Accessions? What is she talking about! I am talking about manuscripts, photos, books, maps, and other items recently or newly donated to or purchased by our great research repositories. These could be the county or state historical society, ethnic society, state archives, university special collections department or any other place we may go to do research. I am not talking about online databases and websites in this post. Why do you need to be aware of these recent accessions or acquisitions? Holy cow, simply because something might be related to or about your family.

Some repositories list recent accessions in their newsletters, blogs, or other publications, others on their website, or both. These are usually records that we aren’t going to see indexed or digitized online for a good long time. Listed below are some that I found on repository websites. I bet some research on your part will find collections you will be itching to get your hands on! Read the blogs, newsletters, and Facebook pages of such institutions on a regular basis. Do some online searching using the terms accessions, acquisitions, new, what’s new, recent and the name of a place or simply “historical society acquisitions”  or accessions. Listings from years past also serve to let us know what research gems these places hold.

• Virginia Historical Society: Account book, 1858–66, of William D. Tucker (of Amherst County) concerning agricultural activities and financial affairs, along with records of marriages and deaths of neighbors and lists of enslaved persons. [186] p.: holograph; 12 x 7 1/2 in. Bound volume. Gift of Deborah Lumpkin Ferrell in the name of the Lumpkin family.
• Minnesota State Archives: Waseca County. Docket (dated 1858-1868), registers of civil action (dated 1858-1944), defendant and plaintiff indexes (dated circa 1858-1939), index to marriage records [circa 1857-?], veterinary license record (dated 1937-1981), index to coroner’s certificates (dated 1955-1990) and coroner’s inquest file no. 205 (dated 1968) of the District Court; will books (dated 1972-1981) of the Probate Court; selective service record (dated 1941-1946) of the Selective Service Board; civil dockets (dated 1953-1974) of the City of Waseca Municipal Court. 17 boxes.
• LancsterHistory.org: [PA] Slaugh family and furniture business records, 1880s-1953 Ledgers and records of the furniture business, 10 volumes. Letterhead of Henry Slaugh and billhead of Slaugh and Son. Photographs of Henry Slaugh, Sr. and Clara Slaugh; Dr. Joseph Houston. Gift of Nancy Slaugh Leech Mohr and Helena Louise Slaugh Freeburg, in memory of the Slaugh family MG-733,
• Cornell University Rare & Manuscript Collections: On June 15, 2004 the Huntington Free Library’s American Indian Collection, located in the Bronx, NY, transferred its holdings to Cornell University Library. The Huntington collection, appraised at $8.3 million in 2001, contains more than 40,000 volumes on the archaeology, ethnology, and history of the native peoples of the Americas. The Huntington Free Library contains spectacular treasures that will provide students and scholars with a rich resource for the study of Native American cultures. Collection highlights include early printed books on travel and exploration containing accounts of encounters with native peoples; rare dictionaries of native American languages; an album of original drawings of American Indians by the artist George Catlin; field notes by 19th century ethnographers and papers of archaeological expeditions; an original manuscript peace treaty between the Delaware Nation and Johnson Hall; the Stockbridge Indian papers; the Joseph Keppler Iroquois Papers; and the papers of the Women’s National Indian Association.