December 2016

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Fort Wayne Library No. 154, December 31, 2016

In this issue:

Doing New in the New Year

Finding Gretna Green Marriages

Online Sources for Boundary Changes

Technology Tip of the Month--Relationships and Sub-reports, Part III

Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Sharing Memories and Preserving History through Scrapbooking

PERSI Gems

History Tidbits: New Year’s Day

DNA and Genealogy Interest Group

Keep Warm with WinterTech

February is Black History Month

Keep up with Upcoming Events

Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

Area Calendar of Events

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Queries for The Genealogy Center

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Doing New in the New Year by Curt B. Witcher

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Another New Year dawns. Some feel compelled to do resolutions, some do themes, some do pacts, some create lists--most want to achieve something currently just out of reach or something that passed by in the days of yesteryear. There is typically some longing or yearning pushing or pulling us in one direction or another. Surrounding what I typically call the noise of New Year’s is the near expectation that collectively we will fail with our resolutions, themes, lists, and pacts early on, and resolve to have at it again in roughly another year. While I am not one who is a fan of making declarations of change on or in advance of New Year’s Day, I believe we are more prone to failure than success because we don’t focus enough on the “new” in New Years. Somehow we expect consequential change when we’re willing to do nothing new. No new input necessarily implies no new output. How does change happen that way? Clearly it doesn’t. If all the things we are going to do relative to our family history endeavors don’t represent or offer anything new, we’re going to enjoy the same level of success and satisfaction that we always have. So if you’re okay with that, great. However, if you’re tired of the same, or the same really isn’t working for you, then try something truly new. Indeed in 2017, I’d like to challenge us to focus on “new.” Nope, that doesn’t mean throwing out all the tried and true methods and sources; it simply means literally try something new. Something new could be adding to the list of websites you visit to search for data; something new could be exploring a different aspect or feature of your favorite websites; something new could be adding a new strategy you’ve discovered on a blog, in a webinar, or at a conference. In this amazingly connected world where technology continues to open and enhance new frontiers, there is “new” all around us. Writing every day about your life and the research discoveries you are making or have made about your family is such a good thing--creating opportunities to form the habit of documenting the details of our ancestry. Many start a new year with the goal of writing every day, but before January wanes, such plans become just memories. Maybe we are setting the bar too high. Just before Christmas, FamilySearch posted a pretty awesome blog: “Define Your Dash: Start Writing Your Personal History with the #52Stories Project.” https://familysearch.org/blog/en/definedash-start-writing-personal-history-52stories-project-2/ Many things caught my eye in this well done piece; however, among the most prominent for me was the call to do something every week, not every day. Hmmm, seems like that might be a more realistic approach. For some, each new year has meant some kind of commitment to start or complete a big project. “This will be the year I publish my book,” “This is the year I am going to identify and label my 5,682 family photographs,” etc., etc., etc. A new approach might be something more doable that eventually may lead to big, great things. Maybe each month we commit to compiling an extremely robust biography about just one ancestor. “Find” a thousand words and discover or create one image about this one ancestor. You may find that after just a few months of doing this you actually have advanced further toward completing a book or a new web space than if you started out trying to accomplish it all at once. I am often reminded of the very old but true saying--long journeys begin with single steps. In Indiana, we are just finishing a year of celebrating the state’s bicentennial. Every one of the ninety-two counties did at least a few things to remember and honor. Collectively we discovered again, or for the very first time, places around the state where great, every-day people made significant contributions one day at a time. In looking anew at our state’s history, there was surprise in the discovery of numerous territorial records as well as early statehood documents. We learned anew that, oh my gosh, not everything is online! As great as the information aggregators in the genealogy space are (and they really are terrific in providing access to billions upon billions of records and images!), there is still great value in going to courthouses, archives, and libraries for the huge treasure troves of data and documents that likely will not be online in our life times . . . except where we discover them, copy them, interpret them and include them in our one-story-amonth projects that we then generously share with the community through those same libraries, archives, and research repositories. Best wishes for many blessings and successes in 2017! May many new and exciting things come your way; and may you discover the best of times in embracing truly new things.

