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Indiana news - 4 October 2012 |
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Registration is now open for our conference featuring Josh Taylor! The "Who Do You Think You Are?" star researcher will be with us at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington on Saturday, April 27, 2013 to present sessions on:
- New Tools and Ideas in Research
- Forward Ho! Beginning Midwestern Research
- Online Resources for Colonial America
- Creating Your Personal Family History Website
Other sessions will feature:
--Harold Henderson - "Probate Will Not Be The Death of You" and "Land and Property: The Records No Genealogist Can Do Without"
--Lou Malcomb - "Cemeteries and Maps"
--Curt Witcher - "Mining The Mother Lode: Using Periodical Literature for Genealogical Research"
Indiana Genealogical Society members will receive a 25% discount on registration. Visit http://www.indgensoc.org/conference.php for all the details (including how to register online).
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Hendricks County Probate Records Project | | We've added 44 digital files in the past month - there are now 654 probate records files online.
The newest files include these surnames: ALBERTSON, ALMOND, APPLEGATE, ARNOLD, AYERS, BANKS, CALL, HANCOCK, HARDIN, HART, McVEY, MENDENHALL, MEREDITH, MERRITT, NOLAND, PLASTER, PLUMMER, POLAND, PORTER, POTTER, RAMMEL, SELCH, SNODDY, SPARKS, SPRAY, STONE, STOUT, TOLEN, TOMLINSON, TONEY, WALKER, WELLS and WILSON.
Don't forget to stop by our work session at the Plainfield Public Library on Saturday, October 13 from 10 am to 4 pm! We'll be unfolding and organzing probate papers from the 1840's and 1850's. Please sign up online through the library's Events Calendar, or contact their Indiana Room - phone (317) 839-6602 ext. 2114; e-mail askindiana@plainfieldlibrary.net. |
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IGS Donates $1,812 to War of 1812 Project |
The Indiana Genealogical Society recently donated $1,812 to the Illinois State Genealogical Society towards their match challenge. The match challenge is to help raise money for the Federation of Genealogical Societies' Preserve the Pensions project, which is digitizing 7 million pages of pension files for War of 1812 veterans and their dependents. The pension files are being put online at Fold3 as they are completed, for free access by the public.
In 2011 we completed our own match challenge for this project, presenting a check for $24,234 to the Federation of Genealogical Societies. |
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Descendants of Clinton & Marion County Family Sought |  Ron Darrah (e-mail rdarrah@att.net) is seeking descendants of a family that lived in Clinton County and Indianapolis/Marion County, to return this family photo (pictured).
The photo is believed to be of George Oliver Johnson, wife Bertha Dosch, and their young daughter Hazel Vera Johnson (born 1890 in Clinton County). Hazel was married to Joseph Leo Lime in 1912 and lived in Indianapolis.
For more details on this family and their known descendants, please see our blog post. |
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IGS Booth At State Library's Genealogy Fair |
The Indiana Genealogical Society will have a booth at the Indiana State Library's free Indiana Genealogy & Local History Fair on Saturday, October 27 from 9 am to 3:30 pm. We're looking for some volunteers to help us answer all the questions. If you like talking about Indiana genealogy, please contact Ron Darrah - e-mail rdarrah@att.net or phone ( 317) 594-9786. |
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IGS Database Additions |
For Indiana Genealogical Society members: These are the newest premium databases we've added to the Members-Only area.
College Records:
--Directory of Faculty of Indiana University, Bloomington (1936)
--Alumni of Delphi High School, Carroll County, Indiana (1872-1924)
--Students of Delphi Junior High School, Carroll County, Indiana (1925)
--Students of Delphi High School, Carroll County, Indiana (1925)
--Teachers of Delphi High School, Carroll County, Indiana (1925)
--Residents of Ripley County, Indiana Who Served in World War I
--Students of West Lafayette High School, Tippecanoe County, Indiana (1926)
--Teachers of West Lafayette High School, Tippecanoe County, Indiana (1926)
--Alumni of Tipton High School, Tipton County, Indiana (1876-1907)
Miscellaneous Records:
--Elected County Officials in Indiana (1883) |
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County Roundup | |
Some genealogical and local history news items from around the state:
ALLEN COUNTY
--Author Dean Jensen is seeking information about the Allen County Children's Home in Fort Wayne. In particular, he wants to gain a sense of what the children's daily lives were like (schooling, play, jobs), as well as the layout of the grounds and what it looked like inside and out. If you have any information about this institution, contact him at: Dean Jensen
759 N. Water St., Milwaukee, WI 53202; e-mail deanjensenart@sbcglobal.net
DEKALB COUNTY
--A covered bridge in Spencerville sustained over $100,000 in damage after a semi drove across it. The bridge, built in 1873, has a long history in the area; the driver of the semi has been charged with criminal mischief.
HAMILTON COUNTY
--Indiana Landmarks' blog has a post about the history of Boxley Cabin in Sheridan, which was home to an early abolitionist.
HARRISON COUNTY
--Corydon is struggling to preserve the remnants of the "Constitutional Elm". The famed tree existed back in 1816 when delegates met to create Indiana's first constitution.
