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Cynthia Theusch will present January’s entry in the WinterTech series with “Technology Tour of The Genealogy Center,” on Wednesday, January 13, 2016, 2:30–3:30 p.m., in Meeting Rooms B&C. Cynthia will demonstrate all the technology available for our customers to use including scanners, printers and more! Remember that WinterTech is offered in the afternoons of the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana’s monthly meeting, so stay until 7 p.m. to hear ACGSI members “Sharing Unique Finds during Genealogical Research.” To register for any of these free events, call 260-421-1225 or send us an email.

We have a fabulous “new” map for your viewing pleasure on our free Allen County, Indiana Resources page. It is a 1935 Business Loop map of downtown Fort Wayne, bordered by Brackenridge on the south, Webster on the west, Columbia and the railroad on the north and Barr on the east. From the whole map which serves as an overview, one may click on sections to see enlargements, to view the locations of theaters, churches, stores and residences all over downtown. Most businesses are specified, such as Patterson Fletcher, Stag Cigar, Bon Ton Bakery, Kroger Market, Baltes hotel and more, although some are just identified as barber or filling station. Buildings are identified by street number and trolley tracks are shown, as is Transfer Corner at Calhoun and Berry. At the top is a statistical summary of the types of businesses, including 18 shoe stores, 40 clothing stores, 22 barbers, 10 hotels, 12 markets, and 9 beer parlors. Residences are not identified by name. The map can be a bit confusing at first, as west is at the top, and a strong knowledge of the streets of Fort Wayne’s downtown or a current map may serve as an aid to browsing.

by Delia

People are already sending photos for the Who’s a Hoosier? Who and What Makes Indiana Great Bicentennial Image Collection. This one comes from Kevin Roe of Fort Wayne. Kevin has lived most of his life in Fort Wayne. Some of us here in The Genealogy Center knew him as an Allen County Public Library Page-turned Clerk-turned Librarian in the 1970s and 1980s as he worked his way through college and graduate school, then began his career. He’s now with Fort Wayne Community Schools, but keeps in touch with us. Kevin is sending a number of family and group photos, but this one shows Kevin (a great Hoosier) with Santa in 1963, when Kevin was 3½ years old.

This Santa is Phil Steigerwald, the famous Wolf & Dessauer Santa Claus. Born in 1927 to Phil E. and Vera Hurst Steigerwald, Phil began his Santa career in 1943, when he was still in high school. In the mid-1950s, his service became a profession at the Sears Store on Rudisill. He became Wolf & Dessauer’s Santa several years later and remained there until W&D closed in 1979. Along the way, he was a realtor and a Fort Wayne City Council member from 1963 to 1971. Phil died in 2004, but his legacy lives with the many children who still treasure their pictures with Santa.

Join us in defining Who's a Hoosier? Who and What Makes Indiana Great by submitting images for the collection!

It is a wonder how one person's contributions to our Free Databases can expand research possibilities! The following material has all been donated for your use here by one generous researcher.

The Four Mile Church was the first Church of the Brethren (German Baptist) in Indiana. It was 1809 and the area was known as “The Gore.” The Upper Four Mile Church was in Wayne County, and the Lower Four Mile Church was in Franklin County, but when Union County was formed in 1821, both churches were in that county. Four Mile Church, 200th Anniversary discusses the history of the church with brief family histories of members, along with many photos, and a map showing the locations of early Brethren Churches in Indiana.

Virginia Colony: History and Record of the Early Families and Times of the Four Mile Church of the Brethren is a history of the church and area, along with family histories and a name index to this material. Together, these two items provide  a wonderful history of the church and its people.
 
The Frontier Brethren provides a study of the early migration of the Brethren to Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley. It contains historical and biographical material, as well as a map of Brethren churches in Kentucky, and southern Indiana and Ohio.
 
Southern Ohio, Highland and Adams County Churches also deals with Brethren churches, this time on Ohio. A history of the Church in that region is accompanied by an index of Dunkard families listed in the 1820 and 1830 census of the area.
 
Obannon Baptist Brethren Church book deals with the Brethren who came to Ohio in the 1790s, and provides a history and information on the families.  
 
All of these were generously provided by Merle Rummel and all can be searched using the search feature on each home page.

The last item, also provided by Mr. Rummel, is Brethren Migration Roads, a PowerPoint file that is not searchable, but contain 264 images that include maps and photographs of the trails as they exist now and images of what might have existed when our ancestors traversed these routes. Whether your ancestors were Brethren or not, this final selection is a wonderful resource.