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Finding Gretna Green Marriages by Cynthia Theusch

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When searching for marriage records of English ancestors, you may want to check out records performed at Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. In 1754, it became a popular place for English residents to be married without waiting for banns to be read or obtaining formal marriage licenses. The situation resulted from an uproar in Parliament over the vast number of irregular marriages that local English clergy performed at Fleet Prison and elsewhere in England. One clergyman could perform up to 120 marriages a day (from 8 am until 8 pm). To stop these clandestine marriages, Parliament passed the Marriage Act of 1753, better known as Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, which came into effect on March 25, 1754. This act required that in order for marriages to be legal, they must be celebrated in a church or chapel after a proclamation of banns or after the couple obtained a special license. However, Scotland had no such law. A couple wishing to marry there needed only to declare themselves husband and wife in the presence of a witness in order to become wedded. The simplicity of the arrangement meant that many runaway English couples crossed the border to be married at Gretna Green. In his book, The Gretna Green Memoirs (941.4802 G834e), author Robert Elliott stated that he married 7,444 people over the course of 29 years, beginning in January 1811. Prior to his tenure, Parson Joseph Paisley performed marriages there, resigning after Elliott had married Paisley’s granddaughter. In order to determine whether your English ancestors married at Gretna Green, you will need to peruse the Gretna Green parish register, with microfilmed records at the Family History Library dating from 1730 to 1854 (film #1067963). They have not as yet been digitized. Have you ever wondered if any towns in United States were nicknamed “Gretna Green” for their simplified marriage laws? The answer is yes. The most common place today is Las Vegas, but there were other locations across the country. According to the chapter, “Thousands Vowing ‘I Do,’” in Colleen Burcar’s book, “It Happened In Michigan” (977.4 B892it), St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan, became a well-known wedding site of choice for individuals from other states. Thousands took advantage of its no-waiting period, especially residents of Chicago. On April 30, 1925, Michigan Governor Alexander Grosbeck took a huge step toward discouraging non-residents from coming to Michigan to be married. His new statute required a five-day waiting period after the license application. If you can’t find marriages of family members in the county where they lived or in surrounding counties, you may want to check out “Gretna Greens in the United States” Family Search wiki page, https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Gretna_Greens_in_the_United_States, for possible cities or counties to which they could have traveled.

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Online Sources for Boundary Changes by Allison DePrey Singleton

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This article is based off of a portion of a class given on December 14th, “Finding Maps Online”. Maps are a great source for genealogical and historical research. They can help fill in historical context by providing more details about an ancestor’s life. They can pinpoint where the ancestral home or farm was located and can help detail the immigration route an ancestor took to where he or she settled. They can become a tool in identifying photograph locations. When researching the history of a house, maps can be immensely helpful, especially when boundaries, street names, and street numbers have changed. In a variety of ways, maps can unlock important clues for different aspects of historical research. Studying changes in boundary lines over time is crucial to understanding the historical development of the United States, and within a genealogical context, determining the borders of the places where our American ancestors lived. This video shows those changes beginning in 1629 and ending in 2000: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UE9uu9fKSg. Several other useful videos exist that document the boundary changes that occurred in territories and in other countries. A simple Google search will find them for you. The Newberry Library offers a fantastic website for detailing the specific boundary changes and the years they occurred within each state and county: publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/. Use this website to determine the parent counties of the one you are researching, or in a larger context, what territories or states created the state you are studying. For example, Crawford County, Indiana, was created from Harrison, Orange, and Perry counties in 1818. Therefore, if I were researching an ancestor who lived in that area in 1817, I might find relevant records in any of those earlier counties. Crawford County also gained land from Perry County in 1827. Knowing this information could prove helpful if I were researching an ancestor who lived in Perry County prior to 1827. If he resided in the section that became part of Crawford County, I could be researching in the wrong county. These boundary maps cover every state and county in the United States. The Newberry Library also has an interactive map that will be available online in early 2017. Researchers may also find it fun to use the Newberry Library’s downloadable map files that open to Google Earth. If you have not yet used Google Earth in your research, it is highly recommended: www.google.com/earth/. The website provides both detailed satellite and street-level images of places across the United States and in many foreign countries. By using the Newberry Library’s website as an interface, you can overlay historical maps to Google Earth and compare the current landscape with the historical map. Google Earth also offers a built-in function to view a few of the historic maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection. You can use Google Earth for many different purposes; it is an indispensable tool for making comparisons from the past to the present. Another useful website for making historical comparisons is Randy Majors’s Historical U.S. County Boundary Maps: www.randymajors.com/p/maps.html. The website requires you to select a location instead of showing the map as a whole. When you choose a location, such as “Montgomery County, Kansas,” it will zoom automatically to the exact county location. You have to zoom out, using your mouse or the minus symbol, to show the state as a whole. You can then use the right and left arrows by the date to change the year you wish to view. Lastly, the FamilySearch blog highlights another great resource for county boundary maps: familysearch.org/blog/en/moving-county-boundaries/?repeat=w3tc. The blog links to a website that displays moving boundaries that will rotate through the specific boundary changes by year. You can also choose the year below the map. Most states will have separate boundary maps available, online usually through universities. You can do a simple Google search to find them using the search term “historical county boundary map (fill in a state name).” The sheer number of historical online maps showing the changing boundaries is amazing. You will be able to discover more about where your ancestors lived, where records might be located, and about the history of the area. To have all of these links sent to you via email, please enter your email address into this form: https://goo.gl/forms/ibEwx09Yw8xyKSXK2.

