Maxwell Street in Chicago

The rough-edged hustlers' heaven on Chicago's Near West Side is no more, thanks to the current Mayor Daley and the University of Illinois at Chicago. A new "Multi Pac" offers a visual and auditory dimension to remembrance that even classics like Ira Berkow's Survival in a Bazaar can't provide. It's a combination booklet, CD, and DVD, featuring and using the title of the classic 1964 Mike Shea documentary "And This Is Free." Footage as old as the 1940s is included, as well as the obligatory "making of..." interview. The CD has 17 tracks.

For getting the feel of a historic place that no longer exists in anything like its original form, this offers unparallelled access. If you have Jewish or African-American research targets with ties to this area, there may be genealogical potential in the narrow sense. Actually, the films (Shea's is only one) have enough random street scenes you might even see an ancestor briefly in the frame. Berkow himself puts it all in context in his introduction to the booklet.

The Polish Midwest

Sometimes hearing how people found stuff out is as interesting as the stuff they found out. At least when Julia M., graduate student and linguist, goes to Poland in search of the family truth instead of the legend and tells all in her Summer 2008 travel blog:

I grew up believing a legend about my Polish ancestors. The story was that my great grandparents (parents of my maternal grandmother) were both Polish orphans who met on the boat coming over to America. Only a bit of this is true. My uncle (well, my mom’s cousin) Craig La Clair’s research tells quite a different story . . .

She warns that the rest will be boring if you're not related, but when people say that (showing that they're self-aware) it's usually not true. Real bores don't know they are. I don't do any Polish research but I was fascinated by the process of even just finding the town from which her ancestors emigrated.

Hoosier Genealogist Spring/Summer

Contents of the Indiana Historical Society's consistently well-edited semi-yearly -- it's almost like getting a small book in the mail!:

"What Is History? Pulling Sources Together to Tell Meaningful Family Stories," by M. Teresa Baer

"Minister, Educator, and Historian: The Life of the Reverend Henry Bascom Hibben, 1826-1890," by George C. Hibben. A Methodist of the generation after the legendary circuit riders who became a Navy chaplain: "His sermons were prepared with great care, and were masterpieces of eloquence and power."

"Federal Court Records: Researching Hoosier Family History at the National Archives-Great Lakes Region, Chicago, 1817-1859," by Martin Tuohy, who has the gift of making you want to drop everything and head for his repository. "Tenant farmers...are often written out of history by genealogists who rely upon records about land ownership but overlook records about land occupation and use," such as federal ejectment suits.

"'Still with the Hoosiers': The Reminiscences of Solomon Ashley Dwinnell, St. Joseph County, 1835-1836," by Rachel M. Popma -- a Congregationalist who didn't fit in so well and ended up in Wisconsin.

"Legal Documents: Abstracts of the Hamilton County Legal Documents in the Barnes Manuscripts Collection, 1839, 1865-1871," transcribed by Wendy L. Adams and Rachel M. Popma

"State Centennial Celebration: Perry County Commemorates the Indiana State Centennial, 1916," by Bethany Natali

"Just a Country Girl: Stories from an Early Twentieth Century Hoosier Farm Family, Part 4," by Martha Brennan

"Online Publications: Digitized Images and Every-Name Index for the First Order Book of the U.S. District Court for the District of Indiana, 1817-1833," by Doria Lynch. Woo hoo -- go to indianahistory.org, and hit Family History, then Family History Publications, then Online Family History Publications.

"Elliott Family History: A 1908 History of the Elliott and Related Families of Jefferson County, Indiana," by David McClure Elliott, annotated by Ken Hixon

"Using City Directories for Genealogical Research," by Geneil Breeze

See Any Chicago Address

Am I the only person who uses this valuable resource but keeps forgetting its internet location? CityNews Chicago's Property Search has a ton of data on any existing Chicago address, including year built, square footage, fire information, tax information, assessed value, usually a photo -- as well as the all-important political (excuse me, "civic footprint") information: elected representatives, precicnct, ward, police beat, community area, and judicial subcircuit. Some info dates back to 2002.

Of course, if you're trying to track Chicago folks from the 19th century, you'll want to visit the Newberry Library's Chicago Ancestors site, "tools" tab, where in addition to online city directory images from 1866, 1870, 1871, 1875, 1880, 1885, 1892, and 1900, you can use tools from the Chicago History Museum to check whether your target address has had a street name change, and how its numbering was altered in 1909.

AncestralSpace

What Rootsweb's WorldConnect has been for data exchange, and WeRelate for wikis -- will there be a social networking site for genealogists? AncestralSpace is brand new and so far the two largest groups there are Illinois and Indiana.

I'm not enough of a connoisseur of this genre of web site to know how it measures up, or whether it will take off, or at least be useful enough to its devotees so they don't care whether it does or not. But I have climbed on for the ride.

West-Central Illinois histories digitized...

...by Illinois Harvest.

History of McDonough County, Illinois... (Springfield: D.W. Lusk, 1878), by S. J. Clarke. 692 pages.

History of Bardolph, Illinois (N.p.: Epworth League, 1911). 136 pages.

Bushnell, Illinois, Centennial, 1854-1954 (Bushnell: Bushnell Centennial Association, 1954). 128 pages.

Galesburg's Mighty Horse Market: Leroy Marsh Sales Barn 1877-1920 (Galesburg, Illinois: s.n., 1954), by Cornelia Thompson. 43 pages.

Southeastern Wisconsin Archives All In One Place?

Well, no, not really. I try not to make a habit of recommending 13-year-old internet resources, but I like the philosophy behind the Online Guide to Genealogical Collections in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Area, produced by the Library Council of Southeastern Wisconsin, Inc., and hosted by the Archives at the Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

For one thing, they define their area broadly, including Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Washington, and Waukesha Counties. And they made the best of it when it became clear that they couldn't list everything available in all those counties: the guide focuses on official records of churches and governmental bodies, and within those

Many records exist which can be of great use to genealogists, but are rarely examined. The Guide contains entires for many of these kinds of records, especially those of civil and criminal courts, fire and police departments, and personnel records...

Just in places where I have research targets, I found delinquent tax lists 1862-1926 for Sheboygan County and assessments for the Town of Plymouth 1861-1877 (at the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center), Kenosha County tax rolls 1856-1965 and assorted church and cemetery records 1839-1952 (at the University of Wisconsin Parkside), and Milwaukee County school censuses 1913-1960 (at the Milwaukee County Historical Society).

The lists are not consistently alphabetized, i.e. Kenosha church records are under "C" not "K" or any of the denominations. But in any case this is a source of inspiration for when you're stuck, and a metaresource: in all cases be sure to check the web site of the alleged repository for up-to-date holdings information before you grab your laptop and head out!