Our Free Databases keep expanding, this time with some new family materials and a couple of military records.

Eleanor Wallace of Fort Wayne submitted several items of Family Resources. Pragoff Progenitors: Gorin Line, Franklin Extensions, Bowman Extensions and
Pragoff Progenitors: Pragoff Line, Plasket Extensions, Chambers Extensions. These two items delve deeply into the various connecting branches of her Pragoff family.

Loretta Luce Evans donated Luse Family Reunion Book: Record of the Minutes and Doings of the Reunions of the Children Cousins of Serenus B. Luse. It includes images of the Reunion ledger from 1893 to 1905 and 1915, as well as pages of family records, an index and notes of the accuracy of some of the entries.

We also have the World War I Discharge paper of Harold Frary, of the Hoboken Casual Company #246 and Company F of the 316th Engineers. He left the United States in July 1918 and returned in March 1919.
 
Alexander Morris was born in New York in 1889 and, after his parents died, he and his siblings were placed in an orphan asylum. When it closed, he transferred to a Catholic Reform School, then later, to a better orphan home where he studied music for the first time. He joined the Navy in 1907 and served for the next 47 years until retirement, then died in 1962. His career in the Navy was as a musician and bandmaster. His Peacetime & Multiple Engagements details his career through the first half of the Twentieth Century and is a fascinating read about a young man who worked hard and achieved success.

The last item is the Butler-McDonald-Mazanec Photograph Collection. All of the information we have is the three family names associated with it, and the few notes attached to the photos. It is like looking though a family scrapbook, with formal portraits and snapshots, postcards of locations important to the family, photographs of gravestones and Christmas cards. Take a stroll through the pictures and enjoy!

Have you been wondering what's happened to PERSI? Do you wonder what PERSI is, and how to use it? Join Melissa Tennant at 2:30 p.m., on Wednesday, December 9, 2015 in Meeting Room B&C, as she discusses  where one can find PERSI, the differences between the sites, how to get copies of articles cited in the periodical index, and the dramatic things that are happening with PERSI at FindMyPast. To register for this free program, call 260-421-1225 or send an email.

And stay until 7 p.m. for the monthly meeting of the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana for Marge Graham's presentation "Wills and Probate Records," in Meeting Room A.

On the 150th anniversary of the thirteenth amendment's ratification by the states, Professor Brian Dirck of Anderson University will discuss the amendment and Lincoln's role in its success. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Allen County Public Library. Join us Sunday, December 6, 2015, at 2:00 p.m., in Meeting Room A for this free event. For more information, visit The Lincoln Collection.

We have a nice potpourri of new church and cemetery listings in our Free Databases for you to enjoy, staring with Marriage Surname Index to Maryland German Church Records and supplied by compiler Dale W. Morrow. This is a marriage index for the counties of Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick and Washington in Frederick Weiser's Maryland German Church Records.
 
Joann Wasson supplied “If This Plot Had Ears: The Stories of the Old Liberty Cemetery,” of Hardin County, Illinois. This 30-page document details the restoration of this cemetery and brief biographies of those who are known to be buried there.
 
Rhonda Stoffer, Head of Indiana History and Genealogy Services at the Marion Public Library, and a local Grant County customer, James Campbell made the Corey's Cemetery Map, Van Buren Township, Grant County, Indiana. One can click anywhere on the map to view an enlargement of that section, and a brief history of the cemetery is on the image.
 
Finally, we have a Lutheran Bible Institute, Minneapolis photo, dated February 11, 1941. The photograph is scanned in such a way that you can click on a section to view the attendees more closely. We have no names associated with the photo, so if you recognize anyone, please let us know.

The great American holiday of Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. It is a time traditionally when families gather together to share a feast, give thanks for their bounty, and watch football. It is also one of the few times of the year that multiple generations of a family assemble under one roof. It is thus a great time for sharing family stories, looking at photographs, and remembering the past.

This year, why not participate in the Great Thanksgiving Listen, taking place from November 26 to November 29? The sponsor of this event is StoryCorps, a nationally-known oral history project whose mission is to capture the stories of thousands of people across our country. You may have heard excerpts of StoryCorps sessions on National Public Radio. They have made it easy by providing an app that is easily downloaded to a cell phone. This is a convenient way to record the stories of family members and preserve them forever.

Everyone has a story tell, whether it is a family tradition, a childhood memory, a military service experience, or a recollection about a particular place or event. What is the earliest memory that you can recall? Where were you when you heard about President Kennedy's assassination? Did you watch the Apollo 11 moon landing on television in 1969? Where were you on 9/11? What stories have you heard about your family's history?

