Trying to "fix" the past by hiding and erasing the archives

This story by Ann McGrath is from  Australia, but the lesson is international.

Find your secret genealogy weapon -- manuscripts!

(I'll never forget the day I found an original mortgage document, with my four research targets' original signatures in different colors of ink, in an archived collection of unpublished papers.)

BCG OFFERS FREE WEBINAR Tuesday, July 21

“Diamonds in the Rough: 

Finding and Using Manuscript Collections”

Manuscript collections can be a genealogist’s secret weapon. Learn to find and use them!

The Board for Certification of Genealogists (“BCG”) will present a webinar on this subject free to the public at 8:00 PM EDT 21 July 2015. Shellee A. Morehead, Ph.D., CG, will describe collections of unique unpublished materials that may be hiding in plain sight, and how to access them online and in person -- including maps, photographs, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, genealogists’ research notes, unpublished histories, business ledgers, journals, vertical files, and other one-of-a-kind documents and objects that may provide insight into our families’ lives and neighborhoods.

Seating is limited for this webinar. Please register early and sign in early to avoid disappointment.

The BCG is an independent certifying body and author of the 2014 Genealogy Standards.

Shellee Morehead, CG, has a Ph.D. in evolutionary ecology and she has extensive research, writing, and teaching experience. She researches, writes, and lectures on family history. Her most recent article is “Thomas Hamilton -- Progenitor of a Colonial American Family: His Ulster Origins Revealed using DNA” in the Ulster Historical Foundation’s annual Directory of Irish Family History Research. Her recent speaking events include The Genealogy Event in New York. Her specialties include Rhode Island, Italian, and French-Canadian research and genetic genealogy. Shellee is a member of the Rhode Island Genealogical Society, the American-French Genealogical Society, and the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).

“We are pleased to offer this informative webinar,” said BCG president Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG. “The Board for Certification of Genealogists strives to foster public confidence in genealogy by promoting an attainable, uniform standard of competence and ethics. Educating all family historians is part of this mission.”

There is no charge, but space is limited. Please register for Shellee A. Morehead, “Diamonds in the Rough: Finding and Using Manuscript Collections” before 21 July 2015 at: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1093371223246598658.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. For more information contact: office@BCGcertification.org.

Please visit http://bcgcertification.org/blog/bcg-webinars to learn about BCG's previous webinars.

CG, Certified Genealogist, CGL, and Certified Genealogical Lecturer are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluations. The board name is a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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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.

Things Historians Know

 Mitra Sharafi on small archives at the Legal History Blog.

http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-praise-of-small-archives.html#more

April speaking engagements

I'm looking forward to talking genealogy with folks in and around Plymouth, Indiana, and then Kalamazoo, Michigan!


April 15, 6 pm EDT -- Plymouth IN, Marshall County Historical Society: "Beyond Fort Wayne, Madison, and the Newberry: Welcome to the Other Midwestern Archives"

April 21, 7 pm EDT -- Kalamazoo MI, Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society: "Land and Property: The Records No Genealogist Can Do Without"




Harold Henderson, "April speaking engagements," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 5 April 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

It's almost 2014, and the digital age is still a ways off

Harvard historian Robert Darnton in the New York Review of Books, [$] reviewing Arlette Farge's 1989 book The Allure of the Archives, says there may be 129,864,880 different books. ( Google has probably scanned 30 million.) But books aren't the half of it:

The French Archives Nationales contain 252 miles of documents, measured according to shelves loaded with boxes full of manuscripts, and they do not include material related to defense, foreign affairs, and overseas territories. France's one hundred provincial archives contain far more -- about 1,753 miles. Still more can be found in municipal archives, various university archives, and private collections. Most of it has never been read, much less scanned.

Photo credit: Ben Schumin's photostream, shelves at Archives II, http://www.flickr.com/photos/schuminweb/10159531696 per Creative Commons

Harold Henderson, "It's almost 2014, and the digital age is still a ways off," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 30 December 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Good news for western Michigan researchers!

Western Michigan University Archives rehoused in the Zhang Legacy Collections Center! T-F 9-5.

Fine points in Wisconsin archives' searchable finding aids

Many local Wisconsin records have migrated into the state's fourteen Area Research Centers -- another reason to call ahead when visiting a courthouse for the first time, as they may have exported the records you need to see!

The ARCs are real archives, with finding aids for the collections. Although they are scattered around the state, there is a central point where you can browse or search all the finding aids: Archival Resources in Wisconsin: Digital Finding Aids. You can search either by title or by every word in the finding aids.

