Unwrap this present BEFORE Christmas!

World Vital Records is offering free access to a number of 20th-century city and business directories -- too many to list here, and (I am told) ending on the 26th. For our area of interest, you're in luck if you need

Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois
Kohler, Sheboygan/Ozaukee counties, Wisconsin
Plymouth, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Sheboygan, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin

but there are plenty more. Check the whole list because not all the offerings for each place are together.

Hat tip to Diane Walsh on Rootsweb's St. Clair County list.

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.

Midwestern sources at Family Search Labs

Several blogs and email lists alerted me to new database items with original items at FamilySearch Labs' Record Search. Here's the current list of Midwestern sources available there:

Illinois: Diocese of Belleville, Catholic Parish Records 1729-1956 (browsable only)

Michigan: Births 1867-1902, Marriages 1868-1925, Deaths 1867-1897 (searchable and browsable)

Ohio: Deaths 1908-1953 (searchable and browsable)

Wisconsin: State Censuses 1855, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905 (browsable only)

This is both an opportunity to make new searches in sources difficult to find before, and an opportunity to "clean up" your existing records with higher-quality sources.

Expected and Unexpected Resources from SW Illinois

The first 2008 issue of the St. Clair County (Illinois) Genealogical Society Quarterly has enough material to make some state publications jealous. Contents include:

the second of two parts of a county marriage index for 1908 (alphabetical by bridal surname, from Lizzie Crowder to Helena Zubrawski).

"E. St. Louis Gazette: Some Vital Stats, 1866, Tidbits 1872."

"Extracts from Death Register Book 1, 8 March 1882-28 April 1883," by Melinda Cahill and Diane Walsh

"Biography of James Bissell 'J.B.' Davis," by Thomas W. Davis, Jr.

"Belleville Public Library Website Adds Features," including a glimpse of a genealogical source I'd never dreamed of: an archival document in German, listing books checked out, the individual patrons' names, and the due dates, 1863-1866. What was your ancestor reading?

Announcement of a new SCCGS project and a first installment of its index: a Funeral Card Collection.

St. Clair County, Illinois -- where you hope your ancestors lived

One of the most active local societies in Illinois, with a sizeable web presence, is in the southwest, right across the river from St. Louis: St. Clair County. I'm a member, so don't take my word for it -- check out their stuff.

They've just announced a new free newspaper database: "Vital Statistics Extracted from the Belleville (Ill.) Daily Advocate, 1927-1954," the gift of Nancy Giles. For those of us who have ancestors after the 1930 census (!) and who are twentieth-century impaired, this is a wonderful thing. My own Flint and Thrall lines converged in St. Clair, so it's already done my database some good and I look forward to zeroing in on the original articles the next time I'm over that way.

A glimpse of the future, with free Ohio death certificates as well

The Ohio Historical Society has long held statewide death certificates from 1908 through 1953, indexed in two batches, 1913-1935 and 1936-1944; you're on your own if you need 1908-1912 or 1945-1953, and in any case actual copies cost $7 apiece sent by snail mail.

But Family Search Labs is on the case too. Their site is not for the timid: "FamilySearch Labs showcases new family history technologies that aren't ready for prime time. Your feedback will help us refine new ideas and bring them to market sooner. Have fun playing with these innovations and send your feedback directly to our development teams."

Your fun can include keeping up with their blog, volunteering to help index, or delving into Record Search (free registration required), where among other things you can search the full run of Ohio death certificates and view images of the originals for free, and browse the as yet unindexed 1905 state census of Wisconsin. I've happily made discoveries on both. They also have browseable the Illinois, Diocese of Belleville, Catholic Parish Records 1729-1956. That's a time span Midwesterners rarely get to work with.