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Technology Tip of the Month--Relationships and Sub-reports, Part III by Kay Spears

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A quick review: Up to this point we have created two tables in one database, and we also created a relationship between those two tables. Now it’s time to put our two tables together into one form that has a Sub-report in it. Open up your database. On the Access Ribbon, go to “Create>Form Design” – click on “Form Design.” The form will open in “design view,” and your “Design Tool Tabs” will be active: They are: “Design,” “Format,” and “Arrange.” Make sure the “Property Sheet” Task Pane is open on the right. At this point we want to assign a “Record Source” to the main form. In the body of the form, located in the upper left hand corner, is a small black square. Click on it. Pick the “All” tab in your “Property Sheet,” and then select the drop-down arrow on the “Record Source” line of “Property Sheet.” The two tables you created should appear in that drop down list. You want to pick the one that will be the Master table. In my case it is the one in which I house my names and addresses. I named that table “KaysAddress.” This is the table I will select as my “Record Source.” At this time you will want to insert your fields into your form. There will be a top and bottom to this form. You want your names and addresses to be positioned in the upper portion of the form, so leave space at the bottom. You can always adjust the boxes later. Now go to the “Design Tool” tab and pick the “Text Box” tool. Place your cursor where you want your first field to be on your form and drag. You should have something which resembles a rectangle. At this time it is an “Unbound” box. You will bind it by using the “Control Source” tool. With your rectangle still selected, look at the “Property Sheet” again. In little tiny writing you should see the words “Text Box.” On the “Control Source” line of the “Property Sheet” is a dropdown list; click on that arrow. The names in this drop down list are the field names from your master table or in my case, KaysAddress table. I am going to choose “FName” for my first box. I will then do the steps all over again for each “Text Box” I put on my form. Remember when using the “Text Box” tool, a label comes along with it. You may label your text box. My intention is to have Names and Addresses listed on the top half of my form. Now for the bottom half of form. I am inserting a “Subform/Subreport” into the bottom portion of my form which will contain the information from the other table. Here is how we do that. Go back up to the Ribbon. You should still be in the design mode. As in the previous paragraph, you are going to pick a “Control Tool” from the group of Icons which are showing. You will need to scroll through the Icons using the little scroll bar on the right hand side of the group. We are looking for the control icon named “Subform/Subreport.” If you hover your cursor over the icons, a little pop-up button appears, indicating what each one of the icons is. In my version, “Subform/Subreport” is the third icon from the last icon. Choose that icon. Your cursor will once again change. Now bring your cursor to the bottom half of the form and drag. When you release the left clicker on your mouse, a “Subform Wizard” dialog box appears. Your first two options are: “Use Existing Tables and Queries” and “Use an Existing Form.” Pick “Use Existing Tables and Queries.” Click on the “Next” button. You should see a drop-down list. We have two options: “KaysAddress” (which we’ve already used on the top half of our form) and “One” (which I have created for my surname list). I’m picking the “One” table for my “Subform/Subreport.” When you pick the table “One,” your fields will be made available to you. On the left hand side is the “Available Fields” area, in the middle are arrows; on the right is the “Selected Fields” area. I only have two fields in my “One” table, they are “ID” and “Surname.” I am going to highlight both of those fields, click on my arrow, and move them into the “Selected Fields.” Click “Next.” We have more options, including: “Choose from a List” (the default option) or “Define My Own.” Leave “Choose from a List” checked. Below those options is another area, and inside it are more choices: “Show Record for Each One…,” and “None.” In this case, make sure “Show Record for Each One…” is highlighted. Click “Next.” Now it’s time to name our “Subform/Subreport.” I would suggest you name it something you haven’t used before in this database. I’m going to name mine “Surname Tracking.” Click “Finish.” Don’t get excited when your form starts animating; it only last a few seconds. When the animation is done, you should have a form that has names and address on the top and a subreport that will hold surnames on the bottom. If you haven’t already done it, save the entire form that contains the subreport. Pick a name you haven’t used before. Now that we have the SubReport, what do we do with it? What good is it and how do I use it? Can I use it to do mailings? We will look at the answers next time, and you will see what this little form can do for you. Next month: Relationships and Sub-reports, Part IV – What do I do with it?

