film format to digital format,” said Hayes.  Plus an additional 150 pages of paper records will be converted to digital format by Hayes and Genoter at no additional cost to the library members.

Additional funding for the on-line library has been/will be provided by judge J. Albert Lynch, a founding member of the Pelham Historical Society and John Hardy of Long Island, New York.  John and his wife both have Pelham family connections dating back to Pelham’s Colonial period.  “We anticipate that additional benefactors will come forward, once the library becomes more fully established,” stated Hayes.

“We believe that the creation of this library may be news worthy because we are unaware of any other local historical society in all of New England that has undertaken such an effort. Some statewide societies have on-line libraries, but we are unaware of any town historical society with a similar library.”

You can learn more about the Hayes-Genoter History and Genealogy Online Library, at www.pelhamnhhistory.org.

William Hayes has had a life-long interest in American History from Dartmouth College.

Since then he has collected and/or identified more then 300,000 pages of materials that sheds light on the history of the town of Pelham.  “In my personal library I have more than 100,000 paper pages of material relating to Pelham History and genealogy,” he smiled.  “I have an additional 100,000 pages of material in digital format, on CDs and DVDs.  Finally, I own or have access to another 100,000 pages of micro film information.”  That’s a lot of history.

Hayes wanted to share his work.  “Last week, Karen Genoter and I began making my entire collection of historical materials available to the members of the Pelham Historical Society via the internet through the creation of the Hayes-Genoter History and Genealogy On Line Library.”  The collection has long been a gleam in his eye and now he’s worked to make it available to others who share his love in history.

“As of last week, research members of the Pelham Historical Society have had access to more than 35,000 pages of material relating to the history of the Town of Pelham and the State of New Hampshire.  We plan to add 10,000 pages a year as time and funding permits,” said Hayes.

However, copyright laws limit access to the materials to members of the Pelham Historical Society.  Hayes doesn’t see that as an impediment because membership is open to anyone with an interest in Pelham History and Genealogy and membership costs are minimal.  “A regular membership in the society is $5, while a research membership is $20,” noted Hayes.  “One can become a research member on-line.  To date, more than half of our new members are from out of town.”

Membership fees will help fund additions to the on-line collection.  “For each new membership, an additional 300 pages of material will be added to the library.  The sum of $15 will be used to hire a commercial firm to convert 150 pages of material from micro

Pelham History Made Available
Article from Pelham Windham News by Lynne Ober—2/10/07

Pelham Historical Society

Hayes-Genoter History and Genealogy Library