AT SOME moment in the walkabout of life it occurs to more than a few of us to look back to where we came from. This interest in personal history sometimes will also be an entree to community history and more. But it typically starts with genealogy; finding out about one's parents and their parents and so on. As almost anyone who has taken this hide-and-seek path will confirm, saddling our basic human urges for chasing the fox can be a most exhilarating ride.

Thankfully, we can often get some practiced help from genealogists. Locally, the Seattle Public Library, the Seattle Genealogical Society and the Fiske Genealogical Library all have them. For many of us, the face on the left of both pictures today is a familiar one. For 40 years Darlene Hamilton was the Seattle Public Library's genealogy librarian.

The contemporary scene was photographed in the still new central library designed by Rem Koolhaas. In the older view, Hamilton has joined her predecessor, Carol Lind, in the old central-library building, which held to the same block facing Fourth Avenue between Madison and Spring streets.

John LaMont notes that many of the requests made at the central library's history desk are genealogical. And the electronic tools that LaMont and Mahina Oshie, a second genealogy librarian added this year, have in 2011 are what Lind, who retired in 1971, perhaps could have scarcely imagined a mere half-century ago.

But LaMont notes, "There are many things that remain the same in terms of assisting people with their research. We suggest they look at family sources, learn about doing research, fill out a family chart, and we make recommendations on where to look based on what they know already."

Check out Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard's blog at www.pauldorpat.com.