Ohio Research on Your Way to FGS in Fort Wayne

Besides containing one of the premier genealogy libraries -- the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center -- and hosting next year's Federation of Genealogical Societies conference, Fort Wayne is also surrounded in every direction by other useful repositories. The following (by me) was just posted on the FGS 2013 conference blog, third in a series of short posts on ways to pack in extra research on your way to or from the conference in Fort Wayne. 

 If Ohio is on your way to or from the 2013 FGS conference in Fort Wayne, the Buckeye State offers a variety of research stopovers en route. (Travel note: Drivers with the option may find US 30 west of Mansfield more direct and less expensive than the Ohio Turnpike.)

Western Reserve Historical Society Research Library
10825 East Boulevard, Cleveland
http://www.wrhs.org/properties/Hours_Admission-3#Research_Center_Hours_and_Admission
Focus on Cleveland and the Western Reserve. Check website for hours and fees for non-members.

Cleveland Public Library
325 Superior Ave., N.E., Cleveland
http://www.cpl.org/Research/PopularTopics/Genealogy.aspx
Don't miss their guide to genealogy resources and records:
http://www.cpl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=UmtldL7pyY8%3d&tabid=158&mid=1831

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center
Spiegel Grove, Fremont
www.rbhayes.org
Famous for its ever-growing obituary collection, located at the south edge of Fremont on well-shaded
grounds beautiful enough to keep your non-genealogist companions pleasantly occupied.

Ohio Genealogical Society Library
611 State Route 97 West (South side) Bellville (just east of I-71)
http://www.ogs.org/ogs_library/holdings.php
The newest genealogical library around, with many unique resources. Fee for non-members.

Columbus Metropolitan Library
96 South Grant Ave., Columbus
http://www.columbuslibrary.org/research/local-history-genealogy
Home to the State Library of Ohio's genealogical collections and much more.

Ohio Historical Society
800 East 17th Ave., Columbus
http://www.ohiohistory.org/collections—archives/archives-library
1.6 million objects and 70,000 cubic feet of records -- a unique source of information in all formats.

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
800 Vine Street, Cincinnati
http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/main/genlocal.html
Strong in “local history and culture, river history, genealogy, and African American history.”



Harold Henderson, "Ohio Research on Your Way to FGS in Fort Wayne," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 17 January 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Ohio City Directories before 1850

I've blogged before about the Morgan Bibliography of Ohio Imprints, but their ongoing project of indexing all 16 city directories from the five Ohio cities that published before 1850 -- Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, and Steubenville -- deserves its own mention. These are indexes, not images. The unique advantage here is that you can search across all directories.

College football and genealogy

Writing in Friday's issue of the Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio), Michael Arace reports on Robert Neal's report on his Methodist relatives, Granville and Oliver Frambes. Granville sold much of the land on which Ohio State University now stands; Orville went west as a missionary and founded the Los Angeles Academy which became the University of Southern California. Without this pair of brothers tonight's college football extravaganza might not have been possible.

If you're more interested in the Frambes families than in the score of the OSU-USC showdown, one starting point a couple of moderately well sourced online databases are at worldconnect when you search on Granville Frambes. Orville married a Stevens, and Google Book Search shows snippets of a Stevens book that at least mentions Frambes.

Not just Palatines

I hope some readers are as ignorant as I was: the organization Palatines to America isn't limited to migrants from one part of Germany, it covers all German-speaking migrants. The group's full name is Palatines to America German Genealogy Society and it's headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, where it will hold its national conference June 19-21. (Thanks, Olive Tree Genealogy Blog.)

If I could get there, I'd just love to hear Swiss expert Maralyn Wellauer talk on "Sources and Strategies for Successful Pre-19th century Swiss Genealogical Research."