March 2014

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Fort Wayne Library No. 121, March 31, 2014

In this issue:

Movies, and Manuscripts, and Data, Oh My!

Land Entry Files – Public Lands

Major Genealogy Launchpad Sites – Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium

Technology Tip of the Month-- Looping a PowerPoint Presentation

Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Preservation Week Great Time to Take Stock of Your Family History

ALA’s Preservation Week: Pass It On

One-on-One Consultations Times Available

Out and About Area Calendar of Events

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Queries for The Genealogy Center

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Movies, and Manuscripts, and Data, Oh My! by Curt B. Witcher

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If I ask you if you have seen any good shows lately, your thoughts might turn to movie theaters, recent releases, Netflix, Amazon Prime, cable movie channels, and similar venues. And while all those venues are fine, I am really interested in what educational shows and videos in the genealogy space you recently may have seen. There are growing numbers of these works, with rapidly improving quality. Often they can be viewed online for free. A set of family history educational videos well worth exploring are the selected sessions from RootsTech 2014 that are available for free streaming online. (One can find these easily by Googling RootsTech 2014. Be patient with the often slow-working RootsTech site.) I was fortunate to attend this year’s RootsTech, and I got to experience all the keynote presentations first-hand. The keynote speaker who impressed me the most (by far!) was Judy Russell. To many she is known as The Legal Genealogist, and she writes a tremendously relevant and useful blog. Her Friday keynote at RootsTech this year was the absolute best, most concise, most straight-forward and meaningful explanation of how we should be doing our research--and the Genealogical Proof Standard--that I have ever heard, and likely will ever hear. Certainly many have read about the Genealogical Proof Standard, and have heard nationally-recognized speakers explain it, elaborate upon it, and sometimes even put us into a sleepy trance about it! Judy boiled it down, punched it up, and shouted it out! It is a must-see. Speaking of The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell will be the featured speaker for the Indiana Genealogical Society’s 2015 Annual Meeting and Conference in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Saturday, April 25, 2015. (Of course it is not too soon to mark your calendars!) This year’s speaker, Mark Lowe, will be presenting four top-shelf lectures at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne this coming Saturday, April 5, 2014. There is still time to register at www.IndGenSoc.org/conference.php. Or simply walk-in that day to experience some of the best genealogical presentations and to network with a great group of attendees. I spent a very pleasant day this past Saturday with the Genealogical Society of Monroe County (MI) presenting an all-day seminar at the Monroe Community College. It was a wonderful, engaging crowd eager to refresh and improve research skills, as well a take advantage of the fantastic networking opportunities such events present. Among all the meaningful questions and comments that were made that day, the one that impressed me the most, on many levels, was the last question of the day. To paraphrase, one of the seminar participants asked what we (as in all of us!) should be doing with the family history information we collect, the records and documents we hold, and the stories we have been told and have collected in one form or another over our years of research. Oh my, what a fantastic question! The question that seminar colleague raised is a question we all should be thinking about relative to our own genealogical works, records, digital files, and recollections. It is a question that begs so many other consequential questions. Have we taken care to write down, with pen and paper or a keyboard, all the stories we have been told about and by our family over the years? It is absolutely vital for us to do that. Information not recorded is lost forever, and the clock is ticking. Have we taken care to re-format the Super-8 movies of yesteryear so that our grandchildren and their grandchildren might have a shot at enjoying them as we have? What about those cassette tapes and VHS recordings? Who tends to our digital data, our websites and our blogs, when we are gone? What happens to our Roots Magic files or Master Genealogist disks? Have you included your genealogical work and associated papers and digital assets in your will? Will your family know what to do with your materials when you’re gone? Will your family history research live on beyond your years as it should, or will it quite literally die with you? It’s a big project--appropriately formatting and arranging our genealogical work in its many forms for another generation of family members and researchers to use. The ramifications of not doing it, though, are almost too painful to contemplate. And though an immense project, it all starts with just a few first activities. Determine if you can divide your genealogical assets into groups, and then start addressing the groups one at a time. Many people start with their paper documents when determining first steps in organizing their research collections. Organizing these materials by family group and time period is often the best general organization to impose on a collection of paper documents. Decide what documents have value as artifacts and which would be better preserved as digitized documents. Plan to spend some time on a regular basis writing up your research findings. As genealogists, we do a lot of gathering, but not as much compiling and writing as we should. It’s time we focus meaningful attention on writing--it actually helps us organize our research and puts into perspective what we still might need to explore or discover. Set aside some time to deal with your collections of audio and visual materials. These materials are prime candidates for being preserved digitally. With digital and virtual storage so incredibly cheap, and getting cheaper all the time, there is really no reason not to scan your photographs according to archival standards for dpi and file format. Convert those home movies to digital movies, and reformat those audio recordings to digital recordings. If it’s true that “lots of copies keeps stuff safe,” then we should start making back-ups and refreshing those back-ups on a regular basis today. Make a back-up of all your digital data and share it with a relative. Commit to refreshing that data at least three times a year--at the end or beginning of each year, around Memorial Day, and again around Labor Day. Some lament not having any relatives who are interested in the family’s history. While it’s nice if there is an interested relative with whom you could share your research, having an interest in your family history is not a requisite for finding a relative to store your digital files in a safe, not-at-your-house location. Another great way to preserve your research is to compile it and put a copy in a library or archive that would be interested in such research. The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library welcomes all genealogical and local history publications about families regardless of country of origin or place of settlement. If it’s the history of a family, a locale, or an organization, we’re interested and would love to have the materials on our shelves for researchers to us. If in the course of your research, you have walked a cemetery, indexed a group of probate records, abstracted a particular church’s records, etc., we’d be interested in those files as well. It is as easy as sending an email attachment, burning a DVD and mailing it to The Genealogy Center, or bringing in a USB drive on your next visit for file transfer. The research you have done could benefit generations of family historians in the future--why not ensure that it is available? Let’s commit to doing all we can to ensure the records and research of today are enjoyed by our grandchildren’s grandchildren. It all starts with that first step.

