Fall/Winter 2010 Hoosier Genealogist: Connections

There's a lot to like in the new issue of The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections from the state historical society.

There's history in Richard M. Lytle's timely "Desperate Times: Hammond, Indiana, Endures the Great Depression."

There's hard-core genealogy data in another installment of Timothy Mohon's "Hoosier Baptists" and their records.

There's a repository review on the state library's History Reference Room.

There's a reflection on the personal meaning of the classic Midwestern matchup between border Southerners on one hand and Yankees and New Englanders on the other -- Randy K. Mills's "'Not Like Your Father's People.'"

There's an institutional and records context for finding the hardest-to-find people in Rachel Popma's study of the Blackford County Asylum for the Poor, "Finding Destitute Ancestors."

And, of course, there are three classic family chronicles:

"Along the Wabash: Dora Family History Leads Back to Indiana's Earliest Recorded European Settlers," in which Rob Dora works the French records from the 1700s.

"Pioneer Politician: John Kennedy Graham, Clark and Floyd Counties 1805-1841," by Geneil Breeze.

"Maria's Journey: From the Mexican Revolution to Indiana's Steel Mills," by Ramon Arredondo and Trisha (Hull) Arredondo.

History and Genealogy in Indiana with THG: Connections

The new issue of the semi-annual The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections (Spring-Summer 2010) is out, with a focus on the interconnections between genealogy and history. Robert W. White reflects on "Hoosier Genealogy and Indiana History: Using Each to Inform the Other." Tanya D. Marsh shows how it's done in "Following the Bee Line," an account of the Scherman/Sherman family who came to Indianapolis to work for the railroad and stayed to do many more things.

Other articles include a mysterious general store ledger from Bond County, Illinois, in 1888; a calendar of musical performances in Marion (Grant County), 1897-1898; abstracts of Montgomery County court papers; and letters from a not altogether appreciative itinerant bookseller, S. Harper Crawford, who attempted to sell books in Dearborn, Ripley, and Decatur counties in 1855.

Crawford didn't care for the wet lands in southeastern Indiana: "Their mode of building houses is as follows -- They select the driest spot they can find -- saw off oak logs about 5 feet in length [,] set them up on end and thereon erect their hut. I noticed a number of them with water enough under them to float a small boat."

White co-authors the second and final installment of the White-Eggleston family in Decatur County, Indianapolis, and points west. Timothy Mohon has a second very thorough installment on Baptist records, this involving two almost identically named Baptist organizations who covered the same western Indiana territory. (If you have Indiana Baptists, you need this resource!) And Autumn Gonzalez gets us started on federal documents.

And speaking of history, this issue begins the 50th year of the state historical society's publishing a genealogical magazine. Don't forget to visit its virtual companion, "Online Connections" as well, once it gets installed on the new IHS web site.

Summer Hoosier Genealogist

Lots of good stuff in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections, from the Indiana Historical Society:

"Research Serendipity," by Sharon Ogzewalla

"A Popular Outlet for Spare Time," by Mary Owen, on Indiana women's clubs from about a century ago

"'To Make Up a Soldier's Life," by Rachel M. Popma -- letters to the Tipton Times from Spanish-American War soldiers

"Court Papers: Abstracts of the Delaware County Legal Documents in the Barnes Manuscripts collection, 1864-1892," by Wendy L. Adams and Melinda Moore Weaver

"Prescriptions, Poetry, and Prose: The William Daviess Hutchings Papers, Scott and Jefferson Counties, 1855-1914," by Geneil Breeze

"Hoosier Baptists, Part 1: Anti-slavery Associations, 1826-18302 and African American Associations and Death Notices from Annual Minutes, 1848-1912", by Timothy Mohon

"The Crooks Family" by Constantina Lyla Spath (Delaware County)

"The Indianapolis Gardeners Benefit Society," by Cathy Born

Wisconsin records off the beaten track

Contents of the July 2008 issue of the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Newsletter:

"Deaths Among the Membership, Wisconsin WCTU, 1923-26," alphabetical

"'Slacker' Lists from World War I," listed by draft board, evidently from the Congressional Record

"Delegates to, and Member Churches of the Wisconsin Baptist State Convention, Fifth Anniversary Convention, 8-10 October 1850," extracted from Minutes of the Fifth Anniversary of the Wisconsin Baptist State Convention held in the Church Ediface of the First Baptist Church, Milwaukee, Wis. (Milwaukee: J. Hamilton for the Convention, 1850). Ah, the headaches of transcribing names! My wife may have an ancestor on this list, but only if what is rendered "J. Moosely" is really "T. Mozley." Without laying hands on the original I couldn't say which is more improbable!