Sunday, December 13, 2015

Genealogist of the Year!

Don Glossinger and Patricia Gruse Harris.
 On December 8, 2015, twenty-one members and guests of the La Porte County (Indiana) Genealogical Society enjoyed a holiday dinner at Round the Clock restaurant. Featured was the presentation of the Genealogist of the Year Award for 2015. The recipient was Don Glossinger. Patricia Gruse Harris, who nominated Don, gave permission to use this version of her nominating statement.

"This person has done extensive research using DNA to prove many of his ancestors and connect with fellow researchers.  He is always willing to share this knowledge with anyone seeking his advice and has given programs on how to use DNA to prove your relationships.  He is also very knowledgeable in Irish Genealogy and can guide you in this difficult research.  He is always supportive of our annual Genealogy Bus Trip to ACPL, even taking charge of part of the trip when I was unable to participate due to family situations.
"Because of his support the M.C. Public Library continues to have an excellent and growing Genealogy Collection that not only covers our local area, but other states and foreign countries, as well as internet programs.

"I am pleased to nominate this person who realizes the importance of knowing our past for our journey into the future – Don Glossinger, Library Director of the Michigan City Public Library who has been stricken with “Genealogy Fever.” an incurable. deadly and infectious disease."

Wednesday, November 18, 2015



Join us at the restaurant!

               Gloria Arndt promises a surprise

                      Genealogist of the Year.



Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Connecting With Kids




The La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society will meet at 7 PM (CDST) Tuesday, October 13, 2015, at the La Porte City Parks Headquarters Building, 250 Pine Lake Avenue.
The business portion of the meeting will be followed by refreshments and a program entitled “Connecting Family’s Past With Kids Can Be Very Important,” presented by Pamela Henderson. Pam Henderson is the director of development and communications at Dunebrook. She resides in La Porte County with her husband, two daughters and two cats. She graduated from Valparaiso University with a degree in International Economics. Prior to joining Dunebrook, she was a Vice President and Trust Officer for a national bank, and is a Certified Financial Planner licensee. 
Guests are always welcome to join us.
We hope that you will visit the society’s website, at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm. The site is a place to find information on the Society, its officers, publications, objectives and programs. 

Monday, August 31, 2015

Our Program on August 8, 2015

Harold Henderson
 
If you are stuck on sorting out your ancestor families, with older Census records being of limited help, perhaps you need to look at less-used records. Probate records often can sort out family relationships, property transfers and other conundrums. Certified Genealogist Harold Henderson, of Springfield Township, will present a program entitled ”Probate Will Not Be the Death of You” at our next meeting, Tuesday, August 8. Guests are always welcome to join us. We will meet at 7 PM, at the La Porte Park Department Building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue.
We hope that you will visit the society’s website, at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm. The site is a place to find information on the Society, its officers, publications, objectives and programs. Look for us also on Facebook.

Sunday, August 2, 2015

11 August 2015 La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society Meeting

When I was growing up in Springfield Township, La Porte County, this intersection had no road signs. If it did, we natives would expect them to read “Marsh Road” and “Moon Road”. (I never saw these names used in an address - our mail came to RR #1, Box 222.) Did the county roads have names before they had numbers? Why do some still have names? Whose names are/were attached to roads?
The program which follows the business portion of the regular monthly meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society is entitled “La Porte County Road Surnames, Genealogically Speaking,” presented by the La Porte County Historian, Fern Eddy Schultz. Guests are welcome to join us at 7 PM on Tuesday, August 11, at the La Porte Park Department Headquarters, 250 Pine Lake Avenue.
Learn more about the society at our website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/, or like us on Facebook. [La Porte County Genealogical Society]

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

St. Mary's Cemetery, Otis, Indiana

We had excellent weather for our annual cemetery tour on June 9, 2015.



President Dorothy Palmer presented part of the program
with the monument to Rev. Urban Raszkiewicz
and the central Crucifix behind her.


Laura Shields told us some more about the sons of the parish who followed the priestly vocation.


