Lorraine Cook White & The Barbour Collection

Did anybody notice the obituary for Lorraine Cook White in The Spokesman Review on 26 May 2012?
If you have early Connecticut ancestry and have used the Barbour collection, then you might want to be thankful to this quiet little genealogist.

Lorraine lived in St.John and was a farm wife but in her "spare" time spent hours and hours ordering the microfilmed records of the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records into the West Plains Family History Center and transcribing each and every name. Her work was published by Genealogical Publishing Company in a series of books identified by the town name.

As a token of gratitude, Lorraine donated one of her author's copies of each and every volume of her published work to the West Plains Family History Center. There they sit, a shelf full of blue-bound books, that nobody much ever uses because likely folks don't know what they are. I do not know if this collection is included in Ancestry but I do know that if you have an ancestor in Connecticut prior to 1850 and don't know the town where he was born, married or died, then you ought to plan a visit to the West Plains Family History Center and spend some time with Lorraine Cook White's published collection of The Barbour Records.

(Go west on I-90; take Exit 272, the Medical Lake exit; go south OVER the freeway; go past the truck stop turning RIGHT at the stop sign; then turn LEFT onto Hayford; then turn LEFT onto Melville..... and you'll see the church right up ahead. Go in the west side. The Center is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Call 509.455.9735 for hours or to make an appointment. You might not want to show up when a flock of Cub Scouts was there!)