Allen County Public Library

Here are some of my Allen County Public Library finds from my quick trip there this month:

• Family Group Sheets found listing the city of Norwich, VT as the birth town of an ancestor.  While this isn’t anything in concrete, it’s a clue that might help with the lovely surname of SMITH.
• Marriage notice of an ancestor’s brother that lists the maiden name of the mother
• Cemetery listings that list the birth date of an ancestor.
• Cemetery listings showing an ancestor as “ILLINOIS PIONEER”
•  3^rd great grandfather noted in list of persons attending the reunion of his Civil War unit in 1887 (nothing too new, but I just found it interesting.  And from studying his unit, it was nice for ME to have a reunion with the others listed!)
• Estate notices of an ancestor (need to order)
• Family group sheets of an entire family going back to the 1600s in America (need to research)
• Photos of brothers and sisters of my 2^nd great grandmother
• Notices from a naturalization listing that may (or may not) be my ancestors (need to research)
• Local history book that says how the town sent off my 3rd great grandfather's Civil War unit
• And many, many more

If you haven’t been to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, I highly recommend it.  Sadly, we only had a few hours there, but we made the most of it.  There are rolling carts that you take with you to the shelves and fill.  You then bring them back to large study tables to go through.  I took pictures of the covers, title pages, copyright pages and the interesting pages with my iPad as I found things. 

Sadly, it wasn’t until halfway through the day that I realized that I should have jotted down the books that I *DIDN’T* find things in.  I’m sure that I’ll be looking through those same books again one day, since I didn’t do this.  (Slapping forehead).  When you are finished with the books, you put them on rolling wooden carts to be shelved.  We filled about five carts between two of us…

A friend from my local genealogical society told me that he spends a week at a time there.  Before going, I was baffled at how you could spend a whole week at a library. 

Now I know.

Wordless Wednesday: Wedding Anniversaries

Newspaper Articles from my 2nd great grandparents' anniversaries: William Mason Conner and Harriet Price Conner

Sweden

My great grandparents came to America from Sweden, but not together.  The area of Sweden that my great grandfather's family was from is here in Rot, Alvdalen, Dalarna County, Sweden:

I haven't done any Swedish research on my own.  My beloved first cousin once removed Janet willed me all of her research that she spent years on.

Pak-ak's Dice Cup

Grandchildren sometimes have a funny way of saying, "Grandma" or "Grandpa."   My son called my mom, "Nina" until he was 3 or 4.  Nina came from GRANDMA not Nana, so it's especially odd.  I called my paternal grandfather, "Bumpa" for a long time for GRAMPA.  But even odder is that my older cousin called my maternal grandfather, "Pak-ak" rather than GRANDPA.  So Pak-ak stuck for all future grandchildren and he was forever known as Pak-ak.  I sometimes even forget it's weird.

Anyway, this was Pak-ak's dice cup.  I use it as a pencil holder on my desk, since I don't really play dice games.

Charles Albert Badgley (aka "Pak-ak") was born on August 19, 1907 in Fresno, California.  He was a Mason and a printer for most of his life.  He moved to Oakland and then Sacramento, California where he died on February 20, 2000. Charles was the son of Robert Henry Badgley and Minnie May Irish.

Upcoming Meetings of L-AGS

Last night was the board meeting, which I attend because I pick up ideas for the eBulletin.  The upcoming meetings were announced and I can't tell you how exciting they are!  I can go IN MY OWN TOWN to see these awesome presentations!  If you are local, please make sure to attend.  And say hello.  I'll be the one with stars in my eyes.

Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society upcoming meetings:

Date	Topic	Presenter
March 13, 2012	Researching the Valley Pioneer Martin and Related Families	Julie Mooney
April 10, 2012	Getting Ready for the 1940 Census	Steve Morse
May 8, 2012	Historyalogy	David Stevenson
June 12, 2012	Putting the Flesh on the Bones	Ron Arons

Local Library Genealogical Collections

Last week, my local genealogicalsociety had our every-other-month Lunch ‘n’ Learn meeting.  We decided to bring our own lunches and meet outside the library that housed our society’s genealogical collection of over 1,000 books.  The docent for our society then gave a presentation of what our collection has and then a tour to show us where everything is.

Since I have no local ancestors, I never thought I would find much in a local society’s book collection.  Boy, howdy, was I wrong!  Our society's collection includes:

• ·         Genealogies in the Library of Congress: a Bibliography
• ·         Passenger and Immigration Lists: bibliography
• ·         Mayflower Families
• ·         DAR Patriot Index
• ·         Genealogical Abstracts of Revolutionary War Pension Files
• ·         Ethnic and Religious books (in particular Mennonite Genealogies)
• ·         Genealogists Address Book
• ·         Churches and Cemeteries
• ·         California Counties and Localities
• ·         Pre-1905 California Death Index on Microfiche
• ·         Schellen’s Collection for Alameda County with Index
• ·         Maps
• ·         US Local Histories in the Library of Congress
• ·         Meyers-Orts Gazetteer

We also have the following computer resources:

• ·         Wireless connection (with library card)
• ·         FamilySearch
• ·         World Cat
• ·         Heritage Quest (and you may access from home computer if you have a library card)
• ·         Steve Morse
• ·         NEHGS
• ·         Fold3
• ·         Ancestry (Library Edition)
• ·         A Genealogy Docent there every Wednesday from 10-1 and then again from 6-9 (or by appointment). 

To be honest, the whole thing made me feel quite stupid for ignoring such a LOCAL, valuable treasure for so many years.  So, go check out your local library and your local genealogical society.  Now.  Right now.

My local society is Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society and our library collection is here:  Pleasanton Public Library.

Allen County Public Library

Wow. Just wow. Lots of finds. No major breakthroughs but plenty of meat added to bones. I need to go back for more than a day.

I will be posting finds in blog posts when I get back from Ohio!

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