As usual in such cases, it helps to figure out the right search terms. General browsing will find a great many collections of personal papers of all sorts. But it also works to search on genealogy terms. I finally learned that a search for "Wisconsin County Court" in titles only will bring up 86 court records that can be sorted alphabetically in order to scan for target counties. These include probate, guardianship, civil, criminal, insanity, divorce, and other listings.

Internally, most of those finding aids list the cases by number or by years. The case lists sometimes include classic archivist's notes like this one from reel 9 (cases 400-481) of Trempealeau County Probates 1855-1900: "Files 427-428 are filed between 453-456; these may really be files 454-455. They are not the same files 427-428 that are filed between 426-429. No files 424-425, 429, 474." (If you enjoy notes like this as much as I do, you have found your calling.)

But a few counties list probate cases by name. It was in this way that I discovered some very interesting people related to my wife, whose records had somehow escaped me in the past. I can see several trips to the Badger State in my future . . .


Harold Henderson, "Fine points in Wisconsin archives' searchable finding aids," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 30 August 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Three Talks at FGS 2013

I will be giving three talks at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Fort Wayne next August (just a little more than nine months from now):

Thursday, August 22, 5pm, "First Steps in Indiana Research," from Indiana's Big Four to some archives and county-level resources.

Friday, August 23, 2pm, "Beyond Fort Wayne, Madison, and the Newberry: Lesser-Known Midwestern Archives," a personal selection of useful archives I have known in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Saturday, August 24, 8 am, "Three Ways to Improve Your Speaking Ideas," sponsored by the Genealogical Speakers Guild with some ideas applicable even to those who don't lecture.

If none of these tickle your fancy, FGS has plenty more to offer, and the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center as a jumbo-sized research bonus.




Harold Henderson, "Three Talks at FGS  2013," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 13 November 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Methodists in Meadville

Those who have research targets who were Methodists in western Pennsylvania need to know about the denominational archives at Allegheny College's Pelletier Library in Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. It would be a good destination anyway, but given the absence of early vital records from Pennsylvania it's a great one.

First of all, it's an archive, so don't try just dropping in. Use the contact information. Volunteer archivist William L. Waybright is very knowledgeable and helpful, but he can't be there all the time. It's by appointment only.

Second, don't expect the archives to be able to tell you whether your ancestor was a Methodist (or an allied denomination, such as Evangelical United Brethren).

Third, check the ancestor's own church first. As in most denominations, records reside at the local level. If a local church ceases to exist, its records may find their way to a denominational archive.

Fourth, be prepared to use a particular variant of cluster genealogy: what ministers were your research targets associated with? The archives will normally have much better records for those who carried the church's message than anyone else.

Fifth, don't be overly focused on western Pennsylvania. The archives has records and published reminiscences that cover adjoining conferences as well.

Sixth, when visiting, don't expect lots of space to spread out. We had the good fortune to meet other researchers who knew the area and resources better than we did, and we met them over what would be a normal-sized kitchen table.

Seventh, be alert to finding aids that area Methodist historians have prepared over the years. Pittsburgh-area Methodists published a weekly newspaper for about a century beginning in 1834, usually under the title of Pittsburgh Christian Advocate. Abstracts and indexes to its marriage and death notices have been published from through 1870. The newspaper itself has been microfilmed, but Meadville holds the films only up to 1890.

Finally, in the likely event that your Methodists went past Pittsburgh into the Midwest and West, additional regional resources do exist. The Chicago Genealogical Society's new blog recently posted on their instructional visit to Garrett Evangelical United Library in Evanston.


Harold Henderson, "Methodists in Meadville," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 24 September 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Advocacy: Honey or Vinegar or Both?

Genealogists make do. When we encounter an obstacle, we find a way around or over it. Property records lost? Let's try tax records.  Courthouse burned? Let's check out the records kept in the state archives. State archives closing? Let's check -- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

There's little point in protesting a century-old courthouse fire. But an economy-minded state government closing down a public archive? Sometimes we have to switch gears, from making do to making waves. And while Georgia may have disgraced itself by being the first state to do this, there is real danger that it may not be the last.

In on-line discussion among genealogists there was nevertheless a division of the house. Some emphasized the need to complain vigorously. Others suggested setting up ways to publicly praise good archives as well. The right mixture of honey and vinegar remains to be determined -- but the need for both seems indisputable.

