Weekend Warriors -- My Names and Places

For a change, I'll follow Craig Manson and Thomas MacEntee and list my kids' great-great-grandparents' 16 surnames and (some) localities. (Details here although since much of this research was done years ago I don't guarantee their accuracy; sources on request.) If any of these tickle your fancy, let me know!

CRANDALL in Walworth County, Wisconsin; Madison County, New York; and Rhode Island
BURDICK in Dane County, Wisconsin; Madison County, New York; and Rhode Island
BLISS in Allegany, Otsego, Madison, and Jefferson counties, New York; and Rhode Island
BASSETT in Allegany and Otsego counties, New York; and Rhode Island

LINHART in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, Pennsylvania; and Germany
BOREN in Allegheny, Beaver, and Huntingdon counties, Pennsylvania; and maybe Maryland
MOZLEY in Green Lake County, Wisconsin; Erie County, Pennsylvania; and Nottinghamshire, England
SCHOLES in Marquette County, Wisconsin; and Lancashire, England

JOSS in Cook County, Illinois; Holmes County, Ohio; and Canton Bern, Switzerland
SCHREIBER in Cook County, Illinois; and Canton Aargau, Switzerland
FLINT in St. Clair County, Illinois; and Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire, England
THRALL in St. Clair and Edwards counties, Illinois; Licking County, Ohio; Chittenden and Rutland counties, Vermont; and Hartford County, Connecticut

STENBERG in Cook County, Illinois; Kalmar, Skaraborg, and Jonkoping, Sweden [sorry, folks, Blogger does not tolerate umlauts]
ANDERSSON (later changed to BORING) in Cook County, Illinois; and Jonkoping, Sweden
DAVIDSON in Edinburgh, Scotland
HENDERSON in Cook County, Illinois; Osceola County, Iowa; and Edinburgh, Scotland

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Blogs, Maps, and Forgotten Bookmarks in South Bend

FYI, the St. Joseph County Public Library's Family and Local History Section has had its own newsletter (PDF) for the last few months. In addition to their catalog, they have on line listings of genealogically useful holdings, including their maps (anyone for an 1838 street map of South Bend?) and research guides for those seeing Eastern European or Irish homelands.

The library also has an online database of locally published obituaries from 1913 to the present of people with ties to St. Joseph County, Indiana. (Print indexes of earlier obituaries are available.)

And that's not all, folks! One of the spookiest blog posts I've seen in a while was on the library's main SJCPL blog last month, featuring a bookmark from 1960 that turned up in a library book. Of course it's been entered as well on the web site (you knew there was one) called Forgotten Bookmarks. Yes, history can jump out and bite you!

Catching up with the Newberry

If you're just in from Mars and haven't yet started following the intermittent "Genealogy News" blog of Chicago's Newberry Library, here's what you missed in the last month:

FamilySearch Labs is putting up Cook County birth certificates.

The Hyde Park Herald newspaper is digitizing its archives, including 1950s, 1960s, and 1990s so far.

Selected items from the Newberry's own collections are up on Internet Archive, including primarily church histories and a number of specialized directories it would be easy to miss: Board of Trade, "Jewish Community Blue book," law and medical directories, "Colored people's blue-book," real-estate dealers, and a Bohemian directory and almanac.

Evansville's Quarterly

Contents of the December 2008 issue of The Tri-State Packet, the Tri-State Genealogical Society's quarterly for southeast Illinois, southwest Indiana, and northwest Kentucky:

"Vanderburgh County, Indiana, in the Mexican War," part 2, by Col. Charles C Schreeder (1847-1930), from the Southwestern Indiana Historical Society Collection at the Willard Library in Evansville

"Abstracts of the 1890 County Enrollment" of US army veterans, tr. Peggy K. Newton

"From A Grave Digger's Journal: Fall Festival & The Rabbit Man," reminiscences by Gilbert Schmitt

"Brady Family Bible Records," from Willard Library Family Files

"German Evangelical and Lutheran Churches in Vanderburgh County Indiana (1838-1865)," by
Karin Marie Kirsch: "The records listed under St. Paul's Evangelical, St. Paul's Evangelical and Reformed, and St. Paul's United Church of Christ may all refer to the same church."

