February 2023

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne No. 228, February 28, 2023

In this issue:

Marking Milestones with Periodical Literature

Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond

DNA Matches That Are Adopted Technology

Tip of the Month: The Case of the Missing Images

PERSI Gems: Octopus!

History Tidbits: American Beer

Genealogy Center’s March Programs

Genealogy Center Program Call Outs!

Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

Genealogy Center Social Media

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Genealogy Center Queries

Publishing Note

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Marking Milestones with Periodical Literature by Curt B. Witcher

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With this February 2023 “Genealogy Gems“ ezine, the Genealogy Center completes nineteen years of uninterrupted monthly publications. And oh my, the things we have seen and written about in these nineteen years. The actual space available for researchers in the Genealogy Center has dramatically increased. The physical collection has more than doubled including many thousands of periodical titles. The databases available today, both free and licensed, were nearly unimaginable nearly two decades ago. The articles that have appeared in this ezine have covered all kinds of records, reviewed so many different publications, and highlighted best practices in both research methodology and preservation. I can’t wait to see what the coming years will bring. For a number of those years we have featured a “PERSI Gems” column in our ezine. (As many of you may know, PERSI stands for the “Periodical Source Index,” the most comprehensive subject index available to genealogy, local history, and ethnic history serial publications.) These “PERSI Gems” columns are meant to bring a smile to your face while reminding you of the great variety of topics, news, and events one may find in the newsletters, quarterlies, and journals of both today and yesteryear. The breadth and depth of information found in our nineteen years of “Genealogy Gems” is reflective of what is found in most periodicals in the genealogy and local history space. We reached another periodical related milestone this year. January 2023 marked the one year anniversary of making PERSI completely free from the ACPL Genealogy website. https://www.genealogycenter.info/persi/ It was the first time in thirty-seven years of publishing the index that anyone from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection could discover periodical articles by surname, geographic location, and research methodology and retrieve the full citation. In the first year of making the index freely available, more than 230,000 searches were executed. I can’t imagine all the stories discovered and records revealed. With the no-cost availability of PERSI I really can’t imagine one not using it on a regular basis, in a way like one’s own personal research assistant. Though it’s neat to search for articles about any surname we might discover on new collateral lines and “branches” of our trees, I find the most “gold” in PERSI from doing geographical searches. I not only discover the record indices, transcriptions and abstractions published for cities, counties and regions, I also discover historical works that address migration and settlement patterns, and refresh my understanding of chain migration as it applies to my families. I learn through identified articles about the settlement of neighborhoods, the establishment of congregations, and what activities were engaged in to provide my ancestors with their livelihood. The periodicals I discover through PERSI continue to put my family in a sharper context and assist me in my quest to find all their stories. So as the Genealogy Center continues to publish more index entries in PERSI (now over three million searchable entries!) I hope you increasingly make it a part of your family history discovery experience.

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Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond

