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[[Category:Strategies for Program Chairpersons]][[Category:Freilich, Kay Haviland]][[Category:Programs]]

Summer Camp for Genealogists
by Kay Haviland Freilich, CG
INTRODUCTION
Take one group of genealogists interested in
learning more about research facilities in an
area. Add another group of genealogists
experienced in using those same facilities.
Mix in the archivists and librarians from the
facilities and stir with a generous amount of
careful scheduling and organization. The
result is Summer Camp for Genealogists, a
program developed by the Genealogical
Society of Pennsylvania (GSP) to introduce
researchers to the myriad of repositories in the
Philadelphia area.
Every area has them—research facilities with
materials that can help genealogists as we
search for our family history. Sometimes these
are the places we immediately think of: the
historical societies, county archives, and
church libraries. Other times, though, these
gems are lesser known and little used. Into
this group we might place a university’s
alumni department, the county law library, or
the museum devoted to a single ethnic group.
As anxious as we might be to venture forth,
we know that first visit to any research
repository is always the hardest. Finding the
facility, learning the rules, and becoming
acquainted with the collection take up
valuable research time. If the repository is in
an unfamiliar location the idea of making that
first visit alone can be truly daunting.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be guided by someone
who knows the facility and its collections?
Summer Camp was created to do just that.
SUMMER CAMP I
Summer Camp I, first held in 1996, was the
idea of GSP’s long-time program chair Vivian
Taylor. That initial week-long session drew
forty researchers who worked with four GSP
volunteers—the camp counselors—while
visiting the area’s major repositories:
Philadelphia City Archives, Philadelphia Free
Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
Archives of the Philadelphia County Register
of Wills, and National Archives, Mid-Atlantic
Region. While campers came from all over the
country, a large number lived within a day’s
drive of the city.
Campers spent one day hearing lectures by
staff members from each facility, then spent
the rest of the week researching at each
location. The counselors, in addition to �
Summer Camp for Genealogists
Page 2 FGS Society Strategies, Set VI Number 8
guiding campers from place to place using
public transportation, shared their own
knowledge of the facilities and offered
suggestions for working in each place.
Additional Summer Camp sessions in 1998
and 2000 followed a similar outline.
SUMMER CAMP II
In July of 2001, GSP introduced Summer
Camp II—Research Philadelphia. The
emphasis here was on the less known and less
used facilities—places where one might find
information to turn an ancestor from merely a
name and dates on a chart into a real person.
Camp Director Susan S. Koelble, CGRS,
specializes in Philadelphia research and she
put together a list of fourteen repositories.
From this list campers selected the five they
most wanted to visit along with five “second”
choices. Thanks to some careful scheduling by
Koelble and GSP’s Executive Director James
M. Beidler, most campers were able to visit
their top five choices.
The list covered a wide range of research
interests. In alphabetical order, the facilities
were: American Swedish Historical Society,
American Philosophical Society, Athenaeum
of Philadelphia, Balch Institute, Evangelical
Lutheran Church Archives, Friends Historical
Library, Germantown Historical Society,
Grand Army of the Republic Civil War
Museum and Library, Jenkins Law Library,
National Archives Mid-Atlantic Region,
Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center,
Presbyterian Historical Society, University of
Pennsylvania Archives, and the Urban
Archives at Temple University.
Only the National Archives was a repeat from
the first camp, and this time the emphasis was
on the lesser used records, both microfilmed
and textual, at NARA. Campers were provided
with brochures from the facilities of choice
and were encouraged to visit Web sites and
utilize on-line catalogs to plan research prior
to arriving in Philadelphia.
COUNSELLING
Each Summer Camp II camper started the
week with an individual session with one of
the four camp counselors, Koelble, Beidler,
Sandra M. Hewlett, CGRS, and the author.
Research goals were reviewed and in some
cases one repository was substituted for
another after the reviews. Changes were made
during the week too, as research led down an
unexpected path. A counselor accompanied
campers to each research location, again
sharing knowledge gleaned from previous
visits. Campers also had time to use the many
resources in GSP’s Reading Room during the
week. Once again campers came from all over
the country, with many from the region.
SUCCESSES
Research finds were many and varied. Several
found unit histories for their Civil War
ancestors at the GAR museum. Some found
World War I draft registration cards for their
ancestors at the National Archives. A few
found letters and documents signed by their
colonial-era ancestors at The American
Philosophical Society. Some found newspaper
articles about their ancestors at the Urban
Archives, which holds the “morgue” of the
defunct Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. One
camper found a long-lost great-aunt in a GSP
manuscript. Those who visited the American
Swedish Museum gained a better
understanding of their cultural heritage.
