Indianapolis 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, second in a series of short posts on ways to pack in extra research on your way to or from the conference in Fort Wayne.

Indiana's capital city, a little over two hours southwest of Fort Wayne, is a great place for a quick strike
in libraries or archives on your way to the FGS conference. The downtown canals and state capitol make
for plenty of photo and recreational opportunities as well.

Indiana State Library, 315 West Ohio Street, http://www.in.gov/library/index.htm. The microfilm
room on the second floor houses the world's best collection of Indiana newspapers along with the
state's most complete collection of Indiana county records. On another wing of the second floor are the
manuscript collections, with finding aids and a card catalog.

Indiana Historical Society, 450 West Ohio Street, http://www.indianahistory.org. Investigate their
massive manuscript and visual holdings at http://www.indianahistory.org/our-collections/manuscript-
and-visual-collections. Their store and “Indiana Experience” shows may be just the thing for any non-
researchers on board.

These two buildings are across the street and less than a block apart. Bring quarters for IHS lockers,
ISL copiers, and street parking. If you haven't been to Indianapolis in a while, allocate some time to
adjust to the higher on-street parking fees and the computerized payment system. IHS parking is free
with library use; its downstairs cafe looks out on the canals.

Indiana State Archives, 6440 East 30th Street, http://www.in.gov/icpr/2358.htm, with an auxiliary
on-line digital archive at http://www.indianadigitalarchives.org. Seven miles east of downtown, this is
an archive, not a library, so figure out what records you're looking for and call ahead to arrange to see
them. Parking not a problem.

Crown Hill Cemetery, 700 West 38th Street, http://www.crownhill.org, makes a great out-of-the-
car break with a genealogical and historical flavor. The beautiful pictures on the site do not lie. Burial
locator at http://www.crownhill.org/locate.

Every city deserves a blogger who's old enough to know the secrets and young enough to tell them.
Check out Ron Darrah's IndyGenealogy blog at http://indygenealogy.blogspot.com.


Harold Henderson, "Indianapolis Research on Your Way to FGS in Fort Wayne," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 3 December 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Words from IGS Conference Day

Several admonitions are echoing in my mind from the Indiana Genealogical Society's day-long conference in Fort Wayne; other attendees' mileage may vary.

More than half of the 111 attendees also attended the business meeting, where we heard that our 76 volunteers had helped index 100% of Indiana's portion of the 1940 census in less than a month, far ahead of all neighboring states.

* Speaker Michael Hall, deputy chief genealogical officer of FamilySearch: “Every one of you should be writing in the FamilySearch Wiki [page about your county] about your libraries and resources,” thus helping draw genealogical tourism.

* Speaker Debra Mieszala, who works in the genealogical part of the process of identifying and returning remains of US soldiers long lost in action: The military now uses all three kinds of DNA -- Y-DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA, so relatives of missing soldiers may have new opportunities to provide reference samples. Of the 88,000 missing, 78,000 are from WWII.

* IGS president Michael Maben, who asked for volunteers for an advocacy committee and identified the State Archives (long relegated to an outdated warehouse) as a problem to be addressed: “We need to press our legislature to replace that facility."

* Mieszala again (part of an informative talk on finding the patent filings of inventive ancestors): The Great Lakes Regional Branch of NARA has a Facebook page, and we should "friend" it. Among the many great examples they post from their holdings, one is a patent infringement case.

Lots of good people and good laughs, all in a day's genealogy work . . . the April 2013 conference in Bloomington will feature Josh Taylor.


Harold Henderson, “Words from IGS Conference Day,” Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 29 April 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.] 

What is happening to libraries -- Michigan and Indiana

The spring issue of the Michigan Genealogical Council newsletter chronicles the ongoing process.

On the positive side, state census films are being indexed by Ancestry, and are expected on SeekingMichigan.org by this fall. Naturalization records from at least 59 of the state's 83 counties are expected on SeekingMichigan.org within a a year. After that, look for "survey notes, plat maps and land state patents." (Note also information on GenealogyWise's Michigan discussion group about changing URLs for some Michigan resources, including cemeteries.)

On the other side, the Library of Michigan now staffs only three service desks 10am-5pm. "If additional information is needed feel free to call the reference desk phone line at 517-373-1300 and they will return your call as time allows." (The Archives of Michigan is already open from just 1-5 weekdays.) And draconian cuts in state help for local libraries will cause the Troy library to close May 1st and Detroit Public to reduce staff by 20 percent.