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Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Sharing Memories and Preserving History through Scrapbooking

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"Sharing Memories and Preserving History through Scrapbooking" is a worthwhile article from April of this year. Check it out at: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/from_readers/from-readerssharing-memories-and-preserving-history-through-scrapbooking/article_1fa33a2a-fd03-11e5- 9d92-ab8813be5170.html or just Google the title.

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PERSI Gems by Adam Barrone and Michael Hudson

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Heirlooms come in many forms, but few are more precious than the items ancestors used every day: household or work tools, watches, clocks, a wedding ring or favorite piece of jewelry, eyeglasses, a hat, a wallet, or a pair of boots. Old boots don’t usually look good in a curio cabinet, but consider how well these utilitarian objects served our ancestors in their daily lives. Some, like Cousin Dora’s tall-yet-delicate Edwardian boots, served fashion as well as function. Dad’s sturdy and water-proof ice-fishing boots bore the reassuring mark ‘Made in Canada’. Uncle Meredith’s farmhouse mudroom was lined with boots. Boots are a necessity for our armed forces, first responders, construction workers, train crews, and a host of other professions. Just as empty boots in the stirrups of a riderless horse are a poignant reminder of a lost commander, an empty pair of boots can remind us of lost loved ones in the midst of the activities that were so much a part of them. How would a farmer wish to be remembered? In Sunday best or in overalls and boots? Put on your research boots and try a search in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI): http://search.findmypast.com/search/periodical-source-index Here are some of the boots we found: Dwayne Janke re Schachsteifer boots from Bessarabia, c. 1913, Alb. Bessarabian Newsletter (Seattle, WA), v.10n.3, Dec. 2006 Fashion industry favors short skirts, keeps boots higher and more expensive, 1917 Newberry County (SC) Historical and Museum Society Bulletin, Fal. 2010 French Protestant Church, orders for boots, 1857-1859, list Huguenot Families (Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland), n.6, Mar. 2002 Homer Louis Boots Randolph bio. and music career, 1927-2007, KY Hart County (KY) Historical Society Quarterly, Sum. 2007 Mona Leeson Vanek re wanting boots and tap shoes, 1942, Spokane, WA Nostalgia Magazine USA Edition (Spokane, WA), v.1n.11, Nov. 2004 Napoleon smuggles Northampton boots for army, 1800s, brief Footprints (Northamptonshire Family History Society, England), v.24n.3, Feb. 2003 Officer Clarence Vail kills alleged thief Charles Walker, who dies with boots on, 1908 Coal County (OK) Genealogical Society Quarterly Newsletter, v.14n.2, Jun. 2007 Petition in boots, Coxey's army, 1894 Pueblo (CO) Lore, v.12n.5, May 1986 President Lincoln polished his own boots, note North & South Magazine (Tollhouse, CA), v.11n.2, Dec. 2008 W. W. Murphey blacked Abraham Lincoln's boots, 1922 Farmer City (IL) Mirror, v.2n.3, Sum. 1991

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History Tidbits: New Year’s Day by Allison DePrey Singleton