New ancestors were identified as well, using
unpublished meeting records at the Friends
Historical Library. Along the way all campers
gained an appreciation for the repositories and
learned to expand their research possibilities.
Many were already making plans for a return
visit to one location or another.
�
Summer Camp for Genealogists
FGS Society Strategies, Set VI Number 8 Page 3
TIME OUT
There was time for fun, too, in spite of the
days devoted to concentrated research. One
evening campers joined a colonial
Philadelphia “resident” for a walking tour of
Old City, exploring the historic buildings,
colonial churches, and narrow residential
streets and alleys. Another evening many
campers took advantage of evening hours at
the Philadelphia Museum of Art for dinner
and a visit to that institution’s world-class
collection. Old City Tavern—a reconstruction
of the colonial eatery that hosted many of the
country’s founding fathers—was the site of
the closing banquet.
MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU
Is Summer Camp an idea that can be adapted
by other societies? Absolutely. Every area has
its own collection of repositories with records
of interest to genealogists. Rarely have all
these records been microfilmed and even if
they have, using the originals is always the
researcher’s first choice.
Does it take much advance planning? Yes,
indeed. Initial discussions about summer camp
usually begin more than a year before the
selected dates. Planners need to identify and
recruit a staff of counselors. They need to
compile a list of possible repositories to visit.
Ideally the counselors have worked at the
facilities and are very familiar with the
collections and how to best use them. Dates
for the camp need to be established. Each
potential repository needs to be contacted to
see if they are willing to take part in the
program. Their hours need to be charted to
determine that visits are possible within the
time set. The space available at each facility
for researchers must be considered, along with
the availability of photocopy machines and
microfilm readers.
In addition to telephone contacts, visits to
each repository are a good idea, since they
allow for a personal meeting with the
archivist/librarian and any staff members.
Experience has shown staff members are
much more comfortable with the idea of
Summer Camp after these face-to-face
meetings and for every Summer Camp session
they have been most cooperative. They have
made sure there is adequate staffing for the
days campers will attend and in some cases
have waived entrance fees and/or photocopy
fees for campers. In many cases, they have
also provided registration forms that could be
filled out in advance.
The scheduling of Summer Camp I and II
were different. In the first instance, each
camper was assigned to a group that remained
constant throughout the week. Each group
retained the same counselor all week and
visited each repository as a group. For
Summer Camp II, each camper was assigned a
primary counselor who conducted the initial
research review and worked with the camper
throughout the week. Campers also worked
with the counselor assigned to the facility they
were visiting that day. Because of the number
of locations involved, some additional
volunteers were recruited to assist at certain
repositories. For their part, counselors worked
in the facilities they knew best.
In an urban area such as Philadelphia,
transportation can be handled easily by
walking or using public transportation.
Several facilities are within a dozen blocks of
GSP’s headquarters where campers met each
morning and most campers opted to walk to
these locations. For those who did not want to
walk, or for those facilities that were further
afield, there were buses, trolleys, or the
subway. Commuter trains were available for
the trips to the Friends Historical Library in
Swarthmore and to Germantown.
Part of the summer camp planning was
determining how many tickets or bus tokens
were needed for each day and making sure
each counselor had the day’s requirement in �
Summer Camp for Genealogists
Page 4 FGS Society Strategies, Set VI Number 8
advance so valuable research time didn’t
disappear while tickets were purchased.
Obviously planning a summer camp in a area
without public transportation, or where the
research facilities are not convenient to the
transportation would present some additional
considerations.
CONCLUSION
Is a Summer Camp program worth the effort?
Without a doubt. Comments from campers
have been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, as
well as helpful in planning succeeding
programs. Many of those attending Summer
Camp II had previously attended an earlier
session. Several area campers have become
more involved in other GSP programs. Many
have returned to the various repositories for
additional research. There has been another
benefit as well, one that was not anticipated.
Staffers at the many repositories have become
more involved in genealogical research. At
least one facility produced a new collection
guide geared to genealogists in anticipation of
Summer Camp II. As a bonus, each camp
session generated some income for GSP.
Maybe now is the time to begin planning a
summer camp for your society.
[About the author: Kay Haviland Freilich, CG,
is an FGS director and a BCG trustee. She is a
member of the program and publications
committees for the Genealogical Society of
Pennsylvania and has been a counselor at both
Summer Camp I and Summer Camp II.]

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