JACKSON COUNTY
--The staff of Riverview Cemetery in Seymour is now charging the public $25 for each grave they look up in their records. One alternative for researchers is to contact the Jackson County Public Library's Local History/Genealogy Department, as they have copies of the cemetery's records up through 2003. Contact the Local History/Genealogy Department at phone (812) 522-3412 ext. 1240; e-mail csellers@myjclibrary.org. Thank you to Charlotte Sellers, our Indiana County Genealogist for Jackson County, for sharing this information.
KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
--The Syracuse Public Library has created the Syracuse-Wawasee Digital Archives, a searchable database of historic photographs and other items from the area.
LAKE COUNTY
--Fundraising efforts continue to raise $2 million needed to preserve and restore the old Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point.
MONROE COUNTY
--Indiana Landmarks' blog has a post about the history of the Showers Building in Bloomington, which in 1910 was home to a furniture company.
OWEN COUNTY
--The general store in Cataract, built in 1860, is searching for a new owner.
PARKE COUNTY
--Billie Creek Village, the living history park in Rockville, failed to sell at auction. The property, which was built in the 1960's and includes 2 covered bridges, will now be sold in pieces.
PORTER COUNTY
--The Porter County Clerk and the Porter County Museum are working to preserve and digitize the county's records, with the goal of making them accessible by the public. Some of the records will eventually go to the Porter County Public Library in Valparaiso.
VANDERBURGH COUNTY
--The searchable databases of Locust Hill Cemetery and Oak Hill Cemetery in Evansville have changed their addresses - go to http://www.evansville.in.gov/index.aspx?page=2386 for the updated links.
--The Tri-State Genealogical Society in Evansville now has a Facebook page.
--An Evansville newspaper recounts the history of the Grein Building, which was built in 1887 and destroyed in 1972. |
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Legal Terms Explained: Chattel Mortgage | |
Most of us know a mortgage as a loan given with a piece of real estate as the collateral. But your ancestor may have been involved in a chattel mortgage, especially if they were not the owner of any real estate. A chattel mortgage is a loan where the collateral is something besides real estate. Jewelry and cars are modern examples of this kind of "personal property" collateral. In the 1800's, livestock as well as slaves were considered chattel and may appear in those records. |
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Indiana's WPA Death Indexes | |
The Great Depression actually provided some positives for modern-day genealogists and family history researchers. Formed in 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) aimed to ease unemployment by putting people to work on public works projects. One of the projects for white-collar workers was to inventory and index records in the counties. In Indiana, this led to the creation of birth, marriage and death indexes.
Wartime shortages led to the WPA being dissolved in 1943, before all of Indiana's 92 counties could be finished. The WPA completed death indexes for 64 counties: Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Cass, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Daviess, DeKalb, Delaware, Elkhart, Floyd, Fountain, Fulton, Gibson, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jasper, Jay, Johnson, Knox, Kosciusko, Lagrange, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Newton, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Pulaski, Putnam, Shelby, Spencer, Starke, St. Joseph, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, Warren, Warrick, Washington, Wayne, Wells and White.
Many of these indexes covered the period between 1882 (when the state first required the recording of birth and death records) and 1920.
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Civil War in the News |
Last month, PBS premiered a new documentary, "Death and the Civil War," about how the war changed how soldiers were treated in death. The 2-hour film can be viewed online for free (be warned: it does contain some graphic images). |
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Indiana's Golden Age of Marriage Records |
As researchers, we appreciate records that give us the most information about our ancestors. We especially like those records that give us enough identifying information to help determine if we've actually found the correct person. The Internet and computer age we live in, with the threat of identity theft, is often blamed for the stingy information that's being gathered in today's records. But with Indiana marriage records, the reduction of information actually began long before the Internet and personal computers were born.
The "golden age" for us as researchers dates from about the 1940s through 1977. Marriage applications from that era asked not only questions about the applicant's birthdate, birthplace and residence, but also their maiden name, the number of previous marriages, and when & how those marriages were dissolved (death, divorce, etc.). It also asked for the applicant's race and occupation. Their parents' names, birthplaces, residence, race and occupations were also questions.
These can be important clues in our research - the question about the bride's maiden name can tell us to look for other marriage records, and the questions about how and when previous marriages were dissolved give us leads for death records or divorce records to look for. And the information about the bride and groom's occupations and their parents' occupations not only helps us flesh out what their lives were like, but can lead us to other records related to their employment.
That all changed in 1977, under Indiana Code 31-1-3-2. The revised code took effect on July 1, 1977, with the questions about the bride's maiden name, the bride and groom's race and occupation, and the race and occupation of their parents all removed from the marriage form. Whether these questions were removed because they had been deemed too intrusive, or merely irrelevant for the government's purpose of compiling statistical information, it marked the end of a golden age for Indiana researchers. |
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Proving African-American Military Service |
Over 5,000 free men of color served in the Revolutionary War. The National Archives has a fascinating article in its Prologue magazine detailing the pension claim made by a 90-year-old widow of one such soldier, and the problems she encountered trying to gather documentation at a time when African-Americans were often not included in records. |
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