BGSU project to record more Great Lakes history

The BGSU Center for Archival Collections has received a $15,000 matching grant to continue work on a Great Lakes maritime personnel database for its Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.

The grant was awarded by the Ohio Coastal Management Assistance Program of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to support an Ohio Maritime Personnel Online Database Project begun in 2000. The new project will add data about maritime personnel to an existing directory of sailors from Ohio and the Great Lakes. The grant will pay for a part-time data entry operator, staff and student help.

Information on approximately 40,000 individuals involved in the maritime trades, primarily sailors, will be entered into the database during the 12-month project, which started last month.

Data from the directories of the International Ship Masters Association (1980-2004) and the Great Lakes Red Book (1899-1950) will also be added and made available to the public through the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes Web site. These sources will expand the information available on the individual, providing names of vessel captains, chief engineers on steam vessels, the sailor’s vessel name and where they lived throughout their career, according to Robert W. Graham, archivist for the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.

The online database is the second major database project at BGSU aimed at increasing access to hard-to-find historical and genealogical information. Both databases can be accessed at www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/hcgl/hcgl.html.