Allen County was organized on December 17, 1823 and created by legislative act on April 1, 1824. County officers were first elected May 22. The plat for the town of Fort Wayne accepted by the board of county commissioners designated a half square for use as a courthouse site and lots on which to locate “a seminary of learning”, and “a church, to be of no particular denomination, but free to all”. John T. Barr of Baltimore, Maryland, and John McCorkle of Piqua, Ohio gave lots to the county that were intended to be sold so that sale proceeds could be placed in the county treasury. These lots were part of a tract purchased by Barr and McCorkle from a government land sale. Copied from page 81 in texts Fort Wayne, gateway of the West, 1802-1813: Garrison orderly books, Indian Agency account book by Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927, Publication date 1973 on Archive.org by way of the Allen County S1645, B66 1783-1882 collection at the Manuscripts & Rare Books Division Indiana State Library.
County Organized 200 Years Ago: On December 17, 1823, Allen County was organized by an act of the Indiana General Assembly. The new county was to be named in honor of Colonel John Allen, an attorney and Kentucky state senator who was killed in the War of 1812. . .
From this article it states: Fort Wayne had been incorporated in 1829 with just 300 people. The town sat in the midst of land that was mostly swamps and forests with three rivers we know now as the St. Marys, St. Joseph and Maumee, Allen County Surveyor Mike Fruchey said. By 1840, the population had swelled to 2,000, according to online sources.
Starting in 1833- nearly 200 years ago- the federal government sent land surveyors to mark out the counties, one square mile after the other, including Allen County.
From the article:
The Public Land Survey was the federal government’s plan to sell land and generate property taxes to pay off heavy war debt.
Hardy men on horseback laid out cornerstones in one-mile squares called sections, work that continued more than 50 years and was documented on large paper vellums. These vellums are kept in leather-bound ledgers at the surveyor’s office that look more like they belong in a Harry Potter movie.
Names like Beaubien, Richardville, Didier, Wells, De Rome, Hackley, Perry, Rudisill and Barnett populate the vellums, still used today for reference. They reflect the French and English beginnings of the town that went on to include German, Irish and other settlers whose stakes jostled with many tribal reserves. Fort Wayne earlier was known as Kekionga and Fort Miami.
The county’s future expansion was pretty much assured with the opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1832.
Fort Wayne had been incorporated in 1829 with just 300 people. The town sat in the midst of land that was mostly swamps and forests with three rivers we know now as the St. Marys, St. Joseph and Maumee, Allen County Surveyor Mike Fruchey said. By 1840, the population had swelled to 2,000, according to online sources.
When Fruchey took over the surveyor’s office a year ago, he made it his mission to tackle the state’s Section Corner Perpetuation project until every cornerstone is documented. Their importance can’t be minimized, Fruchey added.
Cornerstones are the basis for property surveys and disputes, land transfers, new home construction, property assessments and infrastructure. GIS, or Geographical Information System, is based on these cornerstones, as is the emergency 911 system.
Allen County’s cornerstones are still there, four per square mile with four half-mile markers. Each township has 36 sections, except for a couple like Scipio that are smaller, Fruchey said.
The last time there was an effort to locate the estimated 2,400 cornerstones in the county was more than 20 years ago. Fruchey says slightly fewer than 1,400 have been found.
At the corner of Columbia and Barr Street, local residents met throughout the early 1820s with one goal: formally establishing the town and area. Through these conversations, we find our county named Allen, and streets named Barr, Calhoun, Clinton, Harrison, and Wayne. Hidden, though, might be why these names are here. Today is that story. In the early 1800s, an eyewitness stated there were less than thirty homes and a diminished Indian population in the area. The area lacked much of a population because of continued conflict amongst the French, British, Native Americans, and then the Americans in both the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812. While the victories in the Northwest Indian War established Fort Wayne, the United States was still being pressured by the British with trade restrictions, continued British support of Native Americans in armed resistance in the Midwest, and more.
This continued conflict zone severely restricted this fledgling community from developing for decades. With this backdrop, by 1812, the United States, led by congressional war hawks Henry Clay and John Calhoun declared war, with some viewing this as the second revolution – a battle between the United Kingdom, American Indians, and the United States.
