25 April 2006

Family and Regional History Program Nominated for National Awards

HANCEVILLE, AL-- The Wallace State Community College Family and Regional History program has been nominated for two prestigious national awards – the Award of Merit of the American Association for State and Local History and the Award of Merit of the National Genealogical Society.

   The American Association for State and Local History awards program recognizes programs that establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

Robert Davis, Jr.

   The National Genealogical Society recognizes excellence, scholarship and achievements in the field of genealogy by presenting awards to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to NGS programs or have performed outstanding work in the field of genealogy, history, biography or heraldry.

   “Over the last 35 years, the Family and Regional History Program has evolved into a very special, if not unique, institution for local history research,” said Robert Davis, program director.

   “Our program offers a research facility completely open to the general public that has earned respect across the United States,” Davis said.

   The Family and Regional History program offers college-level research classes, credit and non-credit, to the general public. In addition, the program organizes open field trips to other genealogical libraries from Salt Lake City to London. Davis has spoken to hundreds of groups across the country about local history research, including its economic benefits.

   The program is well-known for its microfilm laboratory and draws researchers from all across the country to take advantage of its vast resources.

   According to Davis, the program maintains copies of manuscript collections found elsewhere only in private possession, including one of the most significant collections of the antebellum South. It has also been publicly cited by the Archivist of the United States for its work in the microfilming of federal records of the National Archives and Records Administration.

   The Wallace State program was the first institution not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be allowed to borrow from more than 2.4 million microfilm reels of the Genealogical Society of Utah.

   “These accomplishments take place in a community college as a model for what could be done almost anywhere,” Davis said.

   Each organization contacted Davis about submitting the proper paperwork for their respective awards. Davis said the source of the nominations wishes to remain anonymous. Official announcement of award winners will come later this year.

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  Terri Brunck
  Communications and Marketing
  Wallace State Community College
  P.O. Box 2000
  Hanceville, AL 35077
  256/352-8031
  E-mail: Terri.Brunck@WallaceState.edu