by John D. Beatty, CG

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A widespread belief exists among genealogists that New England research is significantly easier than for other parts of the country. Local towns and churches maintained vital records at an early date, and many of these have been published and indexed in a variety of book, article, and online formats. Such a belief underestimates the complexity of these resource collections and ignores the fact that many important vital record sources have not been indexed or published. Researchers may get the false hope that they have conducted comprehensive research when, in reality, they have missed out on important sources that might have aided their search. Linda MacLachlan’s book, “Finding Early Connecticut Vital Records: The Barbour Index and Beyond” (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2019) (Gc 974.4 M22f) offers an insightful guide to the complex topic of early Connecticut birth, marriage, and death records. For many researchers, the place to begin this topic is with the “Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records,” a collection of vital records to 1850 compiled under the direction of Lucius B. Barbour, the Connecticut Examiner of Public Records from 1922 to 1934. The collection is available most popularly as a 55-volume set under the editorship of Lorraine Cook White (Gc 974.6 B233), and is being made digitally available on Ancestry.com., but it is also found in its original form as a card or slip file in the Connecticut State Library. That file was microfilmed and is now digitized and available at FamilySearch and on microfilm in the Genealogy Center. Researchers may not realize that there were omissions, errors, and corrections made to the original slip files. Six towns (Bolton, Coventry, Enfield, Mansfield, New Haven, and Vernon) were not even included in the original vital records abstract, while those of Norwich and Woodstock were compiled separately and later interfiled with Barbour’s abstracts. Some town abstracts did not go all the way to 1850 and stop much earlier. Some unincorporated places in Connecticut (Cromwell, Easton, New Britain, New Fairfield, Seymour, and Trumbull) kept vital records and were missed altogether. Barbour also maintained a separate 28 cubic foot collection of personal records apart from the card file that were donated to the Connecticut State Library. While the records themselves are not digitized, a finding aid is available online. With a mastery of the subject, MacLachlan discusses these challenges in the book’s introduction. She references the Charles R. Hale Collection of Gravestone Inscriptions, available at the Connecticut State Library and on microfilm here in the Genealogy Center, which documents many grave markers that are likely no longer readable and make excellent supplements to the vital records. MacLachlan also gives the reader three recommendations for going beyond the Barbour Index. First, the researcher should verify all references in Barbour in the original source, a wise practice when using any record abstract. Two, additional sources of vital records beyond Barbour are available for many towns, and these are listed in this book. Finally, vital records may be found in church, cemetery, and other town compilations, also referenced in this book. The remainder of the book is arranged alphabetically by town. Under each she lists all known published and unpublished sources of vital records, including many manuscript collections in the Connecticut State Library. These include typically vital, church, cemetery records and unpublished personal collections. She makes numerous references to journal articles as well as to digitized original records in FamilySearch. The appendix contains a list of vital records gleaned from private records, such as diaries, letters, and other family records. For some sources, a researcher will need to visit the town record office for records not yet turned into the CSL. Anyone researching Connecticut in the period before 1850 would do well to explore this guide. Don’t accept the premise that everything relating to vital records is online. Its greatest asset is inspiring researchers to dig deeper.

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DNA Matches That Are Adopted by Sara Allen

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Have you found some folks who were adopted on your autosomal DNA match list? What should you do next? What are some ethical and practical concerns? How can you begin to identify the relationship you might have with this person? Have you thought ahead of time about what you would do if you did get a DNA match who was adopted? Think through your reactions to the following. What are your personal feelings toward helping an adopted person? Do you have ethical concerns about helping adopted persons? How do you feel about family secrets? Generally speaking, the birth parents may have kept this secret for years, or the biological father may never have known of the child. Biological family may have been assured that the records would be sealed forever and no-one would ever find out. From the adoptee’s point of view, the secrecy could have been a burden and led to feelings of inadequacy. In around half of US states, adoptees cannot access information about their birth family or medical history. This situation pushes the adoptees to take DNA tests when they have no other options to gain information. Ethically, you are not obligated to help an adoptee, share family information with them, or even reply to their messages. It is your choice and your comfort level. When you find an adopted person in your DNA match list, consider first how closely related the DNA company says that you are. What is the label given for your relationship? How many centimorgans of DNA do you share? Use the Shared Centimorgan Project at DNA Painter website (https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv4) to enter that centimorgan amount to get some prospective relationships. It gives you a ballpark idea of how far back in your tree to look for the relationship. An adopted 5th-8th cousin could be descended from your 4th great grandparents or further back. A 4th -6th cousin could be descended from 3rd great grandparents or further back. A 2nd-3rd cousin could be from 1st great grandparents or further back. Additional research is needed to determine exactly where the person falls in your tree. How do you determine which side of your family the adopted person could come from? Look at your “shared matches” or “matches in common” with the adopted person. Are those names from your maternal side or paternal side? By analyzing all those shared matches to you, you may be able to determine the common ancestral couple between you and the adopted person. This will be apparent when you and the adoptee have shared matches to both the male of the couple’s parents or grandparents AND the female of the couple’s parents or grandparents. This is most likely the common ancestor couple. This means that the biological mother or father of the adoptee most likely descends from a child of this couple. Does this conclusion make sense with the amount of centimorgans shared between you? Then you decide what to do with this information. If it is a distant connection, I would absolutely give this information to the adopted person, letting them know where on your tree the connection lies. If they are a 2nd/3rd cousin match, you may or may not personally know the biological father or mother of the adopted person. It might be awkward for you to get involved. If you feel you cannot help, you can refer people to other groups, such as DNAngels (free search angels for birth parent search at https://www.dnangels.org/) or Search Squad private group on Facebook (free search angels). If you get a close family match who was adopted, this fact could definitely shake up your family. Each of us might make a different choice in that situation. If you feel you cannot help, please try to let the adoptee down kindly and with respect. Some final ethical advice: If this adoptee is a closer family member, do not speak out of turn about the situation with other family members until or unless the adoptee has contacted their biological parents or siblings. You don’t want to be the one to “out” this secret. And do let the adoptee decide to make contact or not, and don’t serve as an intermediary with their contact, let them make contact on their own. Good luck! Some books on DNA and Adoption: “The Adoptee's Guide to DNA Testing: How to Use Genetic Genealogy to Discover Your Long-lost Family” by Tamar Weinberg (GC 929 W43AD) and “The DNA Guide for Adoptees” by Brianne Kirkpatrick and Shannon Combs-Bennett (GC 929 K636DN).