It's not just Michigan. The Indiana State Archives, although dreadfully understaffed, has put up a number of useful databases on line as the Indiana State Digital Archives, and volunteers there are working on more. But the physical state archives (the vast majority of which are unique records that are not microfilmed or digitized) are located in an old warehouse that would not stand up to a tornado and whose roof leaks. As Indiana librarians and county genealogists were informed at their April seminar, the governor isn't interested in fixing that situation until he can find private contributions for the project.

Just to be clear: this is what's happening, read it as you will.

Personally, I do not think that the expansion of virtual libraries justifies or compensates for the short-sighted cuts being made to physical ones. A library that you can get to easily is a ladder that even a bad student, a nonconformist, an outsider can climb. Cutting and closing them takes rungs off the ladder. No one rung is essential. You can usually find a workaround. But when enough rungs are gone, it's not a ladder any more. It's just some sticks on the ground.

working in Indianapolis

Indianapolis is not my native habitat -- it's farther away than Chicago, and the only reasonable way to get there is to drive -- but nevertheless I wind up there at least once a month. It contains three of the four premier genealogical repositories in the state, and two of them are just across Ohio Street from each other: the Indiana State Library with its arsenal of microfilmed Indiana newspapers and county records (including many FHL films on permanent loan), and the Indiana Historical Society with its own living history presentations for the public (complete with a clock that runs backwards) and an archive of primary source collections. Just being able to cross the street from one to the other is somewhat intoxicating.

Hopefully some day the third member of this research trinity, the Indiana State Archives -- currently relegated to a leaky warehouse on the east side of town -- will return to its original downtown neighborhood and a facility worthy of its own remarkable and irreplaceable holdings.

New Indiana sources

(Partly cross-posted from the La Porte County Genealogical Society blog. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

Three from the Hoosier state:

(1) The Indiana State Archives has some information on line for Indiana National Guard members 1898-1940. (Hat tip to Fern Eddy Schultz and Pat Harris, and to the volunteers who did the underlying work.) The "digital archives" also includes institutional and other military records unique to Indiana. These databases are not browseable and not searchable by location. They do allow searching by beginnings, thus "Smi" will produce all surnames that begin with those letters. (Remember: if you find something good, there may be even better in the original source it came from. Check it out.)

(2) The Indiana State Genealogical Society's ever-growing collection of databases (388 as of 12 September) has a new one for my home county of La Porte, taken from H.C. Chandler & Co.'s Railway Business Directory and Shippers Guide for the State of Indiana. Most of these databases are members-only and they're an increasingly good reason to join the state organization. They are searchable by name only, but if you are uncertain of the name a blank search will produce the entire list for browsing. (What I said after #1.)

(3) A century ago Indiana was a leader in the promotion of eugenics (which combined the ideas that mental slowness was inherited and ineducable and drew the policy conclusion that people so diagnosed should be sterilized). These days the history of this dead-end pseudo-science is a frequent topic in the Indiana Magazine of History. What struck me most in the current (September) issue, however, was the photographs and the sense of just how isolated rural dwellers could be in the time before even radio.

Evisceration

The news is not good from Michigan. For all those who live or work there, here's the informative letter from the Michigan Genealogical Council on the situation as of February 21. The Library of Michigan faces a 23% budget cut; its staff will soon be reduced to 30 (once it was 100); and many services and non-Michigan holdings are likely to be terminated. Lobbying may help a little, but we may have to hope that institutions with better funding will be able to take up some of the slack.

Hoosiers shouldn't look down on Michigan's troubles; the Indiana State Archives has been poorly housed, underfunded, and understaffed for many years. The staff and volunteers are great, but they need better support.

NW Indiana naturalizations in 3 area codes

Check out the Region Roots blog from the Lake County (Indiana) Public Library in Merrillville for the quick version of where to look for naturalizations of people in the county. Short version: they could be next door, on the south side of Chicago (Great Lakes branch of the National Archives), or on the east side of Indianapolis (state archives). I have a feeling that in some cases this handy outline may be just the beginning of an even longer and more convoluted story . . .

