La Porte County, Indiana resource

Local genealogical society newsletters often have extracts and abstracts of local records that aren't found anywhere else. But they are rarely indexed except in PERSI, which is valuable but far from an every-name index and even farther from an every-word index.

Thanks to then editor Donna Nelson's keeping them on CD in word files, the La Porte County (Indiana) Genealogical Society's quarterly newsletter now has sixteen back issues posted on the society blog -- December 2005 through December 2009, minus September 2006 -- which are every-word searchable. Because they're in a single blog post, one search does it all. (I'm the current secretary, and I made the post, defects and all.) If you have research targets in this part of the world, you might find a lead on someone here.

Your old genie newsletters rendered useful, at least in Chicago

Today was going to be the day for a long leisurely post about a quirky compendium on the history of religion in Indiana, but there's no time. Fortunately, the good folks at the Newberry have just posted on their blog good news that speaks to one of my long-held pet peeves: unindexed local genealogy newsletters and magazines.

They contain great information but there is rarely any way to go back and find it, even if you know it's there. (PERSI is great but doesn't help much on this because it is not an every-name index, using mainly article titles. For you newbies, get on HeritageQuest through your local library to learn about it.)

Basically, the Newberry has mapped all specific locations mentioned the Chicago Genealogist going back to 1969 on their Chicagoancestors.org site, with links to references to the articles so it's possible to follow up if you can get hold of the print edition. Read the original post for all the details and credits to the interns.