December 2006

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Fort Wayne Library No. 34, December 31, 2006

In this issue:

A New Year's Great Project and Hugh Promise

Military Periodicals

Index to Damages in New Jersey by the British and Americans, 1776 to 1782

Countdown to Conference 2007

Preservation Tip of the Month

Area Calendar of Events

ACPL Librarians on Tour

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Queries for the Department

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A New Year's Great Project and Huge Promise by Curt B. Witcher

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In just a few moments, a new year will begin. I hope it is one of the very best for you, and that your genealogical pursuits are successful beyond compare. It certainly will be a year of great opportunities for advancing one's family history research. I encourage you to take advantage of those opportunities. Key among outstanding opportunities will be researching in the new genealogical research facility at 900 Library Plaza in Fort Wayne, Indiana and an outstanding Federation of Genealogical Societies' conference in August of 2007. It will truly be an amazing year--make it your amazing year! This past Tuesday, December 26th, teams of staff from the Genealogy Center and around the library as well as temporary employees began the challenging but exciting move of the immense Genealogy Center collection. Volunteers from the Allen County Genealogical Society joined the activities on Thursday, taking almost full responsibility for packing and loading the entire microtext collection. By week's end, nearly one half of the collection was en route to its new home. By the end of this coming week--in just eight working days(!)-- most all of the Genealogy Center collection will be packed and on the move. The next couple of weeks will be spent unpacking and organizing the collection as well as moving the rest of the library. In addition to enhanced, updated, and enlarged facilities, it has been another great year for making more data available online. The Materials Handling Unit of the Genealogy Center added informational content to several thousand bibliographic records--making our collection's online catalog more useful for those researchers who focus on family names and geographic locations in their searching. The Genealogy Center website now has more than 1.1 million searchable Allen County, Indiana records and tens of thousands of more records for other areas around the country. The latest December 2006 updates are listed below. The online file “Allen County, Indiana Marriage Records Index,” covering the early 1990s to October of this year, has been updated with more than 2,700 new records. Indices and images for ten more Virginia cemeteries have been added, including an entirely new section of six Highland County cemeteries. The surname file was updated to include the entries of those customers of the Genealogy Center who input information in the last quarter of this year. The South Side High School (Fort Wayne, IN) yearbook index was enhanced with more than forty-eight thousand additional records. More Allen County, IN records are scheduled to be added in January. Also scheduled for January--the 27th--is the library's Grand Opening. It will be an extraordinary day marking the beginning of an extraordinary new era in the Genealogy Center. You won't want to miss the celebration on the 27th -- or the new programs, collections, and services of the Center throughout the New Year!

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Military Periodicals by Elaine M. Kuhn

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One valuable but often overlooked segment of the Genealogy Center's collection is its many military periodicals. Researchers who have ancestors or a relative who served in the military at some point may find a wealth of information within these publications. Some of the military periodicals held in the Genealogy Center are of a general interest type. Titles such as "MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History" (call no. 929.06 M5795), "Military Collector & Historian" (call no. 973.001 Aa1mch) cover myriad subjects related to military service and culture. Other publications are general in nature but focus on one particular war such as "Civil War Times Illustrated" (call no. 973.705 C499) and "North & South" (call no. 973.74 Aa1nor). The Genealogy Center also owns periodicals that cater to military-related hobbies. Two of the more popular publications of this sort are "Citizens' Companion" (call no. 973.3406 C52) and "Camp Chase Gazette" (call no. 973.3406 C15), both of which focus on Civil War reenacting. The Genealogy Center’s collection also includes military periodicals of a scholarly nature. Articles in these types of publications are usually written by academic experts in their various fields. These scholarly titles include “Military History of the West” (call no. 976.4 M572) from the University of North Texas, "Journal of America's Military Past" (call no. 973.001 Aa1cow), "Journal of Military History" (call no. 973.001 Aa1jo) and "Civil War History" (call no. 973.705 C4992) from the Kent State University Press. Researchers will find military periodicals in the collection that highlight one particular fighting unit or branch of military service. Among the titles of this sort are "Fighting 36th Historical Quarterly" (call no. 973.001 Aa1fig), "Blue Devil" (call no. 940.5410 Aa1dea), and "Ex-CBI Roundup" (call no. 940.5410 Aa1chn). Other specialized publications include "Fortitudine" (call no. 973.001 Aa1mac) published by the Marine Corps Historical Program, "Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute" (call no. 973.001 Aa1navi), "Cavalry Journal" (call no. 929.11 Un3416c) published by the U.S. Cavalry Association, and "Jewish Veteran" (call no. 973.001 Aa1jw) from the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America. Periodicals focused on international military topics are also available. “Irish Sword” (call no. 941.5 Ir477) is published by the Military History Society of Ireland. "Regiment" (call no. 942.0005 R263) is a full-color magazine covering British military units, dress and weaponry. Another title of British military studies is the "Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research" (call no. 942.006 So13j). One military publication devotes itself entirely to photography. Appropriately titled, "Military Images" (call no. 973.001 Aa1mm) this periodical documents 19th century U.S. soldiers and sailors in photographs. Articles in this publication can cover one particular soldier or an entire regiment. Frequently the photographs that accompany the articles are culled from private collections, meaning that readers might not see these images anywhere else. Readers will also find articles about uniforms and insignia, the costumes of wives and sweethearts, and the various weapons soldiers carried into battle. Another popular topic in the magazine is how readers can identify fake photographs. The collection also contains a number of military hereditary or lineage society publications. These types of periodicals include "American Spirit" (call no. 973.3406 D2ayd) published by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, "Cincinnati Fourteen" (call no. 973.3406 S5ac) from the Society of the Cincinnati, "Mexican War Journal" (call no. 973.6241 Aa1mwr) from the Descendants of Mexican War Veterans, and "UDC Magazine" (call no. 973.7406 Un3mah) published by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Keep in mind that many of the publications mentioned above are indexed in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), a part of Heritage Quest Online, which is one of the many electronic resources available through the Allen County Public Library's computers. Feel free to try any number of word and category searches in PERSI for to identify military articles. For example, from the "Places" section of PERSI, you can search in Ohio with the keyword "14th" and the record type "Military Records" to find articles about the 14th Ohio Regiment. In the "People" section of PERSI, you can enter the surname "Grant" and the keyword "CW" to get a list of articles about Ulysses S. Grant and the Civil War.

