Fall 2015 talks

In between the sloth of summer and the hibernation of winter are the seasons where it's actually fun to get things done. This fall I have five speaking engagements coming up.

Tuesday evening September 8, La Porte County Genealogical Society, La Porte, Indiana:
"Probate Will Not Be the Death of You" (digest version).

Saturday September 19, Willard Library, Evansville, Indiana:
"Why We Don't Write and How We Can"
"Indirect Evidence: When Perry Mason Isn't on Your Side"
"Probate Will Not Be the Death of You"
" 'Are We There Yet?' Proof and the Genealogy Police," a case study

Saturday October 17, Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, Valparaiso, Indiana:
"Land and Property: The Records No Genealogist Can Do Without"

Tuesday evening October 20, Marshall County Genealogical Society, Plymouth, Indiana:
"Ten Commandments for Being a Good Genealogy Client"

Tuesday evening November 17, Board for Certification of Genealogists public online webinar:
"Do You Have the Reflexes You Need to Become Certified? Fifteen Things Your Grandfather Would Tell You . . . If I Were Your Grandfather"

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More Indiana repositories en route to FGS 2013

[Cross-posted from the FGS 2013 blog with one typo corrected.]

Unless you fly in, you will travel through Indiana on your way to or from the 2013 FGS conference in Fort Wayne. Indiana is the only state I know of with two high-quality general genealogy magazines, and, as this suggests, the state is also full of local societies and libraries with valuable holdings. Here's a sampling, and we could run several lists like this without running out.

Willard Library
21 First Avenue, Evansville
Tri-state resources for Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky, plus an alleged ghost . . .
http://www.willard.lib.in.us/

Friends Collection and Earlham College Archives
Richmond
Extensive manuscript collections and genealogies for Quaker families and meetings.
http://library.earlham.edu/ecarchives or investigate the Willard Heiss Collection list on line.
This is one of several colleges and universities with relevant genealogy material.

Porter County Public Library
This might be the best genealogy library in northern Indiana if Fort Wayne weren't there too! Good periodical selection.
103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso
http://www.pcpls.lib.in.us/genealogy.html

Marshall County Historical Society
123 North Michigan, Plymouth
A half-block of downtown stores repurposed as a history museum and research center, with
indexes, original records, and knowledgeable helpers.
http://www.mchistoricalsociety.org/ and see also http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inmarsha/

Alameda McCullough Research Library
1001 South Street, Lafayette
In the Frank Arganbright Genealogy Center. An extensive collection focused on Tippecanoe County.
Admission fee. Check site for hours.
http://www.tcha.mus.in.us/library.htm

Evansville's Quarterly

Contents of the December 2008 issue of The Tri-State Packet, the Tri-State Genealogical Society's quarterly for southeast Illinois, southwest Indiana, and northwest Kentucky:

"Vanderburgh County, Indiana, in the Mexican War," part 2, by Col. Charles C Schreeder (1847-1930), from the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society Collection at the Willard Library in Evansville

"Abstracts of the 1890 County Enrollment" of US army veterans, tr. Peggy K. Newton

"From A Grave Digger's Journal: Fall Festival & The Rabbit Man," reminiscences by Gilbert Schmitt

"Brady Family Bible Records," from Willard Library Family Files

"German Evangelical and Lutheran Churches in Vanderburgh County Indiana (1838-1865)," by
Karin Marie Kirsch: "The records listed under St. Paul's Evangelical, St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed, and St. Paul's United Church of Christ may all refer to the same church."

"Bible Records of Ephraim Cox & His Descendants,"from Willard Library Family Files

"Mike Craft Remembers Evansville's Railroad," circa 1910?

"Spencer County, Indiana Deed [recorded in Livingston County, Kentucky] -- Estate of John Karr/William Briscoe," tr. Brenda Joyce Jerome, CG

"WPA Pike County Deaths 1887-1902," tr. Marjorie Malott

Willard Library in Evansville

I can drive to Madison, Wisconsin, or Cleveland, Ohio, faster than I can get to Evansville. But now I have a reason to go: the Willard Public Library's genealogical collection, in a distinctive building at 21 N. First Avenue just north of downtown.

I got a quick glimpse of it (and some fruitful copying done) during a lunch break from the Indiana Genealogical Society conference Saturday. I don't really know if it's the second or third best genealogical library in Indiana, as some claim, but I'd be willing to bet that on an information-per-square-foot basis it's way up there. I am sure that it's a must-see if you're doing anything in SW Indiana or SE Illinois, and after my next trip I'll be able to say more.