by Karen Wente
University and college libraries have a wealth of genealogy and historical information. Colorado State University’s Morgan Library in Ft Collins is open to the public and library cards are FREE. Resources are both at the library and online. Morgan Library’s ‘Archives and Special Collections’ (http://lib.colostate.edu/archives) include not only genealogies of well-known Coloradoans, but collections such as Sidney Heitman’s Germans from Russia in Colorado Study Project Collection which contains interviews with Germans from Russia, information on the influence Russians had on Colorado, newspaper articles, slides, an extensive collection on the Volga Germans in Colorado, oral histories, transcripts, conference papers, student research papers, photos, books, personal & family files and more. Much information in this collection discusses Russians in Larimer and Weld Counties. You can get the summary about this collection online.
Morgan library has enormous holdings of resources such as rare books, manuscripts, photo collections, family genealogies, newspapers and primary sources. Morgan Library’s online digital collections (https://lib.colostate.edu/digitalcollections/) include access to documents, images, video and audio, databases, the CSU library catalog, catalog resources from 8 nearby universities, research guides, and history books.
If your family is from Colorado, don’t forget to check out the CSU Morgan Library (https://lib.colostate.edu/), as well as UNC’s Michener’s Library and the University of Wyoming and University of Colorado Libraries. No matter where your ancestors are from, you may be missing valuable information if you don’t check out the university and college library collections. Just be careful not to get a parking ticket. You usually can get a parking permit by visiting the university police department.
Karen Wente is an instructor and volunteer for Larimer County Genealogical Society. The society meets at 6:30 pm on every third Thursday at Old Town Library in Fort Collins except December. Please visit our website at www.lcgsco.org or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lcgsco for our many FREE classes.