If You Don't Do Genealogy Today ...

... then when? If you don't come to a beginning genealogy class in May ... then when?

Sure, you have lots of other things to do. But if your family history is something you've always planned to seek out, there's no better time -- and you owe it to yourself.

When you find out about your family -- or families, actually, because every generation you go back adds a new female line for each male, new stories, new surprises -- when you find out about your family you may look at yourself differently.

You may not always be proud of every action of every one of your ancestors, but you may gain understanding. Most likely you will find many actions in which to take pride -- actions never mentioned in the family but actions that show up in the records when you read between the lines.

Every Thursday is Genealogists Day Out at the Library ... where beginners and more experienced researchers alike participate in GenTalk, to share what they have found that works or what they know about a place they have researched.

Join us in May and June when we return to basics -- how to set up your genealogy, how combine searching records in person with searching online where resources grow each day no matter in which states your ancestors resided.

You can register for the free classes by calling 522-3412 ext. 240 or drop by in case there's an open seat in the classroom. Not required but helpful are basic computer experience (the library also offers free computer classes to help you get started with that) and a JCPL library card.

Here's the class schedule for May and June -- with an evening class for those who can't come during the day:

Tuesday, May 4, 6:30-8 pm -- Beginning genealogy

Thursdays, 10-11:30 am:

May 6, Beginning genealogy

May 13, Searching databases

June 10, Beginning genealogy

June 17, Searching databases

Let us know if you need a different day or time and we'll try to set up a class.

Now's the time ...

Classes for March & April

Here's a look at GenTalk classes and discussions planned for 10 am Thursdays in March and April. More March details in a couple of weeks ... although the titles are pretty self explanatory.

March 4 - Getting started with census & directories
March 11 - Mining obituaries & published histories
March 18 - Using other databases
March 25 - Organizing & regrouping
April 1 - Tracing tricky ancestors
April 8, 15 - No classes, local history specialist away from the library. You still can come and research on your own!
April 22 - Googling for genealogists

April 10 I'll be attending the annual conference of the Indiana Genealogical Society at the Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne. I hope some of the rest of you can go as well. Dick Eastman, whose online newsletter you've probably seen, will be the featured speaker.
April 29 - Genealogy software: uses & choices

County Records Update

The high cost of preserving records essential to Jackson County's past -- records important for both official business and historical research -- became the main topic of discussion Thursday at the latest meeting of the Jackson County Commission on Public Records.

Actually storing the records also was touched on. Afterward the Commission secretary, County Clerk Sarah Benter, gave me a quick guided tour of the record storage areas she and the folks in her office have straightened over the past several months. The room appears lighter and cleaner as well.

Attending the meeting as Jackson County Historian, I was the only visitor joining the four of seven commission members present. With a quorum they were able to conduct the little business to come before them Thursday.

During the discussion the county recorder, Traci Hubbard, said it costs about $2,500 each to preserve the deed books in her office by having the pages given an acid bath and then encapsulated before being returned to book form. The process also doubles the size of the record books.

Space use and needs have been discussed for years by the county commissioners and council members who conducted another hearing last fall and promised a professional study of space would be underway soon. As far as anyone knew, no action has been taken toward that study.
The record commissioners are more understanding than I, even though I know the county commissioners have many other things about which to be concerned. The records have been neglected for years. Few elected to the offices make time to learn about the old records or to care for their preservation.

Clerk Benter has been an exception. While she is the first to say the changes she has made are not perfect, I will be among the first to say the changes are welcome. I haven't had a chance recently to research in the basement storage area, but I was impressed with the changes since last time I visited.

Sarah and her crew now have a system for the files back to 1911. It's a bit convoluted but it seems workable to follow across a run of records here, then move around the corner along another run before jumping to another area where the numbers continue in order. Hooray! And plans are to add years to the case numbers on the boxes.

For my purposes, I wish the same order existed in the pre-1911 records. I still want to find Seymour Barmore's 1860s divorce packet. But what a job it must have been to organize the folders back to 1911 from the stacked and sagging chaos in which they had been stored. The files now should be much easier for Sarah and her clerks to access. She said some of the files are needed almost daily.

Sarah also is responsible for some of those big old books that are hard to handle. Most of them now are vertical, rather than stacked on top of one another, and will be at least a bit easier to locate and maneuver. She re-used some of the old shelving to get books off the floor in another storage area. It's a great start.

The re-organization also will give whoever follows Sarah Benter in the office a year or two of breathing room before storage becomes a problem again. Well done, Sarah!

And thank you or caring about the records and the people who use them. We can only hope the next person in the office becomes as knowledgeable about the records as you have -- and that those who use the books will show respect in handling them and will take time to return them to their proper place.

Genealogists' Days Out in February

Genealogists' Day Out @ the Seymour Library will continue on Thursdays this month. Remember you can come for an hour or stay and research all day.

If you want to join the computer classroom discussions at 10 am, we'd appreciate having you call the library at 522-3412 ext. 243 to register ... but if there's room in the class, you're welcome to sit in anyway. We will understand if the weather is bad that you might not want to venture out.

GenTalk this Thursday, February 4, will find us talking about ships and immigration. Tell us what you know that may help others in the class. We will all learn together!

February 11 we will concentrate on how to search Heritage Quest Online and Ancestry Library Edition. There's a lot more than census to help find ancestors on these sites. The Books section has directories and county histories as well as family histories. The Revolutionary War section has scanned images of pension application papers. The Freedman's Bank and the Serial Set have many more names.

February 18 we will take a look at finding more print and online articles as well as book chapters to help with your research. Even if your ancestor's name isn't in the article, you may learn about the place the ancestor lived or the occupation or some other bit of information that can break through a stone wall. Many articles give tips on how to look a particular kind of information or record.

February 25 will find us exploring more online databases that we can access for free or for fee. You can visit the library's local history website at http://www.myjclibrary.org/localhistory to view some of the databases. Bring any questions or comments you have on using the databases.

Those Cincinnati Ancestors ...

Good news for those looking for Cincinnati ancestors! And we know we have lots of connections to that Ohio city where German immigrants spent some time before coming to Jackson County and where other folks went to get married or for other activities that sometimes led to the record books.

The Hamilton County Probate Court of Judge James Cissel has made archived records -- more than a million of them -- from 1791 through 1994 available online at http://www.probatect.org through a link in red about halfway down the page. Give it a try.

The archive search provides "online access to handwritten and typed records that were previously kept in bound volumes." It includes estates, wills, trusts, guardianships, marriages, minister's licenses, birth records, registrations and corrections, death records, naturalizations, record book entries and physician certificates. The records vary widely by time period.

Because of the strong connection with Cincinnati, the Seymour Library also has a selection of indexes and finding aids for Hamilton County records. It's great to have this new addition to those indexes and to the materials already available online.