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Land Entry Files – Public Lands by Cynthia Theusch

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When we search for our ancestors or other family members, do we check to see if they may have purchased land from the federal government? Land records sometimes tell us where a person previously lived before purchasing land or using a military land warrant to gain land for a future home. Land entry case files document the transfer of public lands from the U.S. Government to private ownership. These case files cover land entries in all 30 public land states. Land entry case files can contain genealogical information besides the legal information on land purchases. Case files written before the 1840s will have the person’s name, land location and acreage, price and date and place of land entry. Transactions after 1840 could include the person’s age, place of birth, citizenship, military service, literacy and financial status. The Genealogy Center has two books that summarize the various land entry files and records that are stored at the National Archives. The first is an inventory titled “Preliminary Inventory of the Land-Entry Papers of the General Land Office,” compiled by Harry P. Yoshpe and Philip P. Brower (973 Un32y). The authors provide a brief overview of military bounty land warrants, which also included warrants issued to Canadian volunteers, names of surveyors, and a breakdown by state showing different types of records relating to land purchases. “Research in the Land Entry Files of the General Land Office: Record Group 49,” (Reference Information Paper 114) was compiled by Kenneth Hawkins (973 Us44h). Hawkins’ volume describes what can be found in land entry case files and provides an overview of the various land records that can be found at the National Archives. It also describes the various microfilm records that include tract books, land entry case files and military-bounty-land warrants. An online database of these land entries is at the Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office, web site at www.GLORecords.blm.gov. At this site, it is possible to search by ancestor’s name by state and county, or just by state. One search result showed a military warrant for James Y. Trimmer. He received 160 acres of land. The document stated Trimmer served as a private in Captain Hanscom’s Company, First Regiment, Michigan volunteers. The certificate was issued 10 April 1851. To determine the war in which he served, it was necessary to research Captain Hanscom’s Company and Michigan’s First Regiment of volunteers. James Trimmer served in the Mexican War. Four results were found in the database for Orin (Orrison?) Howe, who settled in Michigan before it became a state. The first showed Orin Howe and Adolphus Spoor of Chenango County, New York, which provides the researcher with a general area to begin a search for Orin Howe and his family in New York.