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Technology Tip of the Month: The Case of the Missing Images by Kay Spears

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So, Hercule and I are continuing our journey through the mystery of "things that give you headaches on a computer." This one we will call The Case of the Missing Images. One day, while yachting in the south of France (not really), a large, lovely donation crossed my desk. It was lovely, truly lovely. It had over 800 pages, a table of contents, and something for all researchers: an index. You heard me! An index. Be still my heart. The document was given to us in PDF format. Oh, those wonderful, glorious PDFs! Nothing better, you just can't go wrong with a PDF. They are a miracle! They are compatible with both Mac and Windows...but are they? Maybe, but not always. When it comes to sharing your PDFs between Mac and Windows operating systems, there are a few things that may cause you to have long hours of troubleshooting. Here is clue number one. At the library we use the Microsoft Windows system. When we opened the document, there were pages and pages of lovely family photographs. But on about twenty of those pages, the lovely family photograph images were not there. Instead, there was a blank rectangle with computer verbiage/garbage in the middle. What could this mean? Clue number two: the original document was created on a Macintosh system. Repeat after me: sometimes Windows and Mac don't play well together, even when a PDF is involved. Having seen that blank rectangle before, I knew that the culprit involved Windows/Mac incompatibility. In this case, the missing images had been copied and pasted into the original Mac document. Here's a little tip: copy and pasting images does not embed them into your document. If the missing images had been "inserted" instead of "copy/paste", they would have appeared in the document. This document was created in a Mac and opened in a Windows environment. I'm not sure what would have happened in a Windows-to-Mac environment. The solution: there were a number of different ways to fix the problem. One would be to have the person who gave us the document do it over...probably not the best way to go. A second would be to convert the PDF to a Word document, then convert back to a PDF. Not a good idea; remember I said there was an index. Microsoft Word has a nasty habit of rearranging pages when converted. This would mean the index would be off. Here's what I did. I found a computer with MAC on it, opened the document (the twenty images showed in MAC). I then took those twenty pages out of the document, saved them individually, converted them to Microsoft Word, and then found a Windows computer and saved each page as a PDF. Because they were saved individually, they did not lose their formatting and the page numbers matched the index. I was then able to insert the pages back into the original document, and everything worked out just fine. There may have been a different work around, but this one is what we came up with, and it worked. Bottom-line. I'm not recommending one system over the other. Everyone has their favorite. But just remember the magic word: compatibility. Not everything in the computer world is compatible, even with the magical Adobe PDF. So, be aware of what you are using, back-up that information, learn to troubleshoot, use Google to search for solutions, and ask questions of the places where you're going to send your hard work. Next article: The Case of the Weird Font

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PERSI Gems: Octopus! by Adam Barrone and Mike Hudson