Monica Nowatzke showed us the monumentof Michal Milcarek

Join us next month on July 14. KayLynn Mathews, past director of Valparaiso Family History Center, will present “An Overview of Family Search: what resources it provides and how it can help you in your research.” The meeting starts at 7 PM CDST, at the La Porte Park Department Headquarters at 250 Pine Lake Avenue, La Porte, Indiana.
For more about our society, look to the website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm , our blog, http://lpcgs.blogspot.com/ , or like or follow us on Face Book.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Annual Cemetery Tour


Annual La Porte County Cemetery tour will be Tues. 9 June 2015 beginning at 6:00 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Otis,IN.
Along with a history of the cemetery some of the family names to be presented will be Wozniak, Wroblewski, Janicki,
Kaizer (Kaiser), Nawrocki, Milcarek and Lewandowski.  Following the tour all are invited to join us at a restaurant, to be announced that evening,for food and sharing.

Directions from north:  U.S. Hwy 421 south to Snyder Rd. (next road past 50N) which is just before the railroad overpass.  Turn right on Snyder Road to Church St., at bottom of a hill.  Turn right on Church St. and follow it past the church to the cemetery.  Tour will begin at the crucifix in the first section.

Directions from south:  U.S. Hwy 421 north to Snyder Rd. which is just past the railroad overpass.  Turn left on Snyder Road to Church St., at bottom of a hill.  Turn right on Church St. and follow it past the church to the cemetery.  Tour will begin at the crucifix in the first section.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Patricia Harris, program chairman, with Barry J Veden



April 14, 2015 Meeting of the LPCIGS
Ninteen members and guests were present for the regular monthly meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society at the La Porte Parks Department Building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue in La Porte, Tuesday evening, April 14. President Dorothy Palmer called the meeting to order at 7 PM.
Following the business portion of the meeting, Barry Veden, president of Chapter XXX, Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, spoke of the prelude and the strategic situation leading up to the last big German offensive effort in WWII. He helped us understand the tactical and environmental difficulties that faced the American soldiers opposing a desperate and larger German force. Barry’s father, Edward Veden, was on the front lines from the first day of that terrible battle. In 2004, Barry interviewed several of the veterans and wrote a book My Heroes:The Men of Northern Indiana Chapter XXX Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge.
 Next month, the society will tour St. Mary Cemetery in Otis, Indiana. The tour will begin at 6 PM on Tuesday, June 9, 2015.


More information about the society is available on our website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm.  Also like us on Facebook at La Porte County Genealogical Society.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

April 13 Meeting


April 14, 2015 Meeting of the LPCIGS
Twenty-two members and guests were present for the regular monthly meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society at the La Porte Parks Department Building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue in La Porte, Tuesday evening, April 14. President Dorothy Palmer called the meeting to order at 7:10pm.
Following the business portion of the meeting, local newspaper columnist Felicia Thomas presented “Scrapbooks and Stained Glass Windows- Family History Clues in items left behind by our ancestors”. Thomas told us of the treasured memories her family derived from the discovery of numerous scrapbook pages preserved by her mother-in-law. Thomas also described the intuitive connection she felt to a photograph of the stained –glass window of an abandoned Irish workhouse – and the tangible connection which she discovered to her family.
May 12, 2015, the Society will hear from Barry Veden, president of Chapter 30, Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. Barry will talk about the veterans and help us remember the events of December, 1944 and January 1945; and the heroes who endured unbelievable hardships.

More information about the society is available on our website, http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm.  Also like us on Facebook at La Porte County Genealogical Society.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Scrapbooks and Stained Glass



14 April 2015

La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society


The regular monthly meeting of the LPCIGS will be at 7 pm, Tuesday, 14 April. The site will be the La Porte City Parks Building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue, in La Porte. Following a business meeting, refreshments will  be provided, and the members and guests will listen to a presentation by Felicia Thomas entitled “Scrapbooks and Stained Glass – Family History Clues in items left behind by our ancestors”
We hope that you will visit the society’s website, still at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm. The site has undergone a face lift, and we hope that it will be easier for everyone to find information on the Society, its officers, publications, objectives and programs.


Monday, March 16, 2015

March Meeting Report


10 March, 2015 Meeting of the LPCIGS

At 7 pm Tuesday, March 10, nineteen members of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogy Society met at the Headquarters building of the La Porte City Parks and Recreation Department. President Dorothy Palmer led a business portion of the meeting, with minutes and financial reports, committee reports, and unfinished and new business. Genealogist-Historian Fern Eddy Schultz shared news of activity in our County, neighboring areas, and even other states.