There's also a delivery problem. An excellent archivist can make a poorly-funded archive look good by providing exemplary service. And a gaggle of stingy politicos who pay only lip service to history can leave archivists with few ways to help patrons . . . if not actually unemployed. In these situations, I tend to think that the decision-makers need the vinegar and the front-line professionals deserve the honey. But every situation is different and we need to be paying attention.

Harold Henderson, "Advocacy: Honey or Vinegar or Both?," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 22 September 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Top 5 MWM Posts for June 2012

1. Professionals and Amateurs, Together Forever (June 29)

2. Continue Growing (June 1)

3. Are You On Board? (June 7)

4. Midwestern Deeds On Line -- More or Less! (June 5)

5. Don't Assume Probate Courts Only Do Probate! (June 17)

The first three ran well ahead. I'll list the favorites from July in early September once the dust has settled.

Least viewed:

IGHR Samford Day 2 (June 12)


News not blog related: I'll be speaking about lesser-known Midwestern archives a week from now, Saturday morning the 11th, at the South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society in Hazel Crest, Illinois. Check out their web site in any case -- they have some records you won't find anywhere else!



Harold Henderson, "Top Five MWM Posts for June 2012," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 4 August 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Linkfest with historians, vampire hunters, and more

Links and unlinkable items of interest from the history side:

W. Scott Poole teaches history at the College of Charleston and explains (seriously!) "Why Historians Should Be Vampire Hunters." "These tales of terror illuminate rather than obscure important truths. Slavery did represent a kind of dark magic in which legal fictions transmogrified the bodies of human beings into property."

Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore's take on Ancestry.com: "Facebook for the dead."

Five excellent commandments for those researching in archives from Philip White at The Historical Society. Most applicable to us genealogists: "Process Your Materials ASAP."

Eric Jay Dolin's Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America has a good publisher, has had some good reviews (mostly five stars on Amazon), and has won some prizes. Writing in the June Indiana Magazine of History (recent issues not on line), David J. Silverman of George Washington University says that Dolin tells a good story but misses a lot, because the book's perspective and information are about a century out of date -- among other things, it neglects the Indian side of the story. I hope to read it and make up my own mind, but in the meantime the "Caution" light is up. If Silverman is right, Dolin would be making a mistake similar to the one genealogists make when they trust the "mug books" version of local history.

W. Scott Poole, "Why Historians Should Be Vampire Hunters," The Huffington Post: Culture, posted 20 June 2012 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/w-scott-poole/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter_b_1609691.html : accessed 22 June 2012).

Jill Lepore, "Books: Obama, the Prequel," The New Yorker, 25 June 2012, p. 72.

Philip White, "Lessons from the Archives," The Historical Society, posted 18 June 2012 (http://histsociety.blogspot.com/2012/06/lessons-from-archives.html : accessed 22 June 2012).


Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2010). 


David J. Silverman, [Review of Dolin], Indiana Magazine of History, vol. 108, no. 2 (June 2012): 192.


Harold Henderson, "8 suggestions for genealogy writers," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 23 June 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Where I'll be speaking this spring

My spring talks are all in Ohio! There's plenty of time yet to register for these conferences, but beware: do not under any circumstances confuse April with May, or confuse the city beginning with "C" in the upper-right-hand corner of the state with the one in the lower-left-hand corner.

Friday, April 13, 1 pm, at the Ohio Genealogical Society meeting in Cleveland, on "The Other Midwestern Archives." Some less well-known places to research once you've exhausted the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center, the Newberry Library, and the Wisconsin State Historical Society, or they've exhausted you.

Friday, May 11, 9:30 am, at the National Genealogical Society meeting in Cincinnati, on the records of the Indianapolis Orphan Asylum (1851-1941) held at the Indiana Historical Society. If you're missing a Hoosier in this time period who might have been orphaned, or just had a family living on the edge, these records may be just what you're looking for. And the stories alone would break a stone's heart.

Saturday, May 12, 9:30 am, NGS again, on "Indirect Evidence: What To Do When You Don't Have Perry Mason on Your Side." Nine relatively simple cases show what indirect evidence can do for us if we look for it with the right attitude. If you are hungering for complex cases, take that hour off and read the latest NGSQ instead ;-)

Compared to Rootstech, I would say that these two conferences overall offer more meat for intermediate and advanced genealogists (and better quality control), and less for developers and advanced techies. YMMV.

Hundreds of archives, thousands of archives . . .

Terry Abraham of the University of Idaho has a great site for finding archives you need to look into at Repositories of Primary Sources. (I know, I know, sources are original or derivative; only information can be primary or secondary. Hide your eyes while clicking.)