At the time, the area included a mixture of French, Indians, and Americans living and trading amongst one another. Individuals such as Benjamin Stickney and Benjamin Berry Kercheval served as Indian agents, Antoine Bondie, a Frenchman married to an Indian, and William Wells, Chief Little Turtle's son-in-law, were a few notable residents. The frontier was blindsided when the war broke out, and Chicago fell quickly. Wells, who fought against the United States with the tribes in the Northwest Indian War, actually died helping to evacuate women and children from Chicago in 1812 in support of the United States.
The residents of Fort Wayne received word of Wells' death and determined the women and children should be evacuated. By that time, hundreds of Indians surrounded Fort Wayne. The siege lasted for a week until relief came from William Henry Harrison's army, with the first regiment led by Colonel John Allen. While the war ended in 1815, Stickney and Kercheval stayed, and so did some former members of the militia protecting Fort Wayne, such as Alexander Ewing and John Tipton. This group in the early 1820s, with memories of conflict and a new vision of growth, helped determine the names we see today. Tipton helped name the county after John Allen; others, within a decade or so, would recognize General Harrison with Harrison Street, and in the Original Plat, Wayne Street was named after Anthony Wayne. While the wars were important, so was infrastructure. Perhaps bridging the eras was the naming of Calhoun and Clinton Streets. Calhoun, who had only been in politics for a couple of years, was one of the biggest supporters of going to war with Britain in 1812 and oversaw Indian affairs as the Secretary of War between 1817 and 1825. He also advocated as early as 1817 for binding "the republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals." Concerning Clinton Street, Stickney was in contact with DeWitt Clinton, the father of the Erie Canal, and helped him learn of Fort Wayne as a possible extension of his canal project in New York.
It is perhaps less important who these streets and the county are named after, but rather the collective memories of that early community striving for an area without conflict with the opportunity to grow.
Thank you to the Allen County Public Library genealogy team and Randy Harter for help with digging into this.
Apr 3, 2023 #familyhistory#genealogy#indianahoosiers This is an IGS Facebook Live Event from January 2023. In an IGS Facebook Live event in January 2023, Jate Ford discussed the early migration to Indiana before the railroad era. Kaye shares what she learned about her own ancestors to share Indiana migration patterns and their impact on family history. The Indiana Genealogical Society is proud to host the IGS Facebook Live events, which are held on the first Tuesday of every month. For updates on our upcoming events, please visit our Facebook page at @indianagensoc. And if you have ancestors from Indiana, be sure to check out our website at www.indgensoc.org for more resources and information on how to connect with your Hoosier roots. #familyhistory#genealogy#genealogyresearch#indianahoosiers#indiana#history#indiana#migration#americanhistory
Three settlement patterns in early Indiana - South 1790, Middle 1800-1830s, and North 1840s-1850s.
Indiana, unlike other states, was settled in a South to North pattern rather than an East to West. This is an 1817 map of Indiana. One year after the state was granted statehood. You can see that most of the population is firmly established in the south.
There are actually three different cultural areas to the state depending on the people who settled the area and when they arrived.
The southern portion of Indiana was settled first when the Northwest Territory was opened up for settlement in 1790. The Ohio River along the southern border of the state is what encouraged this south to north settlement pattern.
The southern part of Indiana was settled primarily from people from the south...Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. This is where you will see a pre-ponderance of Southern Baptists, Methodists and some Quakers. These people tend to eat more traditional southern food...grits, cornbread, bacon, fried chicken and whiskey.
Indiana is known as the most southern of northern states.
The middle of Indiana was settled in the early 1800s up through the early 1830s. Indianapolis would become the state capitol in 1825. While there is some overlap of southern culture in Central Indiana, many of Central Indiana settlers were originally from the Mid-Atlantic states...Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and neighboring Ohio.
There is a large Quaker population from Pennsylvania in this group. There are many Roman Catholics in this group and Lutherans. These folks tend to prefer the Mid-Atlantic diet, which has some heavy German influence. They prefer hamburger, tenderloin, wurst and sausage. They also like fish if it is available. Scrapple comes from PA. Sugar cream pie is a Quaker invention.
The northern part of Indiana was settled last in the 1840s and 50s. The Potawatomi, the Shawnee and the Miami were some of the last American Indian tribes to leave the state. The Potawatomi were forced out on the Trail of Death.
Also, northern Indiana was swampy, and the area needed to be drained before much settlement could happen.
Indiana's Pioneer time period technically ends around 1850 when we see population leaving the state to go out west during the Gold Rush of 1849. However, the last of northern Indiana was still being settled even then.
