March 2018

Genealogy Gems:

News from the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne No. 169, March 31, 2018

In this issue:

Getting More Online for Your Family History

November’s Fury: The Deadly Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913

Connected Histories: A British History Resource

Technology Tip of the Month--Old Photographs: Bigger Is Better – the Cabinet Card

Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets

PERSI Gems

History Tidbits: April Showers Bring May Flowers

Library Catalog Insider – February Corrections

Library Catalog Insider

DNA Interest Group

Preservation Week 2018 – Saving Your Family Legacy

Holocaust Remembrance Event

Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogical Society Organizational Meeting

Staying Informed about Genealogy Center Programming

Area Calendar of Events

Driving Directions to the Library

Parking at the Library

Genealogy Center Queries

Publishing Note

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Getting More Online for Your Family History by Curt B. Witcher

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At the recent RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City I gave a presentation on how to get more out of the Internet for one’s family history. There turned out to be significant interest in this topic, so I am sharing my notes from that presentation here. The Internet is the most powerful research tool ever available to genealogical researchers. The large quantities of varied online data, though, are increasingly frustrating larger numbers of researchers as they try to find all the meaningful data available for a particular person, family, geographic location, and ethnic group. Additionally, it can be challenging to determine if the information found is valid and documented. Increasingly genealogists’ success in using this powerful tool will depend on focusing research attentions rather than doing broadcast searches across huge data silos and hoping for a miracle discovery of an ancestral line back to Adam and Eve(!). Due to how numerous important, data-rich websites are constructed and how the metadata that describes them (or not!) is harvested by search engines, one may or may not find important online resources by simply using popular search engines. In an attempt to be comprehensive and find as much meaningful data as possible (attempt to conduct a reasonably exhaustive search), one should remember to use all six “search keys” in online search strategies. Search under geographic location, ethnicity, religious belief, time period, and occupation as well as the surnames of interest. And one should seriously consider deploying what I call "A Successful Surfing Strategy." For each ancestor you are researching, engage the following strategy. ONE: Local Public Library—Visit the website for the local city or county public library of the area in which you are conducting research. Public libraries have amazing collections of localized materials, including some of the following highlights.

• Searchable record files, family history collections, and local history archives.

• Links to other important sites, special libraries, organizations, and resources in the local area.

• Online catalogs and guides to their collections--special collection listings such as newspapers and government documents.

• Many state library websites have links to their respective public library websites. TWO: State Library—Visit the website for the state library of the state in which you are interested in conducting research. Most state libraries have the following assets.

• Searchable genealogy and local history files.

• Links to other important sites in the state, particularly the state historical society.

• Online catalog to the collection.

• Good and growing collections of online, searchable data files.

• Special collection listings such as newspapers; city, county and church histories; and government documents.

• Links to state libraries can be found by Googling or using the following website. www.PublicLibraries.com/state_library.htm THREE: State Archives—Visit the website for the state archives of the state in which you are interested in conducting research. Many of their assets mirror those of the first two strategies.

• Searchable state and local record and local history files for state government as well as county entities.

• Growing digital documents collections.

• Links to other important sites in the state, particularly the state historical society.

• Online guides and calendars to their collections.

• Links to state archives: www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/state-archives.html FOUR: State Historical Society—Visit the website for the state historical society of the state in which you are interested in conducting research.

• Many have a library research collection with online catalogs and finding aids. Increasing numbers of items from these research collections are being digitized and made available online.

• Listings for special collections of manuscript materials in the institution’s archives. Many of these manuscript collection contain military records and family papers.

• Publications and programs of local and family history interest.

• Links to state historical societies: www.usgennet.org/socadmin FIVE: State Genealogical Society—Visit the website for the state genealogical society of the state in which you are interested in conducting research.

• Special publications and programs geared for genealogists.

• Heritage programs and associated files such as first families, pioneer settlers, centennial homesteads, etc. (Some of these programs may be found under the state historical society of a particular state.)

• Research tips and finding aids, and often at least a few free, searchable files.

• Links to state genealogical societies: www.usgennet.org/socadmin SIX: USGenWeb—Visit the U.S. GenWeb site for the county in which you are interested in conducting research.

• May contain tremendous amounts of indexed materials, digitized data & images, and research helps. (Look at the Texas GenWeb collection of pages and links for an example of a state that has amazing network of county GenWeb data.)