"Bible Records of Ephraim Cox & His Descendants,"from Willard Library Family Files

"Mike Craft Remembers Evansville's Railroad," circa 1910?

"Spencer County, Indiana Deed [recorded in Livingston County, Kentucky] -- Estate of John Karr/William Briscoe," tr. Brenda Joyce Jerome, CG

"WPA Pike County Deaths 1887-1902," tr. Marjorie Malott

Illinois' Winter 2008 Quarterly

The Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly does a better than average job of publishing more than record transcriptions. In the Winter 2008 issue editor Oriene Morrow Springstroh organizes them under the heading of "Telling Our Stories." "Don't be discouraged if your children or grandchildren aren't interested in what you have to say right now," she advises. "There are others to follow in the coming generations who wil cherish your words and be glad to meet you through the work you have done for them. They will also wish you had written more." In the issue:

"Coffee Time," by Gary K. Hargis

"Olivia's Story," by Jane Gwynn Haldeman

"James Miller Morrow of DuPage County, Illinois -- In His Own Words"

"Faces from the Past -- Identifying Photos with Marge Rice"

"How to Start a Writing Group for Your Society," by Oriene Morrow Springstroh

*"Using School Record Books," by Robert W. Frenz, with a focus on McHenry County

"Ask the Retoucher!" by Eric Curtis M. Basir

"Family Bible Collection," comp. Kristy Lawrie Gravlin

* footnoted.

People To See, Places To Go

It's spring, and the genealogist's fancy lightly turns to getting out and associating with fellow aficionados of dead people:

In St. Charles, Illinois, February 28, the DuPage County Genealogical Society will feature Everton's Genealogical Helper blogger managing editor Leland Meitzler, and including Jeff Bockman, Don Litzer, Lesley Martin, and Craig L. Pfannkuche.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 25 -- seeking perhaps to compensate for Michigan's lack of an effective state genealogy organization -- the Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society's spring conference will feature Paula Stuart-Warren, CG.

In Hudson, Ohio, April 2-4, the Ohio Genealogical Society (PDF) will feature Ian Frazier, author of Family, and a lot of other speakers who probably wish they didn't have to follow that act.

In Middleton, Wisconsin, April 3-4, the Wisconsin State Genealogical Society's Gene-A-Rama (PDF) will feature Christine Rose, CG, CGL, FASG; James Hansen, FASG; Rev. David McDonald, CG; Nancy Emmert, CG; George Findlen, CG; and Virginia Nichols.

In Indianapolis, Indiana, April 25, the Indiana Genealogical Society (PDF) will focus on military research with Pamela K. Boyer, CG, CGL.

A New Year of Ohio Civil War Genealogy

The first quarter 2009 issue of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal starts off with the top three finishers in the Civil War division of OGS's 2008 writing contest:

"Had They Stood Their Ground, We Would Have Cleaned Them Out: Ohioans in the Battle of Lewisburg in Western Virginia," by Jan Rader*

"Isaac Lyle of the 53rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and His Brothers," by Jean M. Hoffman*

"When Frank Came Marching Home: Frank Elliott, 135th OVI," by Harold Henderson*

"Lincoln's Brother-in-Law in Fayette County?" by Mike Williams and Washington Senior High Research History Class

"Update: Significance of the Dove on Lewis Tuttle's Gravestone at Andersonville GA," by Kevin Frye and Mary Metzinger Nunneley

"DVD Announcement: Andersonville: View Behind the Valor, A Narrated Photographic Tour of the Prison Grounds and National Cemetery," by Kevin Frye

"Ask the Experts"

"Commodity Price Indexes, 1860 to Present," by Dan Reigle -- applying John J. McCusker's How Much Is That In Real Money? A Historical Commodity Price Index to Civil War pay figures.

"Isaac Shumaker Diary for 1863-1865, 81st OVI, Galion, Ohio," by Mike Hocker

"Book Review: The Fighting McCooks by Charles & Barbara Whalen," by Dan Reigle

"John William Eckert and his Red Badge of Courage," by Eric Johnson

"1883 Census of Pensioners, Erie County, Ohio," comp. Michael Elliott

*footnoted