Bookends Friday: 56,000 pages about Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Historical Society is more than generous with its online offerings. Recently Kathy Lenerz reminded me of their "more than 80 standard county histories," most published between 1850 and 1920 and affectionately nicknamed "mug books," at Wisconsin County Histories. You can search by county and browse individual books, search by community name, or just search full-text of all of them together. Enjoy -- but don't totally believe everything you read!

Ohio county histories on line at BYU

For some reason, more than half of Ohio's counties have histories on line at BYU, making it by far the best-covered Midwestern state in that department. I was able to find:

Adams, Allen, Ashland (2), Ashtabula, Athens, AuGlaize
Belmont, Butler (2)
Clark (2), Clinton, Columbiana (3), Coshocton (2), Crawford
Darke
Fairfield, Fulton
Greene, Guernsey (3)
Hamilton (2), Harrison (2), Highland
Jefferson
Licking, Lorain, Lucas
Mahoning, Marion, Miami (3), Monroe, Morrow, Muskingum (2)
Noble
Paulding, Perry, Portage
Richland, Ross
Sandusky, Stark (2)
Trumbull, Tuscarawas (3)
Union
Van Wert
Warren, Washington (3), Wayne

Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways.

Illinois and Indiana county histories on line at BYU

Since some folks think I'm draining their purses by mentioning books that have to be purchased, I'll continue my BYU county history series with a list of those on line from Illinois and Indiana:

ILLINOIS: Champaign, Coles, Fulton, Jo Daviess, Knox, Lake, La Salle (3), Lake, Macon, Marion, McDonough, McLean, Morgan, Will

INDIANA: Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Delaware, Elkhart, Gibson, Grant, Henry, Jay, Kosciusko, LaPorte, Miami, Putnam, Randolph, St. Joseph (2), Shelby (2), Steuben, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, Wabash (2), Wayne (2)

Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways.

Michigan and Wisconsin county histories on line at BYU

.Brigham Young University's online full-text genealogy library isn't perhaps as well known as it should be. I know I could have saved some library pilgrimages if I had known what it held. Here are the Michigan and Wisconsin county histories I've found on there -- not counting family histories and various random record transcriptions and indexes.

MICHIGAN: Hillsdale, Jackson, Kent, Macomb, Washtenaw, Wayne

WISCONSIN: Columbia, Dane, Door, Green, LaCrosse, Outagamie, Sheboygan, Waupaca

BTW these are quality every-word-searchable digital images, not transcriptions.

REVISED LINKING INSTRUCTIONS! Unfortunately, it's not a simple matter to reach their advanced search interface. A direct link doesn't work, so here's my route: first go to the Harold B. Lee Library Online Collections. Even though you want ultimately to search all collections, select the left-hand tab for "Multimedia and Images" in order to get a search box. Don't type anything into the search box, just hit "go." In the resulting window, ignore any actual results. Instead, click on "advanced search" in the newly apparent menu at the top. Then, in the advanced search window, type in "Michigan county" or whatever you want to search for in more sophisticated ways. My apologies for not having figured this out before posting, and if any internet wizards out there can produce a working link direct to the advanced search, by all means let us know!

Another source for local histories online

You haven't felt true research despair until you get a ten-pound leather-bound county history and biography from, say, 1880, plopped on your library table. No index. No system. No useable table of contents -- but somewhere inside those gold-tipped pages there might be a biography, or even just a passing mention, of your ancestor (at least if he was male, respectable, settled, and cooperative with the company then churning the books out).

Nowadays, the main problem is keeping up with all the different places you can find these potential genealogical treasures every-word searchable on line -- better than an index! The large and growing web site Rays Place ("Explore New England's Past") by Ray Brown includes township-level histories for New England states, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Midwestern states of Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. Michigan is new (hat tip to MoSGA Messenger).

I looked at Clyde Township, Allegan County, Michigan -- home to Fennville, now an up-and-coming art and foodie colony -- and compared Ray's rendition of its published 1880 history with that offered by Michigan County Histories.

MCH has more histories, and you can search across them all; it also has images of the original pages. But to get to Clyde Township you have to do some searching within the overall 1880 volume.

Ray has transcriptions (with the occasional typo) and no page numbers, but you can get right to the individual town's history if you know which one you want.

For professional-type citation purposes MCH would be preferable. Ray offers additional services in providing links to GenWeb and Linkpendium information for each county, a real bonus if you don't know those sites already.