In my almost 10 years of doing genealogy and family history research, I have never been treated so rudely by a historical society. If it wouldn't have been for the fact I got to see my family in Colorado, the whole trip would have been a bust.
Back in 2018, I learned that Mark had family that settled in Silverton, Colorado in the early 1900s. The Bell/Damschroder family. I was excited to learn this as I lived in Delta, Colorado for a few years and even had the privilege of visiting Silverton once. I had hoped to make another trip out there at some point to do some research. Finally, I was able to make plans to visit this year (2021). I made arrangements to stay with my adopted sister and her family so I could make a trip to Silverton.
I contacted the archives in July 2021 to set up an appointment with them in August during the time I would be there, as their website states. I called and left a message with no response. I even called during the times they were supposed to be open with no answer. So I emailed them in hopes that I would finally get a response. Days went by with no response, but their Facebook page was active. So I decided to reach out on there. Finally, I received a response. Apparently, the archives director, Carrie, was out of town for two weeks (no notice on their website or on their voice message system). I had talked with her back in 2018, so I was familiar with her. I told her my plans and wishes and set up an appointment with her. She asked me to email her a week before my appointment to confirm everything cause she doesn't always look at her calendar she said. OK, no problem.
Fast forward to a week before my appointment, I am in Colorado staying with my sister. I emailed Carried to confirm the appointment. Two days later, I get an email back stating she wanted to cancel my appointment because she had a house to attend to in Utah. She wanted to leave the day I was supposed to arrive in Silverton. Needless to say, I was not happy about this. I had already made travel arrangements, reservations and put out a ton of money to come to Colorado. When I expressed my displeasure to her about how unprofessional this was, she still tried to discourage me from keeping the appointment by making statements like: "So, I have searched our database, but it shows nothing for Daniel Preston, Daniel Preston Bell, or Daniel Bell and nothing for a Mary Bell...We do have a few pictures, but I am not finding a lot of information for the Bell names you gave me." When back in 2018, she said in an email: "McNutt, Bell, and Damschroder, were important people in Silverton in their time."
After much convincing, she finally agreed to keep our appointment but shortened my research window to four hours. At this point, I was just happy I could still do research. She was still trying to tell me I won't find much, so I sent her my research notes, plan, and questions since I was shorted time. Thinking maybe could get a jump start on this. I had planned on doing all the research myself since they charge by the hour to do research, but since she was limiting my time, I was hoping she would help at least. She started treating me like an amateur researcher, telling me where to look up things that I already knew to look up and then trying to tell me I didn't need to see certain items in the archives because they would be of no interest to me. Shouldn't that be my decision? She was still trying to convince me that a visit wasn't necessary.
Finally, she informed me they were having a small outbreak in town and the county health department requires everyone wear masks. (As if that would deter me) I tried to reassure her we have been taking extra precautions even when it was not mandated. She also made a comment in passing that she hoped we were vaccinated. I did not respond but again reassured her we do everything we can to be safe especially since we have family who has compromised immune systems. That wasn't good enough though. She flat out asked me if we were vaccinated because as she put it: "We really want to know if visitors are vaccinated so we can be prepared to take extra precautions." She really had no right to ask me as that violates HIPPA privacy laws (see comments below regarding this), but to be accomodating I told her we were not vaccinated and explained why: "We have not gotten the vaccine since it is still in the trial stages. We were waiting to see how effective it is and how safe it is. But we do everything in our power to be safe. I have not had covid nor have I been around anyone who has it." This was before the FDA approved it. A vaccine is not mandated in the town, so I didn't think anything of it.
*NOTE: I know there is a lot of strong feelings when it comes to the vaccine, but this is not the place to express your feelings or beliefs about the vaccine. We have our reasons for not wanting to get the vaccine, ones I will not go into publicly, so please do not start any fights on this subject. Just know that we have made the decisions we have for health reasons.
Well, as soon as I told her I wasn't vaccinated, that was it. She canceled our appointment, citing her health and the decision of the board to not allow any un-vaccinated persons in their building. A decision that was only reached a few days beforehand apparently. Her response was: "We look at those that are not vaccinated, as not caring about others...We would hope that un-vaccinated people would just stay home." Ok, we have been in discussion about my traveling for a month. During any of that time, she didn't mention her concern about her health or concern for being around a person who was not vaccinated. If that was a genuine concern, she should have asked first off. But for her to say it now, just leads me to think she was using it so she could go ahead and just cancel the appointment which is what she had been trying to do for a week. Oh, and she officially canceled it the day before I was supposed to head to Silverton.
Of course, after receiving this news, I tried to take some time before responding to her so as to not say something out of hurt or anger, but she emailed me again to reiterate everything she had said in her previous letter because I didn't respond to her. I did finally write back explaining how hurt I was about the way she handled this whole thing and that I would be contacting the mayor about her behavior. Why? Well, I think he would like to know that their Archives Director is being very rude to would-be visitors to his town and how that will affect other future visitors who plan on traveling to the town for research. I don't know if I will hear back from him, but I felt he needed to know.
I've never dealt with such a rude Archives Director. I'm completely understanding about the situation we find ourselves in when it comes to Covid. But this wasn't the case. She just didn't want to keep our appointment. I debated on writing this blog post, but I had been talking about taking a trip to Silverton for years, that I really felt people should know what happened. And I have all the emails to back up everything I put. I had plans to film in Silverton along with photograph the town, make copies of documents and purchase books from the museum. I'm all about supporting local historical societies, especially ones in small towns. You'd think after dealing with a pandemic and not have ANY visitors the past year, they'd be open to working with people. Apparently not.
So my advice right now is to double and triple check with local historical societies and museums before you travel (and put out a ton of money to travel that's non-refundable) to make sure you can still visit. There are people who can not get the vaccine shot and even if you do, the CDC still recommends wearing masks and practicing social distancing. We are all trying to do everything we can to keep people safe and keep ourselves safe. I hope no one has to go through what I did. Be safe all and happy hunting.
They received a certificate of excellence back in 2016 from Trip Advisor
That's not the case anymore
