two talks at the Michiana Genealogy Fair March 21

I'll be speaking Saturday, March 21, at the 17th annual Michiana Genealogy Fair, sponsored by the South Bend Area Genealogical Society, and held at the Mishawaka Penn Harris Public Library.

10:30 am -- "Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives," a fun travelogue of lesser-known research sites in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

1:30 pm -- "Indirect Evidence: What to Do When Perry Mason Is Not on Your Side." Many genealogists build their own brick walls by looking only for direct evidence. Nine examples of how to have more fun and better results.

Microfilm in Mishawaka! Indiana newspapers uncatalogued

The Indiana State Library has the best collection of Indiana newspapers in the world – check out their guide.

What may well be the second most extensive such collection is in the Heritage Center at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library in St. Joseph County, much more conveniently located for those living in northern Indiana (and for those who approach the state from the north). But it is not enumerated on their web site. I have posted my personal list at Midwest Roots.

The Source Nobody Knows

If you have a research target in Indiana during the Civil War years, and they weren't poor, the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library's Heritage Center has a source for you: the 42-reel microfilm set Indiana Internal Revenue Lists for the years 1862-1866. Yes, Virginia, there was an income tax during the Civil War (that was back when they paid for wars themselves instead of laying off the bill on future generations). I've worked with these lists a tiny bit at the Great Lakes branch of the National Archives in Chicago, and they are real records -- that is, not organized or indexed for our convenience. You need to know where your folks were and where various towns were, in order to figure out the geographical layout of the districts used. And those with little or nothing won't show up here -- it's not a census substitute.