| Godfrey Memorial Library
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Mission Statement
The purpose of the Godfrey Memorial
Library is to promote the study of family history by:
- Inspiring
individuals in all sectors of society to study their heritage and their own
place in history.
- Supporting educational activities that create
enthusiasm for family research.
- Making genealogical and historical
resources available to all on a national and international level by continuing
the expansion, modernization, and distribution of the collection of print,
electronic manuscript and other information media as technology
develops. |
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| Godfrey Memorial Library History |
The Godfrey Memorial Library, incorporated in 1947, first opened its doors in May 1951. It was founded by A. Fremont Rider, a well-known publisher, author, inventor, genealogist, and librarian at Wesleyan's Olin Library. Mr. Rider amassed a collection of over 800 books specific to biography, history and genealogy which comprised the initial holdings of the Godfrey, named in honor of Mr. Rider’s in-laws. One of our founder’s greatest contributions to the field of genealogical research was compiling a massive 226 volume index of more than 4 million references appearing in his collection. This index, the American Genealogical Biographical Index (AGBI) is a key source for researchers all over the world to help locate references to their ancestors in out of print and hard to find books.
In the fall of 2002, we created the Godfrey Scholar, our online research tool containing searchable databases and our own digitized content. In 2012, we upgraded this tool working with premier genealogy programmer Steve Morse.
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