the look for anyone researching in Western Massachusetts.