BRISEE GENEALOGY LIBRARY
By Barb Butcher
The Walnut Genealogy Society visited the C. G. Brisee Genealogy Library in Irwin, Iowa for their September 14th field trip. WGS also invited members from the Botna Valley Genealogy Society of Oakland to join them. Nine members from the two societies had an enjoyable afternoon touring and researching in the facility. Tour director was owner Adrian Brisee.
Adrian and his wife Leslie have accumulated around 15,000 items which they are willing to share with other genealogists doing research. Most of these items are housed on the second floor of the former Irwin Consolidated High School. You might find just about anything there dealing with family and local history.
The geographic focus of the resources is New England, New York, Iowa, and the United Kingdom. Four special collections at the library include The Torpey Letters, The Woodin Family Files, The Hoskins Family Files, and Powers Memorial Library (IOOF).
You can also visit their website at www.rottenralf.com where they sell reprints of out-of-print genealogy books as well as their own compiled databases and exclusive manuscripts. They have several categories there, but you need to keep checking back as they continually add new items. Their other websites are www.onentofl.com which will be a future database subscription site; www.briseelibrary.com their future card catalog; and www.ansorcery.com which is a “Just for fun, Harry Potter fans” site.