"A VERY BUSY PART OF THE STATE LIBRARY:" GENEALOGY AT THE STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF PENNSYLVANIA

While the number of family historians visiting archives has gone down in the past decade as a result of increasing resources available online, they still constitute the majority, or about 50?60 percent of archives patrons, says Jonathan Stayer, head of the reference section at the Pennsylvania State Archives. Before the advent of the internet, they made up about 80 percent of the patrons, estimates Stayer. Like at the Pennsylvania State Archives, gene alogists comprise the majority of patrons in many archival facilities across the nation, including many NARA facilities. The observation by archivist Richard Cox that genealogy has emerged as "one of the most public' of all history"1 forms remains accurate today. During my Scholars in Residence project at the Pennsylvania State Archives in the summer of 2007, I researched how and why genealogy became such an important part of the work of the State Library of Pennsylvania and the State Archives. A particular focus was on the history of Pennsylvania German fam ily history as facilitated by the Library and Archives. How and why have the State Library of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State Archives facilitated and promoted research on family history from the late nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century? In what ways have these institu tions contributed to shaping and defining the popularity and public nature of genealogy over time? What were the personal, what were the institutional connections between the State Library and Archives and Pennsylvania State Archives and other hisrorical and genealogical institutions in the state and beyond? What kind of historical narratives did the work of the Library and