Did Your Ancestor Own Land in Illinois After 1859?

If so , you may be in luck. The Illinois State Library has a fine collection of land ownership maps and atlases, the oldest of which cover Hancock, Stephenson, and Winnebago counties in 1859. These were commercial products and coverage is uneven both as to counties and specific dates.

No, they're not on line; what makes this collection special is that most of it circulates via interlibrary loan. The full checklist of maps is on line (PDF); talk to your local librarian. Just one example: these maps can be used to generate a list of nearby neighbors if you trying to identify a woman's maiden name (even better if you can correlate them with a near-time census listing, not forgetting Illinois' state censuses on the 5's).

(Hat tip to Cyndi's List.)

The Civil War at Notre Dame

Writing in the Fall 2008 (#93) issue of Access: News from the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame, special collections curator George Rugg highlights a new group of 123 Civil War manuscript letters recently donated to the university -- the Barrier family letters from Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Until recently ND's Civil War collections have come mostly from the Northern side.

But you don't have to come to South Bend to sample ND's Civil War manuscripts. Many are on line -- both original images and transcriptions, with introductory notes and further reading suggestions -- at the Special Collections website. Among those items now online are

the diary of Grant County, Wisconsin, lead miner David B. Arthur (20th Wisconsin Infantry);

the diary of Pike County, Ohio, blacksmith William Cline (73rd Ohio Infantry, including Gettysburg);

29 letters from Lake County, Ohio, farm worker Charles C. Caley (105th Ohio Infantry); and

a 10 July 1864 battle report from Lt. Col. Edward Bloodgood on the march to Atlanta (22nd Wisconsin Infantry).

There are plenty more where these came from, both on and off line, and they're from all over -- I just cherry-picked those from my area of interest.

It's repositories like this that make a mockery of this blog's premise -- when you "specialize in the Midwest," do you also specialize in all the non-Midwestern items held, and meticulously transcribed and annotated (as these are) in a Midwestern repository? (Yes.) More importantly, it's a lesson in how much digging you need to do to find relevant manuscript collections on any subject. They could literally be anywhere, but Notre Dame is an interesting place to start.

(Full disclosure: these days my straight job is in an entirely different part of the university.)

Tax lists -- a beginning

Thanks to Randy Seaver for highlighting Gena's Genealogy post with a partial list of tax records available on line. It's a good day if you have taxpaying research targets in Williamson County, Illinois, in 1891, or in Belmont County, Ohio, from 1811 to 1816!

Hmm -- looks like it will be some little while before this versatile source type is anywhere close to being well covered on line...

October 2008 Wisconsin SGS Newsletter --or is that SOS?

Two record compilations fill the latest issue of the Wisconsin statewide genealogy publication:

"Jenson Cemetery Edgerton Wisconsin," Rock County, tr. Bernie Farmer

"Deaths Among the Membership, Wisconsin WCTU 1927-28"

WSGS turns 70 this year, and will hold the annual Gene-A-Rama featuring Christine Rose, CG, 3-4 April in Madison.

Retiring editor David McDonald, CG, offers a farewell note that should be disquieting to those of us who think there's a lot of interesting genealogy to do in Wisconsin: "Since taking on this task in 2007, I have been truly surprised at how little correspondence from members it engenders. With two exceptions, nothing has been forthcoming from members to be included."

December 2008 Indiana Genealogist

I don't know how they shoehorn all this stuff into the Indiana state genealogical quarterly! But here's the December crop. (That link is also good if you want to check out the every-name index to the 2008 issues.)

"Is My Other Family Out There? Case Study of an Adoption Search," by Betty L. Warren

"Indiana University Board of Trustees 1820-1890," tr. Meredith Thompson from Indiana University: Its History from 1820, when Founded, to 1890," by Theophilus A. Wylie (Indianapolis: Wm. B. Burford, 1890) [Woops! If you can use the whole thing, it's on Google Book Search.]

"Sisters of St. Francis," by Marjorie Weiler-Powell

"Items from Marion County Mail," tr. Elizabeth Hague from 3 January 1913

"Indiana Expert Riflemen," tr. Meredith Thompson, from Report of the Adjutant-General of the State of Indiana for the Fiscal Year ending December 31, 1907 (Indianapolis: Wm. B. Burford, 1910)

"Indiana Civil War Soldier Lorenzo Judkins," by Annette Harper

"Indiana Civil War Surgeons, 6th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry, 8th Cavalry," tr. Wayne C. Klusman from Alphabetical List of Battles and Roster of Regimental Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons during the War of the Rebellion (Washington, DC: GM Van Buren, 1883)

"Commission on Public Records," by Shirley Fields

Monroe County Local History Room grows online

I'm late with this, but if you have western Wisconsin research targets, the Monroe County Local History Room is worth waiting for. Early last month they reported expanded online indexes of local newspapers (Sparta, Norwalk, Cashton), business directories (Sparta, Tomah, and countywide), and a 1948 plat book. Believe me, it's even better in person.

FYI for those who are counting, this blog is one year (342 posts) old today.

More Indiana records online

A hat tip to Jacksonville, Florida, blogger Miles Meyer of "Miles' Genealogy Tips," who serves up a treat of more than a dozen on-line resources for the state of Indiana and the counties of Allen, Clinton, Dekalb, Elkhart, Fulton, La Porte, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, St. Joseph, and Vanderburgh. Bear in mind that most of these are indexes (without images of the actual records attached), so you shouldn't rely on them until you can get to the real things.