The folks who settled northern Indiana are your east coast people. They are from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and from nearby Wisconsin and Michigan. These people tend to be Anglicans or Episcopalians or Presbyterians. There are many Scandinavian people in this group. They engage in the dairy business, so lots of cheese making. Apple and fruit orchards are more prevalent. Johnny Appleseed, a Massachusettes native, died in Fort Wayne. These people eat a lot of boiled foods. Pot roast is popular as are a variety of beans and lentils. Cider making is popular in northern Indiana.
You can hear the differences in speech too.
The people in southern Indiana have a more southern drawl. Central Indiana is home to the Hoosier dialect, where everyone "warshes" (with an R) their clothes. Northern Indiana has a more clipped speech like those who live in Da Region.
While there can be a mixture of all of these cultures even within the three regions, there still tends to be a preponderance of an "established cultural norm" due to our pioneer settlement pattern. These norms ring true even today...200+ years after the founding of our state.
Description: In the Treaty of St. Mary's of 1818, the Miami Indians ceded their claim to a large amount of land to the United States and in 1823 the federal government agreed to open a land office in Fort Wayne and allow the city to be platted. This "Original Plat" of 118 lots over 109 acres became the basis of the emerging town. Bounded by the present streets of Barr, Washington, Superior, and the alley between Calhoun and Harrison, the streets were laid out parallel to Columbia Street-not in a true east-west compass direction. The plat also included a public square with Court Street as its eastern boundary. With the exception of Water Street, which has since been changed to Superior, the streets in the Original Plat retain the names given them in 1823. [ See Streets of Fort Wayne ]
The opening of the land office in 1823 had a significant effect on the town's pioneer settlement, al-lowing the public to buy the ceded Miami land. By May 1824, the Original Plat of the city was complete. The city's platting brought forward men who were adventurous entrepreneurs and developers. Sales at the land office boomed, especially after 1835, when there was a surge in land values. Fort Wayne began to grow as additions to the town adjoining the original plat were laid out by early land developers such as Cyrus Taber, Samuel Hanna, the Ewing Family, and William Rockhill.
Did you know? Each of our state's 92 counties is represented by an icon somewhere on the outside of our building — like the blueberry bush for Marshall County. Several of these art installations have been restored recently, thanks to our incredible conservation team. Read more in our blog. » Restoring the Icons of the 92 County Walk
This sculpture depicts an abstract tree trunk encircled by fragmented red arrows jutting out in various directions. The circle rests in a bed of horizontal lines forming a rectangle. The composition is made out of cast red glass, bronze, and steel. The icon attempts to communicate an apple tree in tribute to Johnny Appleseed, and the arrows pelting a fort, symbolizing the historic conflict in Allen County among the British, French, Native Americans, and American Settlers. This icon also contains a camouflaged form of a Native American archer, drawing his bowstring taut.
Designers Jeff Laramore and David Jemerson Young of 2nd Globe, an Indianapolis–based artistic company designed all 92 and the county sculptures featured on the outside of the Indiana State Museum. Their designs narrate the counties’ famous natives, historically significant events, or their fabricated and installed by various Indiana sculptors, carvers, class workers, metal workers, and other artisans.
State Imaging & Microfilm Lab at the Indiana Archives and Records Administration at IN.gov states: The IARA Imaging and Microfilm Laboratory has been creating microfilm to preserve Indiana's history since 1937. Microfilm is the the scaled-down reproduction of documents on film, used to preserve important information for up to 500 years. Originally created as a novelty in the 1800s, the practice is now considered the most effective in the archival sciences for long-term preservation. Learn about microfilm's journey from useless parlor trick to the gold standard in historical safeguarding, in our new photo-filled slideshow and interactive timeline.See their Digital Exhibit: The History of Microfilm on their website.
Archive.org is the home of the Internet Archive a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It is also the home of the Wayback Machine. We post lots of historical ebooks and other stuff from both sites on our pages. You can also capture a page on the Wayback Machine for archiving to their site. Over 50 book titles under: Allen County (Ind.) -- History.
8 Tools to View Old Versions of Any Website by Syed Hammand Mahmood May 21, 2024 Want to see an old version of the website you love? Need to find an article or link that's no longer available? Here's how you do it. on MakeUseOf.com.