• Increasing number of GenWeb sites have research tips and hints for successful searching in their respective areas.

• Link to USGenWeb: www.USGenWeb.org While information on the abovementioned websites may be found by using Google or Bing, many of the sites in the above strategies are not optimized for discovery by the bots that Bing and Google send out to index websites. Significant portions of data are not discoverable by these bots, and hence, don’t show up in Bing and Google search results. Going to these sites directly, and then searching within the sites, could net some amazing research find.

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November’s Fury: The Deadly Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913 by Cynthia Theusch

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If your ancestors lived on the Great Lakes, have you ever wonder what they experienced when strong winds and storms occurred? Michael Schumacher, who wrote “November’s Fury, The Deadly Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913” (977 SCH8NO), explained that the storm’s devastation involved more than the wreckage of ships and lost lives of sailors. The hurricane had high winds and included blizzard conditions that wreaked havoc on all five Great Lakes for four days, from November 7 through November 10, 1913. It also damaged life-saving stations and the homes of residents who lived along the coast lines. Schumacher includes a map of where the vessels were lost, wrecked, and stranded during the hurricane. Throughout the book, he lists the names of the ships’ captains, chief and assistant engineers, and some of the crew members. For us to understand the strength of the storm’s wind and waves, Schumacher gives a reference from Eric Larson’s book, “Isaac’s Storm,” about the 1900 historic hurricane that devastated Galveston, Texas. Larson tells us that “A single cubic yard of water weighs about fifteen hundred pounds. … A wave over fifty feet long and ten feet high has a static weight of over eighty thousand pounds. Moving at thirty miles per hour, it generates forward momentum of over two million pounds.” Some of the ships and crew mentioned in “November’s Fury” were: the “Choctaw,” skipper – Captain Charles Fox; the “Turret Chief” – Captain Thomas Paddington; and the “Louisiana” - Captain Fred McDonald and First Mate Finley McLean. The latter ran aground and caught on fire, but the entire crew was saved. The “Cornell” had Captain John Noble and Chief Engineer Charles Lawrence among its crew. First-hand accounts of this storm testify to its fury. Charles Alonzo Horton’s letter, Great Lakes Disaster, 1913, available at http://www.genealogycenter.info/search_charleshorton.php, includes the following first four sentences: “I have had the worse experience of my life alright. That storm was something terrible. How the Cornell ever got through it is all due to the ruling power of God. It is impossible to write about.” Other books in the Genealogy Center’s collection describe the intensity of this and other Great Lakes storms and how a variety of ships endured them. They include David G. Brown’s book, “White Hurricane, A Great Lakes November Gale and America’s Deadliest Maritime Disaster” (977 B812W), and Wes Olseszewski’s two works, “Stormy Seas, Triumphs and Tragedies of Great Lakes Ships” (977 OL2st) and “Stormy Disasters, Great Lakes Shipwrecks” (977 OL2sto). Another useful work is the “Directory of Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes” compiled by Karl E. Heden (977 H358D). The first five chapters are devoted to each of the five Great Lakes, and each contains an alphabetical list of ships that were wrecked or lost. Some of the data included are the ships’ names, their tonnage, the cargo being transported, and date and location of where it was wrecked. All of these books will give you a better understanding of how sailors, life-saving station crews, and residents were able to endure storms on the lakes or near their shores.

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Connected Histories: A British History Resource by Allison DePrey Singleton

