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We have some new family resources available for you to use!

 

We have Documentation for Nancy Kerr/Carr (1809 to after 1838), donated by Curtis L. Older. Nancy was born in Ohio, migrating with her parents to Indiana where she married Thomas Gouty. She was the mother of Elias B. Gouty (1833-1915) and she died before 1840. This material provides information on her birth and married family, court cases and references to prove her lineage, and an SAR application by Curtis Lynn Older. This is an excellently researched proof document!

 

Pragoff Progenitors: Rogers Line, Lewis Extensions, compiled by Eleanor Trapnell Kloman Wallace, deals extensively with the Rogers family of Virginia and Kentucky, adding to her works that deal with other Pragoff progenitors, including the Gorin and Franklin families.

 

The Robert Laurie Lamont Bible includes both images and transcriptions of the Robert Laurie Lamont-Susanna Aikins family covering 1835 to 1989, from Scotland to Iowa.

 

And the Tremper Family Bible also includes images and a transcription of the Allan Tremper-Martha Bell Hilts family from 1832 to 1920 in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Thanks to the donors for contributing these great resources!

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 on Wednesday, April 13th, and Tuesday, April 19th, both 2 PM to 4PM. Call 260-421-1225 or send an email requesting a Consultation. You will be asked to provide basic information concerning the nature of your quandary and 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!

The Genealogy Center, like the rest of the Allen County Public Library facilities, will be closed on Sunday, March 27, 2016, for Easter. We will be open our regular hours, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 26th.

The Indiana Genealogical Society’s annual conference will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2016 at the Allen County Public Library.  The two featured speakers this year are Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG, and Jen Baldwin.  Jen Baldwin’s sessions are being sponsored by the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana and the Doug and Joni Lehman Charitable Foundation.  Check out the Indiana Genealogical Society page for more information on the speakers, full schedule, and instructions on how to register for this wonderful conference.  

List of sessions offered:
•    Session A: Miracles, Mysteries & Mayhem: Online Family Trees - Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG
•    Session B: Being More Than Social on Social Media - Jen Baldwin
•    Session C: The Art of Negative Space-Research: Women - Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG
•    Session D: Paperless Genealogy: Eliminating The Binders, File Cabinets and Post-It Notes - Jen Baldwin
•    Session E: You're Not In Kansas Anymore: Essential Resources for Urban-Area Research - Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG
•    Session F: Preserving Your Personal Archives - Jen Baldwin
•    Session G: Bringing Life to Our Ancestors: Manuscript Collections - Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, CG
•    Session H: Go Back to School: Utilizing University Resources - Jen Baldwin

 We’ve added, and added to, a couple of Indiana free databases recently!

The years of 1917-1919 and 2014 have been added to “Obituaries from the Sullivan Daily Times and the Sullivan Union, Sullivan County, Indiana,” compiled by Donna K. Adams, Paula Jewell, and Mark Brown of the Sullivan County Public Library Genealogy/Local History Department, who have generously shared this index with us. To use this collection, one can select the year of death, then locate the obituary by the first letter of the last name.

We have the 1920 booklet of the Constitution and Bylaws of the Kenner Rebekah Lodge, IOOF, for DeKalb County, which lists duties and responsibilities of all officers.
 
Finally, we have the Index to Springfield Township: A History (Franklin County, IN). We have Springfield Township: A History in our collection under call number GC 977.201 F85dua, and this index, compiled by Karen Coffinbarger of the Brookville Library, for the publication by Don Dunaway, will make use easier for all who wish to use it.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to these databases!

We have added three new items to Our Military Heritage recently!

From the Civil War, we have the military records of James Bigelow, 8th and 11th Connecticut. This packet includes all types of forms and certificates from his induction into the 8th Connecticut to his discharge, and includes information on his service as an assistant surgeon, his Master Mason certificate and his widow’s affidavit. We also have “Roster of the Eighth Regiment Conn. Vols. 1861-1865,” published in 1908. It includes names of all members, by company, who attended a reunion that year, including Dr. James Bigelow of Elkhart, Indiana.
 
