Virginia City is now offering a tool for folks to trace back their family history.
With the help of several grants and donors, the Historic Fourth Ward School Museum introduced it's Archives and Research Center Wednesday afternoon.
"We have yearbooks, student newspapers, we have sports memorabilia," says museum archivist Cindy Southerland.
The brand new archive system is filled with hundreds of documents dating back to the mid-1800's.
"Birth certificates, death certificates,' says Ron Gallagher. "We can finally begin to help people track their heritage, their roots back to the Comstock."
Gallagher grew up in Virginia City and now works with the Historic Fourth Ward School. He says over the last few years, more and more people are taking interest in tracking their family history.
"Or, they find a post card or they find a report card, or they find a diploma. And, they go, 'wow, how can I find out more?'"
If they want to find out more, this is the spot to do just that. Gathering the documents and putting this all together took nearly 30 years to accomplish.
"There really hasn't been a place like this up on the Comstock up in Virginia City where people can go and see these things," says Southerland.
The whole archive system cost more than $1 million. Much of that was put toward a state-of-the-art and nearly indestructible vault.
"We call this our prime real-estate area now," says Southerland. "Everything that's really valuable and really can't find another one, will now be stored in the vault."
People from around the world have roots dating back to the Comstock era. That means more documents and photographs are sure to surface in the future.
"Some of it goes back 130 years and it's been in boxes," says Gallagher.
For a small amount of money to pay for research and copying, you can find out more about your family history at the new Archive and Research Center.
Written by Adam Rasmussen