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For those of us with British ancestry, there are a plethora of sources to muddle through to find information about our ancestors’ lives. A useful source to assist with online British research is Connected Histories (www.connectedhistories.org). This website curates 25 major British historical digital resources for the period 1500-1900. While many of the resources in this website are free, a few require a fee. The most frustrating of those are the collection of British newspapers. They are free to search within a British Library Reading Room or a higher education facility in the United Kingdom, but for those of us in the colonies, the collection requires access through Gale, a database company. As with many things in life, we have begun with the bad news before extolling the virtues of Connected Histories. The website is remarkably easy to navigate. You can first watch the video guide to learn what key features might strike your fancy. It is highly recommended that you begin with the video, if this article has made you curious about the website. Then you can navigate it, using the tabs at the top of the website to get to different sections with ease. These tabs come in handy for non-British users, who need to check whether certain collections are free to access. Checking can be done easily by clicking on the Resources tab and looking at the right column to see if it says free. The Resources tab is also helpful for determining what types of collections the general search will cover when you click on “Search.” You will be looking at such national collections as “British History Online,” “Lane’s Masonic Records,” and “Witchcraft in Early Modern England.” You will also be able to look through more specific record collections such as “London Lives 1690-1800,” “Board of Longitude,” and “Queen Victoria’s Journals.” Another useful feature is the section on Guides. You can read through the specific “Guide on Family History” for ideas on what sources to search, and it offers some top-notch research strategies for the website. Other guides may not prove as helpful for specific name searching, but perhaps they will provide historical context for the time period that your family lived in the United Kingdom. The search function, the best feature of the website, is easy to use and understand. It offers the capability to search by person, place, or keyword, and the user can adjust the date range. If that is not enough detail, you can do an advanced search that asks for such detailed information as “Full Name,” “Given Name,” or “Family Name.” This is a benefit for family historians, since we know that names can be given in a variety of different ways. When looking for free (or almost free) resources on British genealogy and history, try this resource. You never know what you will uncover in each new database you try. Even if you do not have British ancestry, taking a glance at a different set of historical records might jog your mind for a new resource to try in your family history research.

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Technology Tip of the Month--Old Photographs: Bigger Is Better – the Cabinet Card by Kay Spears

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I suspect that many of you have a lot of this type of old photograph. Called cabinet cards, they were very popular from the 1860s to the early 1900s. So, these gems are not rare. By the time cabinet cards became popular in the United States, the process of producing one had been perfected. From the very beginning the cabinet card size was standardized at 4 ¼ by 6 ½. While one may look at cabinet cards and say, “Hey, they all look alike,” they do contain clues that might help you when trying to date a photograph. Let’s examine some of them. As with the CDVs, early cabinet cards were simpler and on thinner card stock. Around the 1880s the cards started to become thicker, some of them even had beveled edges. However, a beveled edge was more expensive, so it is possible to have cards produced in the 1880s that are not beveled. Remember, when arriving at a date, you must take everything into consideration. Something else which might give you a clue is scalloped edges. These edges became popular around the late 1880s into the 1890s. Borders. As with the CDVs, the early cabinet cards had a thin lined border around the edges. This lasted until around the 1890s, when other designs started to emerge, although I have cabinet cards that are late with that thin line. I would imagine the photographer gave his customer a choice of what style they wanted. Later cards have a thick border line, and some even have lovely embossed borders. Then there are the photographers who knew an advertising gold mine when they saw it. Because of the size of cabinet cards, photographers were able to become quite creative with placing their name on their product. In the beginning, they placed their names tastefully on the front bottom. Then they saw the back of the card and said “why not.” The backs of some photographs are full of photographer information. This is probably one of the most helpful things you can find on a photograph. Searching for photographer information in directories, photographer lists, and web searches can really help in identifying dates. I have noticed that photographers changed their names or added an address to the information on the cards. For example, some photographers might use their initials from one date to another, then change those initials to a full name on a particular date. Say we have a J.L. Smith who changed his business name in 1892 to John Lex Smith and we have a photograph which says John Lex Smith Super-Duper Photographs. We now have the date of 1892 to start with. So, examining the photographer information can be quite important. Next article: Cabinet Cards continue with Vignette and Trompe l’oeil Effects.

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Quick-Tip of the Month for Preservation--Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets

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An informative article about ensuring appropriate access to your digital access upon your demise is linked below. https://theconversation.com/estate-planning-for-your-digital-assets-90613 From the article: “By engaging in some simple estate planning, you can protect your privacy as well as ease the management of your estate after your death. Plan for your digital assets in the same way you would any other valuable tangible or intangible asset.”