The other item is a clipping from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, published in about December 1988, concerning the sad fate of World War II veteran Roland Boyle. Local boy Roland served in the Civilian Conservation Corps before joining the army in 1940, serving until the end of the war. Back in Fort Wayne, he had difficulty adapting to civilian life and eventually left his parents and siblings for a rootless existence in the west. He died in 1987 and was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix, although his family was not aware of his death for a year. This article is illustrative of the difficulties all soldiers faced when returning from war.

Our Allen County Resources have grown recently with additions to a couple of pre-existing databases and a couple of new sources as well.

We have City of Fort Wayne Water Works, 1931-1981, with a history of the Water Works and the St. Joseph Pumping Station, with Three Rivers Filtration Plant Functions, a nifty flow diagram and some great photographs!
 
Speaking of great photos, we have the Embassy Theatre Commemorative Photographs, 1928-1978, with a history of the theater and wonderful photos of the Embassy and of its incarnation as the Emboyd Theatre.
 
We also have a copy of the Washington Township (Allen County, IN) School yearbook, “The Wildcat” for 1957-1958. “The Wildcat” includes individual photos for each student and teacher from kindergarten to eighth grade, and group photos for sports, yearbook staff, etc. Since this belonged to a student, there are even a few autographs.
 
Additions to the Lindenwood Cemetery Index for 2015 have been added. Lindenwood is one of the oldest and largest cemeteries in Allen County and is on the National Register.
2015 Addition to Lindenwood burials

Finally, 62 new booklets and documents comprising more than 1400 images have been added to the General Electric Collection in the Elex section. As one of Fort Wayne’s largest employers in the 20th century, this collection is a tremendous addition to our local history.

Late this morning, The Genealogy Center opened its two repurposed areas! We invite you to take advantage of these spaces.
 
The Life Stories Center is very exciting for us. Everyone has a story. Most of us have many stories, and these stories not only tell the history of people, but also of the community in which they lived. Stories can include military reminiscences; childhood memories; workplace recollections; accounts of church, political or club activities; and immigration and first generation sagas, just to name a few. Activities at the Life Stories Center will include mentoring potential interviewers, making audio recording equipment available, and archiving the recordings.
 
The Discovery Center will provide space for interest group discussions, genealogy and local history group meetings, pop-up classes for visiting groups, as well as The Genealogy Center’s events and classes. The two ceiling-mounted computer projectors can be used in tandem or separately, with the entire audiovisual set-up having the ability to use laptops, netbooks, smart devices, DVDs, and Blu-ray.
 
To schedule use of the Discovery Center or Life Stories Center, or for more information, contact the Genealogy Center at 421-1225, email Genealogy@ACPL.Info.

This year’s theme for our annual March Madness is “Brick Walls: Overcoming Barriers in Your Genealogical Research.” Rebound with your research the first week of March as The Genealogy Center gives you an assist with these classes in our new Discovery Center. Classes include:

Sunday, March 6, 2016, 1:00 p.m., Discovery Center
“Common Sense Problem Solving: Two Case Studies”
Presenter: Delia Bourne

Monday, March 7, 2016, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center
“Forenames: First and Foremost—First Names, Nick Names, Called Names, Initials, and Clues to Further Your Research”
Presenter: Michael Clegg

Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center
"Breaking Through the Brick Wall: 14 Steps for Re-thinking and Solving Genealogical Problems”
Presenter: John Beatty

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
ACGSI Meeting “Gaining Insight into a Life with School Research”
Presenter: Adam Barrone

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center
“Breaking Through the Brick Wall”
Presenter: Melissa Tennant

Friday, March 11, 2016, 10 a.m., Discovery Center
“Surnames: Last, but Not Least—Surnames and Clues to Further Your Research”
Presenter: Michael Clegg

Saturday, March 12, 2016, 10 a.m., Discovery Center
“Working with a Single Record”
Presenter: Cynthia Theusch   

For individual class descriptions, see the brochure. To register for any of these free events, call 260-421-1225 or send an email. Score points for your research and join us!

Do you live in Indiana? Have you ever resided in Indiana? Do you have family who once made Indiana their home? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you know someone who is a Hoosier.

In celebration of the state’s bicentennial, The Genealogy Center invites Hoosiers to contribute images of “life lived in the small places” as that is what makes, and has made, Indiana great. We are interested in old and new images of daily life and the people of Indiana that showcase Hoosier life. These can include children at play, people at work, people hanging out, sporting events, homes and buildings, and so much more.

