August meeting wrapup with the Michigan City Lighthouse Museum

Twenty members and guests of the La Porte County Genealogical Society heard Laura Shields explain the Michigan City Historical Society's Old Lighthouse Museum Tuesday evening August 14. The lighthouse museum is open by appointment, and the annual individual membership fee is $8; those who visit to do research are asked to join. Holdings including Michigan City histories and directories, some family files, scrapbooks and biographies (both indexed), information on local businesses and organizations, and lots of photographs of all kinds (some not yet identified).

Weather permitting, the genealogy society meets at the Swanson Center for Older Adults, 910 State Street, La Porte, on the second Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. The public is welcome at all meetings. Membership dues are $10 individual, $12 family.

At the society's September 11 meeting, 2012 residency certificates will be presented to successful applicants. If you have thought of applying for a certificate, this is a good meeting to attend and see and discuss exactly what it takes to prove that your ancestor was in the county prior to a certain date.

July 31, 2013 is the deadline to apply for one or more residency certificates next year. Our web site at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/categories.htm has information for those who believe they have La Porte County ancestors (and can prove it!). There's information on how to apply for First Families of La Porte (before December 1840), Pioneer Families (1841-1860), Settler Families (1861-1880), and Civil War Families (1861-1865).

Nominations are still open for Genealogist of the Year. Details on our web site, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/Gen%20of%20the%20Year.jpg.

You can also read or search back issues of the society's newsletter, December 2005 through December 2009, including genealogical and historical information from members' research and abstracting work in local records, on our blog at http://lpcgs.blogspot.com.