Let's pause a moment from our feasting this week and take time to remember and record. You'll be glad you did.

by Cynthia Theusch

This past summer, The Genealogy Center acquired two new microfilm and microfiche reader/scanner/printer machines. With their new technological features and updated scanning software, you will definitely want to make use of these machines during your next visit.

New features include:

• Larger monitor to display microfilm page or microfiche file.
• Digitally zoom in where the smaller print can be easily read.
• Subtract (remove) unwanted articles and/or paragraphs from a 2-column scan image.
• Merge 2 or more images together which is a great feature to use when your article has been divided into 2 or more pages.
• Digitizing your film negatives and slides.
  • Black and white
  • Color negatives

The new Microtext Machines are a great way to capture images from microfilm, microfiche, negatives and slides; and add them to your group of displayed photos or in your family history files and stories.

Have a brick wall in your research? Would you like a greater understanding of some aspect of your research? The Genealogy Center is offering 30-minute personal research consultations with a staff member on some troublesome aspect of your research. The Consultations will be offered on Wednesday, December 2nd and Tuesday, December 8th, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Call 260-421-1225 or email Genealogy@ACPL.Info for an appointment, requesting a Consultation and providing basic information concerning the nature of your quandary. A staff member will be assigned and a time established for your consultation. Be sure to bring your research notes to your consultation.

Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. Register today!

 

As you visit The Genealogy Center in the coming weeks, you may notice a bit of unusual activity, especially in the Microtext Reading Room. When we reopened our expanded and renovated building in 2007, we had a large space devoted to using our extensive microtext collection—a collection that included census and military records, newspapers, city directories, and documents from many states and countries. However, digital copies of these important documents continue to grow exponentially in use.  Microtext usage, on the other hand, continues to diminish greatly.

What has grown in the last decade is our dedication to expand service to include more classes and consultations, as well as meeting our customers’ desires to collaborate with us and one another. In response, we are repurposing more than half of the former Microtext Reading Room into our new Discovery Center, a space for presentations, panel discussions, group activities, pop-up demonstrations, collaborative dialog, and one-on-one consultations.

We also have become increasingly aware that in this digital age, people’s stories are slipping away. Email and texting have replaced written correspondence between friends and family members so much so that information that had been preserved in the past on paper is now being lost. Headliners and other “big” stories get preserved in other forms, but the day-to-day lives of firemen, teachers, industrial workers, veterans, emigrants, attorneys and the histories of communities, churches, businesses and ethnic groups get lost in the shuffle. To preserve and present these every-day stories, we are repurposing our former Orientation Area into a Life Stories Center. We want to better facilitate the preservation of everyone’s experiences, memories, and life stories.

While all of this activity is occurring, we hope that you will tolerate the small inconveniences caused by a limited amount of noise and some dust. We are looking forward to the great possibilities that our new spaces will bring. Thank you for your understanding.

There are some new or expanded Allen County items available for use online!

At one time, Bass Foundry was one of Fort Wayne’s largest employers, with more than a thousand employees. Among other product lines, the Foundry made boilers for railroads, businesses and homes. Bass Steel Heating Boilers is a six-page brochure showing photos and descriptions of some of the products available for residential use.
 
The North Side Yearbook Index is now complete from 1929 to 1024, with more than 187,000 entries and has an updated the search page.

We now have issues of Wayne High School’s newspaper “The Dispatch,” “The Wayne Dispatch,” or “The Wayne High School Dispatch,” from 1971-1991.

And, finally, The Allen County Courthouse was an architectural gem when it opened in 1902, with statues, murals and stained glass, but the next ninety years took their toll. In 1994, Allen County Courthouse Preservation Trust, Inc. began a project to restore and preserve the building, which was completed in 2002. The Genealogy Center now has 792 images of this restoration available through our ContentDM link. The photographs are divided into sections: Circuit Court, First Floor, Second Floor, Superior Court One,  Superior Court Three, and Third Floor. Treat yourself to some browsing today!

The Genealogy Center, like all facilities of the Allen County Public Library, will be closed on Thursday, November 26th, for Thanksgiving. We will be open our regular hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25th, and reopen on Friday, November 27th, at 9 a.m.

As your family and friends gather, participate in the Great Thanksgiving Listen on Thursday and the National Day of Listening on Friday, as an alternative to shopping. This holiday, feed your mind as well as your stomach!