The Birth of the Internet Archive, October 1996 premiered Oct 8, 2021 by Yoo Kwang-On on YouTube In October of 1996, engineers at the San Francisco-based Internet Archive launched their first web crawlers, taking snapshots of web pages. At the time, the World Wide Web was only 2.5 terabytes in size. In 1996, it was still impossible to predict how large the World Wide Web might become. Even in those early days of the Web, broken links (404 errors) were a growing problem, and it was clear that most Web pages were short-lived. Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat invented a system for archiving Web pages before they vanished. The tools for this project were not terribly sophisticated; they were essentially PC applications built to capture entire websites by following the links from the main page. In this video, shot by Marc Weber and Kevin Hughes for the Web History Project, Brewster Kahle explains his hardware and process, while the first crawl is underway.
Legalese for Genealogists posted Aug 18, 2020 by Allen County Public Library on YouTube Does all of the legal jargon in your ancestor’s will or court record confuse you? This presentation may help solve these mysteries but will be Indiana-specific on the history portion. Attorney David Singleton will present on many common legal terms with simple explanations and examples of where you might find them. Please note that there will be no legal advice given during this talk. The purpose of this presentation is solely to provide a general understanding of legal terms. Learn more at The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Struggles in the old Northwest and Kentucky by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org. FOREWORD The following articles were originally published in the Indianapolis INDIANA JOURNAL on June 8 and June 29, 1833. The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County present these newspaper items in the hope that they will prove interesting. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been changed to conform to current usage. Unverified personal names have been reprinted as in the original articles.
The Ancient Village of Cahokia, Illinois on page 28 of Pamphlets Volume 8 by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org. FOREWORD In the long distant past no boundaries separated Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan from one other. The Northwest Territory comprised all of them. The few tiny settlements of white men, although widely separated, were closer to one other than to the eastern seaboard cities. Cahokia was one of the earliest of such communities. Although somewhat earlier in time, it had a common origin with Fort Wayne and other western settlements. The following account of this ancient village originally appeared as chapter X in THE ROMANCE OF FORGOTTEN TOWNS by John T. Faris. The publishers, Harper & Brothers, have graciously granted permission to reprint the chapter.
Indiana in 1816; an address by Potterf, Rex M Publication date 1952, on Archive.org.
An address by Rex M. Potterf delivered before the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society (December 12, 1928), at the Swinney Homestead, Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the anniversary of Indiana's admission to the Union one hundred and twelve years ago.
History of Allen County, Indiana, Publication date 1880; Topics Atlas; Publisher Kingman Brothers; Collection allen_county; americana on Archive.org. History of Allen County, Indiana, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of it's prominent men and pioneers. Also contains maps of its several townships and villages, listing farms and their owners.
The Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana has indexes to landowners and more on their Plat Maps, 1880, Allen County, Indiana page.
The Organization of Allen County by R.S. Robertson is page 371 of Pamphlets by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org.
Down the Ohio and Mississippi by Faris, John Thomson, 1871-1949; Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1955, on Archive.org. The Foreword states: In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were important arteries of travel for settlers immigrating into the western country. Excerpts from the journals of travelers portray the beauty of the land and relate the many hazards encountered. The following publication originally appeared as chapter III of On the Trail of the Pioneers by John T. Faris. The volume was published in 1920 by the George H. Doran Company. Bethann Faris Van Ness, daughter of the author, has graciously granted permission to reprint the chapter.
A traveler's impression of Indiana in 1851 by Beste, John Richard Digby, 1806-1885; Fort Wayne and Allen County Public Library, Publication date 1954 on Archive.org. The Foreword states: Over a century ago J. Richard Beste, accompanied by his wife and eleven of their twelve children, sailed from England to the United States and traveled in the western country. After returning to England, he wrote an account of his experiences in the backwoods; in 1855 he published THE WABASH as a two-volume work in London. Selections describing the author's experiences and impressions of the land, the people, and the climate of Indiana have been excerpted from the book. Several passages by his children describing the Hoosier state have also been exerpted. Both volumes are online: The Wabash: or, Adventures of an English gentleman's family in the interior of America Volume 1 by Beste, John Richard Digby, 1806-1885, Publication date 1855 on Archive.org and The Wabash: or, Adventures of an English gentleman's family in the interior of America Volume 2 by Beste, John Richard Digby, 1806-1885, Publication date 1855, an Archive.org.
Aerial maps of Allen County back to 1938 on iMap GIS Data Viewer Allen County. Top right choose Aerial > Open Historical Imagery > Choose years from 1938 to present.
