“Genealogy starts with a question,” says Allison DePrey Singleton, an accomplished genealogist, and genealogy services manager in the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She would know. Her lifelong fascination with genealogy began with a question.
Questions Lead to Answers Lead to Questions
A spring foray to a local cemetery when Allison was 16 to put flowers on family graves started it all. As the party gathered around the family grave site, Allison wandered a few rows away, looking at headstones. She found a child’s gravestone bearing the name Edward near another tombstone for an Edward—a family name.
“I wanted to know more. Who is this Edward person? And the father of the child? How is he related?” she wondered. None of the others knew, but her interest was more than idle curiosity.
Allison searched for answers and discovered that the 9-year-old child, named for his father, had died of appendicitis. His older brother and father had died earlier, so his death left his widowed mother alone—and yes, they were related to her DePrey family.
As is typical when people begin searching for deceased relatives, one question led to another, then another, and another.
“I had a question, and then I just kept having more,” she said. Her questions continued through high school and college. Her quest for family history answers led her to the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The Privilege of Living near an Important Repository of Genealogical Records
“When I first went in, I didn’t realize what an outstanding facility I had right at my fingertips, but I found answers there,” she said. Soon she realized how very privileged she was to live so near such an excellent repository of genealogically important records. She decided she wanted a career at the library someday so she pursued an education to prepare for such a job.
She earned a bachelor of arts degree in history at Indiana University and then went on to earn a master of arts degree in library science and public history. After college, she worked at the Indiana Historical Society for about 7 years.
Allison was hired at the Allen County Public Library as a genealogical librarian in 1916. The rest, as they say, is history. She got experience working in various areas of the library and now serves as genealogy service manager of the Genealogy Center at the ACPL, working with Curt B. Witcher, genealogy center manager.
Among her myriad responsibilities, Allison manages employees, assists with the genealogy research desk, and organizes educational programs, online collections, and more. She was co-chair of the 2018 Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference. She keeps a busy schedule with speaking engagements, writing, maintaining social media platforms for the center, arranging and teaching classes, and much more. In addition to holding in-person classes, during and since the pandemic, the ACPL has offered free online classes accessible anywhere in the world. Allison reports that the number of attendees is amazing.
"Every person has a story, and it is unique."
Allison also maintains genealogy partnerships with key partners. The FamilySearch Library is among those partners. The libraries share access to their genealogical collections, broadly expanding the number of records available to library guests. Document scanning is an important aspect of preserving old records, and the library supports those efforts. The Internet Archive has a scanning center in the basement of the ACPL, and FamilySearch generally has 8 to 10 missionaries there to scan records. In addition, the library has a scanning stream of its own.
Allison's special objective is supporting youth. She works to develop relationships with teachers, home school families, and various organizations to encourage youth to begin researching their family trees.
She loves helping library guests find their roots. “I love helping customers explore and make discoveries. My favorite thing is to have people come in not knowing what they will find and walk away absolutely gobsmacked by what they learned,” she said.
“Why participate in genealogy? It’s about making it personal. It’s about looking at our own stories. Every person has a story, and it is unique. There is no such thing as a ‘normal’ family. Discovering that story and seeing oneself through the family identity is so much fun and so rewarding!” she said.
Experience the joy of finding your story through your family’s stories. It is a matter of asking questions, seeking answers about those who preceded you, and sometimes looking in genealogical records repositories for the details.
Other FamilySearch Spotlights
