Every day, visitors ride the elevators to Level 9 of Seattle’s Central Library looking for family stories. Some are tracing immigrant ancestors. Others are searching for military records, newspaper clippings, or clues to a long-standing family mystery.
In 2026, The Seattle Public Library’s genealogy collection marks 100 years of helping people uncover their family stories. Its history began with a small deposit of donated books and grew through the work of generations of librarians, support staff, volunteers, and family historians.
We’re celebrating this milestone with two day-long programs. On Saturday, Sept. 19, four nationally recognized genealogy experts will share insights into the evolving practice of genealogy. On Saturday, Oct. 3, “DNA Detective” CeCe Moore, the famed genetic genealogist on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots,” will share stories from her pioneering career, including cold cases in the Pacific Northwest.
We’re also celebrating by sharing the unique history of this collection and the people who have guided it.
Genealogy collection beginnings
In 1926, the newly formed Seattle Genealogical Society partnered with the Library to make the Society’s collection available to everyone. Its first 129 volumes found a home in the old Carnegie Central Library. Other lineage societies and individuals soon contributed books and financial support, helping the collection grow through donations, shared resources, and community partnerships.
When librarian Carol Lind joined the staff in September 1949, she recognized that researchers needed specialized assistance and took a leading role in developing the collection. She was deeply involved with the Seattle Genealogical Society, serving on its board during her years at the Library. Under her leadership, the Library expanded its holdings and accepted a major transfer of genealogy materials from the Washington State Library in 1952, establishing Seattle as a statewide center for genealogical reference service.
“Silent Butlers”: The index cards that keep on giving
Long before online catalogs and searchable databases, Lind and her associates created thousands of detailed index cards pointing researchers to names buried deep within county histories, family genealogies, local histories, and other reference works. Lind affectionately called these cards her “silent butlers” because they quietly guided visitors to information they might never have discovered on their own.
Her practical, hands-on approach made family history approachable for anyone who walked into the library. As Lind explained:
“Each beginner is given a pedigree chart and asked to fill out what he knows or believes (in pencil) and we work from this information.”
Success in genealogy often comes from small discoveries: a name tucked into a county history, a brief newspaper notice, a church register, or an unexpected record that opens the door to an entirely new branch of a family tree. Lind’s painstaking indexes helped generations of researchers make those discoveries. Those index cards are still available to researchers today.
Four Decades of Growth
When Darlene Hamilton joined the Library in April 1971, she spent about a month working alongside Carol Lind before Lind retired in May. Hamilton then assumed leadership of the genealogy collection, beginning a 40-year tenure as Lead Genealogy Librarian. She continued and expanded Lind’s card-indexing work into the 1990s and served on the Seattle Genealogical Society Board throughout her time at the Library. During her tenure, the collection continued to grow through donations, community partnerships, and new purchases, while genealogy research itself was transformed by the arrival of electronic catalogs, online databases, and digitized resources. As interest in genealogy surged around the U.S. Bicentennial and the television adaptation of “Roots,” Hamilton welcomed a new generation of family historians eager to explore their own stories.
Hamilton secured federal grant funding that strengthened genealogy services across Washington state and launched public classes that introduced beginners to research techniques. She also expanded the collection to better document communities whose histories had often been overlooked, making genealogy resources more representative of the Pacific Northwest’s diverse past.
People and Place
For many years, dedicated library associates provided vital support alongside the lead genealogy librarian. In 1999, that support position was formally converted into a professional librarian role, filled by Heather McLeland-Wieser, creating a two-librarian genealogy team. When the iconic Central Library opened in 2004, the genealogy collection moved to its current home on Level 9. Today, genealogy librarians Mahina Oshie and John LaMont oversee the Library’s genealogy collection.
Level 9 is a working research space as much as it is a place to browse. The floor is shared with the History, Travel & Maps Department, whose collections also include biography. The reference desk sits with the Central Library’s atrium behind it, facing the gently sloping floor of the book spiral and the collections beyond. Long tables and computers provide space for research, while microfilm readers and vertical files offer resources that can’t simply be found online.
One-on-one research help has long been part of genealogy services at the Library. Lind and Hamilton both provided personal guidance to researchers at the reference desk, a tradition that continues today in person and through virtual appointments.
A Collection in Motion
Technology has transformed genealogy, and the collection has evolved with it. Becoming a FamilySearch Affiliate Library in 2014 gave Library users expanded access to FamilySearch’s digitized historical records and resources.
The Library continues to strengthen the collection through ongoing purchases supported by The Seattle Public Library Foundation, individual donations, and community partnerships. When the Seattle Genealogical Society relocated to Wallingford, the Library welcomed more than 1,700 unique books and an extensive collection of genealogy periodicals.
In its centennial year, the collection continues to evolve. Staff have been working on a major project to reorganize the genealogy collection so that materials from the same geographic areas — countries, states, and counties — are shelved together rather than separated across different Dewey classifications. The goal is simple: help researchers spend less time searching the stacks and more time making discoveries.
The tools have changed dramatically over the past century, but genealogy research can still be wonderfully physical: pulling one book from a shelf, then another; following a reference to a source you hadn’t considered; finding a name buried in an index; or asking a librarian a question that leads somewhere unexpected. Index cards have given way to digitized archives, online databases, and global research networks, but the patience, curiosity, and careful research that lead to a family discovery remain much the same.
Whether you’re beginning your first family tree, trying to break through a long-standing brick wall, or simply curious about the people who came before you, the Genealogy Collection on Level 9 offers a place to begin.
Sometimes the guide is an index card. Sometimes it’s an online database, a century-old newspaper, a book pulled from a shelf, or a librarian who knows just where to look next.
The silent butlers are still at work.