The Genealogy Center will collect Who’s a Hoosier? images from December 11, 2015 through December 11, 2016 in honor of Indiana’s 200 years of statehood.

To show your Hoosier pride, please contribute a picture along with a description of the image, detailing Who and What Makes Indiana Great!

Upload pictures at Who's a Hoosier
Email pictures to Genealogy@ACPL.Info
Upload pictures to Facebook 
Instagram @ GenealogyCenter

Join us Thursday, March 3 at 11:40 a.m. for the Grand Opening of our renovated spaces! We have re-purposed half of our Microtext Reading Room into the Discovery Center, a place for classes, demonstrations, meetings, groups and more. Come see our new space and follow this blog as we make plans!

At the same time, our new Life Stories center will officially open! This is a space for you to interview family members, friends, and community members, to record their memories before they are lost. Contact us for more information. Remember, everybody has a story!

Hoosiers like to think that our greatest president derived his greatness from his youth growing up in Indiana. In fact, Abraham Lincoln rejected many of the values of 19th-century Indiana. Indiana was a Democratic state; Lincoln was a Whig. Indiana was a black law state, with legal discriminations against African Americans; Lincoln's policies as president would end the black laws. Lincoln left Indiana at age 21 and like many a youth, he choose a path for his adult life that differed from his childhood.  Join us on Sunday, February 28, 2 pm, in the Allen County Public Library’s Meeting Room A as Professor Nicole Etcheson, Alexander M. Bracken Professor of History at Ball State University, speaks on "Lincoln as a Hoosier: Race, Politics and the Sixteenth President."  Sponsored by the Friends of the Allen County Public Library.

For more information see The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection page.

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 on Tuesday, March 15th, and Wednesday March 23rd, both 2 PM to 4PM. Call 260-421-1225 or send an email requesting a Consultation. You will be asked to provide basic information concerning the nature of your quandary and 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!

By: Allison

A family member was recently cleaning out her storage when she found a family tree handwritten by my grandfather.  The single piece of paper was filled with my grandfather’s notes and the family tree sprawled across the page.  I was delighted to be given this lovely piece of family history because it really made me feel like I was continuing down a path that my grandfather began years ago. 

After figuring out how he organized the family tree on the page, I began checking his information against what I already had in my family tree.  Materials such as this family tree are invaluable to genealogy research; however, they must be taken with a grain of salt.  My grandfather was a very intelligent man but even he could make mistakes.  I found a few discrepancies and used the original documents to determine which research was accurate.

The best piece of information on the page was the married name of my grandfather’s aunt.  She has been a brick wall for me for years.  She married sometime after the 1880 Census and I lost her trail.  According to my grandfather’s note next to her name, she was the black sheep of the family.  I soon discovered that she had been married at least twice and her last husband was about twenty years younger than her.  Armed with this new information, I was able to flesh out my family tree a bit more. 

The discovery of this forgotten family tree is a reminder that you never know what records other members of your family have in their possession.  It is a good idea to frequently remind both close and distant relatives that you are always looking for more information to expand your family tree.

We invite you to capture a day in Allen County, Indiana! On Sunday, February 14, 2016, take pictures of anything and everything that is happening in our county in that twenty-four hour time period, and send them to us! What is your view of Allen County that day?  These pictures are not limited to marquee events. We want to capture what is going on throughout the entire community, so pictures can be of people at work, children at play, sporting events, weather and blooming flowers, homes and buildings, traffic scenes, hikers and bikers, and people just hanging out. Include a description you would like put with the picture. for more information, see the brochure.

Email pictures to Genealogy@ACPL.Info
Twitter #DayinAllenCo2016
Upload pictures at www.Facebook.com/GenealogyCenter
Instagram @GenealogyCenter

A few new Family Resources have appeared on our Free Databases lately!

Genealogical Research of Tyler Calhoun, Jr., Ida Calhoun Burritt, and Ida Calhoun Scott begins with Hugh Calhoun, born at sea in route to the United States in 1789. He and his family lived in York County, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Ohio, and Wabash County, Indiana and continues through seventeen generations with approximately two thousand individuals.

