A Google Books index by state

The ever-observant Jeanne Bloom, CG, points out Rainy Day Research's index to Google Book Search -- genealogically relevant books (many mug books from the late 1800s) available in full text, organized by state. (RDR also has a line in California newspapers.) I observe 52 titles for Illinois, 27 Indiana, 69 Michigan, 61 Ohio, and 18 Wisconsin -- and not just the usual suspects. This resource will only get better as Google draws more books into its maw.

Lake County Indiana resource

The occasional Region Roots blog from the Lake County Public Library in Merrillville points out an old but good index resource that was a 1938 doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago: "Sources & History for the History of Lake County, Indiana," by Minnie Margaret Ravenscroft. It's a cumulative index to 15 sources.

The thesis is not on line. And it's not in many physical libraries either. Besides Lake County, worldcat reveals that the following libraries hold copies: Hammond Public, University of Chicago, and the ever-reliable Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne.

Statewide Illinois Harvest

Newly digitized books of statewide interest at Illinois Harvest. The first two are also available on Google Book Search.

Peck, John Mason. A Gazetteer of Illinois. Jacksonville, IL: R. [actually C.] Goudy, 1834. 376 pages.

Carpenter, W. H. The History of Illinois, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1857. 255 pages.

DeMotte, H. C. The Alumni Journal [of the Illinois Wesleyan University]. Bloomington:[Illinois Wesleyan University], Volume 2 (1872), Volume 3 (1873), Volume 4 (1874).

Caton, John Dean. Early Bench and Bar of Illinois. Chicago: Chicago Legal News Company, 1893. 252 pages.

Book of Memorial Memberships. Jacksonville, IL:s.n., 1929. 3rd edition. 212 pages. Illinois College. Portraits and brief biographies of close to 200 individuals, including a number of WWI casualties.

Munsell/Munselle

Nancy Cunningham and Nancy West put up a new family web site August 3, with an awesome collection of links to cemetery readings (with gravestone pictures) and scanned original documents such as marriage certificates for the Munsell/Munselle lines that moved from Licking County, Ohio, and Jefferson County, Illinois, to Texas. Anyone with any connection to this family will benefit from looking here, and anyone without it will be inspired to think of new ways to share their own family information.

Other lines connected by marriage include Barton, Brookman, Collister, Cornstubble, Cowey, Deveroux-Smith, Holliday, King, Shipp, Stephenson, and Tillotson.

July South Bend Area newsletter

Articles in the July 2008 issue of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society Quarterly Newsletter (Volume 33, issue 3):

"The Thompson Family Journey," by Barbara Weiler, a firsthand account of a covered wagon journey from Ohio to Iowa in 1861: "During the trip we were very careful not to discuss the war as we often met folks who were southern sympathizers."

"Obituaries of St. Joseph Co. natives found in the Los Angeles Times and the Orange Co. Register (California)," comp. Eleanor E. Borkenhagen

"1862 Civil War Letter Found in Rafters of Old Minish House," by Bill Minish with reprints from 1999 articles

"Blackrobe: Father Benjamin Petit and the Potawatomi Trail of Death," by Ken Reising:

"Fr. Petit was on the scene at Menominee's village [Marshall County, near Twin Lakes] as his parishioners were being rounded up and prepared to move. On the morning of September 4, 1838 orders were given to move .... As the Indians were marched off from what had been their village they could see white settlers already harvesting the corn that the Indians had been forced to leave behind."

"1910 Index of Heads of Households for River Park, Indiana"

More light on the subject

Kathy Alvis Patterson at "Alvispat's Weblog" lists five common errors in her Light ancestors' genealogy, and correcting them. We need more documented blog posts like this, as there are too many "false facts" circulating on almost every line.

Also, her profile includes several Amazon lists, including one of nonfiction history books relating to genealogy -- many goodies here.

Electronic but not free -- Marshall and Putnam counties, Illinois

At Wholly Genes Archive CD Books USA offers for $14.95 a download of the unindexed but now every-word-searchable book:

Ellsworth, Spencer. Records of the Olden Time; or Fifty Years on the Prairies Embracing Sketches of the Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement of the Country, the Organization of the Counties of Putnam and Marshall... Lacon, Ill. : Home Journal Steam Printing Establishment, 1880. 754 pages.

Don't bother with my summary when you can read one from Barbara Vines Little, CG.