Variety of Historic Documents Collected, Stored at Diocesan Archives by Joshua Schipper posted October 11, 2022 on Today's Catholic. In 1917, Catholic canon law established that every diocese must maintain important diocesan records within its own archive. The Association of Catholic Diocesan Archivists says that the Church in the U.S. was particularly slow when it came to implementing this mandate. The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, for example, officially established an archive as recently as 2002, and this year it celebrates 20 years since its outset.
County books
Over 90,000 ebooks , over 21,000 cataloged as genealogy, from the The Genealogy Center collection at the Internet Archive
Interurban railways of Allen County, Indiana by Bates, Roy M.; Topics Street-railroads--Indiana--Allen County, Allen County (Ind.)--History; Publisher Fort Wayne, Indiana : Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1958; Collection allen_county; americana
Pamphlets by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County published in the 1950s is a series of eight pamphlets, composed of individual books assembled into one package. Some of the books are online on Archive.org. The first four pamphlets: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4 are not online! Some of the titles from the first four volumens are online shown below. The last four pamphlets Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, and Volume 8 are online and posted here and on some of our other webpages. The Pamphlets in the Allen County Public Library online catalog state: INDIVIDUAL COPIES OF THESE PAMPHLETS ARE CATALOGED SEPARATELY AND CAN BE FOUND IN THIS CATALOG BY SEARCHING UNDER AUTHOR, TITLE OR SUBJECT.
The water-powered mills of Allen County, Indiana by Bates, Roy M. Topics Water mills--Indiana--Allen County--History, Indiana--Industries--History, Allen County (Ind.)--Industries--History Publisher [Fort Wayne, Indiana] : Roy M Bates, [1945?] Collection allen_county; americana
Hoosier Hospitality: Immigrating to Indiana published on October 25, 2018 on YouTube
Presented by the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library
Indiana is considered the Crossroads of America. Numerous families passed through Indiana on their way west but many stayed. Join us as we look at immigration to the Hoosier State and some uniquely Hoosier resources for family history.
Indiana Resources
House Enrolled Act 1338. The bill neuters the Indiana Public Access Counselor, who advises and assists all government departments and citizens regarding the state’s public access laws, specifically the Access to Public Records Act and the Open Door Law. The counselor, who has a staff of one, also trains public officials on the responsibilities under the state’s public access laws. Gov. Frank O’Bannon created the Public Access Counselor in 1998 based on the findings of an investigative reporting coalition of seven Indiana newspapers, including The Journal Gazette. The statewide project showed government officials routinely violated state law by refusing to release public records.Contrived control: supermajority cuffs public access counselor Editorial Board Mar 23, 2024 The Journal Gazette newspaper.
What did Indiana look like 200 years ago? posted Feb. 20, 2016 by Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM. Amid the hoopla about the Indiana Bicentennial this year, have you been wondering what kinds of wildlife, trees and plant life were thriving here in 1816? To offer a glimpse of the new state's landscape 200 years ago, botanist Michael Homoya of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources will be Nelson's studio guest. In addition to describing the dense forest that apparently prevailed in 80 percent of the state, Michael even has identified the species of trees that were thriving on what became the site of downtown Indianapolis. (The city was not platted until the 1820s. Corydon was the capital in 1816.)
The Indiana HRS was established in 1936. In 1939, when state sponsorship became mandatory, the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana State Library assumed control. Upon termination of the project in 1942, the unpublished records were deposited with the Indiana State Library, Archives Division. During its existence , the HRS produced forty - eight publications for Indiana. Unique to the project was the microfilming of early Indiana county records for preservation purposes. Five- to six-hundred volumes of records in eighteen different counties were microfilmed.
See also DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA , Library of Congress , Manuscript Division; and UTAH, Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, Genealogical Society, for additional Indiana Historical Records Survey material.
The Society of Indiana Archivists (SIA) is an organization of archivists, researchers, and others who are actively concerned with establishing, developing, preserving, promoting, and using archival collections. SIA provides a forum for the exchange of information and ideas related to archival collections and best practices, and it serves as a liaison among individuals and institutions working with archival collections in the state. INDIANA ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION LAUNCHES RESEARCH INDIANA CATALOG Press Release Bulletin published October 3, 2017. Society of Indiana Archivists on Facebook.
State Archives: what’s there and new plans was on September 17, 2022 on Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM.
