An Unsung Hero of Family History: Lyman Copeland Draper

Sometimes we are guilty of thinking that people in the past were not at all like us, but the more we study family history, the more we find individuals worried about precious documents, fearful of the loss of oral tradition, and trying to preserve facts surrounding important events in American history. One of those unsung heroes was Lyman Copeland Draper, who lived in the nineteenth century and gathered as much information as he could on those he called “heroes of the Revolution” in the American south. Draper spent most of his life collecting information on the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812 in what he called the “Trans-Allegheny West, which included the western Carolinas and Virginia, some portions of Georgia and Alabama, the entire Ohio River valley, and parts of the Mississippi River valley.”*

Although a single index to the entire collection does not exist, you can learn how to access and use the Draper collection from nationally-known genealogical researcher, Dr. David McDonald, at the St. Louis Genealogical Society's Family History Conference on Saturday, 14 May 2022.

What did Draper Collect?

Draper traveled extensively and interviewed people wherever he went. He kept journals and notebooks filled with his writing. When he died, he bequeathed his manuscripts to the Wisconsin Historical Society, which now has 491 volumes in “fifty series of varying lengths arranged by geographic area, subject and individual.”* 

There is so much in the Draper collection that it's a wonderful adventure to tackle. These extensive manuscripts include:

• military records
• research notes and correspondence
• interviews
• extracts from newspapers and other publications
• transcripts of original documents

Where Do I Find This Collection?

The collection was microfilmed and is available at more than ninety libraries, including the St. Louis County Library, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. But you cannot access most of the collection online.

Vast amounts of genealogical records can only be accessed at societies, archives, and libraries. That's why we are proud to present "Get in Your Car and Go: Midwest Archives and Libraries," featuring Dr. David McDonald at our annual conference. Join us in person or live via Zoom to learn about archival collections, state archives, Midwestern historical societies, top genealogy libraries, and much more. Registration is open; you can get all the details and register on our website.

What Kind of Information Might I Discover?

Here is an example of something you might find in the collection. As this writer was casually gazing through the index to one of the many volumes, a family name popped up. Of course, it needed to be checked out, and what do you know? The biographical reference was in a footnote and added some previously unknown and interesting information to the Van Meter and Swan families. 

(Image above from Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1776-1778. Compiled from the Draper manuscripts in the library of the Wisconsin Historical Society, published by the Wisconsin Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1912, pgs. 263 and 264, digital images online at FamilySearch.org : accessed 15 April 2022.)

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Quotes with asterisks [*] above from “About the Draper Manuscript Collection,” Wisconsin Historical Society, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4103]