St. Clair County, Illinois, Harvest

Southwestern Illinois' hub, St. Clair County, has a number of relevant books available on line through Illinois Harvest:

Prairie Farmer's Reliable Directory of Farmers and Breeders of St. Clair and Monroe Counties, Illinois. Evansville, IN: Unigraphic, 1978. 323 pages. This is a republication of the 1919 edition, published by Prairie Farmer, and it promises unique genealogical (or microhistorical) data: it includes a tractor owners' directory including the make of each tractor.

The Birthplace of the Midwest, Cahokia, Illinois. [250th anniversary celebration souvenir program.] N.p.: The Association, 1949. 28 pages.

Nebelsick, Alvin Louis. A History of Belleville. Belleville: Township High School and Junior College, 1951? 272 pages.

O'Fallon Centennial Celebration, 1854-1954. O'Fallon: n.p., 1954. 89 pages.

Reflections of the Belleville, Illinois, Sesquicentennial, 1814-1964. Belleville: Belleville Sesquicentennial Commission, 1964. 32 pages.

Two places you wish your ancestors were buried

NEHGS eNews highlights two Midwestern cemetery websites, one small, one large:

Lakeside Cemetery in Bay Village, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, has "over 270" burials.

Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, by contrast, has over 185,000 burials including John Dillinger's, and (this is a new one on me) a staff genealogist. It's also the headquarters of the Genealogical Society of Marion County.

Coles County, Illinois, Harvest

Recently digitized books of genealogical interest on eastern Illinois' Coles County from Illinois Harvest:

Perrin, W.H. et al., compilers. The History of Coles County, Illinois. Chicago: W. Le Baron, 1879. 699 pages.

Allison, Etta Mae. Pioneers of Coles County, Illinois. S.l.: s.n., 1942. Unpaginated.

Summers, Alexander. Mr. Mattoon's City. Mattoon: The National Bank of Mattoon, 1955. 30 pages. Revised from a 1946 edition.

Mattoon Memories. Mattoon: Gazette Printing, 1955? 88 pages.

Still more confusing Chicago City Directories!

Back in April I blogged about the many books hiding under the simple guise of "Chicago City Directory for [year]." Besides the free sites Newberry Library's Chicago Ancestors, Chicago History Museum, and Illinois Harvest, Footnote.com is also in the fray.

Key new information here: what Footnote.com calls the 1871 Chicago City Directory is apparently identical to Illinois Harvest's Edwards' ... annual directory ... of Chicago. v.14 I say "apparently" because the Footnote.com version includes two additional title pages, one characterizing it as a "Fire Edition" and claiming that its information has been carried up to December 12, 1871, but so far the pages I have viewed contain the same information in the same format as before.

Each of these online sources has its good points, and each has directories the others lack.

The Newberry's site is linked with other very useful resources for Chicago research, including a mapping function and the Chicago History Museum's book documenting the 1911 street renumbering in PDF format. It also breaks the directories up into units by letter so that you don't have to download the whole thing. It has directories designated as 1866, 1870, Edwards' Census 1871, 1875, 1880, 1885, 1892, and 1900. (Check my earlier post for more detailed citation proposals, especially for the confusing 1870-1872 period.)

Illinois Harvest requires you to download the whole thing, but it prints up very nicely and it preserves the original page order, which is no small matter if you've struggled with Footnote.com. As far as I know IH has only two directories, Edwards' volume 12 (1869-1870), and Edwards' volume 14 (1871, not the same as "Edwards' Census" displayed at the Newberry site).

Footnote.com, the only pay site discussed here, has more directories than anyone -- 1843-1849, 1851-1889, 1902-1903, and 1908-1909. You can search across years and save wanted pages in a "gallery." But. The last three years are incomplete as of midday 27 July 2008. And many of the complete directories have their pages out of order. Each directory's unpaginated front matter is dumped at the back, making it an adventure to find the title page for proper citation, and the variously paginated portions of the directory are usually presented, not in their original sequence (which heaven knows was arbitrary enough), but by page number. For example, the residential directory's page 21 is followed by the business directory's page 21, and so forth. Also, Footnote.com has taken the liberty of renaming the 1874-5 directory as "1874," 1875-6 as "1875," and so forth through 1878-9. The print quality is a bit below the Newberry and Illinois Harvest standard. (Some related discussion on Michael John Neill's Rootdig blog and on the Association of Professional Genealogists' listserv, both of which are free and should be lurked on by any wannabe genealogist.)

Lest we forget, the Chicago History Museum has the 1928 "criss-cross" Chicago directory on line (and many other on and off line resources). But you will need to know the street on which your research target lived in order to find him or her, as (from my point of view) the directory only has the criss and not the cross. I found it a little touchy to get loaded but it would probably help to have the latest PDF reader.

