Ohio Records & Pioneer Families 2009 #2

The new issue of ORPF features Wood, Erie, Ashland, Trumbull, Warren, Gallia, and Morgan counties:

"John Hormell, Sr., 1743-1823," by Stanley W. Aultz

"Bible Records of Joshua Cope Baker Found in North Baltimore, Ohio," by Cheryl Warren Conkle

"Wood County Marriages, 1820-1856," comp. Lolita Guthrie

"First Families of Ohio: The Early Years," abstr. Kay Ballantyne Hudson

"Revolutionary War Pension Application Abstracts," comp. Lois Wheeler

"The Bissells of Indiana," by Susan L. Simon* -- the second installment, last time they were in Trumbull County, Ohio

"Invalid Pensioners Living in Ohio During 1850," by Eric Johnson

"Letter to James Lamson Gage from James Gage," tr. Jonathan Scouten Robertson

"Ohio Births Documented from Civil War Pension Files," abstr. Michael Elliott

McCarley & Davis Family Bibles of Gallie County, OH," by E. Paul Morehouse

"Camp Avery: A Forgotten Outpost in Northern Ohio," by Eric Johnson. The monument to the War of 1812 outpost apparently is near the Ohio Turnpike, but just where we do not learn.

*footnoted

A New Year of Ohio Civil War Genealogy

The first quarter 2009 issue of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal starts off with the top three finishers in the Civil War division of OGS's 2008 writing contest:

"Had They Stood Their Ground, We Would Have Cleaned Them Out: Ohioans in the Battle of Lewisburg in Western Virginia," by Jan Rader*

"Isaac Lyle of the 53rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and His Brothers," by Jean M. Hoffman*

"When Frank Came Marching Home: Frank Elliott, 135th OVI," by Harold Henderson*

"Lincoln's Brother-in-Law in Fayette County?" by Mike Williams and Washington Senior High Research History Class

"Update: Significance of the Dove on Lewis Tuttle's Gravestone at Andersonville GA," by Kevin Frye and Mary Metzinger Nunneley

"DVD Announcement: Andersonville: View Behind the Valor, A Narrated Photographic Tour of the Prison Grounds and National Cemetery," by Kevin Frye

"Ask the Experts"

"Commodity Price Indexes, 1860 to Present," by Dan Reigle -- applying John J. McCusker's How Much Is That In Real Money? A Historical Commodity Price Index to Civil War pay figures.

"Isaac Shumaker Diary for 1863-1865, 81st OVI, Galion, Ohio," by Mike Hocker

"Book Review: The Fighting McCooks by Charles & Barbara Whalen," by Dan Reigle

"John William Eckert and his Red Badge of Courage," by Eric Johnson

"1883 Census of Pensioners, Erie County, Ohio," comp. Michael Elliott

*footnoted

Tales from the Firelands

You don't see many blogs with footnotes, but Dave Barton's four-month-old Firelands History Blog is the better for them. He's posting about once a week and documenting the history of what is now mainly Huron and Erie counties in north central Ohio, which were set aside for those whose towns were burned during the American Revolution. (Justice was significantly delayed in this case, as the lands didn't begin to settle until after the War of 1812.) Most of the settlers were from New England.

"With this blog," writes Barton, "I intend to tell the stories those who settled in the Firelands; people like Platt and Sally Benedict, who founded Norwalk, Ohio; Samuel Preston, who founded the Reflector, Norwalk’s present-day newspaper; his daughter Lucy, who persuaded a ship captain named Frederick Wickham to marry her, leave the sea and become a newspaperman with her father; Henry Buckingham, a failed businessman who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad; and many more."

Ohio Records and Pioneer Families #3, 2008

One of OGS's four quarterlies, this time out Ohio Records and Pioneer Families focuses on Cuyahoga and Williams counties, along with Erie, Richland, and Preble:

"Joanna Wickham & Seth Doan Family, Cleveland OH" submitted gby Melissa Danielsson

"Norman & Electa Hale Hills, Erie County, Ohio," submitted by Linda Hills, including a discussion of farms displaced in 1941 for wartime construction.

"First Families of Ohio: The Early Years," abstracted by Kay Ballantyne Hudson

"Revolutionary War Pension Application Abstracts," abstracted by Lois Wheeler

"Official Register of Physicians by County, 1896 -- Williams County"

"Merchants, Manufacturers & Traders of Ohio, 1885"

"Divorces, Richland County, Ohio, 1848-1859," abstracted by Missy Derrenberger. Admit it -- these always make good reading. By my count 11 of the 28 divorces were sought by men.

"Josephine Wilson Photographs, Preble County, Ohio," submitted by Diane VansKiver Gagel

"Elizabeth Meily Spitler," by Sarah June Black, age 12

"War of 1812: Ohio Raised Regiments for US Army," submitted by Eric Johnson

"Ohio's Forgotten Military Cemeteries," submitted by Eric Johnson

If you've got old Ohio goodies and an itch to write them up, action editor Susan Dunlap Lee wants to hear from you: "Articles are needed NOW for future issues."

Ohio Genealogy News on township records

Ohio Genealogy News isn't the big-name magazine of the Ohio Genealogical Society (that would be the Quarterly, of course), but it could stand comparison with most states' flagship publications. Lately it's been zeroing in on under-used record types with good nuts-and-bolts methodology articles. This month it's township records. If you're not an OGS member and can't afford to add another membership, check out a library copy. Contents include:

"Digging for Gold in Town and Township Records," by Tom Neel

"Township Records -- An Overlooked Treasure," by Diane V. Gagel

"History of Townships in Ohio"

Next April is the OGS's 50th anniversary conference in Huron (Erie County), with Ohio-born Ian Frazier (author of the incomparable Families) as keynote speaker. This issue highlights north-central Ohio research options nearby, including the Firelands Historical Society, Sandusky Library and Archives Research Center, and Clarence S. Metcalf Great Lakes Maritime Research Library in Vermilion. I had no idea this last place existed, let alone that they have "over 125 linear feet of manuscript materials such as diaries, journals, and ships' logs," plus the full run of Inland Seas (quarterly journal of the Great Lakes Historical society) and bound copies of Marine Review 1884-1931. It's all about the history of Great Lakes vessels and shipping, so the genealogy relevance is mainly for those with a lake connection somewhere.

Dang. We drive through northern Ohio on a regular basis. It's going to be hard to make any time if I have to stop at a repository every few miles!

Sandusky History

The Sandusky History blog is "inspired by the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center and Follett House Museum," and produced by the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Recent posts have covered a Feb. 9 appearance (woops! that's tomorrow!) by the distinguished genealogist and lecturer Tony Burroughs of Chicago State University; an 1830s autograph album belonging to Marcia Coburn Vinton of Massachusetts, whose daughter was a pioneer Sandusky settler; the 1924 life story of former slave Sophronia Jefferson; and the tradition of Leap Year parties. Thanks to Dorene Paul for alerting me to this one, as my forebears seem to have skipped that part of Ohio.