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PERSI Gems by Adam Barrone and Mike Hudson

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On March 29th, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth distributed commemorative coins to 184 elderly pensioners during the Royal Maundy service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. This followed a long-standing tradition of the British monarch providing aid to the poor and elderly on the Thursday before Easter. An exploration of family history will reveal ancestors in varied financial circumstances including those who needed the assistance of charitable organizations and governmental units. Records of some institutions and orphanages survive along with the 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes which document, among others, residents of poor asylums. My early efforts to collect genealogical information included countless hours of quizzing my grandmothers. I had more time with my paternal grandmother, Edith Barrone, and she relayed a wealth of information from her own memory. When asked about her great-grandfather, George Washington Malcom, her mind jumped to the late 1920s when her parents took her and little brother, John Lude, to visit him. She told me ‘Grandpa Malcom’ lived at the poor farm near Portland, Indiana. On this visit, he offered the two young children a feather and a marble as a token of his great-grandfatherly affection. As a genealogist and new driver in the 1990s, I set out to the Jay County Retirement Center, a county-owned institution still (to this day) serving its original purpose to provide bed and board for impoverished and elderly residents. The newly-assigned superintendents said they had seen some old papers in the basement of the brick edifice and would look for information about Grandpa Malcom when they had a chance. Some weeks later I received a photocopy of his admittance form, signed with an ‘X’ which stated Washington Malcom was born May 15, 1848 in Grant County, Indiana. This information was new to me, opened further research possibilities, and verified the accuracy of my grandmother’s childhood memory. In this instance, going directly to the source was possible because the institution was still open and had possession of its records. Sometimes, records can be found elsewhere in repositories or in published sources. The Periodical Source Index (PERSI) cites over 8,000 articles about asylums, orphanages, hospitals, and correctional facilities. Try a search here: http://search.findmypast.com/search/periodical-source-index Here, we list selected citations about asylums, poor houses, and poor relief: Alfred Price exposed person to female paupers, George Mapp-Eliza Morris Workhouse notes, 1856 Herefordshire (Eng.) Fam. His. Soc. Journal, v.3n.1, Apr. 1986 Almshouse-County Poor Farm deaths, 1886-1935 Journey Into the Past (Graves Co. Gen. Soc., KY), v.12n.1, Spr. 2002 Annie Dippie admission to Clifton Lunatic Asylum note, 1884 Mary Looney admission to Clifton Lunatic Asylum note, 1888 Journal of the City of York (Eng.) & District Fam. Hist. Soc., v.8n.3, Sep. 2007 Grand jury probes poor farm, 1933 Warren Co. (IA) Gen. Soc. Newsletter, v.29n.2-3, Mar. 2002 Overseer of poor book, 1839-1903, Egg Harbour Twp. Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, v.68n.1, Jan. 1993 Physicians appointed by Directors of the Poor to attend outdoor poor, list, 1894 Airy View (Perry Historians, PA), v.35n.1, Jan. 2010 Poor house indentured children, 1832-90 Chautauqua (NY) Genealogist, v.14n.3, Aug. 1991 Poor Jews' Temporary Shelter, founded 1885, notes JHSE Newsletter (Jewish Hist. Soc. of England), n.8, Feb. 2003 Reasons families would be in poor house Lorain County (OH) Researcher, v.18n.3, Sum. 2001 Thespian Society for Poor, Cassville, 1845 Bartow County (GA) Genealogical Society Quarterly, v.4n.4, Win. 1995

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History Tidbits: April Showers Bring May Flowers by Allison DePrey Singleton

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Perhaps the most common phrase during spring is “April Showers Bring May Flowers.” The origin of the phrase is attributed to Thomas Tusser from his 1557 work, “A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry.” The book discusses country customs throughout the year and serves as an early combination of an almanac, poetry, and a how-to guide. The poem “Sweet April showers, Do spring May flowers” is found at the beginning of the section on ‘April’s Husbandry.’ Thomas Tusser was not a well-known author even during his own lifetime. He was born in Essex in 1524 into a well-off family, which is listed in the 1836 History and Topography of Essex County. Tusser was educated at Eton and King’s College and Trinity Hall at Cambridge. After serving for a time with the royal court, Tusser pursued farming. During this pursuit he wrote his first of two books, “A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry.” Tusser’s account on country life is one of few descriptions of Tudor country life. If your ancestors were living in the English countryside during the Tudor period, this book could be invaluable to understand more about your ancestors’ lives. Even if your ancestors were not in England during this time, this book may give some insights to life elsewhere. “A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry” was widely popular and read by literate people from every walk of life for a glimpse at agricultural life. Later, Tusser expanded his first book into a second and final book, “Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie to as many of Good Huswifery” (1573). He died in London in 1580. Books from the article: https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/855/hundreth.pdf https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_epIAAAAMAAJ&rdid=book- _epIAAAAMAAJ&rdot=1

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Library Catalog Insider – February Corrections

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Your editors got a bit careless when copying and pasting details for last month’s “Library Catalog Insider” article. We apologize for the mistakes that were in the list of state abbreviations. The corrections are: New Hampshire-----N.H. New Mexico-----N.M.