The fact is that Chicago researchers who don't live next door to a major genealogy library can't do without any of these four sites. And we can't afford to call "1871 Chicago City Directory" an adequate citation, either.

Tired of your own genealogy? Puzzle along with Craig Manson at Geneablogie, as he digs through records in Latin, French, and English along the Illinois-Missouri line in search of his Micheau/Mischeaux families.

"Contrary Mary"

New blogger and veteran professional, Kansas genealogist Mary Clement Douglass, CG, offers what has to be the world's simplest format for a research plan at Notes That Matter.

McLean County Harvest in Illinois

Illinois Harvest has recently digitized the following McLean County histories:

Custer, Milo. Soldiers of the Revolution and the War of 1812 Buried in McLean County, Illinois. Bloomington: ?, 1912. 32 pages.

Marker, Charles A. A History of Heyworth. Heyworth: Heyworth Star, 1926? 44 pages.

Official Souvenir Program, McLean County Centennial, Aug. 27, 28, 30, 1930. Bloomington?: McLean County, 1930? 56 pages.

Bellflower, 100 Years, 1871-1971. Bellflower: ?, 1971. Unpaginated.

Saybrook Sesquicentennial. Saybrook?: The Historical Committee, 1975. Unpaginated.

Heritage of the Prairie: A History of LeRoy and of Empire and West Townships, McLean County, Illinois. LeRoy Bi-Centennial Commission, 1976. ~100 pages. A second volume is said to have been published by the LeRoy Historical Society in 1985 but does not seem to be on line.

Michigan Genealogist

Articles in the Summer 2008 issue of the newsletter of Michigan's Department of History, Arts and Libraries (PDF):

"Researching the Politician in Your Past," by Gloriane Peck

"Military Records from the United States Government, Part 2," by Leelyn Johnson

"Genealogy from a Stone," by Edwina Morgan -- a Civil War tombstone in the Bahamas, no less


and of course a reminder of their two-day seminar starting tomorrow!

Illinois Ancestors Tombstone Project

New on Cyndi's List is the Illinois Ancestors Tombstone Project, a beautiful and well-organized collection (as of the last update 14 April) 16,100 tombstone photos in well over 400 cemeteries in 51 of Illinois' 102 counties. According to the site, "As a way of preserving this history, we're taking photos of as many tombstones in Illinois as we can." It's logically structured: the top layer is counties in alphabetical order; within each county, cemeteries are in alphabetical order by name (not location!); and within each cemetery, photos are in alphabetical order by surname, preceded by any introductory pictures or maps. Each item in each layer is represented by a photograph that doubles as a link.

Genealogically minded photographers, or photographically minded genealogists, can contact the webmaster and arrange to automatically upload their pictures. The photos also constitute a database: listings can be searched by surname.The project's central Illinois roots are clear -- Fulton, Peoria, and Tazewell are the most viewed counties, whereas Chicago and the collar counties are missing altogether. There's plenty of room to grow.

Silverbrook Cemetery in Niles, Michigan

NEHGS e-News highlights an active cemetery restoration group in Niles, Berrien County, Michigan, the Friends of Silverbrook Cemetery. The group's stated mission is "to promote and restore Silverbrook Cemetery to its once proud heritage."

For distant genealogists, their database -- searchable by surname, given name, cemetery section, birth date, death date, burial date, or funeral home -- is a gift (as is its property of being searchable by the first few letters of a name if you're not sure of exact spelling). Its 19,494 listings are said to constitute "most" of the burials. It's not clear whether the database is derived from a cemetery reading, a record of burials, other data, or some combination -- probably some combination, as few gravestones name the funeral home.

The website also includes upcoming meeting dates, a roster of members, and a photo gallery.

Vermilion County Harvest in Illinois

Vermilion County, Illinois, histories recently digitzed by Illinois Harvest:

The Centennial Book, Vermillion [sic] County, Illinois. [S.l.: s.n.], 1926. 128 pages.

Tuggle, L. A. Stories of Historical Days in Vermilion County, Illinois. Danville: Interstate Printing Co., 1934? 103 pages.

Souvenir Book of Rossville, Illinois Centennial, 1859-1959. Rossville: 1959. 88 pages.

Hathaway, Louise G. The Mann's Chapel Country. Rossville: Mann's Chapel Restoration Committee, 1959. 20 pages.

Cannon, Dick. Centennial, Fithian, Illinois, 1870-1970. Fithian: Fithian Centennial Book Committee, 1970. 127 pages.