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After decades of indexing and editing periodicals for the PERSI database, we sometimes think we’ve seen everything. Not so, as we recently discovered, when, on the inside front cover of the West Virginia history and culture magazine Goldenseal (published by the Culture Center, Charleston, WV, Volume 47, Number 3, Fall 2021), we encountered a full-page photo of a brooding, James Dean-looking young man wearing a pompadour and leather motorcycle jacket holding a hunk of plywood on which was sprawled… a West Virginia octopus. The caption read: “Ted (or Dale) Peters poses with an octopus he caught in Thomas (Tucker County), 1946. Read more about this bizarre story on page 66…” On page 66 can be found the article, “Octopus’s Garden in the Blackwater: Strange Phenomenon or Prank?” by Aaron Parsons. Because of space limitations, we usually index articles without teaser headlines, so this article will eventually be cited in PERSI as “Octopuses found in Blackwater River at Thomas, strange phenomenon or prank, 1946.” Because the photo of Ted (or Dale) Peters was not part of the article, we indexed it separately as “Ted aka Dale Peters with octopus caught in Thomas, inside front cover photo, note, 1946.” So no, the PERSI staff has not seen everything there is to see in the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center periodicals collection -- octopuses (there were more than one!) in a West Virginia river are proof of that. Are there other octopuses in PERSI, we wondered? There are in fact several; here are a few: Birth of the St. Croix Octopus aka St. Croix Boom Corporation, logging, 1840s-1880s Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 40, Issue 3 (Spr 1957) Hunting for octopus, Danielle Ringer recollections Alutiiq Museum Bulletin (AK), Vol. 16, Issue 3 (Win 2012) Mary Shepherd photo with octopus, c. 1960, AK Alutiiq Museum Bulletin (AK), Vol. 15, Issue 3 (Win 2011) Oskaloosa octopus: Santa Fe false receivership, 1896 Kansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 38, Issue 4 (Win 1972) Southern Pacific Railroad president Collis P. Huntington as an octopus cartoon, 1896 Railroad History, Issue 194 (Spr 2006) USS C-1 Octopus first boat over 100 feet long, brief note, n.d. Polaris (U.S. Submarine Veterans of WWII, Seattle, WA), Vol. 40, Issue 2 (Apr 1996) Wilson & Marlowe, Hartford insurance advertisement, the octopus of fire, 1923 Maplevalley (WA) Messenger, Vol. 3, Issue 1 (Apr 1923) Women aboard, Alice Roosevelt aboard USS Moccasin, Mrs. Robert Goelet, USS Octopus, 1903-1911 Polaris (U.S. Submarine Veterans of WWII, Seattle, WA), Vol. 32, Issue 1 (Feb 1988) Mostly these have to do with turn-of-the-century monopolies (railroads, etc.) or US Navy ships named Octopus. So, while there are several octopuses, in only one periodical do they turn up in West Virginia. Strange phenomenon or prank? Nobody knows for sure, according to the article. PERSI is a vast storehouse of genealogical and historical information of all sorts; when you search our database, let your imagination run wild. You might find octopuses in places you never expected and, perhaps, a relative or two who caught them. Try a search or eight here: https://www.genealogycenter.info/persi/

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History Tidbits: American Beer

