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.

Mark the Calendar: Amy Johnson Crow in South Bend April 13

Two talks by a highly qualified speaker will be handy to genealogists in northern Indiana and southern Michigan in April.

Saturday, April 13, at the Colfax Auditorium in the main St. Joseph County Public Library at 304 South Main Street in South Bend, Amy Johnson Crow will speak on researching our Civil War ancestors:

10 am: “Answering the Call: Researching Civil War Ancestors Before and During the
War,” and

11:30 am: “Discharged: Researching Civil War Ancestors After the War.”

The talks are co-sponsored by the library and the South Bend Area Genealogical Society.

Amy Johnson Crow, MLIS, CG, is a Genealogical Content Manager with Archives.com. She is a researcher, author, editor, and database developer. She is a former editor of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal.

Lost Schoolhouses in St. Joseph County

The feature article in the October South Bend Area Genealogical Society Quarterly Newsletter is by Sadie Stuck on "The Lost Schoolhouses of St. Joseph County." She enumerates every township, but not every school. It would appear that a lot of them have literally been forgotten -- as in, "The only other school known to have existed [in Union Township] is one of unknown name built in 1939 at 64500 Kenilworth Road." And this is not the only such case.

As the old play asks, "Are we so soon forgot?" Just seventy years ago and even its name is unremembered? Perhaps there is more information out there, but I found this to be a very sobering article. Forgetting is real, forgetting happens.

SBAGS July Quarterly

"SBAGS April 2009 Meeting" -- Andrew Beckman, archivist for the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, came bearing information: they have very little record of employees, but they have lots of engineering drawings, all employee newsletters, production orders, financial ledgers, photos, and early sales catalogs.

"Mishawaka Orphan's Home Residents" for 1900 and part of the listing for 1910, transcribed from the US census.

"'True Life is Life Within': Mother Angela Gillespie, C.S.C.: A biographical Sketch," by Ken Reising.

"St. Joseph County's Honored Dead," transcribed from South Bend Tribune 7 December 1944.

"Anniversaries/Reunions" and Richard Berkheiser's "Newspaper Tidbits," transcribed from various issues of the South Bend Tribune.

"New Books on the Shelf" at the St. Joseph County Public Library's Local & Family History Department and the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library Heritage Center.

SBAGS April Quarterly

The South Bend Area Genealogical Society's quarterly leads off with accounts of the first three programs of the year: veterinarian and sometime national speaker Mike Lacopo in January on research ("reconstruct the entire family unit"), Gary Gabrich in February on Hungarian immigrants (the Magyar Haz in South Bend was in 1911 "the largest Hungarian cultural house in the entire United States"), and Jeff Bockman at the March Michiana Genealogy Fair on two topics: researching with maps, and researching without birth certificates.

Oh yes, and there are articles too:

Ken Reising on "The Mishawaka Fire of 1872"

Toni Cook on "Photos of Phoebe Ward Dunnahoo Cemetery Located" -- photos from 1940 taken shortly before the small family cemetery was relocated.

Genealogy in South Bend

The new (January) quarterly newsletter of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society is out. The big news is the annual one-day Michiana Genealogy Fair will be Saturday, March 14, at the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library in downtown Mishawaka (SB's twin city to the east), featuring Jeff Bockman from Illinois on "Using Maps for Genealogical Research" and "No Birth Certificat, No Problem." Exhibitors (including my local society from the next county west) will be hawking our wares and talking with visitors.

Meanwhile here's the other stuff in the newsletter:

Minutes of the 27 October and 24 November 2008 programs: Don Litzer of the Allen County Public Library on "Networking Genealogically," and Garry Harrington of the Rum Village Nature Center on the topographical-geographical-ecological early history of St. Joseph County, respectively.

"World War I and World War II Draft Registration Cards: A Genealogical Treasure Trove," by Eric Craig

"George Milburn, Captain of Industry," by Ken Reising -- an active businessman who helped fossster Studebaker and Oliver manufactureres "during critical periods, when they expanded from job shops to major manufacturers," but who is little known locally in part because he moved his wagon firm to Toledo, Ohio, in 1874.