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Library Catalog Insider by Kasia Young

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Welcome back! We hope you got a chance to practice searching for the geographical names in our catalog and that your searches were successful. Today, we will discuss specific types of genealogical records, which you can find in our catalog. The Genealogy Center’s collection is comprised of a variety of materials that include complete transcriptions of genealogical source documents, as well as abstracts and indexes of these documents. Here is the list of the most commonly used subject headings that The Genealogy Center’s catalogers use to describe materials that contain specific types of records:

1. Adoption records: Use also: Adoptees + Location and/or Adopted children + Location.

2. Baptismal records: Use for church records concerning only baptisms

3. Bible records: Use for gathered Bible records (family Bibles used to record births, marriages and deaths) from one or more geographic locations

4. Birth records: Use also: Birth certificates + Location

5. Burial records: Includes burial dates and cemetery locations

6. Business records: Includes account books, financial statements, inventories, ledgers, and other papers created in the course of business

7. Church records and registers: Includes parish registers, church members, communion rolls, and lists of persons receiving sacraments (baptisms, marriages, burials); not used for Synagogue materials

8. Court records: Use for any records coming from a court

9. Death records: Use for any type of death records

10. Divorce records

11. Farm records: Use instead: Farm management + Location + Records and correspondence

12. Jewish records: Use also: Jews + Location

13. Land records: Includes land entries, surveys, homesteads, plat books, etc.

14. Marriage records: Includes marriage records and banns

15. Medical records: Includes medical histories and lists of hospital patients, doctors, midwives, etc.

16. Military records: Includes militia records, muster rolls, service records, etc. of the armed forces

17. Mortuary records: Use instead: Funeral homes + Location + Records and correspondence

18. Naturalization records: Includes records, laws and discussions of citizenship, and works dealing with qualifications, processes, etc. of becoming a citizen and the records resulting from that process

19. Personnel records: Includes lists of personnel employed by specific business firms 20. Probate records: Includes settlements, court proceedings, laws, etc. dealing with the estates of the deceased; does not include wills

21. Public records: Includes records created by civil authorities, that do not fall into other categories, such as court records

22. Slave records: Use also: Plantations + Location + Records and correspondence

23. Tax records: Includes discussion of tax systems and records generated as a result of the administration of a tax system

24. Vital records: Can be used instead of more specific headings, such as birth records If you are looking for a specific type of record in a specific location, all you have to do is use the subject heading and the geographical location heading in the Search the ACPL Catalog window on The Genealogy Center’s main page. For example, the search term: “Marriage records Indiana Allen County” yields a list of all items in The Genealogy Center’s catalog concerning marriage records in Allen County, Indiana (32 records found). If you looking for indexes of marriages in Allen County, Indiana your search would look like this: “Marriage records Indiana Allen County Indexes” (4 records found). The same structure can be applied to all the other subject headings listed above. Happy researching! Bonus tip for April: You will probably notice a subject heading Registers of births, etc. while searching our catalog. This subject heading was used by The Genealogy Center’s catalogers for many years for different types of records (birth, death, etc.). Although this subject heading is not being used anymore, it still exists in our catalog. Make sure to use it in your research, so that you do not miss opportunities for greater discoveries. For example: “Registers of births, etc. Indiana Allen County” (16 records found). Next month we will focus on other types of genealogical records that were not discussed in this issue. Stay tuned!

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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, April 5, 2018. Come in and share!

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Preservation Week 2018 – Saving Your Family Legacy

