Yes, Library Cards Can Be Genealogical Documents!

As we've moved into the digital age, library cards have become a thing of the past. Someone asked me just the other day if a library card could be considered a genealogical document and I said, "Why, of course! If it has a name, date, & place on it, then I would consider it a genealogical document." Just think of all the library card treasures that could still be floating around out there! Please rescue them for future genealogists.

For example, a girlfriend gave me a book out of her homeschool library her children had read, because I am studying about steamboats on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. She must have picked it up at a book sale somewhere as it was stamped with the name of the former repository -- Saint Augustine School, which has since closed.

Although there are no family members of mine or my husband's on the library card below, I have transcribed the names and dates for a future generation to find. The stamp inside the book cover has given the school's name and address and the little card inside the library card pocket has given clues to a child's name, when the child attended school there, what they were interested in at the time, and what classroom they were in.

Due Date -- Borrower's Name -- Room Number

5-22-1966 -- Mike McMurray -- 205

1-19-1968 -- Joe Davis -- 206

11-25-1968 -- Tom Turner -- 205

2-5-1969 -- Marie Brancato -- 206

10-27-1971 -- Mark Seilold -- 205

no date -- Shahon -- no room

Library Card for: Frontiers of America Series: Steamboats to the West. By Edith McCall. Children's Press, USA., 1959.

Repository: Saint Augustine School, 1800 East 79th St, Kansas City, Missouri.

Update (9-21-2016): This library card has been added to the Jackson County, MO USGenWeb site and approved here! My very first contribution!

More to Read:

1. I have found many of the riverboat pilots mentioned in the book on Findagrave and added them to a virtual cemetery here. I eventually hope to find information about a ferry and/or other boats my 3rd great-grandfather may have traveled on.

2. "Finale: St. Augustine's, KCMO" By Curmudgeon. Blog post.

A Moment in Time Ephemera

Some people like to use 3-D decorations in their heritage scrapbooks of the ancestors, but I, personally, don’t like bumpy albums with dented pages. I do like using personal keepsakes, however, that bring my ancestors to life and thought I would compile a list of flat ephemera one could use. Take time to plunder the attics, closets, dressers, hope chests, jewelry boxes, junk drawers, photo albums, recipe boxes, scrapbooks, sewing cabinets, and writing desks of your grand-relatives for mementoes before the estate sale.

Note: Reproduce good quality permanent copies of paper documents at your local printer and archive the originals in a fireproof document box. Ink-jet photocopies are temporary in nature and might fade over time.

address labels, alphabet stencils (new and used), autographs, baseball trading cards, botanical illustrations, bookmarks, calling/business cards, cancelled checks, car keys, certificates (adoption, award, birth, church membership, death, guarantees, marriage, military, prize, stock, Sunday School promotion, warranties) children’s artwork, church bulletins, clothing tags, candy packaging labels (candy bar, crackerjack, gum wrappers, Valentine), dance cards, desk calendar pages, dog tags, flashcards, garden catalogs, garden seed packets, hair ribbons, embroidery thread, favorite poetry (Bible verses, quotes), feathers, flattened spice tin fronts, foreign coins (tokens), funeral leaflets, graduation diploma, handwritten recipes, hankies, images from a favorite book, lace, lacy gloves, ledger, library cards, guest-books (guest check receipts), journal and diary accounts, letters, a lock of hair (hair-nets), locker tag, maps (paper), menus, old-fashioned packaging labels, old greeting cards,  old schoolbook pages, measuring tapes, needle threader, newspaper clippings, old magazine ads, old patterns (envelopes with images and tissue patterns), old typewriter keys, paper doilies, paper dolls, patches, photos of heirlooms (favorite toys), photographs of their homes, perfume bottle labels, pinked swatches of calico and gingham feedsack fabric, playing cards, postcards,  pressed flowers, printed tablecloths,

quilt patterns, receipts, report cards, rickrack, school papers, a sequin from a special dress, sheet metal jewelry (photos of jewelry), sheet music, silhouettes, slides, stereoscopic viewing cards, suitcase stickers, theater programs, ticket stubs, traced hands or feet cut-outs, travel brochures, utility bills/receipts, used envelopes, used postage stamps, vintage Valentines, vintage wrapping paper, wallpaper remnants, watch parts (crystals, faces, hands, gears), wedding invitations, and wedding dress fabric.

Postscript: I stumbled across a Civil War quilt blog and she had an article on Albums: Silk and Paper. Another item to add to the list to look for!

 Compiled by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 9/29/2019