Hoopeston Centennial. [S.l.]: The Corporation, 1971. Unpaginated.

Centennial Celebration, Westville, Illinois, 1873-1973. Westville, 1973. Unpaginated.

Potomac, The Artesian Village. Potomac: Centennial Committee, 1976? 147 pages.

June issue of OGSQ

Articles and resources in the June issue of the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly (info here):

"My Own Story," by William H. Hannum

"2007 First Families of Ohio Roster," by Karen Miller Bennett, CG

"The Brook Buxton Family," by James H. Edge

"Registry of Births, Salem, Shelby Co., Ohio"

"Ohio School for the Deaf"

"1902 Deaths in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Burials Outside of Hamilton County,"

"Extracts from Manumission Record of Freed Slaves 1834-1857, Logan County Clerk of Courts." These records are most interesting, and not all are manumissions. Many appear to be legal registrations of black people who were born free; some are from Logan County, and some appear to have been made in slave states and re-filed in Logan County. A brief and incomplete web search suggests that these records would benefit from some historical and legal context: the registrants may have been complying with Ohio's 1804 "Black Code," if indeed it was still in effect. Ohio Black Laws has the text, and historian Douglas Harper offers some context at "Slavery in the North." If someone can point to a more thorough discussion on or off line, I would appreciate it.

"World War I Memorial, Dayton, Ohio," by Beryl Unger

"Pigeon Run School, Amanda Township, Allen County, Ohio," by Dwane Grace

"1977-2008, Our Past, Our Present, and Looking Forward, Wood County Chapter OGS," by Eileen Aufdencamp

Champaign County Harvest in Illinois

Champaign County, Illinois, books recently digitized by Illinois Harvest:

Mathews, Milton W. Early History and Pioneers of Champaign County. Urbana: Champaign County Herald, 1891. 164 pages.

Purnell, Isabelle S. History of Mahomet. Mahomet: [s.n.], 1955. 92 pages.

Robeson's Honors the Very Important People of Our Own Champaign-Urbana. Champaign: Robeson's, 1962. 22 pages.

Irle, Frances C. Thomasboro, Illinois, Centennial, 1864-1964. Thomasboro: City of Thomasboro Centennial Committee, 1964. 48 pages.

Smalling, Donna. St. Joseph, Illinois, 1972 Centennial. St.Joseph: [s.n.], 1972. 159 pages.

The Centennial Book, Gifford, Illinois. Potomac: Bluegrass Printing, 1975. 132 pages.

Philo Area Centennial, 1875-1975. [S.I.: s.n., 1975?]. 122 pages.

Homer Past and Present. Homer: Town of Homer, 1976. 55 pages, some reprinted from 1955 centennial book.

Why You Want To Have Relatives in Wood County, Wisconsin

NEHGS e-News (22 June, not on line yet), which has a fondness for Wisconsin, calls attention to the Wood County records (both on and off line) at the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids. Not only are the usual sources (such as local newspapers, so often a source of confusion) exceptionally well described, but on line sources include city directories back to 1892, WWI soldiers' accounts, the 1923 county history, and a 1970 book of county place names. Off line sources include a locally produced index of pre-1907 vital records as published in local newspapers -- if you're looking to find every record of your ancestors, as you should, this is a prime opportunity to compare the items this index points to with the online index of pre-1907 vital records at the State Historical Society and those vital records. Plus the library holds some Family History Library microfilms covering some non-obvious sources, including 14 films of school attendance registers for Wisconsin Rapids.

Madison County Harvest in Illinois

From southwestern Illinois, Illinois Harvest has recently digitized the following:

Hair, James T. Gazetteer of Madison County. Alton: James T.Hair, 1866. 292 pages.

History of Madison County, Illinois. Edwardsville: W. R. Brink & Co., 1882. 600+ pages.

Zimmermann, Henry W. His Story of Bethalto. Bethalto: [s.n.], 1921. 282 pages. Detailed accounts of local soldiers in World War I.

Flagg, James S. Our 150 Years, Madison County, Illinois, 1812-1962. Edwardsville: East 10 Publishing, 1962. 64 pages.

Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin, vitals index

The Fond Du Lac Public Library has turned a 64-year-old card index into an online Vital Statistics Index covering at least some marriages, obituaries, funeral notices, and "milestone anniversaries" in local newspapers from 1846 to 1994 and from 2005 to the present. As the site says without wasting words, "The newspaper index is incomplete. Various indexers worked at differing levels of thoroughness."

So the usual strictures about indexes apply: put the results in your database if you want, but if you want to know, email the library for a photocopy of the newspaper report (which itself is far from infallible).