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An important part of family history is preservation: preservation of family and community history, preservation of family and community documents and heirlooms, preservation of stories and oral history. The Genealogy Center will celebrate Preservation Week April 23 to April 27, 2018, with information on the care and preservation of your family’s, and your community’s, legacy. Sessions will be held in the Discovery Center during the last week of April. For information about the events, see the brochure at http://genealogycenter.org/docs/PreservationWeek2018. Monday April 23, 2018, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center Save Me! Recreating Professional Archivist Strategies at Home - Emily Rapoza When looking at old documents or photographs, the first questions asked are often: “What do I do with this?” or “How do I save this?” Learn the initial steps to help keep documents safe and preserved at home, including encapsulation and digitization. Emily will include some demonstrations! Tuesday April 24, 2018, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center Your Home Archives: Organizing and Preserving the Heirloom Paper in Your Life - John Beatty This session 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 25, 2018, 6:30 p.m., Discovery Center I Have My Family “Stuff” (Photos, Papers, Diaries, etc.): What’s Next? - Melissa Tennant, Kay Spears, Emily Rapoza Do you have a box of stuff? Do you have photographs, letters, diaries, cards and scraps of paper that you don’t know what to do with? How does one preserve a photograph, a journal, a diary, etc.? How does one go about scanning? What are the recommended ways of preserving family memories? What tools are available on Apple or Windows computers which may be used for preserving family images, etc.? How do you label photos, letters and journals? How do you organize, number, label and store items? This is the time to ask your questions! Our panelists are ready to answer these questions and more! Thursday, April 26, 2018, 6:30 p.m., Discover Center A Need to Remember: Preserving Memories - Allison DePrey Singleton Trying to keep someone’s memory alive can be difficult as the years go by. Realizing your children and grandchildren will have questions for you after you are gone can raise awareness of a need. Losing a dear friend or family member can trigger a need. The desire to preserve our history or a loved one’s history can pop up at any time. This presentation will explore different options for preserving stories, photographs, and memories. Friday, April 27, 2018, 2:30 p.m., Discovery Center & Maker Lab, ACPL Using the Maker Lab to Preserve Family History - Sara Allen Learn how ACPL’s Maker Lab can be used to preserve your family history. Join us as we tour the Maker Lab and learn how to convert family wedding videos to DVD; convert family vacation slides to digital files; make 3-D replicas of family memorabilia, sports logos, company logos, and more.

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Holocaust Remembrance Event

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A Holocaust Remembrance Event is being held at the Rifkin Campus, 5200 Old Mill Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana 7 p.m. on April 16, 2018. The Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne has invited Martin Goldsmith to speak. He traced the lives of his grandfather, grandmother, uncle and great aunt, who were all victims of the Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. His two books present that research to the public in a personal way: “The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany” and “Alex's Wake: The Tragic Voyage of the St. Louis to Flee Nazi Germany and a Grandson’s Journey of Love and Remembrance.” He is known in this community primarily as an NPR music announcer and as a satellite radio announcer of classical music. Before the event there will be music played by members of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic's Youth Orchestra. Following the remembrance ceremony there will be refreshments and a chance to browse story boards depicting people's lives affected by the Holocaust. These story boards were created by students at New Tech High School here in Fort Wayne. Mark your calendars for this April event.

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Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogical Society Organizational Meeting

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The Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogical Society will hold an organizational meeting on Sunday, June 10, 2018, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Discovery Center. You are invited to join a group of interested members of our community for this first meeting of the Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogy Society. Whether you are:

• A beginner who wants to pass on your family history to family members,

• The family historian who wants to broaden your Jewish genealogy research base,

• A person looking for relatives,

• A Holocaust survivor or a descendant of a survivor searching for family,

• A person trying to discover lost Jewish heritage or helping a family member find their roots, Please join us! We will cover the following:

• Discuss what we need to do to form a chapter of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and why we want to do this.

• Discuss organizational structure, by-laws and dues.

• Sign up members.

• Determine a meeting schedule and programming for the next 12 months.

• Present a brief program covering the following: o Family history research – Betsy Gephart. o Holocaust research – Irv Adler. o Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center – Curt Witcher, Genealogy Center Manager. Please RSVP by e-mail to NEIndianaJGS@gmail.com. Facebook – www.facebook.com/NEIndianaJGS Website – NEIndianaJGS.wordpress.com

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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. (ACGSI) Monthly Program April 11, 2018 - Allen County Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, refreshments & networking begins at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. John Schreiber will present: “Using GIS to Find Ancestral Homes.” Mary Penrose Wayne DAR Chapter Library Help Day for Prospective Members April 4, 2018 – The Genealogy Center, Allen County Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 10 - 4 p.m. Members of the Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will provide help to those interested in joining the D.A.R. who would like advice and assistance in their research. No appointment is necessary. The George R. Mather Lecture Series April 1, 2018 – The History Center, 302 East Berry Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 2 p.m. Kayleen Reusser presents " They Did It for Honor: Stories of American World War II Veterans."

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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