Mid-20th-century war resource

The St. Joseph County (Indiana) Public Library has an on-line "Service Notes" database indexing almost 40,000 newspaper mentions of local people "who were being drafted, entering the service, being promoted or sent to different locations" between 1941 and 1979. It's in two parts, one for WWII, the other for Korea and Vietnam. Each can be browsed if you specify how to sort the list and a particular branch of service. The results will give name and address, but any underlying newspaper items must be retrieved from either microfilm or clipping files in the library in South Bend.

Obviously this sort of database is just a start on research, and equally obviously it won't help if your person of interest came from somewhere else. But check your relevant library -- they may have a similar card file or index that hasn't made it on line yet!

Blogs, Maps, and Forgotten Bookmarks in South Bend

FYI, the St. Joseph County Public Library's Family and Local History Section has had its own newsletter (PDF) for the last few months. In addition to their catalog, they have on line listings of genealogically useful holdings, including their maps (anyone for an 1838 street map of South Bend?) and research guides for those seeing Eastern European or Irish homelands.

The library also has an online database of locally published obituaries from 1913 to the present of people with ties to St. Joseph County, Indiana. (Print indexes of earlier obituaries are available.)

And that's not all, folks! One of the spookiest blog posts I've seen in a while was on the library's main SJCPL blog last month, featuring a bookmark from 1960 that turned up in a library book. Of course it's been entered as well on the web site (you knew there was one) called Forgotten Bookmarks. Yes, history can jump out and bite you!

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"

St. Joseph County Indiana library

The New England Historic Genealogical Society's e-News for 4 June (not up on their site yet but free signup even for nonmembers) has an appreciation of South Bend's St. Joseph County Public Library, including its digitized version of the 1875 county historical atlas, the 1936 plat book for the agricultural parts of the county, the county obituary index from 1913 forward, and a 1941-1979 database of local military service. (I can testify that the physical space is nice too.)

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

Know where you're going, and where they went

"I waited 7 hours in Chicago for a 15 minute flight. Had I known South Bend was so close to Chicago I could have easily taken a bus and arrived in plenty of time to relax and prepare for the seminar the following morning."

Geoff Rasmussen, posting at the genealogy database program Legacy's blog, makes the best of his 21st-century misadventures en route to a presentation at the Elkhart County (Indiana) Genealogical Society, and turns them into a pertinent reminder that genealogy without geography can result in delays of decades, not hours. Besides, you've gotta love a genealogy program with a geographical anachronism alert: it tells you when you've typed in the name of a county that didn't exist yet in that year!

South Bend in NYGBR

In the January 2008 issue of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (contents not on line), Stefani Evans, CG, finds circumstantial evidence of the identity of Nathan MacCorkle's wife Catherine that might satisfy a hobbyist. She pursues the case to find an unusual piece of direct contemporary evidence confirming Catherine's Dodge parentage. Nathan and Catherine lived in New York and Pennsylvania; their youngest two children wound up in South Bend (St. Joseph County), Indiana -- Emma Elizabeth (MacCorkle) Housekeeper 1850-1918, and James Monroe MacCorkle 1853-1925.

The article doesn't carry them forward, so of course I had to go look. The 1900 census enumerated J. M. and Anna (____) "McCorkle" and six children in the city's First Ward, and "Nick" and Emma Housekeeper with one child present (out of a total of four) in the Second Ward. J.M. was a clerk, and Nick a blacksmith.

Chicago Genealogical Society turns 40

Articles in the 40th anniversary issue of Chicago Genealogist (Fall 2007):

"'Did You Know Our Great Great Uncle Was a Mayor of Chicago,'" by Earl J. Beese

"Renamed Streets of Chicago -- 1900," by Gail Santroch (reprint)

"Index Listing of Obituaries from Illinois Staats Zeitung," by Debbe Hagner (reprint)

"The Alwards of Woodbridge, Scipio, South Bend, Niles and Chicago," by Timmins Alward Dodson. This family largely followed a classic migration pattern from northern New Jersey to Cayuga and Livingston counties, New York; Berrien County, Michigan, and St. Joseph County, Indiana; Cook County, Illinois, and points farther west.

"Class 7A-7B of Bateman School, 1939-1940," by Doris Carlson Sturm

"Kindergarten Class of Bateman School, 1934," by Doris Carlson Sturm