The placement of documents

In working with the Rice family history, I realize more and more that original documents in my possession should be made available to others with interest or connections to the family. I’m thinking both in terms of people with current Rice interests, but also of coming generations.

In my possession are letters, diaries, pictures, and over 15 volumes of research done by mother and myself. These do not actually belong to me, but belong to the Rice family.  Should any of our children, or grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, and so on, desire access to these documents in the future, the fact that they are in private possession, and in Norway, would make this difficult.

I am considering, therefore, of having these documents placed at a library which would both secure them properly, but also make them available to others, especially through the internet.  Possible locations for this are 1) the New England Historical and Genealogical Society library in Boston, 2) the North Dakota State Library at Bismarck or, 3) the Minnesota State Library at St. Paul.

The NEHGS library is one of the nation’s leading research centers for genealogist, housing millions of materials such as those in my possession.  I have spent numerous hours at the library and know well the professionalism of the staff, as well as their care of the materials. In addition, the library on a regular basis makes their material available through the internet.

On the other hand, the Rice family materials possibly belong better to the North Dakota library. However, I do not know the library, nor its ability to care for or digitalize the materials.  The library seems to focus on the history of North Dakota. I’m not sure how well  they do on the genealogical aspects.

Of course, another possibility is the Minnesota Historical Society at St. Paul, also an organization of competent people and practices.

Following are links to these libraries.

http://www.americanancestors.org

http://www.mnhs.org/

http://history.nd.gov/

Should any of the Rice Kids (or any of our readers) have an opinion in regard to this matter, I can be contacted at norman.mills@ist.com or a comment can be registered on The Rice Kids blog.