Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Index to Indexes of Michigan Newspapers!

The Library of Michigan soldiers valiantly on despite the stress being laid on it by state government cutbacks. The new issue of the sadly truncated Michigan Genealogist brings welcome good news from research LeRoy Bennett who has completed an 8-page PDF listing, "Indexes to Michigan Newspapers," covering more than 200 newspaper indexes whether on-line, in-library, or completely off-line. Adrian, Michigan, has an online index of death and marriage records in Lenawee County newspapers, 1850s-1870s, on GenWeb. At the far end of the alphabet, vital records from the Ypsilanti Commercial have been indexed from 1876 to 1883, and the index is in the Burton Collections of the Detroit Public Library (fee for entry).

Note that the indexes are listed alphabetically by city AND BY COUNTY, so if you don't find your town of choice you may possibly find tidbits from it indexed under the county name. My ownrecent research targets of Cheboygan and Montcalm counties didn't show, but maybe next time. I just love finding aids to finding aids.

2 comments:

Kate said...

FYI for Benzie County there is an index online -- it is found here:

http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/benzie/1001news.htm

This is very handy.

Harold Henderson said...

Thank you, Kate -- either they missed one, or the list is *already* out of date!

Harold