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Major Genealogy Launchpad Sites – Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium by Dawne Slater-Putt, CG*

*************************************** Have a question about genealogy? For anything more general than “Who is my great-grandfather?” one of two launchpad websites, www.CyndisList.com and www.Linkpendium.com, might lead you to the answer. These two sites are your gateway to the wealth of genealogical information on the Internet. Links to genealogical websites are organized into categories on both sites. Cyndi’s List, the brainchild of popular genealogy lecturer Cyndi Ingle, is organized by subject categories that include geographic places. Linkpendium, developed by RootsWeb founders Brian “Wolf” and Karen (Isaacson) Leverich, has its links organized largely geographically and by surname. Examples of some of the categories of links on Cyndi’s List are Ancestry.com: The Basics, Births & Baptisms, Diaries & Letters, Numbering Systems, Orphans, and Privacy & Open Access. The site includes 205 separate categories and 329,978 links, to date. Each category is further divided into sub-categories of links and the user also sees a suggested list of related categories. Cyndi works full time hand-testing the links that she adds to her site to be sure that suggested links actually are to legitimate genealogical sites. Cyndi’s List has a place to browse the newest links added to the site, for visitors to suggest new links, and also to report any broken links found while using the site. Cyndi also writes a blog associated with Cyndi’s List, which can be found at http://cyndislist.blogspot.com/. Linkpendium has a whopping 10,412,502 genealogy links to date! The majority of these are arranged by localities in the United States, and by surnames, worldwide. In addition, about 10,500 links are organized by localities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Wolf and Karen are avid hikers and the Linkpendium site also includes links to sites featuring hiking trails arranged by U.S. geographic area. These hiking trail links, though, are in addition to the nearly 10.5 million genealogy links. Genealogical links within each state are further organized by county, along with a category for statewide links. Within the category for Indiana, for example, Allen County has 805 links, Carroll County has 746, and Jefferson County has 496. These might be county library and genealogical society sites, cemeteries, historical societies, or other sites where individuals or organizations have placed genealogical content. Within the county categories, links are organized more specifically into subject areas, like church records, directories and land records. Both Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium are free sites for the user. However, some of the content to which they link is subscription-based. Those sites for which a fee is required are indicated on both Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium with a green $. If you are not familiar with Cyndi’s List and Linkpendium, or if you have not used them lately – give your research a boost by seeing what treasures you can find!

“CG” & “Certified Genealogist” are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, and are used by authorized associates following periodic, peer-reviewed competency evaluations. Certificate No. 386 awarded 4 July 1996; expires 4 July 2016.

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Technology Tip of the Month--Looping a PowerPoint Presentation by Kay Spears

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PowerPoint is a great program to use when giving a lecture, but what if, instead, you want to create a “show” that will play continuously at a display booth? Or you might use such a show as an introduction to the main presentation while people are gathering in the lecture room, or maybe to play while people are eating at a luncheon or a banquet. What you will need to do to create this type of repeating show, is create a presentation that will “loop.” These looping presentations can be any length; some of them even have sound worked into the finished product. For this first “loop” show exercise, let’s create something simple and save adding sound for later. First we need to create our slides, and for this example I’m going to create four. When I create slides, I always start with a blank slide. I usually do not use the little dialog boxes that Microsoft has been so kind to include. When you open up PowerPoint, the default first slide will have two boxes that say “click to add title” and “click to add subtitle.” Delete those boxes. Now insert an image and a text box on that slide. Add whatever animation you want to this slide. Then create a second slide by either going to the menu bar at the top or use the slide task pane to the left. If you use the top menu choose New Slide>Blank. If you use the task pane, right click and choose Layout>Blank. Or just delete the default boxes from the new slide page. Next insert another image and text box. Repeat this process two more times until you have your four slides, with whatever animation on each one that you want. Now, we are ready to add timing and a loop. Click on the Transition tab. Before adding timing, take the time to experiment with some of the transitions available for the slides. These affect the way the slides transition, or move, from one to the next. Transitions are not the same thing as animation, which you may have already added. However, you could have all of these effects in one show; that would be up to you. After adding one of the transitions, go to the right-hand side of the ribbon to “Advance Slide” and click off the “On Mouse Click” check box. Then set the timing for how fast or slow you want each slide to show. Check “After,” then using the little scroll arrows inside the box, move to 2.00. This means that the slide that is showing will be visible for 2 seconds. To the left of the timer is “Apply to All.” Check this. Now all of your slides will have the same transition and the same timing. Lastly, we need to create the loop. Go to the Slide Show tab and pick “Set Up Slide Show.” In this dialog box, check “Loop Continuously Till Esc” and make sure that the check box with “Using Timings If Set” is checked. Click “OK.” Now you should be ready to see if your Loop is working. Click on “From Beginning” or just use the F5 key. Next Article: Add Looping as an Introduction to a Presentation

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Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Preservation Week Great Time to Take Stock of Your Family History by Dawne Slater-Putt, CG(sm)*

*************************************** The American Library Association (ALA) observes Preservation Week each April, and this is a terrific opportunity to think about preserving the elements of family history in your life for future generations. This might mean organizing and preserving the materials in your paper files, organizing your family photographs both current and historical, or writing down your personal memories or stories that have been passed down in your family. Here are some things for you to consider: Your paper files:

Work on your research files one at a time.