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Index to Damages in New Jersey by the British and Americans, 1776 to 1782 by John D. Beatty

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Genealogists researching the Revolutionary War period focus all too often on military service and pension records, failing to realize that the war generated a variety of other records of historical and genealogical value, including claims made by civilians for damages. New Jersey, a major battleground state, kept a record of the claims of its pro-American civilians who lost property either to the British army, to loyalists, or to the revolutionary cause. The original record volumes in the New Jersey State Archives, now available on three microfilm rolls at ACPL, offer a rich account of life during the revolutionary period. The first roll contains a typescript index of claimants, arranged alphabetically. After each name is a column listing the county and specific place of residence (usually a town or township), a column with an “A” or “B”, indicating whether the damages were caused by the Americans or the British, the number of the claim, and a final column (only occasionally filled out), listing the person’s occupation or other remarks. The remaining two rolls consist of the original handwritten volumes containing inventories of items lost or stolen, as well as, for some counties, depositions of neighbors corroborating the claims, though these names are not in the index. The first of these two rolls is comprised of Franklin and Saddle River townships of Bergen County, as well as Burlington, Middlesex, and Somerset counties. The second contains Passaic and Essex counties (including the city of Newark), additional parts of Bergen, Burlington, and Somerset counties, and Morris County. The arrangement of each volume varies: some have page numbers, while others are arranged by claim number. It is sometimes difficult to determine what county is being examined as some volumes have nothing written on their title pages. Other volumes have tabs listing specific townships that help identify various sections. Follow the contents as listed in our microtext catalog. The information in these volumes is well worth any challenges faced in using them. For example, in Somerset County, one finds: “Inventory of Goods and Chattels of Elizabeth Covenhoven, now but when plundered was Elizabeth Probasco, widow of Stoffel Probasco, dec’d, taken and destroyed by the British army and their adherents in the months of January and June 1777.” The inventory that follows includes “1 negro man aged 30 years” valued at £90, as well as six milch cows, a field of wheat containing 20 acres, 1 hog, assorted pewter platters and plates, a brass kettle, and a tea kettle. In addition to information establishing a person at a particular location, these inventories offer incidental history about the contents of houses and farms, making them uniquely valuable for researching New Jersey during this time period.

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Countdown to Conference 2007! by Elaine M. Kuhn

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Have you noticed how each year seems to pass by faster than the one before? Well, 2006 was no different. The year has come and gone in a flash, and here we are at the advent of a brand new year. What better time to think about the exciting things that will happen in 2007! For starters, the Great Move to 900 Library Plaza has begun. Genealogy Center staff members are hard at work moving the second largest collection of family history materials in North America back to its greatly-expanded home. The grand re-opening is scheduled for January 27th. Make plans to come and visit us soon! Along with the Genealogy Center’s return to its home is the FGS/ACPL 2007 Conference that will take place on August 15th – 18th, 2007. There will be many fascinating presentations, hours of research time in the Genealogy Center, dozens of vendors with products designed to enhance your genealogy research and numerous opportunities to connect with other researchers, all packed into four days. Please remember to reserve those days in August on your calendar and frankly, it’s not too soon to make those airline and hotel reservations. Check out the Fort Wayne International Airport website at http://www.fwairport.com for airline information and the Fort Wayne / Allen County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau website at http://www.visitfortwayne.com for lodging information. For more information about the conference itself, you can download the brochure at http://www.acpl.info/genealogy/FGS07AnnouncementFlyer%20FinalWeb.pdf . Here’s to a happy and fruitful 2007!

