Indiana Genealogical Society seminar

Things I wouldn't know about if I hadn't attended the annual IGS seminar in Fort Wayne Friday the 27th:

* the pros, cons, and potentials of Vu-Point and Flip-Pal scanners;

* the latest thinking (from ACPLGC's Curt Witcher and others) on how best to publish indexes and abstracts when paper publication is way expensive (do it digitally while granting libraries permission to print a copy if they see a need);

* newly available on-line indexes for Grant County and newspaper pages for Putnam County;

* how to (and how NOT to) use social media to attract new members to your genealogical society (Tina Lyons).

* a cache of World War I documents including some results of a Women's War Census taken in April 1918 for the Indiana State Council of Defense Women's Committee.


Harold Henderson, “Indiana Genealogical Society seminar,” Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 28 April 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]  

Connections: The Hoosier Genealogist

Now a snazzy semiannual, the fall/winter issue of Connections: The Hoosier Genealogist is published by the Indiana Historical Society. Accordingly it often reads a bit like a genealogy magazine turned inside out: instead of authors struggling to find evidence about their ancestors, the authors here are writing about whoever is already in the IHS archives and collections. Sometimes this allows them to tell a crackerjack story.

The genealogically juicy part is that the print magazine's companion, Online Connections, which has indexes associated with some of the articles: for instance, the list of Grant County dentist Charles Priest's patients, and a three-part index of people mentioned in Lucius Keaton's diphtheria diary, with identifying information when available.

"Our Fathers' Stories: The world War II Oral History Collection at the Indiana Historical Society," by Elizabeth Flynn

"Earning Credentials: Genealogical Certification and Standards for Quality," by Elizabeth Shown Mills

"Early Dental Practices: Charles A. Priest's Dentist Accounts, Grant County, 1920-1937," by Geneil Breeze

"Diphtheria Victim's Journal: The Diary of Lucius S. Keaton, Shelby County, 1864-1865," by Evan Gaughan

"Community News: Social Columns of the Rockport Democrat, Spencer County, 1907," by Ruth Dorrel and Evan Gaughan

"Just a Country Girl: Stories from an Early Twentieth Century Hoosier Farm Family, Part 3," by Martha Brennan

"Civil War Soldiers: Addendum to GAR Series, Covington, Indiana, Part 2," by Mary Blair Immel

"Ancestor Migrations: Hennon Siblings Move from Ohio to Indiana and Farther West, 1850s through 1870s," by Robert DeWeitt Hennon

"Inheritance Taxes: Indiana's Inheritance Tax Records at the Indiana State Archives," by Barbara F. Wood. These records cover 1913-1933, but don't get your hopes up -- all counties alphabetically before Marion have been lost.