A special program on "Genealogy and the Holocaust"  will be presented on Sunday, November 15 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Allen County Public Library Main Branch to learn about resources relevant to the Holocaust, including the recently opened International Tracing Service Archives and what’s available locally.

Speakers include  Robert M. Ehrenreich, Director of University Programs, and Elizabeth Anthony, International Tracing Service and Partnerships Program Manager, both from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Curt Witcher, Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Manager and Director of the Federation of Genealogical Societies; and Irv Adler, a Temple member who will share his experience researching what happened to his family during the Holocaust and discovering new relatives in the process.
 
“What makes this kind of research different from other genealogy research is that it is more than simply compiling a list of family names,” said Dr. Steve Carr, director of IPFW’s Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “Rather, it asks us to think about the hard questions and choices family members had to make under the harshest of circumstances.”

The program is sponsored by Congregation Achduth Vesholom, the IPFW Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center,  and the Campus Outreach Lecture Program of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, supported by Jack and Goldie Wolfe Miller.
 
Do you have a family story about the Holocaust or a more recent genocide? Tell it at tellmyfamilystory.tumblr.com.

In honor of Veteran's Day, we want to share news of some recent additions to Our Military Heritage from three conflicts, starting with the Civil War pension file of Samuel Rose of the 22nd Iowa, who died in St. James Hospital in New Orleans on September 28, 1863 of chronic diarrhea, leaving a wife and three children. The file includes affidavits on his service, death and needs of the family, including the dates of birth for all three children and the date and place of death for his widow in 1895.
 
For the Spanish-American War, we have digital of the Official Souvenir of Michigan Volunteers of ’98, published by G.F. Sterling Company in Detroit. The document includes muster rolls for the 31st through 35 regiments of Michigan volunteers and naval reserves, as well as a chronology of events and photographs of companies, groups and individuals. Accompanying the document is an every name and key word index.
 
Finally, we have the World War II collection of John Perry. Perrey served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946 and recounts his service activities, and includes images of his honorable discharge and other documents, photographs and the souvenir booklet of the Third Graduating Class of the U.S. Naval Radio School (1944).

Thanks to the donors who allow us to share these items with you.

Thanks to our wonderful contributors, additions to our Family Resources database continue to be posted to our Free Databases site.

Jane Thompson Kuitems has allowed us to post Benjamin Thompson, an Early Settler of Penfield, New York and Samuel Thompson and Grizzil Ingalls of Uxbridge, Massachusetts. Both are name and keyword searchable and both are filled with detail and richly documented.

Ewing Family File, published by The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding and available through The Genealogy Center, indexes the almost 6500 individuals in the Ewing Family Association & Related Materials that we have had on our site. Using this index, one may search by name, or select an advanced search and locate a person by birth, christening, death or burial dates or places, or by spouse’s name.
 
And, finally, Brian Paul Kaess has sent corrections to Notes on the Kaess Family, which has been added to what he had already submitted.
 
Our thanks for these donations!

At this time, when a piece of property exchanges hands, a title search company researches the deed, looking for any legal impediments to clear title of the property. These impediments include any legal action in which the current or past owners may have been involves, such as law suits, probate cases and liens on the property. But in the past, an abstract of the title, detailing the history of the property to that point, was passed with the deed to the new owners or mortgage holders. In the past thirty years, these abstracts have fallen out of use. Some owners still passed them along, but the new owners may not have understood the significance of the abstract which many ended up in the attic, or worse, in the trash. Many of these have been donated to The Genealogy Center in the past and can be found through our catalog and can be found by searching on “Allen County Indiana” plus abstract plus the addition or location, such as Elzey’s.

However, the most recent donations, consisting of 43 from all across the county, have been scanned and are available online under Abstracts of Title, Allen County, Indiana. There is no index to the names contained in them at the time, but can be located by addition name, section and or lot number. If you are searching for a property in an addition for which we have an abstract, much of the earlier information will be identical from one abstract to another. For example, there is one for Walden Addition that consists of more than 100 pages and includes details of the exchange of property from the beginning to the 1970s, including law suits, probate and inheritance details and a petition to widen Trier Road. If you are doing family history on any of the families involved in these properties or doing house research in any of these additions, these are an important source. If you have an abstract gathering dust at home, please remember that we would be happy to add it to our collection!

Ah, the last week of October brings the end of Family History Month, but first, we have a week full of events and opportunities!

Sunday, October 25, starts off with John Beatty sharing his knowledge about “Ancestry’s Public Member Trees: How to Explore, Evaluate, and Add Value.” This talk will explore some of the benefits and pitfalls of the Public Member Trees and will offer advice on how to make your own Tree outstanding. Be there, 1-2 p.m., in Meeting Room A.