What's in our State Archives? posted May 16, 2015 on Archives of Hoosier History Live podcast on Saturdays, noon to 1 p.m. ET on WICR 88.7 FM. They are where you can find mug shots from the Department of Correction dating to the 1880s. The prison and reformatory records of notorious bank robber John Dillinger. And the original Indiana State Constitution drafted in 1816, plus the new constitution of 1851. The Indiana State Archives are the trove for all of that, as well as much more. But most of the priceless documents, records and photos are not in climate-controlled areas. They are in a warehouse so antiquated the Indiana General Assembly has approved construction of a new state archives building. According to a recent story in the Indianapolis Business Journal, possible sites in downtown Indianapolis include one on the Central Canal near the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center. Latest Indiana State Archives new building news: State identifies sites for archives, schools by: Alex Brown, posted: March 15, 2022, on WISHTV.com.
Explore the Research Indiana Index posted February 14, 2022 by the Allen County Public Library on YouTube Learn about the new updates to the Research Indiana Index, formally known as the Indiana Digital Archives. Vicki Casteel of the Indiana State Archives and Records Administration will demonstrate the new search features and many new tables added to the Research Indiana Index. Volunteers have been working hard to increase accessibility to our collections, building new indexes to help you locate your Hoosier Ancestors. Presented by Vicki Casteel. Vicki Casteel is the Director of Patron and Outreach Services at the Indiana State Archives, where she has worked as a reference archivist for nearly twenty-five years. She is also responsible for creating, managing, converting, and uploading the many databases used by volunteers to index collections and increase accessibility to records. She has a Masters in Archives and Records Administration from San Jose State University School of Information.
It's here! Our newly launched Destination Indiana website lets you explore historic images of Indiana free and at your fingertips – and share your discoveries on Facebook, Twitter or by email. It's Indiana history as you've never seen it before. Check it out today!
Indiana Magazine of History journal in the archives at Indiana University Scholarworks Volume 1, Issue 1, March 1905 through a couple years less than the present date at Indiana University. JSTOR Early Journal Content, Indiana Magazine of History The JSTOR Early Journal Content is a selection of journal materials published prior to 1923 in the United States and prior to 1870 elsewhere. It includes discourse and scholarship in the arts and humanities, economics and politics, and in mathematics and other sciences - nearly 500,000 articles from more than 200 journals. It was uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2013. Some of the issues can also be found under Indiana--History Periodicals at Archive.org
Indiana Laws and Statutes page on Cyndi's List is important to understand the laws of the time and place when and where our ancestors lived.
The Indiana State Library has a growing online collections in their Indiana State Library Digital Collection. A December 20, 2022 post by the Indiana State Library on Facebook stated: A Newspapers section has been added to the Indiana State Library's Digital Collections. In addition to newspapers linked to Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Historic Newspaper Program, many newspapers which were in an Indiana Miscellaneous Newspapers print folio collection have been digitized over the past year. Most are old and fragile short runs, or individual newspaper issues. Some have a political focus, or are promoting a moral value, such as temperance. An interesting temperance newspaper from Indianapolis is Temperance chart (1851-10-01 to 1852-06-01). Each of these newly-digitized items includes a transcript and a detailed description of the issues included in the collection.
Genealogy 101 3-21-2017 by Indiana State Library posted April 5, 2017 on YouTube Researching family histories can be fun, exciting, and provide a rewarding experience, but where does a novice researcher start? The genealogy librarians at the Indiana State Library have created an introductory level webinar, Genealogy 101. This webinar is designed with the novice researcher in mind and will help you start your journey. Topics to be covered include: the first steps, what information can be found in different record sets, and common mistakes or pitfalls to avoid. This webinar is eligible for Library Education Units for Indiana Librarians. The following policy applies: Any time a staff member views an online event (or a library purchases a site license for an online event) by any of the Training Providers Approved by ISL for LEUs, the library’s designee in an administrative or Human Resources role shall create and award LEU certificates in-house.
This webinar is eligible for 1 LEU.
What is INSPIRE? by Indiana State Library posted January 3, 2023 on YouTube "...high level, high quality information that schools, universities, and libraries use to provide information to users." - Jacob Speer, Indiana State Librarian INSPIRE is a collection of online academic databases and other information resources for research, test prep, continuing learning, and providing resources for Indiana history that can be accessed for free by all Indiana residents. More importantly, INSPIRE is a trusted source of research information. With the prevalence of non-vetted internet content, now it is more important than ever for researchers to have access to reliable scholarly, peer-reviewed information. Visit https://inspire.in.gov/ to learn something new today.
