More Midwestern Resources

Today I'm mainly aggregating, not creating!

* Writing in NEHGR's "Weekly Genealogist," Valerie Beaudreault calls attention to a new on-line index to the Wisconsin Medical Journal, 1903-2003. Also a work-in-progress, the Appleton, Wisconsin, public library obituary index for various years.

* Most issues 1899-2005 of the Indianapolis Recorder, an African-American newspaper, are now searchable on line thanks to IUPUI.

* Just one of the best genealogy records blog posts I've seen, about the records of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, a must-see if you have non-wealthy Chicago ancestors.

* If you need microhistorical raw data on the Black Hawk War, the 40-year-old compilations compiled and edited by Ellen M. Whitney and published by the Illinois State Historical Library, The Black Hawk War 1831-1832, remain the gold standard. If you need a microhistorical narrative -- for instance, to track where an ancestor may have participated in this war -- I have been very impressed by Patrick J. Jung's The Black Hawk War of 1832 (Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007). I have not read it through or purchased my own copy, but I have used it for research (I know, they should usually be the same thing, but not today). The worst thing I can say about it so far is that he cites like a historian (one footnote per paragraph, no matter how many sources were involved).

Ohio Genealogy News Winter 2011

"Have You Researched Your Ancestor's Mental Health?" is the cover headline on the new OGS News, the class of the state-level newsletters. Among the contents:

Lisa Long (Ohio Historical Society reference archivist), "Mental Health Records: An Introduction for Researchers" and "Selected List of Patient Records in the Ohio History Center." Don't get your hopes up -- asylum and mental health records are "restricted" no matter how old, according to state law (insert your joke here about the lunatics running the asylum), but there are a variety of workarounds.

Deb Cyprych, "Return of Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Insane and Idiotic Persons in Ohio, 1856" -- a township-level partial census, many of the entries including parents' names.

Susan Zacharias, "Searching the Dead in Stark County: Coroner's Records Online."

Beverly R. Austin and Ronald L. Burdick, "Cleveland Public Library's Genealogy Resources."

Wally Huskonen, "Getting Ready to Research in the 1940 Census," including several tips for identifying enumeration districts as we await its indexing.

Hoosier Genealogist: Connections Fall/Winter 2011

Indiana's semi-annual genealogy magazine The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections, from the state historical society, has a number of articles:

Rick Bell, "Below the Falls," a story of early New Albany and other Ohio River towns, tied into the new IHS collection of essays, Full Steam Ahead: Reflections on the Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River, 1811-2011.

Jennie Regan-Dinius, "SHAARD," describing a database of historic properties and cemeteries across the state. Searchable categories are theaters, ISSHI (Indiana Historic Structures and Sites Inventory), cemetery registry, bridges, and National Register [of Historic Places]. Begun in 2009 with federal government support, it remains a work in progress as information both new and old continues to be added.

Geneil Breeze, "Early Settler: Thomas Kirby Warner...," on an early settler of Kosciusko County. I was struck by how various siblings reacted to the deprivations of pioneer life, and came and went accordingly.

Karen M. Wood, "Constructing a Biography," on William S. Hall of Rush County and his role in early stages of school consolidation, beginning in 1873.

Joyce Baggerly, "Family Poetry," with extensive quotations from Margaret Bruner's poems and the Baggerly family.

Glenda Thompson and Judy Ditzler, "The Indiana Boys' School." The Indiana State Archives holds letters and files of the school and a database of boys committed to the institution 1868-1930 is in the works. In the meantime, a visitor to ISA in Indianapolis can view bound volumes of commitment records in chronological order. (Always call first before visiting an archive!)

OGS Quarterly Fall 2011

Documented articles and research guides from the Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly, from the nation's largest state genealogical society:

Sharon Alwart, "Thomas and Jane Stephens, Coshocton County Pioneers." This article provoked me to reflect on how and why we attribute emotions to people living 200 years ago who left no record of how they felt. It is difficult for us to imagine a time when personal feelings may not have been the most important things.

Rachel Dilley, "Pietism's Last Stand," an account of Crawford County's Chatfield Evangelical Pietist Church.

Mary Jo Howard, "The Untold Story of Eugene and Kittie Howard" -- a terrible and long-suppressed tale of Cleveland in 1902. Looks like OGSQ is on a roll with tales that go "beyond the black sheep." (I'm thinking of Kathleen Reed's research tale in the summer issue.)

Deborah Crowdy, "Coshocton County Locality Guide." This listing goes both ways, listing eight repositories in the county and information about five kinds of records. UGA's Crossroads has also been publishing some of these as well.

Thomas Stephen Neel, "Richland County, Ohio, Road Petitions, 1817-1820." Road records in general are underused, but when they contain the names of all the petitioners, I'd say they're scandalously underused!

Fort Wayne and Chicago digitized newspapers

When you ask to "browse collections" on Fold3.com these days, you can choose among the records of seven wars and -- "other records."

The site's new focus on on military records has many upsides, but one downside is that researchers might forget that the former Footnote.com has marvelous collections of city directories -- and digitized newspapers. For researchers working the Midwest, Fold3 has both the Chicago Tribune (1849-1923) and seven titles from Fort Wayne:

Daily Gazette 1882-1898

Gazette 1899

Journal Gazette 1899-1923

News 1874-1917

Sentinel 1870-1923

Weekly Journal 1890-1899

Weekly Journal Gazette 1899-1914

Put 'em together and that's more than half a century.

Revolutionary patriot William Berry in NEHGR/AAJ

William Berry declared for a Revolutionary War pension in 1832 and made a detailed will shortly before his death in Allegany County, New York, in 1839. A probate and many deeds among his descendants followed, all carefully preserved in the Belmont courthouse.

Together these documents provide enough information to identify his seven children, some of their spouses, and more than 30 grandchildren. The first half of my article laying out the evidence and reasoning has just been published in the American Ancestors Journal supplement #3 to the October 2011 issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

William was the great-grandfather of my mother-in-law Eloise's great-grandmother Sarah Mehitabel Humphrey Coleman Bliss. Eloise would always ask for any news of ancestors when we came to visit; I'm sorry I didn't get this done in time for her to see it in print.

December Indiana Genealogist

The December issue of the Indiana Genealogical Society's all-virtual quarterly, Indiana Genealogist, is just out and has the usual collection of short items from all around the state, as well as two longer ones:

* John J. Weidner of Lake County explains his research into his ancestral Kolling family, who were early settlers in the county, and

* I describe some time-machine-like land records for Gibson County (and other counties) that are available in the National Archives branch in Chicago (near Midway Airport).

If you have Indiana people, do consider writing them up for this publication.