A good word for an "old" book

If you've hung around Midwestern history for very long, you've probably already read John Mack Faragher's 1986 masterpiece Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie, which as far as I know is pretty much the gold standard in microhistory. (Message to those who haven't: please smack yourself upside the head, quit reading this drivel, and check for it on worldcat or abebooks depending on the state of your exchequer.)

That's not actually what I meant to post about -- I just recently discovered that his 1979 book Women and Men on the Overland Trail is to a considerable degree also about the Midwest and Midwesterners. I'm still reading it (because I'm cheap, it's the original edition, not the revised), but it includes a heavily documented 25-page chapter on "The Midwestern Farming Family, 1850," which is not to be missed -- especially if you have ancestors or relatives who fit that description and who neglected to leave detailed diaries and reminiscences.

Catching up with Indiana Genealogist

The June issue of Indiana Genealogist features:

* Editor Annette Harper on census mortality schedules 1850-1880, including a table of those on line for Indiana counties.

* Mary Kraeszig on the General Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. This is the Indiana chapter of the UDC, named for a man who rose all the way through the ranks, and who before that became "one of the wealthiest men inthe South as a planter and slave trader." Although the state (obviously) did not secede, Indiana does have Confederate veterans and descendants thereof.

* "Indiana Civil War Surgeons"

* "Profiles of Indiana Congressmen 1897"

Indiana is especially diligent about publishing "regional items" from all corners of the state --20 of them this month. Many are biographies of Civil War soldiers (Daniel F. Hamman, Joseph Patterson, Isaac S. Collings, James M. Moore, Tavner Bowen, Americus Hedden, Isaac P. Hopewell, Jacob Grow, Ira Lynch, John A. McCoy, and William McCammon). Also a listing of South Bend Central High School students.

Lake County's workshop-not-to-be-missed

Lake County (the Illinois one, squeezed between Chicago and Wisconsin) is sponsoring what looks to be its 15th annual November workshop on Saturday the 8th. The speakers are Certified Genealogists Tom Jones and David McDonald. If you know them, you know this is a must-attend. If you don't, then I'm telling you. All the details including exact location, hours, and program topics, are in this PDF brochure and registration form.

Welcome new bloggers

Blogging -- easy to start, hard to keep going. Here are two new genealogy blogs (from friends) that look like keepers:

(1) Sheri Fenley's The Educated Genealogist (began in August). If you've been on the APG or Transitional Genealogists mailing list and read her thigh-slapping account of her first time at Samford, she needs no introduction. If you haven't, then just close this window right now and go to the archives. She's from California but has Kansas roots, and that's enough of an excuse for me to put her on here. In the department of learning stuff, she recently posted about a contradiction between a cemetery stone and a census -- either a certain ancestor returned from the dead, or one of these records is in error!

(2) Kathy Brady-Blake's Kathy's Genealogy Blog (began in October). Kathy's a Certified Genealogist, and for I don't know how long BCG had her portfolio up for us aspirants to read as an example. Does that take guts or what? She's from Illinois with an interest in Chicago -- as well she should, since one of her ancestors went back into the teeth of the Great Fire to make sure his soon-to-be-incinerated front door was locked!

Both Sheri and Kathy use a lot of photos, tell about their own research, and participate in tagging games and blogging carnivals -- so if you find it boring over here, they may be more your style. I'm adding them both to my Protopage home page so I can keep up. Go and do likewise.

It's not too late to be a charter member . . .

. . . of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits, a group of bloggers with a special interest in cemeteries. Already founder Terry Thornton of Mississippi has accumulated a number of associates, including Jessica Oswalt of rural Michigan, Amy Crow of central Ohio, Julie Cahill Tarr of Chicagoland and Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, Minda Powers-Douglas of the Quad Cities, Illinois and Iowa, and Chuck C. of Christian County, Illinois.

I look forward to learning from their hard-won experience (I'm thinking rain and snow and scorching sun and poison ivy) and hope that being association members will help the bloggers involved to persevere. I see that Julie has already created an interactive map of cemeteries in Bloomington-Normal.

Chicago Genealogist for Fall

The Chicago Genealogical Society's flagship publication continues a spree of featuring an under-utilized class of records, including high-school graduates of 60 years ago expressing ambitions they might not enjoy hearing about today...

"Austin High School, 'The Maroon & White' Yearbook, June Class of 1948," submitted by Jeanne Larzalere Bloom.

"John L. Marsh Grammar School, Graduation Class of February 1935," submitted by Richard L. Salik.

"Confirmation Class of March 25, 1934, Ev.Lutheran Church, Windsor Park, Chicago," submitted by Richard L. Salik.

SCCGSQ, southwestern Illinois' voice

The third 2008 issue of the St. Clair County Genealogy Society Quarterly cements its standing as one of the meatiest local genealogy publication I've seen around the Midwest:

"Preston Women in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Illinois," by Thomas W. Davis.

"Extracts from Death Register Book II, 12 November 1884-24 December 1885," by Melinda Cahill, Diane Walsh, and Linda Osterdock.

"Marriage Index 1910," Paul Mueller.

"Eisenhauer-Mauer [Maurer] Letters," by Robert Donnell and Recs Jenkins.

"Old Age Pension for 127 Local Residents approved for Payment," 1936, by Nancy Giles.

"Ray Family Bible"

"Belleville Saengerbund and Library Society," by Linda Osterdock.

"Shiloh Valley Township Cemeteries ALERT," which is a warning that the society's publication of that name doesn't seem to square with the relevant parish records now being transcribed from the Holy Childhood Catholic death register.