67 Allegany County NY decedents

FamilySearch's uploading of more than 14 million New York probate images from 1629 to1971 is an immeasurable boon to genealogists with research targets in the Empire State. It can, however, be immeasurably frustrating to find any particular person in the browse-only collection! It's divided by counties, and within counties by type of record and within that by volume or box. The boxed loose papers, organized by decedent, are among the most valuable probate records, and they don't even have page numbers!

Since I had to root through one of these virtual boxes anyway, in order to find my wife's ancestor William Berry, I kept track of all the other decedents whose estate papers had lodged in Box #2 from rugged Allegany County. The list of 67, with initial image number for each, is now on my web site. They are in order of appearance; if you don't have time to read all the names, use control-F to search them. They appeared to me to all be in the 1830s-1860s time range, where such records are most valuable. There are way plenty more materials in this one collection that would benefit from any sort of finding aid.

Here's a May 1845 summons to the next of kin of the late Gideon Hayward. James Hayward was living in Vigo County, Indiana, and Jane Davis nearby in Clay County. These are not just "New York records."

Gideon Hayward estate, Estate Papers 1807-1930, Box 2, Allegany County, New York; image 755 of 770, “New York, Probate Records, 1629-1972,” FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 10 April 2013), citing FHL microfilm 594,806.

Harold Henderson, "67 Allegany County NY decedents," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 12 April 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

In praise of research travelogues

It can't do everything, but a research chronicle can teach as much as a logical reconstruction. Two of my favorite genealogy periodicals reminded of this recently.

Malissa Ruffner, "The perfect puzzle piece," NGS Magazine vol. 39, no. 1 (January-March 2013), 40-43. "Recently I found a piece that didn't belong to my puzzle but it was so unique and well-defined that I was compelled to look for a puzzle that needed it" -- in the Green and Lanterman families.

Tami K. Pelling, "In Search of Medda," Crossroads vol. 8, no. 1 (Winter 2013), 26-30. "To prove or disprove Medda Sissie Hay as a child of Rubin and Mary, a timeline for the family was created, and the quest for Medda began" -- in Vigo and Vermillion counties, Indiana.

NGS Magazine is a benefit of membership in the National Genealogical Society. Crossroads is a benefit of membership in the Utah Genealogical Association.




Harold Henderson, "In praise of research travelogues," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 10 April 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

New Indiana databases

The Indiana Genealogical Society has added two bunches of online databases to its website: four open to anyone, and ten open only to members.

Free and open to all comers are four volumes of the Records of Rose Orphans Home in Terre Haute, Vigo County, plus indexes to 1840-1910 alumni of DePauw University in Greencastle, Putnam County. These are searchable, and browseable if you simply hit the search button without entering anything in the search box. I picked up the underlying source for DePauw at a used bookstore in La Porte, and have perhaps rashly offered to provide lookups for those who find a person of interest in the index, so that they can see -- and cite -- the real thing and not rest content with the online index.

Available to members only are:
Deceased Members of Methodist Church's Northwest Indiana Conference (1854-1898)
Allen County, Indiana Soldiers in the Spanish-American War (1898)
Indiana's Civil War Veterans with Artificial Limbs
Indiana Volunteer Regiments in the Mexican War (1846-1848)
Alumni of Indianapolis College of Pharmacy (1932-1939)
Alumni of Indiana State Normal School, Terre Haute (1872-1900)
Faculty of Earlham College, Richmond (1860-1921)
Faculty of South Bend High School (1870-1911)
Non-Graduates of Indiana University, Bloomington (1820-1890)
Members of Indiana's 60th General Assembly (1897)

More online goodness is in the works. IGS membership is a good deal in any case, but get your money in soon as it runs by calendar year -- payable either by snail mail or by PayPal. My experience would suggest using snail mail.

What could be nicer than a June Saturday in Terre Haute?

...with genealogy on the menu from 8 to 5, of course. The Wabash Valley Genealogical Society will hold its first annual seminar June 21, featuring Shirley Fields (Indiana State Genealogical Society treasurer) on state indexing and family recognition projects, Kandie Adkinson (Kentucky Land Office Division supervisor) on Kentucky land patents, and Beau Sharbrough on what he's learned working for GENTECH, Ancestry.com, and now Footnote.com. (Hat tip IGS blog.)

WVGS has a bi-state reach from its Terre Haute HQ: Clark, Crawford, and Edgar counties in Illinois; and Clay, Greene, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo in Indiana. Its website includes links to a 1904-1951 Vigo County marriage index and a twentieth-century Terre Haute newspaper obituary index, both under the auspices of the Vigo County Public Library.

The library adds an especially nice touch: online, PDF-format booklets listing, describing, and evaluating the best research resources for each local counties. My relatives ducked Vigo County but spent a lot of time in Parke and Vermillion, so I look forward to stopping by one of these days.