The William Adelbert Craker Diaries covers family and neighbors in Leelanau County, Michigan from 1919 to 1952, concentrating on daily activities and neighbors’ lives and deaths.
 
Our Parks Family in America: Joseph and Ruth Parks of East Tennessee and Their Descendants is available through the generosity of Janet Bliss Parks, and includes photos, an every name index as well as a general index of churches, cemeteries, companies, geographic places and  more.
 
Rhodes Family History was generously donated by Robin Rhodes and includes Rhodes, Ayres, Weiss, Patterson, McDuffie, Stallard, Williams, Teeter, Robinson Nellans, Hibray, Clifton, Percell, Weaver, Rutledge, Richards families. One can read through the various sections or do a search by first or last name, birth, christening, death or burial place, or spouse’s name.
 
Treece and Related Families includes 40 years of research by Mary Lou Treece Cless special emphasis on the Treece family. It also concentrates on the surnames Place, Hicks, Coleman, French, Thrapp, Patee, Pattee, Riggenbach, and Blunier.

Lastly is an update to Michael Clegg’s Kincaid Family File. We thank all of these researchers and authors for their contributions.

We have a number of new records on Our Military Heritage to share with you.

Dennis McClurg has transcribed the Civil War letters of Sgt. Isaac McFadden. McFadden was born in 1834 in Ohio, but moved with his family to Wabash County, Indiana, where he attended school with Samuel Ferguson and his sister, Martha. Isaac was living in St. Louis and courting Martha through the mail, though she was also interested in other young men, when Isaac and Samuel joined the 101st Indiana Infantry. Isaac was with Samuel when the latter died of disease in 1863. A few months later, Isaac died at Chickamauga and is buried in Chattanooga. During this time, the letters Isaac sent to Martha were detailed, illustrating a soldier’s life and mentions mutual acquaintances. This database includes both scans of the original letters and transcriptions for Isaac’s letters to Martha and others. Thanks to Dennis McClurg for this fabulous source.
 
Born in Ireland in 1873, Michael Joseph O’Brien joined his brother in America in 1896, and joined the Ninth U.S. Infantry later that same year. He served in the Spanish American War in Cuba, the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and later in the Texas-Mexican border conflict. He left the Ninth to become a first lieutenant during World War I. Michael Joseph O'Brien of Bartoose, Ireland and Sackets Harbor, New York: an Irish Immigrant's Odyssey tells Michael’s story and was donated to us by the author Stephan P. Clarke, who had generously allowed us to post it.
 
Stephen Clarke has also allowed us to post his work about his uncle, Paul S. Grieb with the 709th Tank Battalion in World War II. This item includes a biography of Paul Grieb, along with a calendar of movements of the 709th Tank Battalion and its activities, notes about the Battle of the Huertgen Forest, and other documents Grieb collected during the war.
 
We Too Were There: Company C, 353rd Infantry is a company history written by Sgt. Ralph Brach and illustrated by Captain Clarence Hughes. It is a history of the company written shortly after the war and includes memorial and awards list and a directory of all of the unit members.

We also have the autobiographical work The Unique Navy Career of Sheldon H. Hine, Lt. Comdr., U.S.N.R. 1942-1948. This Fort Wayne resident worked with the Special Devices Division of the Bureau of Aeronautics and his story is fascinating.World War II

Last but not least is the file that contains George V. Myers’ World War II discharge papers and oral interview. Myers, of Michigan, served in the 353rd Infantry and served in Europe and Africa as a military Policeman. Take a bit of time and have a listen!

by Allison

Whether you are a novice or an expert, your genealogy start-story is one to be proud of and to share.  As the newest librarian on the ACPL Genealogy Center staff, I would like to introduce myself by sharing my own start-story.  

Like many youngsters, I often went to pay my respects at the cemetery with my family.  Perhaps unlike most people, my maternal grandmother would take me for hours just to wander the local cemetery in Plymouth, Indiana, the town where my mother was raised.  She wanted to show me the names, dates, and symbols.  While she had no interest in genealogy, she instilled a love of cemeteries in me at a very young age. They are places to love, respect, learn, and be at peace.  While death is never a happy subject, having the ability to retain a connection with deceased friends and family is a good thing.  My parents were not as enthralled with cemeteries as my grandmother and I, but they would go and clean out the family plot in the Catholic Cemetery of Fort Wayne and put fresh silk flowers out every season.  

