Department History

Wayne County Public Library

Genealogy and Local History Department

 

The origin of the Genealogy and Local History collection of the Wayne County Public Library can be traced back to 1953 when the Wooster-Wayne Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was looking for a project to celebrate their 50th anniversary.  Miss Mary Merritt, Librarian of the Wooster Public Library, suggested to the organization that if it could furnish a bookcase, the library would find a home for the bookcase and the organization’s growing collection of family histories, county histories, Ohio histories, and books about genealogy.  Before long, a second bookcase was needed.

 

The bookcases and the collection moved from place to place for a while.  In October 1967, the DAR collection found a home on the main floor in the Reference area.  As the general library collection grew, the genealogy and local history collection (formerly the DAR collection) migrated to the mezzanine of the library.  In 1985, as part of a library remodeling project, the genealogy collection moved from the mezzanine to a small room located on the lower level, where the current public meeting room is located.  In 2003, as part of a library reorganization project, the genealogy collection moved to its current room.

 

What started out as a one bookcase collection has bloomed into a department with more than 1,000 reels of microfilm and 4,000 volumes of books.  There are 8 microfilm readers, 2 microfiche readers, and 3 Internet computers.  The department is open 65 hours a week.  There are 3 staff members who are readily available to assist researchers.  In addition, we have 12 volunteers who assist with various projects.