Submitted

STOCKTON — Susan McFarland, Museum Coordinator of the Rooks County Historical Museum, announced last week the receipt of two separate grants — one from Midwest Energy, Hays, and the other from the Hansen Foundation, Logan.

The grant from Midwest Energy for $540 will be used to purchase an interface to allow both staff computers to “talk Past Perfect” with each other. “Past Perfect” is the museum software that keeps track of all objects, documents, archival material and photos in the museum’s collections.

The grant from the Hansen Foundation in the amount of $11,000 will be used to purchase two “public-access” computers a stand-alone dedicated printer and to build a database. These computers will be available to the general public to use, to take advantage of our library subscription to Ancestry.com and other websites dedicated to genealogy research.

The second part of the Hansen grant goes right along with the purchase of the public-access computers. The museum will be building a database in which every individual name in our genealogical records (census books, applications for marriage licenses dating from 1913, collected obituaries, etc.) is indexed so that a person looking for information on a specific name.

For more information on the museum, click HERE.