H/t to the New England Historic Genealogical Society's eNews, edition of 11 June, to which you can subscribe for free; few recent issues are archived on line.

Shelby County Harvest in Illinois

Illinois Harvest has digitized a bunch of southeastern Illinois' Shelby County books:


Eiler, Homer. History of Tower Hill and Vicinity. ?: Shelby County News Gazette, 1973.

Early History of Cowden and Vicinity, 1801-1920. (36 pages, and R. E. Fritts at least signed the preface -- that's all the publication info you're going to get!)

Moweaqua Centennial, 1852-1952. Moweaqua?: Moweaqua Centennial Association, 1952.

Yesteryears of Windsor. Windsor?:?, 1956.

Stewardson, the First 100 Years. Stewardson: Clipper Print, 1974.

Strasburg, Illinois Hundertjahrfest, 1874-1974. Strasburg: ?, 1974?.

Illinois Harvest in southwestern Illinois

Recently digitized local histories by Illinois Harvest in Bond and Montgomery counties:

Perrin, William Henry. History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois. Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882.

Traylor, Jacob L. Past and Present of Montgomery County, Illinois. Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1904.

The Centennial History of Litchfield, Illinois. Litchfield: ?, ~1953.

Centennial History of Nokomis, Illinois, 1856-1956. Nokomis: Free Press-Progress Printers, 1956.

Irving Centennial, 1863-1963, Irving: ?, 1963.

Carson, Will C. Historical Souvenir of Greenville, Illinois. Effingham: LeCrone Press, 1905.

Witt Centennial. Witt: Witt Centennial Committee, 1968.

Neill on saving $

Illinois-based researcher and writer Michael John Neill has some ideas at 24-7 Family History Circle on reducing your travel budget without reducing your research -- and his commenters add some more. No one so far has mentioned carpooling. Are we too individualistic in our schedules for that?

Berrien County Michigan land records

Lori Jarvis, the register of deeds for the triangle-shaped southwesternmost county in Michigan, will describe the newly computerized records over which she has jurisdiction at the monthly meeting of the Berrien County Genealogical Society July 16.

Western Michigan man of mystery

The June issue of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly includes a switcheroo on the old genealogical chestnut of whether there was one or two or more John Does in a particular jurisdiction. Q coeditor Tom Jones takes on Charles D. McLain, David R./Daniel McLain, and D. McLain -- three (apparently) different men in 19th-century western Michigan, who he proves to be the same one! Try to read this without your head spinning, but remember that this is the kind of careful work required to trace the less prominent, less stable, and less fortunate of our ancestors and relatives.

BTW, NGS members can browse this issue and all others back through 2002 on line.

Michigan's Abrams Genealogy Seminar July 25-26

In the absence of the usual statewide genealogy organization, the Library of Michigan is a key institution holding that state's genealogy community together. It's sponsoring a day-and-a-half seminar in Lansing July 25-26 that anyone with research targets in Michigan will want to consider. Just a sampling of the topics to be covered:

• finding Revolutionary War ancestors at the Library of Michigan

• Michigan township records, "a genealogical gold mine"

• Treasures of the Archives of Michigan

• the digitization project for state death records 1897-1920

• the Local History and Genealogical Collection of the Public Library of Saginaw (PDF)

• Ceil Wendt Jensen, CG, on newspaper research

• the Local History and Genealogy Department at Loutit District Library in Grand Haven

Illinois Harvest goes out of state

Recent additions to Illinois Harvest may be useful to Midwestern researchers outside the Sucker State:

Pryor & Co.'s Stillwater City Directory, 1876-7 (Stillwater, Minnesota: Pryor & Co., 1876)

The Civil War Literature of Ohio, by Daniel Joseph Ryan (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1911)

Pioneer History of Milwaukee, from the First American Settlement in 1833..., by James Smith Buck (Milwaukee: Swain & Tate, 1881-1890), volume 1, 1833-1841.

Note to readers who have either (a) a deep interest in 19th-century Milwaukee or (b) an unimaginable amount of spare time: I know I saw three other entries for this book -- presumably the three remaining volumes -- but I've been unable to find them using Illinois Harvest's search function. If you type in a title, it's supposed to find only works containing all the words, but in fact it produces thousands of irrelevant results. In this case, the top two hits of 1,694 for "pioneer history of milwaukee" were a WPA publication on pioneer life in Illinois and an image of a building at Racine and Milwaukee in Chicago!

Hey, it could be me -- a free year's subscription to this blog to anyone who can reconcile their description of their search system with its actual performance.

Wisconsin vital record substitutes...