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History Tidbits – New Year’s Day, by Allison DePrey Singleton While the three-part series on holiday traditions is finished, I enjoyed writing them so much I had to add another. This is the unplanned fourth part to the series: New Year’s Eve and Day traditions. How did your ancestors celebrate the holiday? Did they bring customs from the old country with them to America? Everyone awakes to a new year full of traditions. Many of us will sit down with family to watch parades and/or sporting events on television. Many will have time-honored traditional meals or dishes to bring in the New Year. Some will wait for the first guest to bring good luck to their house for the New Year. Others are slowly waking up after celebrating into the wee hours of the morning. Everyone has their own New Year’s customs based on their own family or societal traditions. For many people, New Year’s is an extension of the Christmas season. Schools and some work places have time off for the holiday season, which would begin at Christmas and last until after New Year’s. These holidays have become synonymous with family, friends, and celebrations. Where did the celebration of New Year’s begin? While the New Year had been celebrated for millennia, it was not celebrated on January 1st until the Julian calendar was established. The celebrated day for the New Year evolved into a church holiday in Medieval Europe, to make it more Christian. Pope Gregory XIII reinstated January 1st as the New Year and instituted a new calendar that rectified the length of year with the Gregorian calendar. Celebrations have evolved over the years in the United States. At the founding of our nation, many families and friends ushered in the New Year by going to church. In some religions, January 1st is the Feast of the Circumcision, and in the Catholic Church, it is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The holiday slowly became a day to spend time with family and friends. People would go visiting, complete with calling cards. It was not until the twentieth century that New Year’s Eve really overtook the holiday of New Year’s Day as being celebrated the most. It evolved from the balls and lavish parties of the previous couple of centuries on New Year’s Eve. It became the time to stay out celebrating when the clock strikes midnight. Traditions developed, including having the ball drop in New York’s Times Square, Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve, sharing a kiss at the stroke of midnight, and celebrating with a glass of champagne while singing Auld Lang Syne. On New Year’s Day, the Polar Bear Club jumps into a nearby body of water for an icy dip in the colder climates. People make New Year’s Resolutions to improve their quality of life. The first babies born in the New Year are celebrated. Families gather to watch parades such as the Rose Bowl Parade. Football games are attended or watched from afar to root for teams in the college football post-season bowl games. The Winter Classic, an ice hockey game, is played for a wide audience in person and on television. Food also plays an important role in celebrating New Year’s Day, especially in the South. A traditional New Year’s menu includes ham, black-eyed peas or Hoppin’ John, greens, sweet potatoes, and cornbread. Hoppin’ John is a beans and rice dish that is thought to bring prosperity to those eating it. While it uses beans, other dishes use lentils or peas to symbolize prosperity, all of which are supposed to represent coins. A Spanish custom that some in the United States follow involves eating grapes while the clock is striking midnight. The goal is to consume twelve before the final chime. Others eat pork as a sign of progress and fish for good luck. In some cultures cakes provide symbols of luck, and many have surprises or coins baked in them for the consumer to find. Check your family’s photographs and recipes for evidence of how they would have celebrated New Year’s Eve and Day. Perhaps they celebrated the first ball drop in New York City on the night of December 31, 1907. Maybe they had a traditional Southern New Year’s Day meal. Take a look at where your ancestors lived and what traditions existed for that area. Aveni, Anthony F. The book of the year: a brief history of our seasonal holidays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Crump, William D. Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2008. Gulevich, Tanya. Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year's Celebrations: Over 240 Alphabetically Arranged Entries Covering Christmas, New Year's, and Related Days of Observance, including Folk and Religious Customs, History, Legends, and Symbols from around the World; Supplemented by a Bibliography and Lists of Christmas Web Sites and Associations, as Well as an Index. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 2003. Miles, Clement A. Christmas customs and traditions, their history and significance. New York: Dover Publications, 1976.

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DNA and Genealogy Interest Group

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Have you done a DNA test for genealogical purposes? Do you completely understand the results you received? Do you need advice in interpreting your results? Are you interested and wonder what the best test is for you? Come to the DNA & Genealogy Interest Group Meeting on the 1st Thursday of the month from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. to share and learn from each other! The next meeting is Thursday, January 5, 2017! Come in and share!

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Keep Warm with WinterTech

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The first WinterTech event of the year will be “Using Third-Party Tools to Analyze Your DNA Results,” presented by Sara Allen on Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 2:30 p.m. in the Discovery Center. Autosomal DNA test results can be confusing! Detailed analysis and comparison will help you draw sound genealogical conclusions from the results. The testing company websites provide you with some resources to analyze your results, but more can be done with tools from third-party websites. In this session, we will cover how to use several of those websites, including Gedmatch.com and DNAgedcom.com to learn more from your DNA test results! WinterTech 2016-2017 will conclude with Melissa Tennant’s presentation of “Where Art Thou, PERSI?” on Wednesday, February 8, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. in the Discovery Center. This presentation will talk about where one can find PERSI (the Periodical Source Index), 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. Since WinterTech is on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., on the same day as the monthly meeting of the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana (ACGSI), come to WinterTech and then stay for the ACGSI program at 7:00 p.m. For more information, see our brochure at http://genealogycenter.org/docs/wintertech20162017. To register for any or all of these events, call 260-421-1225 or email Genealogy@ACPL.Info.