By Allison DePrey Singleton

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Americans have long been fans of beer. The alcoholic drink is a favorite at sporting events, college parties, and other social events. It is considered the drink of the summer for many individuals. When did it become part of Americana? The short answer: always. For colonists, beer was an important part of their diet, and they began brewing it upon their arrival in the colonies. It was consumed by every class of person and by all ages. In some instances, it was healthier than water due to the boiling process that kills the bacteria. The first documented brewing was in 1587 and used corn. It was not until 1607 that beer was shipped to the Virginia colonists from England. This was likely because beer was unstable and hard to keep fresh during shipment. It would also explain why some colonists advertised in London seeking brewers to go to the Virginia Colony. Let’s look at some of the firsts for the United States. The first official brewery was established in New Amsterdam (New York City) in 1632 by the West India Company. In 1637, the first recorded brewery was recorded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1683, the first brewery was established in William Penn’s colony. The first record of a female brewer, or Brewster, was recorded in 1734, when Mary Lisle took over her late father’s business. The first brewery west of the Allegheny mountains was built in 1765 by the British Army at Fort Pitt. The first brewery outside the 13 colonies was built in the French town of Kaskaskia, Illinois, south of Saint Louis. Some long-lasting beer ventures include a brewery started by Robert Smith in 1774 that lasted until 1986. David Yuengling opened his brewery in 1829 in Pennsylvania, and it continues to operate as the oldest brewery in the United States. In 1844, Jacob Best began his brewery that would eventually become Pabst Brewing Company. Jacob’s grandson-in-law, Frederick Pabst took over the company in 1863. Under the Pabst name, multiple other legacy breweries still have a beer or two being brewed: Piels Bros., Falstaff Brewing Corporation, F & M Schaefer Brewing Company, Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, and Stroh Brewery Company. Another long-lasting brewing company is Anheuser-Busch Companies LLC, which began in 1852 in St. Louis. The company still exists today but was part of a hostile takeover in 2008. Beer has been a popular beverage throughout the history of the United States. Presidents, businessmen, ministers, and other key figures in U.S. history have been brewers or consumers of beer. President George Washington even presented a “Buy American” policy in 1789 and stated he would only drink porter beer made in America. Beer was an important part of life when settling the country and has continued to be an important part of American life, despite a brief prohibition. Next time you raise a pint, enjoy your piece of American history and culture.

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Genealogy Center’s March Programs

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Join us for another month of free, virtual programs.

March 2, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. ET “Surprised by Your Ethnicity Estimate?” with Sara Allen (pre-recorded with a live Q&A) - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8102317

March 7, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. ET “Mastering Mastodon: Another Tool in a Genealogist's Arsenal” with Daniel Loftus - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8052048

March 8, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. ET “African-American Genealogical Research” with Roberta Ridley and the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana - https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HzBKt16YTGSmUqwdBaTQyw

March 9, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. ET “Let’s Talk: Where Are the Women?” with Genealogy Center Senior Librarians - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8052075

March 14, 2023, 2:30 p.m. ET “Historical Society of Michigan: Historical Writing and Publishing” with Robert Myers - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056424

March 16, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. ET “The Photo Angel: Reuniting Long Lost Photos with Families” with Kate Kelley - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056425 March 18, 2023, 2:00 p.m. ET The African American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne's "A Deep Dive into Tennessee and Kentucky" with Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr. - https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkcuyhqj4sHNEE1qelHLPHaoyWvM_2gfYM March 21,2023 at 2:30 p.m. EST “Democracy's Data: Reading Hidden Stories in the 1940 US Census” with Dan Bouk - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8052097 March 23, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. EST “Researching in UK Archives from Abroad” with Helen V. Smith - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056427

March 28, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. EST “Genealogy Resources at the Kentucky Historical Society” with Daniel Ware - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056986

March 30, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. EST “Introduction to Ohio Genealogy Research” with Kate McKenzie - https://acpl.libnet.info/event/8056990 Please register in advance to enjoy these engaging programs.

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Genealogy Center Program Call Outs!