Program Committee chair Patricia Gruse Harris introduced our program for the evening. “Polish Emigration from Prussia- How and Why” was presented by Laura Shields, an active society member, former Curator of the Lighthouse Museum in Michigan City, and a descendant of both Polish and German immigrants to the United States.

As introduction, Laura related that she had little idea of the origin of her Grandfather. She noted that many children of immigrants had de-emphasized the foreign background of their families, in their concentration upon American culture. She then presented an outline of some of the currents and trends which had moulded the area south and around the Baltic Sea, from prehistory up to the First and Second World Wars. Poland was a nation which was pushed and pulled throughout the centuries. It changed, in physical area and dimension, in cultural allegiances, and in its very existence.

Among the most significant periods of change was the nineteenth century rise of its neighbor, Prussia. Eventually, the Polish people were subjugated so intensely that many Poles saw no hope in staying in their homeland. A chance for freedom across the Atlantic, in the United States, seemed to beckon. Poles entered the United States, many drawn by promotional literature prepared by American industrialists. Emigrants found ever-larger vessels at the wharves in Europe. When they arrived in the American ports, growing miles of railroads waited to carry them onward.

Laura recommended that anyone with ancestors from this region search the internet book sites for histories. Sometimes you need an understanding of the changing geography and politics to know what your ancestors believed and claimed their nationality to be. Read and compare various viewpoints, looking for that elusive “truth”.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Polish Emigration from Prussia


 

The La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society will meet at 7 PM (CDST) Tuesday, March 10, 2015, at the La Porte City Parks Headquarters Building, 250 Pine Lake Avenue.

The business part of the meeting will be followed by refreshments and a program entitled “Polish Emigration from Prussia – How and Why” presented by Laura Shields. Guests are welcome to join us.

We hope that you will visit the society’s website, still at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/index.htm. The site has undergone a face lift, and we hope that it will be easier for everyone to find information on the Society, its officers, publications, objectives and programs.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015



10 February 2015 Meeting

La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society


February is the month for lovers, and the theme for the meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society will be love stories.  Members will share the story of how a couple in their family met. The meeting will begin at seven PM, at the La Porte Park Department office building at 250 Pine Lake Avenue. As always, the public is welcome at society meetings. The society and the Michigan City Public Library are again organizing a bus trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. This year’s event is scheduled for April 22, and Patricia Harris will have sign-up forms at the February meeting. There will also be a flyer in the March, 2015, issue of  “The Door”, the society’s newsletter.
Following the meeting, each member will have a brief opportunity to tell how their ancestors met, or how they met their partner.

More information about the society is available at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/. 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

January 2015 Meeting


January 13 Meeting of the LPCIGS
Nine members and guests were present for the regular monthly meeting of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society at the La Porte Parks Department Building oat 250 Pine Lake Avenue in La Porte on Tuesday evening, January 13. President Dorothy Palmer called the meeting to order at 7:07 pm.
The business portion of the meeting included an announcement that the Michigan City Public Library and the society will again sponsor a bus trip to the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Vice-president Patricia Gruse Harris announced that a bus has been reserved for Wednesday, April 22. Sign-up forms will be available at the next meeting, on February 10, when a deadline for responses will be announced. Sign-up forms will also be included with the next issue of “The Door”, the society’s newsletter.
After a break for refreshments, members brought forward photos and postcards of buildings and businesses in La Porte County. There was the story of a sash and window factory which became a medical office building; a local piano factory with a prize-winning early aviator buzzing it; a photograph and drawing of a rural school which didn’t live up to sixty-year-old memories; a discovery of a family connection to the Etropal Theatre; the immigrant’s store and its neighbors in Michigan City that was as diversified as a modern mall; a contemporary news article about a livery which boasted rubber-tired vehicles; a pioneer floral designer in Michigan City who mentored many women who established their own businesses; a lumber yard which dominated a large area near the harbor at Michigan City; the story of one block on the south side of Michigan City which had grocery stores, saloons, dry-goods stores, and meat markets, and confectionaries – and family memories.

For more information on the society, its aims, programs, publications and awards, visit the website at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~inlcigs/.