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February is Black History Month

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In February, join The Genealogy Center in observance of Black History Month! We begin the month by inviting the community to enjoy “Heartland Sings: We Are The Dream, A Musical Commemoration to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” on Sunday, February 19, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library Theater. Prior to or following the musical, visit our Life Stories Center to record your personal memories of the “I Have a Dream” speech. The Life Stories Center will be open noon to 5:00 p.m. that day. Presentations on African American genealogy also will be offered during the month. For information about the month’s events, watch our Events page at http://genealogycenter.org/Events.aspx.

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Keep Up with Upcoming Events

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Join The Genealogy Center as we offer a week of programs Sunday, March 5, 2017, to Saturday, March 11, 2017, to tip off your family history research with March Madness! Score with talks that will provide clues to information and events in your ancestors’ lives! Events will be held in the Discovery Center. And be here as The Genealogy Center celebrates Women’s History Month! We will be paying tribute to the numerous contributions women have made through the generations, featuring sessions on women in the military, female detectives, and more. There is much to celebrate at The Genealogy Center on Saturday, March 25th! Sessions will be held in the Discovery Center. Preservation is part of family history: preservation of family and community history; preservation of family and community documents and heirlooms; preservation of written and spoken word. The Genealogy Center will celebrate Preservation Week from April 23 to April 29, 2017, with information on the care and preservation of your family and your community’s stories. Sessions will be held in the Discovery Center every day the last week of April. For information about these events, watch our Events page at http://genealogycenter.org/Events.aspx.

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Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

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Do you want to know what we’ve got planned? Are you interested in one of our events, but forget? We are now offering email updates for The Genealogy Center’s programming schedule. Don’t miss out! Sign up at http://goo.gl/forms/THcV0wAabB.

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Area Calendar of Events

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Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, Inc. Monthly Program January 11, 2017 - Allen County Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Refreshments at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Cynthia Theusch will present: “Working with a Single Record.” ACGSI Genealogy Technology Group January 18, 2017 – Allen County Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 7 p.m. Mary Penrose Wayne DAR Chapter Library Help Day for Prospective Members January 4, 2017 - Allen County Public Library, The Genealogy Center, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 10 - 4 p.m. The George R. Mather Lecture Series January 8, 2017 – The History Center, 302 East Berry Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2 p.m. Don Orban will present: “Three Rivers: A Brief History.”

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Driving Directions to the Library

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Wondering how to get to the library? Our location is 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the block bordered on the south by Washington Boulevard, the west by Ewing Street, the north by Wayne Street, and the east by the Library Plaza, formerly Webster Street. We would enjoy having you visit the Genealogy Center. To get directions from your exact location to 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, visit this link at MapQuest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&addtohistory=&address=900%20Web ster%20St&city=Fort%20Wayne&state=IN&zipcode=46802%2d3602&country=US&geodiff=1 >From the South Exit Interstate 69 at exit 302. Drive east on Jefferson Boulevard into downtown. Turn left on Ewing Street. The Library is one block north, at Ewing Street and Washington Boulevard. Using US 27: US 27 turns into Lafayette Street. Drive north into downtown. Turn left at Washington Boulevard and go five blocks. The Library will be on the right. >From the North Exit Interstate 69 at exit 312. Drive south on Coldwater Road, which merges into Clinton Street. Continue south on Clinton to Washington Boulevard. Turn right on Washington and go three blocks. The Library will be on the right. >From the West Using US 30: Drive into town on US 30. US 30 turns into Goshen Ave. which dead-ends at West State Blvd. Make an angled left turn onto West State Blvd. Turn right on Wells Street. Go south on Wells to Wayne Street. Turn left on Wayne Street. The Library will be in the second block on the right. 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. Library Plaza will be on the right.

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Parking at the Library

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At the Library, underground parking can be accessed from Wayne Street. Other library parking lots are at Washington and Webster, and Wayne and Webster. Hourly parking is $1 per hour with a $7 maximum. ACPL library card holders may use their cards to validate the parking ticket at the west end of the Great Hall of the Library. Out of county residents may purchase a subscription card with proof of identification and residence. The current fee for an Individual Subscription Card is $70. Public lots are located at the corner of Ewing and Wayne Streets ($1 each for the first two half-hours, $1 per hour after, with a $4 per day maximum) and the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Harrison Street ($3 per day). Street (metered) parking on Ewing and Wayne Streets. 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 garage 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 Center Queries

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The Genealogy Center 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 Genealogy Center, 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.GenealogyCenter.org. Scroll to the bottom, click on E-zine, and fill out the form. 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 Genealogy Gems you just received or send an email to kspears@acpl.lib.in.us with "unsubscribe e-zine" in the subject line. Curt B. Witcher and John D. Beatty, CG, co-editors