Thursday, June 16, 2016

Quaker Cemetery Tour

Tuesday Evening, June 14, the members and guests of the La Porte County (IN) Genealogical Society  enjoyed a pleasant tour of the Quaker Cemetery on North Park Street in La Porte.





Members of the Program Committee, led by Laura Shields, told us about the history of the cemetery and of some of the lives and families memorialized there.










Join us for next month's meeting and program "Who Were the La Porte County People Who gave Us This Yummy Treat Over the Years?", in honor of National Ice Cream Month. We will be at the City of La Porte Parks and Recreation Department Building, at 250 Pine Lake Avenue, La Porte. As usual, the meeting will start at 7 PM Central Time.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

17 Million Records!

I was born 75 years ago. For the first 66 of those years, I regularly saw my brother, Richard. I didn't always know that he had a Birthday, and it was probably eight years before I realized that his Birthday was August 16, and even more until I knew or cared that he was born in Hammond, Lake county, Indiana, in the year 1936. Until Yesterday, I knew that date and place- but if you asked me for proof, all I could say was that he or my parents told me so. Out of all these sources, my parents are the only primary sources. I certainly wasn't there, and my brother, always reliable and truthful, was unable to form any real memories at the time of the event.

Now I can see an image of a primary source for that place and date, and for his parents' names and hometown. Ancestry has a new collection of records and images recorded in cooperation with the Indiana State Department of Health, 17 million (we are told) images of birth, marriage, and death certificates. These records are available to subscribers, of course, but also to those who visit ISDH in person. I have not yet tested the access to these records on the Library edition of Ancestry.