"Thomas McCartney 1809-1861 Biography," by John E. McCartney

"The Johnsons: The Swedish Connection," by Jack R. Newman

"New Books on the Shelf" at the St. Joseph County Public Library, including as well the bad news that the Indiana state legislature's ill-advised 2007 property tax cap will require the Local and Family History and microfilm rooms to close on Sundays when the rest of the library is open.

Crossing state lines in South Bend

The October issue of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society's Quarterly Newsletter features a history of the House of David 20th-century religious cult located in Benton Harbor, Berrien County, Michigan, compiled by Ken Reising. Other material:

"Minutes of the September 29, 2008, Members Meeting," including a summary of Matt Baumgartner's talk on Oliver Cromwell.

"Tombstones Recovered" -- an account of the rescue of five tombstones found in the manure pit of a 19th-century barn in Union Township in 2005 and since restored and reset in Lakeville Cemetery.

"List of Telephone Subscribers" from the 18 November 1896 issue of the South Bend Daily Times. The South Bend Telephone Company boasted nearly 600 patrons.

"Newspaper Tidbits" by Richard Berkheiser, drawn from the South Bend Tribune of 29 April 1920.

"1910 Index of Heads of Households for River Park, Indiana," now part of South Bend -- continued from the July issue.

The society's website now hosts the Michiana Genealogical Index, a database of over 900,000 Michiana surnames, mostly from vital records, cemeteries, and newspapers, contributed by Norbert Cramer of St. Joseph, Michigan. Users who want to get the most out of the database should not stop at the overall surname search form, but proceed to the particular event search form in order to get some indication of the original source.

July South Bend Area newsletter

Articles in the July 2008 issue of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society Quarterly Newsletter (Volume 33, issue 3):

"The Thompson Family Journey," by Barbara Weiler, a firsthand account of a covered wagon journey from Ohio to Iowa in 1861: "During the trip we were very careful not to discuss the war as we often met folks who were southern sympathizers."

"Obituaries of St. Joseph Co. natives found in the Los Angeles Times and the Orange Co. Register (California)," comp. Eleanor E. Borkenhagen

"1862 Civil War Letter Found in Rafters of Old Minish House," by Bill Minish with reprints from 1999 articles

"Blackrobe: Father Benjamin Petit and the Potawatomi Trail of Death," by Ken Reising:

"Fr. Petit was on the scene at Menominee's village [Marshall County, near Twin Lakes] as his parishioners were being rounded up and prepared to move. On the morning of September 4, 1838 orders were given to move .... As the Indians were marched off from what had been their village they could see white settlers already harvesting the corn that the Indians had been forced to leave behind."

"1910 Index of Heads of Households for River Park, Indiana"

South Bend Quarterly

The quarterly newsletter of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society recently won honorable mention in the National Genealogical Society's local newsletter competition. Major articles in the April issue of the quarterly:

"Indiana Scandinavians: Urban Distribution According to 2000 Census Data," by Mika Roinila

"Abstracts of Title," by Eric Craig

"Magnificent Men in their Automobiles: American Simplex Motor Car Company, Mishawaka, Indiana," by Ken Reising

"Saint Patrick's Day 1897"

"California Obituaries of St. Joseph Co. natives," comp. Eleanor E. Borkenhagen

New books listings for Saint Joseph County Public Library and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library

South Bend Area genealogy

Highlights of the Jan 2008 Quarterly Newsletter of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society:

"Leopold Pokagon, Potawatomi Chief: A historical and biographical sketch," by Ken Reising

"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Byerley Observes Anniversary" (1906 South Bend Tribune)

"Ask the Retoucher" column, by Eric Curtis M. Basir

"Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in St. Joseph County with details," by Richard Berkheiser, transcribed from Schuyler Colfax Chapter DAR files

"New Books on the Shelf," St. Joseph County Public Library and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library

"Marriages at St. Paul's German Lutheran Church in South Bend, 1879-1903," transcribed by Karen Bond