Decide whether some material can be discarded

Scan important documents, or scan everything!

Remove staples, paper clips, rubber bands

Photocopy small notes so that the paper size in your file is uniform

Consider creating a guide or a loose index to your files explaining your system Your photos:

Scan photographs – use TIFF format for at least the most important ones (perhaps heritage photos)

Consider scanning your pre-digital modern family snapshots, or at least some representative ones from each decade and various events

Identify people in your heritage photos lightly on the back with a photo-safe pencil or marking tool

Organize your modern photos chronologically, by subject or by person

Preserve your heritage photos in photo-safe boxes or sleeves

Inventory your heritage photos Your digital files

Establish a method of organization

Organize image files and other files into folders

Use consistent naming conventions

Add metadata to your files

Create a word processing file with an explanation of your organizational methods Your family’s oral history & your personal memories

Begin keeping a journal or writing your personal memories

Write down things you remember about your parents/grandparents

Record any stories that have been passed down in your family Be sure to join The Genealogy Center for the week of programs we have scheduled in conjunction with ALA’s Preservation Week Theme – Pass It On. See a complete list of program descriptions in the Programming column of this ezine.

“CG” & “Certified Genealogist” are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, and are used by authorized associates following periodic, peer-reviewed competency evaluations. Certificate No. 386 awarded 4 July 1996; expires 4 July 2016.

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ALA’s Preservation Week: Pass It On

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April is time for the American Library Association’s Preservation Week. In keeping with this year’s theme, “Pass It On,” The Genealogy Center is offering a full week of events designed to capture, preserve and disseminate the information and heirlooms of your family. Classes are:

Sunday, April 27, 1-2 p.m., Meeting Room A. “Heirloom Succession Planning” – Amy Beatty, C.E.S., G.P.P.A. Determining who-gets-what can create a lot of stress. The goal of Heirloom Succession Planning is to create accurate cataloging and historical documentation of a family’s personal property as an addendum or supplement to a will. This type of planning helps to recognize items in terms of sentimental rather than financial value, all while preserving family history. Additionally, Heirloom Succession Planning helps to provide a greater peace of mind for givers when used as a component of an estate appraisal for equitable distribution.

Monday, April 28, 2-3 p.m., Meeting Room A. “‘To Infinity and Beyond:’ Ensuring Our Family Histories Live Well Beyond Our Years” – Curt Witcher Genealogists spend many years researching their families. That research involves collecting and compiling many paper documents as well as scanning and storing electronic documents. What happens to these materials upon our demise? This presentation will focus on how to organize and prepare one’s paper archive for deposit in a library or archive as well as how to ensure that digitized materials in cloud storage spaces are successfully handed-off to interested parties or institutions.

Tuesday, April 29, 2-3 p.m., Meeting Room A. “Archives 101: Organizing and Preserving the Heirloom Paper in Your Life” – John D. Beatty Have you inherited your grandfather's war letters, your grandmother's photo album, or your uncle's genealogy files? Ever wonder how to get a handle on all of this paper "stuff?" This class will offer guidance on how to preserve and arrange those precious documents so that they can be kept safe for today and passed down to the future.

Wednesday, April 30, 2-3 p.m., Meeting Room A. “Archives 102: Organizing the Bytes in Your Life” – Dawne Slater-Putt You have files on your hard drive, documents on USBs and photos on your phone, and you can’t find anything when you need it. This class will offer advice on how to keep all of that precious data safe and in order for when you want.

Thursday, May 1, 6:30-8 p.m., Meeting Rooms A & B. “An Evening of Storytelling” Telling the stories in our lives is not only a great way to engage people in learning about their families and ancestors, it is a terrific way to “pass it on”—a terrific way to ensure the wonderful things we know about our families are passed on to the next generation. Join us for an evening of music and storytelling. It will inspire you to tell your stories.