Kay Spears concludes her computer assistance series with “Mysteries of Microsoft for Beginners: Excel, PowerPoint and Access” on Monday, October 26, 6:30-8:30 p.m., in the Computer Classroom. Explore Excel, PowerPoint and Access and how you can use them, with helpful hints on some things you should do, what each program does, and some of the things to avoid. Register early. Space is limited. Call 260-421-1225 or send an email to register.

Tuesday, October 27, offers “Finding Billy Yank and Johnny Reb: Beginning Research on Your Civil War Soldier,” 6:30-7:30 p.m., in Meeting Room A. Join Delia Bourne and learn about service records, pensions, regimental histories, salt lists, questionnaires and more to help you discover your Civil War soldier.

Melissa Tennant will present “City Directories: More than Basic Facts,” 6:30-7:30 p.m., Meeting Room A on Wednesday, October 28. City directories provide more than just a name and address for a particular year. Discover the stories held within these volumes.

Thursday, October 29 we will have John Beatty with “Death Heads and Clasped Hands: Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography for the Genealogist.” Many tombstones of the past had icons and carvings that had deep meaning at the time but are lost on us today. This talk will explore some of those symbols and offer a guide on how to interpret them. Be in Meeting Room A, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

Friday, October 30 brings our “Midnight Madness Extended Research Hours,” 6 p.m.-Midnight, in The Genealogy Center. You know you've always wanted to stay to research after everyone else leaves! So stay until Midnight to research and celebrate the end of another great Family History Month! As an added bonus, we are also offering three mini-programs:
6:30 p.m. – “Family Connections via Facebook,” presented by Melissa Tennant. Discover a place where everyone wants to hear your latest genealogical discovery or help you find the answer to your latest family query. Learn how family connections and an entirely new genealogical community is waiting on Facebook.
7:30 p.m. – “What Can I Find in The Genealogy Center’s Free Databases?” Curt Witcher will guide you on a tour of the many useful resources available for free on GenealogyCenter.org.
8:30 p.m. – “Seeking Michigan Ancestors?” Kris Rzepczynski will explore search strategies and the growing array of genealogically rich Michigan resources available for free at Seeking Michigan (http://seekingmichigan.org). Current content includes death records from 1897-1939, The Detroit News card index, state census records, and Civil War enlistment records.
Note: No preregistration is necessary for Midnight Madness, but you must be in The Center by 6 p.m. You may leave at any time, but there is no re-admittance. Call 260-421-1225 or send an email for more information.

Saturday, October 31, brings the end of Family History Month by presenting one last program, “Success with Fold3,” presented by Delia Bourne, 10-11 a.m., in the Globe Room. Millions of documents await discovery at Fold3! Learn how to browse and search records in this premier collection of military records, newspapers, and city directories.

And don’t go anywhere! WinterTech is right around the corner!

Maureen Taylor brings The Photo Detective Seminar to The Theater on Saturday, October 24, 2015. All are welcome to this free event! Sessions are:

9:30-10:30 a.m. "Identifying and Dating Family Photographs"

Audiences love this interactive lecture on discovering who’s who in their family pictures. They’ll learn 10 easy steps for naming those unidentified pictures tucked away in shoeboxes.

 

11 a.m.-Noon. "Buns, Beards, Bodices and Bustles: Understanding Ancestors through Clothing"

• Ancestral fashions and the industry that produced them left behind a fascinating legacy of images and information.
• Paris fashion in America: north, south, east and west interpretations
• Fashion icons from Charles Dickens to stage star Lillie Langtry
• Fashion foibles and practical pastimes: how our ancestors designed and hand-crafted accessories.
• What’s old is new and what’s new is old? Repeating fashion trends and how to read the clues
• Labor records relating to hat, hair and accessory factories and home-work

2-3 p.m. "Google Images and Beyond"

Add new photographs to your family album by learning a few basic search techniques. A single photo can connect you to new genealogical data and a network of information.

 

3:30-4:30 p.m. "Eight Steps to Preserving Your Family Photographs"

Photo preservation basics from storage to labeling and everything in-between. Each step includes low-cost solutions that won’t bust your budget.

 

Reserve your spot by calling 260-421-1225 or sending us an email.

 

Maureen is also available for private, paid Consultations on Friday, October 23, 2015, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. You must pre-register for these Consultations at her special event rate through her Eventbrite site.