by Pat Johnson
AGBI is short for American Genealogical-Biographical Index . The volume of this index is astounding, but add the fact that these entries are seldom duplicated in other well known, and well used, databases like Ancestral File, PERSI, Censues, Ancestry Trees, or Family Search Family Tree.
The AGBI was born decades before Ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org began indexing. It is an index of published genealogical works only. Meaning the sources are available if you can locate them. Indeed, there are two libraries that are virtually guaranteed to have all of the sources indexed, the Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, Connecticut, where the index was created, and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. However, we are fifty miles from the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Cheyenne is one of the few libraries that subscribed to the AGBI. Cheyenne also has a large number of the sources for the index.
The AGBI recently became available on Ancestry.com as well. This acquisition brings the AGBI to more people than ever before. Why do so few libraries subscribe to AGBI? The AGBI has been produced to meet a subscription list. However, that subscription list began in the early 1950s when there were far fewer genealogical libraries than today.
Aren’t we lucky that Cheyenne was one of those early libraries that saw the value in the AGBI? It is well worth a drive to the Cheyenne library to learn about this resource.
~ Pat Johnson is an instructor, library and Family History Center volunteer, and speaker for many regional societies. Please visit our website (www.lcgsco.org) or our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/lcgsco) to learn about genealogy and our many events.