Friday, May 2, 2-3 p.m., Meeting Room A. “Using iMovie to Capture Family Memories” – Mari Hardacre Learn how to use the iMovie app for Apple mobile devices to take photos and videos, and edit them into short movies to share with family and friends. Please bring your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad running the latest operating system (iOS 7) and download the iMovie app (cost $4.99) before the workshop, if possible. Space limited; registration required.

Saturday, May 3, 10-11 a.m., Globe Room “Up in Lights: Your Family History on Screen” – Cynthia Theusch As we research and gather information about our ancestors and their families, it is difficult to determine who gets the final research projects. Why not create a special video that can be saved to a DVD and distributed to family members? Both non-genealogists and children will enjoy watching your family story and learning about their family’s past. For more information, see the brochure at www.GenealogyCenter.org/docs/pres2014. To register for any of these free events, email Genealogy@ACPL.Info or call 260-421-1225.

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One-on-One Consultations Times Available

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Do you have a brick wall in your research? The Genealogy Center is offering 30-minute consultations with a staff member to discuss your specific research roadblock. Appointments are available 2pm to 4 pm, on Wednesday, April 9th, and Wednesday, May 14th. Space is limited, and these appointments will fill quickly. If you are interested, email Genealogy@ACPL.Info indicating which date you would prefer along with the details of your search quandary. Take advantage of this opportunity today!

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Out and About

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Curt Witcher 08 April 8 2014--Kendallville, IN Study Club, Kendallville Public Library, 221 S. Park Ave., Kendallville, IN, 12-2 p.m. Presentation: “Discovering Family History, and How It Impacts Who We Are.” 10 April 2014--Indiana Library Federation District Three Conference, Huntington Public Library, 255 W Park Drive, Huntington, IN. Keynote, 1:15-2 p.m. “Re-Think, Re-Boot, Re-Connect: It’s a New World!” Presentation, 2-2:50 p.m. “Something for Everyone: Genealogical Reference Service in the 21st Century.” 19 April 2014--Baltimore County Genealogical Society Family History Conference, The Parkville Senior Citizen Center, Room 308, 3rd Floor, 8601 Harford Road, Parkville, MD, 8:30 a.m. -3:30 p.m. Presentations: “Mining the Mother Lode: Using Periodical Literature for Genealogical Research,” “Passenger and Immigration Research,” and “More than Surname Surfing: Best Practices for Using the Internet for Genealogists.” 26 April 2014--Topeka Genealogical Society Annual Conference (KS), Kansas Historical Society 6425 SW 6th Street, Topeka, Kansas, all-day seminar. Presentations: “Roll Call: New Sites and Sources for Military Records and Research,” “Using Church Records in Your Genealogical Research,” “Mining the Motherlode: Using Periodical Literature for Genealogical Research,” and “The Road Not Taken: Mega Internet Sites for Genealogists Off the Beaten Path.”

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Area Calendar of Events

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Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Meeting & Conference 5 April 2014 – ACPL Meeting Rooms, Fort Wayne, Indiana, with registration & vendor browsing beginning at 9 a.m. Featured speaker, J. Mark Lowe, CG, FUGA, professional genealogist who appeared on “Who Do You Think You Are?” Topics: “Pioneers of the Frontier: Using Online Newspapers to Find Early Settlers,” “Quick, Complete and Accurate: Document Analysis for Researchers,” “Finding Freedmen Marriage Records” and “Out on a Limb: Trapped by Bad Research.” Second track with all technology topics. For more information or to register, go to http://www.indgensoc.org/conference.php. Allen County Genealogical Society (ACGSI) 9 April 2014 – ACPL Meeting Room, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 6:30 p.m. Gathering time, followed by business meeting and presentation, “Discovering Our Female Ancestors,” presented by Melissa Shimkus. ACGSI Genealogy Technology Group 16 April 2014 – ACPL Meeting Room, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 7 p.m. The History Center--The Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society 06 April 2014 – Nancy Jordan presents, “Everything Old is New Again: Lincoln Financial Group's Archives Read like Today's Newspaper Headlines.” Historic Fort Wayne Early Modern Muster of Arms: Soldiers of Pike and Shot, 1580-1610 12 April 2014 – Historic Fort Wayne, 1201 Spy Run Ave., Fort Wayne, Indiana, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Historic Fort Wayne 13th Pennsylvania Drill: 1776-1782 26 April 2014 – Historic Fort Wayne, 1201 Spy Run Ave., Fort Wayne, Indiana, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

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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 102. 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 112. 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. Dawne Slater-Putt, CG & Curt Witcher, co-editors