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Preservation Tip of the Month

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In spite of what many believe, airtight plastic containers and plastic bags meant for food storage are not suitable for the storage of important family documents, papers and letters, and other keepsakes. Many of these containers and bags are not inert, with chemical reactions taking place within them that can damage their contents. This tip came from a website entitled "Top 10 Preservation Tips" and may be worth your while to check out.  

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AREA CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana (ACGSI) Refreshments at 6:30, meeting at 7:00. Questions: contact Katie Bloom kathrynabloom@verizon.net Wednesday, January 10, 2007, Aboite branch: Marge Graham will share methods for using deeds in your research. Computer Users Group Questions? Contact Marge Graham, gramar57@aol.com or 672-2585. January 17, 2007, Aboite branch, ACPL, 5630 Coventry Lane, 7 p.m. Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) "First Wednesday" program is suspended for January of 2007 during the Genealogy Center's major move to its newly expanded location at 900 Library Plaza. Look for them on February 7, 2007 in the new department from 9A – 7pm. Expert help from members of the DAR in becoming a member of that organization

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ACPL LIBRARIANS ON TOUR

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Curt Witcher January 20, 2007 -- Indiana African American Genealogy Group, 1P to 3P, Indiana State Library, Major Renovations and African American Resources at the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center.

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DRIVING DIRECTIONS TO THE LIBRARY

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Wondering how to get to the library? Our exciting transition location is 200 E. Berry, Fort Wayne, Indiana. We will be at this location until late 2006. We would enjoy having you visit the Genealogy Department. To get directions from your exact location to 200 E. Berry, Fort Wayne, Indiana, visit this link at MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&countryid=250&addtohistory=&searc htab=address&searchtype=address&address=200+E+Berry+St&city=Fort+Wayne&state=IN &zipcode=46802-2706&search=++Search++&finditform=1 From the South Exit Interstate 69 at exit 102. Drive east on Jefferson Blvd. into downtown. Turn left on Barr Street to Berry Street. The library is located on the corner of Berry and Barr Streets. From the North Exit Interstate 69 at exit 112. Drive south on Coldwater Road, which merges into Clinton Street. Continue south on Clinton, the library will be on your left when you cross Berry Street. From the West Using US 30: Drive into town on US 30. US 30 turns into Goshen Road. Coming up to an angled street (State Street.) make an angled left turn. Turn right on Wells Street. Go south on Wells to Wayne Street. Left on Wayne Street. When you cross Clinton, the library will be on your left on Wayne Street. Using US 24: After crossing under Interstate 69, follow the same directions as from the South. From the East Follow US 30/then 930 into and through New Haven, under an overpass into downtown Fort Wayne. You will be on Washington Blvd. when you get into downtown. Turn right on Barr Street. Turn left on Berry Street. The library is on your left on Berry Street.

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PARKING AT THE LIBRARY

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Lot in front of the library, east side of the lot. Available for short-term library parking. Limited to one hour. There are handicapped parking spots near the door. Tippman Parking Garage Clinton and Wayne Streets. Across from the library, however the skybridge is NOT accessible. Hourly parking, $1.25 per hour up to a maximum of $5.00 per day. Park Place Lot Covered parking on Barr Street at Main Street. This lot is one block away from the library. Hourly parking Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm. Street (metered) parking on Wayne Street and Berry Street. On the street you plug the meters 8am – 5pm, weekdays only. It is free to park on the street after 5pm and on the weekends. Visitor center/Grand Wayne center Covered parking at Washington and Clinton Streets. This is the Hilton Hotel parking lot that also serves as a day parking garage. For hourly parking, 7am – 11 pm, charges are .50 for the first 45 minutes, then $1.00 per hour. There is a flat $2.00 fee between 5pm and 11pm.

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GENEALOGY DEPARTMENT QUERIES

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The Historical Genealogy Department hopes you find this newsletter interesting. Thank you for subscribing. We cannot, however, answer personal research emails written to the e-zine address. The department houses a Research Center that makes photocopies and conducts research for a fee. If you have a general question about our collection, or are interested in the Research Center, please telephone the library and speak to a librarian who will be glad to answer your general questions or send you a research center form. Our telephone number is 260-421- 1225. If you’d like to email a general information question about the department, please email: Genealogy@ACPL.Info.

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PUBLISHING NOTE:

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This electronic newsletter is published by the Allen County Public Library's Historical Genealogy Department, and is intended to enlighten readers about genealogical research methods as well as inform them about the vast resources of the Allen County Public Library. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. All precautions have been made to avoid errors. However, the publisher does not assume any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, no matter the cause. To subscribe to Genealogy Gems, simply use your browser to go to the website: www.FriendsOfAllenCounty.org. Scroll down toward the bottom of the first screen where it says, "Enter Your Email Address to Subscribe to "Genealogy Gems." Enter your email address in the yellow box and click on "Subscribe." You will be notified with a confirmation email. If you do not want to receive this e-zine, please follow the link at the very bottom of the issue of GenealogyGems you just received or send an email to kspears@acpl.lib.in.us with "unsubscribe e-zine" in the subject line. Curt Witcher, editor pro-tem