The links are organized by continent and then (in this part of the world anyway) state or province). There is a form to submit if you find a broken link or want to suggest a new one (check his guidelines first, though). And bear in mind the comforting thought that items wind up in archives by the most circuitous paths, and the information you need may be housed thousands of miles from where the person in question ever lived.

Illinois: about 104 listings, from Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to Wilmette Public Library.

Indiana: about 68, from Alameda McCollough Library (recently blogged here) to Wabash College.

Michigan: about 64, from Adrian College. United Methodist Archive to Western Michigan University. Special Collections.

Ohio: about 92, from Akron-Summit County Public Library to Youngstown Historical Center of Industry & Labor.

Wisconsin: about 44 , from Alverno College to Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

Hundreds of Illinois archives on line

The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board has a search page for archives in the state -- searchable by county, city, or any of five regions. (It's based on a 1996 survey that has been updated.) Far southern Illinois has 19 archives, eastern 46, western 64, northwestern 46, and the six-county northeastern region 204. Chicago alone has 76 archives listed, from Adler Planetarium to the William Wrigley, Jr. Company. (And if you think "archives" is just a funny word for "library," you have some surprises coming.)

On Saturday, October 24, at least some of those archives will come to you. According to the H-Illinois email list edited by the indefatigable Tim Draper of Waubonsee Community College, the Chicago Archives Fair will be held from 11 am to 2 pm that day on the lower level of the Harold Washington Library at 400 S. State in the Chicago Loop (OK, technically, just outside of the Loop, since the el runs in front of it). Information and contacts at Chicago Area Archivists.

"The poor man's Harvard"

You may be missing a research resource if you don't know what Valparaiso University was called before 1906. VU's special collections and archives hold records and pictures going back to the founding of the Valparaiso Male and Female College by Methodists in 1859, and its resurrection as a proprietary institution, the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute in 1873. The NINSBI was marketed as an affordable school, hence the promotional nickname. It became Valparaiso College in 1900, took on the current name in 1906, and became a Lutheran institution in 1925.

The archives include commencement programs from 1869, student transcripts 1919-1969 and some ledger books before that, university catalogs 1875-1918 (medical, dental, and pharmacy had their own), some 6000 pre-1925 alumni cards now in the process of being digitized, yearbooks from 1905, student newspapers (the Torch) from 1914, and more. None of these collections is complete and indexes are few; if you think maybe your research target attended school in the area somewhere, sometime, this is not the place to start a fishing expedition. The institution included a high school and a preparatory school, whose records are included. Also a century ago it seems to have been attracting a surprising variety of students from overseas, including Korea and Russia.

(Hat tip to special collections librarian Judith Kimbrell Miller's presentation to the La Porte County Genealogical Society.)

Weekend Warriors Methodology Edition

Bearing in mind Tom Jones's concern that our genealogical education tends to focus more on records than on what to do with them once we have them, I'll try to occasionally branch out and take note of outstanding methodology materials, even if they don't refer specifically to Midwestern work.

Over on the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) mailing list, Debbie Parker Wayne points to a great one: a series of posts by legal historian Emily Kadens at Legal History Blog on working in archives. (Kadens's specialty is 18th-century European legal history.)

Working in Archives #1.

Working in Archives #2 (advance preparation).

Working in Archives #3 (using the archives).

Working in Archives #4 (transcriptions). She's definitely been there: "Archival work is very 'in the moment,' and so you always feel as if your memory will be vivid. But it won't be. And I hate the feeling later of wondering whether I missed something...."

Hopefully there will be more. And, echoing Tom once again, don't be too focused (even though I have linked to those specific posts!). Check out the rest of the blog. I plan to keep an eye on it and see what I can absorb and put to use.

Methodist resources at DePauw

Last week I spent a productive research afternoon at the DePauw University archives in Greencastle (Putnam County) Indiana. Their holdings include both university and Methodist information.

The archives' web site offers many opportunities to plan your research, particularly by enabling a search of their Indiana Ministers (1800-1900) Index, which covers eight predecessor denominations: Methodist Episcopal (ME), Methodist Episcopal South (MES) Methodist Protestant (MP), United Brethren in Christ (UB), Evangelical Association (EV), Lexington Conference (LX), Chicago German Methodist (CH), and Central German Methodist (CG).

For Methodist Episcopals, key accessible references are the bound minutes of the annual conferences. Microfilm holdings provide access to some circuits' and churches' early records. All this and places to plug in your laptop too!