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Beginning on Sunday, May 26, 2013, The Genealogy Center  like other facilities of the Allen County Public Library, will begin to be closed on Sundays through the summer months. Other regular hours, Monday through Thursday, 9 Am to 9 PM, and Fridays and Saturdays 9 AM to 6 PM, will remain the same. Sunday hours are scheduled to recommence on Sunday September 8, 2013.

The Genealogy Center, like all of the Allen County Public Library agencies, will be closed Monday, May 27, 2013 in honor of Memorial Day. We will be open our regular house on Saturday, May 25, 9 AM to 6 PM, and on Tuesday May 28, 9 AM to 9 PM. Take this day to honor our veterans who fought and died for our freedom.

 In research, we want to locate the most important records in recording an ancestor’s life, and, of course, we want it NOW! See how it may be possible to locate these “vital” records online.

For more information about this or other Beyond Ancestry's Leaves & Branches series, see our brochure.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013, Meeting Room A,  10 AM - 11 AM.

To register for this free class, send an email or call 260-421-1225.

Churches played both a social and religious role in our ancestors’ lives. Enjoy a basic overview of the steps one needs to take in finding church records. This presentation will feature many different examples of records from different denominations and will offer strategies for research and interpretation.

Saturday, May 25, 2013, 10 AM, Meeting Room A.

For more information about this or other events in our Family History Fundamentals series, see the brochure.

To register for this free class, send an email or call 260-421-1225.

By Dawne

I once heard it called “bulldog genealogy,” the tendency not to give up when the answer didn’t come easily, but to keep chewing on the problem from different directions until success was achieved. The worth of this technique was proved for a patron and me one evening recently in The Genealogy Center.

He came into The Center looking for information about the death of his much older sister in a house fire back in the late 1940s here in Fort Wayne. He thought the year was about 1947, because she was born in 1931 and he believed she died at age 16. He was nearly certain that she was buried in Lindenwood Cemetery, because he remembered his father and mother going out to the cemetery to visit his sister’s grave when he was small. But he had been to Lindenwood and the cemetery had no record of someone with his sister’s name buried there.

We checked the Lindenwood interment books here, even though those records are taken from the cemetery’s records and so likely would not be different. We also checked the obituary index with no luck. “Could she have gone by any other name?” I asked ...

by John

The Genealogy Center holds a wide variety of books. We collect not only with current genealogists in mind, but also with an eye to future researchers who may be interested in records of more recent events of genealogical value. A good example is our collection of military histories. Yes, we have lots of books about the wars of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but we also have a strong collection of Vietnam War histories and memoirs, and even sources for America's most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers and veterans of today will become the ancestors of future genealogists.

Military sources can vary in type. For these more recent conflicts, it is obvious that the veteran service records are not available to researchers. So instead, in order to document what little is available about these wars, we look for memoirs, first-hand accounts, unit histories, and even general histories, knowing that they may assist genealogists in the future. We also seek out books about military uniforms, medals, and insignia, since these sources may help researchers when evaluating ancestral photographs or heirlooms. Many such works have been published about World War II.

Recently we obtained a most ...

by Delia

I always get a bit excited on May 1st. Many people do. Yes, there are holidays, both religious and cultural on that day, but for me, it was always school's-almost-out excitement. Whether I might have been looking forward to long days of play and fighting with my sister (elementary school), reading and learning to drive (high school), or a summer job (college), doing something different was always fun, especially if my parents had planned a vacation somewhere, which was usually in August.

As an adult, summer signaled that I had not only extra time to enjoy with my family, but also the influx of customers that we, at The Genealogy Center, attracted in the summer months. New people, mixing with our regular friends, intriguing research questions, and chatting with folks from far away.

As you plan your summer, work in some time to come and see us. There's a lot of research material on the Internet, but we have many unique sources that aren't online. Plan a quick trip or change your route to spend a day or two or three with us.

And then, of course, in August, right when my family took vacations, plan to ...

by Delia

As both a researcher and a genealogy librarian, I don't like to give up on any family history question. I always think that searching church records, doing cluster research and reading newspapers, etc. will yield the answer, if only one will take the time.

And often, I am right when offering these possibilities on finding that missing piece: spelling the names slightly different; switching the first and last name; looking in a neighboring county; the list goes on. But sometimes, I know that the information that is sought will probably never be found.

Do you have an ancestor who was a child left abandoned on porch steps, a church pew or at a train station? The authorities would have sought the mother at the time, so once a search of the records of the abandonment have been searched and local newspapers have been perused, it's unlikely that the identity of the parents will be established. (Although my compulsion to continue the search tells me that if one reads all personal diaries and newspapers for the 25 closest counties and all communities on the connecting rail lines, it may be possible that someone mentioned a pregnant woman....) Or if ...

by Delia

We love it when a group arrives to use The Genealogy Center. The first thing we do when a group presents itself at the Ask Desk is to check our "Talks, Tours & Groups" notebook to see whether the group leader requested a tour when he or she called to schedule the visit. Tours are fun! And any of our librarians may give a group tour. Although we cover a lot of territory, this helps our visitors get a feel for how large the Center is, plus we can demonstrate some of the equipment and make a few jokes along the way. Afterward, everyone settles down to work, but group members are encouraged to approach the desk at any time to ask questions that vary from in-depth research queries to questions on which button to press to make a copy.

The tips we've passed along previously in this blog for individual visitors also apply to people coming in groups or on bus tours. Those include bringing a USB drive to download images of census, passenger lists and other documents; bringing $1 and $5 bills to charge copy cards; and bringing enough information to do research without bringing ...