At age sixteen and I went to the cemetery with my parents and other relatives to perform the annual change of the silk flowers.  Since there were more than enough people helping with the family plot, I began to wander through the section to look at the different stones.  I was astonished when I discovered a grave stone with my father’s name on it!  My father, Edward, was named after his grandfather, Edward.  My father is alive and well while his grandfather had been buried since 1955.  I had no idea who the third Edward could have been.  After my initial shock, I realized that the dates were off.  This Edward was only 9 years old when he passed away!  He was also born almost twenty years after my great-grandfather.  Something did not add up.  

I went back to the family plot and asked my family members if they knew anything about it.  They were all surprised and went back to the grave to see for themselves.  None of them had any idea who the child was and how he was related to our family.  That was the day I became a novice genealogist.  I wanted to know everything about this child and why he wasn’t in our family plot if he was a relative.  Unfortunately, my paternal grandparents were deceased by this time.  I could not ask them any questions.  I had to turn to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center for help.

I still remember walking into the library and being overwhelmed.  I had no idea where to start.  Luckily for me, there was a librarian at the desk who was willing to assist me in my beginning search.  The interesting thing was that I did not want to start with me, which is the recommended way to begin genealogy.  I was bound and determined to figure out who the child with my father’s name was and how he was related to us.  Thankfully, the librarian helped me find information on the child’s death.  This led me to his parents’ names.  The grand mystery was solved.  The third Edward was the nephew of my great-grandfather with the same name.  His brother honored him by naming his son after him.  It was easy to link the brother to my family since he died the same year as the child and is buried in our family plot.  It was also interesting to discover that the child was buried next to his mother who died long after the child.  In fact, she remarried and had a long life before finally settling next to her little boy.  

While I was able to solve the family mystery, it opened up a door of many more mysteries.  Why did my great-grandfather’s brother die so young?  Who were these family members?  What did they do?  What other family members can I find?  The simple family mystery in a cemetery many years ago has led me to spending over half of my life doing genealogy research.  I was hooked!  

What is your genealogy start-story?  Have you shared it with your family?  Sometimes learning about the family mysteries and skeletons in the closet are the best ways to pique someone’s interest in learning more about genealogy.  I look forward to working with all of you!

(We welcome Allison to The Genealogy Center! Read more about her and the rest of the public service staff.)

We invite you to capture a day in Allen County, Indiana! On Sunday, February 14, 2016, take pictures of anything and everything that is happening in our county in that twenty-four hour time period, and send them to us! What is your view of Allen County that day?  These pictures are not limited to marquee events. We want to capture what is going on throughout the entire community, so pictures can be of people at work, children at play, sporting events, weather and blooming flowers, homes and buildings, traffic scenes, hikers and bikers, and people just hanging out. Include a description you would like put with the picture. for more information, see the brochure.

Email pictures to Genealogy@ACPL.Info
Twitter #DayinAllenCo2016
Upload pictures at www.Facebook.com/GenealogyCenter
Instagram @GenealogyCenter

A number of obituary and other point of death records have been added to our Free Databases recently.

One of our most popular databases is our Fort Wayne and Allen County Area Obituary Index, and local volunteer John Lawrence has filled in a number of gaps in that database by reviewing 19th and early 20th century newspapers and adding a total of 18,951 obituaries recently! One may search the database by first or last name (exact, Soundex and fuzzy search) or by date.

The Daviess County, Indiana Obituary Index has 2013 and 2014 entries added by Kay Hedrick, bringing the run from 1984 to 2014. This index also includes many entries from Martin, Pike and Knox Counties, as well as Daviess.

And the Genealogy Tracers African American Homegoing Programs continue to expand, now containing 4048 memorials with 19, 761 images, thanks to the Genealogy Tracers of Cleveland, Ohio, whose members are Alfreda Spratlen Barnes, Clancy Ware-Simpson, David Simpson, Carmine Vaughn Stewart.

Thanks to everyone for their time and effort! These databases would not exist without them!