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MARCH 3, 2023 Early-bird Registration Deadline Is Coming Soon for the International German Genealogy Partnership 2023 Conference being held in Fort Wayne, Indiana June 9-11, 2023! The International German Genealogy Partnership 2023 conference (#IGGC2023) is one of the few occasions in which you will hear from, and connect with, people focused on German genealogy. Attendees will enjoy programs and activities that highlight the diversity of the German-speaking genealogy community at the Grand Wayne Convention Center in Fort Wayne, IN June 9-11,2023. German-speakers leaving Europe went east, west, north and south, and their descendants live everywhere around the globe. Also, many ancestors stayed in Europe, and lived through the changing borders of what we call Germany. The #IGGC2023 conference will try to reflect that diversity of experience. For example, we'll have a traveling exhibit on 1700 Years of Jewish Life in German-Speaking Lands from the Leo Baeck Institute. Day-by-day program information and registration can be found through this link: https://iggp.org/ MARCH 8, 2023 The Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana is hosting Roberta Ridley to present “AfricanAmerican Genealogical Research.” Researching African American slave records is vital to reconnecting families today for stronger and more focused households. Roberta will be sharing why researching is relevant to all who wish to learn the many varied resources available. Roberta Ridley is a fourth generation Allen County resident, retired from the Allen County Public Library and does independent research. She is chairperson of the African American Genealogical Society of Fort Wayne and a faculty member of the Midwest African American Genealogy Institute. Her program is March 8, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. ET in the Discovery Center of the Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library’s Main Library or via Zoom. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HzBKt16YTGSmUqwdBaTQyw MARCH 18, 2023 March 18, 2023, 2:00 p.m. The African American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne's "A Deep Dive into Tennessee and Kentucky" with Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr. Are your roots in Tennessee or Kentucky? Learn how to dig deeper and uncover your family history! Discover the tools, methods, and resources to dig deeper and further your genealogy research in these states! AND tools and tips you can use to research other states! Join Dr. Al Brothers, Vice Chair of the African American Genealogical Society of Fort Wayne, to find out what is available online at the Allen County Public Library website and at archives located in those states. Learn to do investigative research into small community, county and statewide resources and their interrelationships. Dr. Alfred Brothers Jr is the Vice Chairman of the African African-American Genealogy Society of Fort Wayne (AAGSFW). He is a charter member of the AAGSFW and specializes in Military genealogy. He is from Massachusetts and his research interests include New England, Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, and Canada. Dr. Brothers is a Mid-West African American Genealogy Institute (MAAGI) instructor and leads our society with Research Tools & Tips presentations on Zoom and Facebook. He has been doing family research for over 40 years. Registration required. Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkcuyhqj4sHNEE1qelHLPHaoyWvM_2gfY M Join in Person: Send email to AAGSFW@gmail.com Location: The Discovery Center of the Genealogy Center is located inside the Allen County Public Library 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802 APRIL 1, 2023 The Indiana Genealogical Society’s 2023 Seminar and Annual Conference Saturday, 1 April 2023, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana A 1-day, 2-track hybrid event--in-person will be held at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne and virtually via Zoom. Indiana Librarians: all sessions are eligible for Librarian Educational Units or Technology Librarian Educational Units. Saturday, 1 April 2023 9:15 – 9:30 am Welcome and Introductions 9:30 – 10:30 am Session 1A: Finding Ancestors Before 1850, Amy Johnson Crow (1 LEU) Session 1B: Indiana County Development, Michael Maben (1 Technology LEU) 10:30 – 11:00 am Break 11:00 – 12:00 pm Session 2A: After Mustering Out: Researching Civil War Veterans, Amy Johnson Crow (1 LEU) Session 2B: The Blanchard Family and the National Road, Ron Darrah (1 LEU) 12:00 - 1:00 pm Break for Lunch 1:00 – 2:00 pm IGS Annual Meeting/Awards/Lineage Societies Induction (open without charge to all IGS members) 2:15 – 3:15 pm Session 3A: Using Land Records Effectively, Amy Johnson Crow (1 LEU) Session 3B: Using Periodicals and PERSI to Take Your Research to the Next Level, Curt Witcher (1 Technology LEU) 3:15 – 3:45 pm Break 3:45 – 4:45 pm Session 4: Ask the Experts, Amy Johnson Crow, Curt Witcher, Ron Darrah and Elizabeth Hodges; moderated by Michael Maben (1 LEU) 4:45 – 5:00 pm Wrap-up Registration information here: http://www.indgensoc.org/2023conference.php

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Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

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Do you want to know what we have planned? Are you interested in one of our events, but forget? We offer 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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Genealogy Center Social Media

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GenealogyCenter/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genealogycenter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ACPLGenealogy

Blog: http://www.genealogycenter.org/Community/Blog.aspx

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/askacpl

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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%20 Webster%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 $85. Public lots are located at the corner of Ewing and Wayne Streets ($1 each for the first two halfhours, $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. The meters take credit cards and charge at a rate of $1/hour. Street parking is free after 5 p.m. 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 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.

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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