... are the main menu item in the April 2008 issue (just received) of the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Newsletter (not online):

"Wild Rose Marriages, 1907-1916," by Pam Anderson, whose grandfather was town clerk and some of whose records she has transcribed. (Hmmm... Rootsweb Townsearch shows a Wild Rose in both Waushara and Richland counties.)

"Deaths Among the Membership, Wisconsin Women's Christian Temperance Union, 1908-1922"

The Wisconsin State Historical Society's indispensable online index to earlier vital records ends with September 1907, hence the special interest here. BTW, WSGS's new web site is a wiki.

Getting out of the Dark Ages

Michael John Neill, writing in Ancestry Weekly Journal, uses Kentucky as an example to give a concise reminder of basic research procedures for dealing with research targets in the "Dark Ages" before the 1850 census.

August reunions in Ohio

Thanks to the National Genealogical Society UpFront newsletter:

16 August 2008 in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, descendants of Socrates Hartle (1818-1877),
at the Harrison-Smith Park in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, 11 am. Contact Richard Hartle,
President, rhartle@greenapple.com

30 August 2008 in Southington, Ohio, Strock and Bensinger families, 1 pm. Contact
Judith McGarvey, judimcg@comcast.net

COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS, VITAL RECORDS ON LINE

The long-awaited rollout of Cook County Clerk David Orr's Genealogy Online: Historical Cook County, Illinois Vital Records is upon us. More than 6 million of 8 million records are now searchable (after your free registration) and available to be ordered @ $15 a pop, so updating will continue. (IOW, don't assume your research target got hatched, matched, or dispatched somewhere else just yet!)

Celebrate Indpendence Day by searching for records of:
Births 1872-1933
Marriages 1872-1958
Deaths 1872-1988

By the way, some thought has gone into this. You can search using a surname's Soundex code (explained in the helpful hints on site).

H/t to the Newberry Library blog, and the Newberry is where you go to find Sam Fink's index of earlier vital records as compiled from newspapers.

Ohio county histories on line at BYU

For some reason, more than half of Ohio's counties have histories on line at BYU, making it by far the best-covered Midwestern state in that department. I was able to find:

Adams, Allen, Ashland (2), Ashtabula, Athens, AuGlaize
Belmont, Butler (2)
Clark (2), Clinton, Columbiana (3), Coshocton (2), Crawford
Darke
Fairfield, Fulton
Greene, Guernsey (3)
Hamilton (2), Harrison (2), Highland
Jefferson
Licking, Lorain, Lucas
Mahoning, Marion, Miami (3), Monroe, Morrow, Muskingum (2)
Noble
Paulding, Perry, Portage
Richland, Ross
Sandusky, Stark (2)
Trumbull, Tuscarawas (3)
Union
Van Wert
Warren, Washington (3), Wayne

Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways.

Illinois and Indiana county histories on line at BYU

Since some folks think I'm draining their purses by mentioning books that have to be purchased, I'll continue my BYU county history series with a list of those on line from Illinois and Indiana:

ILLINOIS: Champaign, Coles, Fulton, Jo Daviess, Knox, Lake, La Salle (3), Lake, Macon, Marion, McDonough, McLean, Morgan, Will

INDIANA: Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Delaware, Elkhart, Gibson, Grant, Henry, Jay, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Miami, Putnam, Randolph, St. Joseph (2), Shelby (2), Steuben, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, Wabash (2), Wayne (2)

Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways.

Michigan and Wisconsin county histories on line at BYU

.Brigham Young University's online full-text genealogy library isn't perhaps as well known as it should be. I know I could have saved some library pilgrimages if I had known what it held. Here are the Michigan and Wisconsin county histories I've found on there -- not counting family histories and various random record transcriptions and indexes.

MICHIGAN: Hillsdale, Jackson, Kent, Macomb, Washtenaw, Wayne

WISCONSIN: Columbia, Dane, Door, Green, LaCrosse, Outagamie, Sheboygan, Waupaca

BTW these are quality every-word-searchable digital images, not transcriptions.

REVISED LINKING INSTRUCTIONS! Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways. My apologies for not having figured this out before posting, and if any internet wizards out there can produce a working link direct to the advanced search, by all means let us know!

33,000 Marriages in Lake County, Indiana

That's the gift to researchers from the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society. The index is unusually comprehensive, including the name of the marrying official (and religious denomination when available), and of course a link to order the original document to be sure everything is well transcribed. Indexing, a major volunteer project coordinated by Marlene Polster, is ongoing, as they are up to book 23 (which includes marriages from 1914) but aiming for 1920 (books 40-41). Hat tip to the Indiana Genealogical Society blog, which keeps up with lots of local events and queries that I don't, so you should go there!