Weekend Warriors -- Help Indiana's volunteers help you

Ron Darrah, long-time volunteer at the Indiana State Archives and always a festive presence at Indiana Genealogical Society gatherings, has gone public in the current IGS newsletter (read it yourself in the members-only section if you're a member; if you aren't, why not?): the volunteers have tens of thousands of records in databases ready to go online, but the state archivist is stalling on doing so. Volunteers are the backbone of the state archives; it seems little enough to ask that state government do its part in preserving and making known Indiana's history.

It may be that he or his boss the governor don't know how many people care about this. Below is their contact information, and below that is the list of databases being held up, from the IGS Blog.

Indiana State Archivist James Corridan 317/232-3691 or jcorridan@icpr.in.gov

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels 317/232-4567 or www.in.gov/gov/2631.htm

Department of Correction (DOC) Databases
--Jeffersonville (DOC-Jeffersonville) 11,995 records
--Old State Prison North (Indiana State Prison North Inmate Index 1858-1897) 10,574 records
--New State Prison North (DOC-Prisoners) 34,428 records
--Boys School (DOC - Boys School) 12,376 records
--Girls School (DOC - Girls School Inmates) 5,670 records
[NOTE: Girls School files will be added in the future, as well as databases for the Reformatory from 1897 forward.]

Military Databases
--World War I - Book of Merit 1,626 records
--World War II - Gold Star 3,461 records
--Civil War - 200,000 records [proofing is nearly done]
--National Guard - 37,000 records [now at the letter K--there is the potential to reach approximately 100,000 records when complete]
--Early soldiers - approximately 20,000 records
--Mexican War - 4,783 records
--United Spanish American War Veterans Files - underway
--Upcoming Spanish American War - underway

Orphans and Foster Children Databases
--Foster Children Files - 10,691 records
--Foster Parent Applications - 1,462 records
--Orphanages and Other Licensed Institutions for Children 922 records
--Juliana Work - 4,628 records

Court Records Databases
--Marion County Loft 1 - 27,578 records
--Marion County Loft 2 - 23,614 records
--Marion County Loft 3 - 36,000 records [still increasing]

Naturalization Databases
--The Naturalization database that is currently online contains approximately 23,540 records. There are several additional smaller counties ready to be added. In the near future the volunteers hope to have more counties proofed and ready to be uploaded, including Marion County (23,226 records) and St. Joseph County (approximately 39,000 records). These two counties, along with various other counties (with considerably smaller tables) will triple the size of the current online Naturalization database.

Land Records Databases
--LaPorte-Winamac land office 18,785 records
--Fort Wayne land office 73,250 records
--General Land Office (Reserves) 2,579 records [already on the Indiana State Archives website]
--Vincennes land office 100,000+ records [soon to be finished]
--Terre Haute-Crawfordsville land office approximately 20,000 records [soon to be finished]

Black Sheep Friday in Ohio and Indiana

Two places to stop by if your family has a black sheep:

At the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus you can peruse two cubic feet of "Copies of cost bills and indictments for individuals sentenced to the Ohio Penitentiary, 1834-1874," as well as a wide variety of other documents and secondary sources.

At the Indiana State Archives, something more personal and indexed, with pictures: "In the early 1900’s the Board of State Charities conducted interviews with inmates at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana. Each prisoner was given the opportunity to give his side of the story. The men often named family members and others involved in the crime for which they were sentenced, and discussed whether or not attempts had been made to secure a parole or pardon." The name index is on line; for the rest, get thee to Indianapolis.

Midwestern Roots in Indianapolis in August

One of Indiana's two genealogy associations, the Indiana Historical Society, will put on Midwestern Roots 2008 on the east side of Indianapolis Friday and Saturday August 15-16, with a full slate of pre-conference activities on Thursday the 14. Speakers of national renown will include Christine Rose ("Using Little-Known and Neglected Sources" and more), Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak ("Cases That Make My Brain Hurt" and more). Also I hope to hear Betty Warren on Indiana marriage laws 1791-1891, Alan January on state hospital records, and Curt Witcher on directories. Pre-conference workshops will include internet research, history lab, library resources, and preparing your family history for publication -- or you can revel in the resources of the Indiana State Archives, the genealogy division of the Indiana State Library, and the IHS's own William Henry Smith Memorial Library. This is the perfect venue for those of us who hesitate to spend the time and money to go to the week-long national extravaganzas (which I also love).