Documenting the Pomeroy family

I spent a good portion of this afternoon hearing about an archive of information concerning the Pomeroy family in the United States. The archive is not in an old building or a library or the corner of someone's living room. The archive housed in a Syracuse-based corporation.

Bill Pomeroy has turned his interest in his family history, and the need to document it, into a department of his business. CXtec is a very unique environment and having a department that is involved in genealogical research makes it even more unique. What is referred to as Project Roots lives on the Internet at the American Pomeroy Historic Genealogical Association (APHGA).

It was interesting listening to Bill Pomeroy and Nancy Maliwesky, director of APHGA, talk about the research they have done and the documentation they are creating. While it is not always possible for them to digitize materials using high-quality methods, they find that some images just allow them to capture the information they need while going through an archive. Sometimes digitization is a means to an end (noting useful information). Images on the web site currently include photos of people they are trying to identify. Again a means to an end.

I left them feeling quite energized! Here is a group that is digging deep into many archives into order to piece together the history of a large family with roots that go back to the 1500s. They are using whatever means possible (yes, legal and ethical) to find that history with a goal of bringing the history to light. Speaking of bringing history to light, one of the projects they have started is the Pomeroy Anvil Trail. Six have already been placed and more are in the works.

By the way, if you have a piece of Pomeroy family history, Nancy Maliweski would like to hear from you.

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Technorati tag: Digitization, Archives