Using ISL Digital Collections through INSPIRE by Indiana State Library posted October 14, 2021 on YouTube. Hoosier State Chronicles, Indiana’s statewide historical digital newspaper program, and Indiana Memory, a digital library containing materials from institutions across the state, are free resources from the Indiana State Library. This session will cover how researchers can use both collections through INSPIRE, including search techniques, item descriptions, and application with other source repositories. Presenter: Justin Clark, Indiana Historical Bureau
INSPIRE for Teaching Indiana History 3-13-18 by Indiana State Libraryposted March 13, 2018 on YouTube This tutorial is designed for teachers at all grade levels who may be teaching Indiana History. It covers the INSPIRE databases Hoosier State Chronicles, Indiana Memory, and Indiana History Online.
Indiana Legacy on Inspire website: Birth, marriage, death, divorce information, and more.
Indiana Legacy combines existing Indiana State Library databases with the Vital INformation Exchange (VINE), a collaborative statewide database composed of Indiana local history and vital records from Indiana libraries, historical societies, genealogy societies, and related organizations. It is designed to allow participants and users to obtain access to Indiana local history and vital records through searching across all indexes or a single index. The database is searchable by county, event, or through a general surname search of all records. These records are available to the public at no charge and include a host of records such as: birth, marriage, death, divorce, obituaries, court records, newspapers, scrapbooks, yearbooks, military records, and many other record types.
The Hoosier Genealogist - Connections and Indiana Source Books About this collection: This collection contains digitized, searchable issues of The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections and Indiana Source Books. The Indiana Historical Society began publishing the award-winning journal The Hoosier Genealogist for members in 1961. It contained indexes and other data that served as keys into rare source material such as diaries, ledgers and public records. In 2007, the name changed to The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections, and today, it is a biannual magazine of in-depth articles. One collection in the We Do History digital collection by the Indiana Historical Society.
Indiana Historical Society Publications About this collection: The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) has been publishing books and periodicals about Indiana and the Old Northwest for more than 130 years. Topics include folklore, visual arts, politics, women, industry, sports, geography, the military, architecture and more. This collection includes digitized books and periodicals that have previously been published by IHS. They are fully text-searchable. View the list of related collections below. At We Do History digital collection by the Indiana Historical Society.
Northwest Territory Collection, 1721-1825About this collection The Northwest Territory Collection consists of papers relating to the exploration, settlement and administration of the Northwest Territory. The bulk of the papers are from the period 1780 through 1801 and relate to the U.S. Army in the West; the campaigns of generals Josiah Harmar, Arthur St. Clair and Anthony Wayne against the Indians; Indian relations; French settlers at Vincennes and elsewhere in the territory; the Ohio Company and other American settlers; and the administration of the territorial government. This digital collection was created through an LSTA 2009-10 Digitization Grant in which IHS partnered with IUPUI University Library (www.ulib.iupui.edu/digitalscholarship). At We Do History online digital collection by the Indiana Historical Society.
Thomas Hart Benton, one of America’s eminent artists during the twentieth century, painted a series of murals about...
Thomas Hart Benton, one of America’s eminent artists during the twentieth century, painted a series of murals about Indiana for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. A controversial art collection, the murals addressed many social issues such as the Civil War, women’s rights, labor unrest, and racial tensions in Indiana. This provoked a dialogue about Indiana’s complex history—one that continues to this day. The murals stayed in storage at the Indiana State Fairgrounds until someone believed they deserved a new home. That someone was Herman B Wells, the newly-elected president of Indiana University.
In this #UntoldIndiana video essay, IHB historian Justin Clark narrates the story of Hart’s controversial murals and how they sparked intense dialogue in both Indiana and America at large.
Over 275 Collections in the Indiana Memory is a collaborative effort to provide access to the wealth of primary sources in Indiana libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. It is a gateway to Indiana's history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, maps, and other media.
The collections presented here have been created as part of the Indiana Memory program by the Indiana State Library and other contributing organizations. County collections contain materials from one or more cultural heritage organizations within a specific county.
Indiana Memory is a program of the Indiana State Library and is made possible through grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.
The Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Historical Bureau are collaborating on a major project to gather in one place copies of original documents and research materials relating to Indiana's constitutional history. The first phase will make documents and transcriptions that led to Indiana statehood in 1816 available and fully searchable on the Web. Sources for the original documents include the National Archives and Records Administration, the Indiana State Archives, the Indiana State Library, and the Library of Congress.
A major goal of the collection is to make this historical information available for use, especially by the legal profession and educators and students at all levels.
The IUPUI University Library has digitized and organized the material to make it user-friendly and fully searchable and serves as the host for this Web-based material. The documents and transcriptions also will be available through the Indiana Historical Bureau Web site and the Indiana Courts' "Courts in the Classroom" Web site.
The project will continue to trace Indiana's constitutional history with material from 1816 through the 1850-1851 constitutional convention and the resulting constitution, which governs Indiana today. The Collection will include the 1851 convention, journal and reports and debates, as well as the four volumes of the Indiana Historical Bureau's Constitution Making in Indiana. Future additions will include publications about constitutional issues and other materials to enhance the educational value of the Collection.
Carl's Name Net is a new tool to help speed your research using Google, Google Books, Google Scholar, and Internet Archive. Tired of having to search on countless name variations? Let Carl's Name Net do the work for you! From a September 16, 2022 post by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak on Facebook.
Family Research at DPLA The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a free national digital library that provides access to millions of materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the US.
TFHG - Google Tools for Research May 1, 2023 The Family History Guide on YouTube
Quick Research Basics Learn about a variety of Google software tools, such as Google Books, Scholar, Patents, Images, and Maps - and how they can make a difference in your genealogy research.
Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilizationon Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia says it was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, alongside illustrations. It carried extensive coverage of the American Civil War, including many illustrations of events from the war. During its most influential period, it was the forum of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast.
Universal Access to All Knowledge | Brewster Kahle May 25, 2020 Long Now Foundation on YouTube
Long Now Seminars As founder and librarian of the storied Internet Archive (deemed impossible by all when he started it in 1996), Brewster Kahle has practical experience behind his universalist vision of access to every bit of knowledge ever created, for all time, ever improving.
He will speak to questions such as these:
Can we make a distributed web of books that supports vending and lending? How can our machines learn by reading these materials? Can we reconfigure the information to make interactive question answering machines? Can we learn from past human translations of documents to seed an automatic version? And, can we learn how to do optical character recognition by having billions of correct examples? What compensation systems will best serve creators and networked users? How do we preserve petabytes of changing data?
"Universal Access to All Knowledge" was given on November 30, 02011 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 2003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand.
U.S. Court Decisions - Research tool allows genealogists to access U.S. court decisions online By Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., For the AJC Sept 23, 2022 for The Atlanta Journal-Constituioin. Starts out stating: The website case.law could prove useful for many genealogists. The research tool — built by the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School, as part of the Caselaw Access Project — allows genealogists to easily access Supreme Court cases and other high level court cases from every state in the nation. Searches are free. The best part is that it guides you to people mentioned within the case, not just the parties in the title. The names of people within the case could be a goldmine. If you have a very unusual surname, you can check the entire nation in one search. But it is better to narrow your search to a state. As with any digitized record, errors will occur, such as garbled names. Still, it’s well worth checking out to see what turns up. If you find a case important to you, you may need to contact a particular state archives for access to the original court papers. if they exist, or a local law school to get a better copy of the published abstract. These records could be especially useful in cases in which a county courthouse burned, as these files resided at the state or national level.
Happy Electronic Records Day! This (mis)fortune teller gives an idea of what catastrophes might strike your digital files.
Over time, computer programs, file formats, and storage technologies change. Keeping multiple copies (3 is good!) of your digital files in different storage locations, and using different types of storage (not just the cloud!) will help avoid misfortune.
Check your files once a year, and keep them in file formats that can be easily opened with more than one computer program.
Even archival professionals face digital preservation challenges! At the National Archives, we’ve created a Digital Preservation Framework to help archivists to avoid misfortune and manage over 700 file formats.
This is the time of year when people exchange gifts, and the National Archives is no exception. Check out the latest National Archives Catalog Newsletter to discover how “Today’s Document” uses social media to share treasures with the public.
Where Counties of Indiana -- Got Their Names -- List is Interesting. State Statistician Stubbs has given out for publication a list of the origin of names of our counties that ought to be interesting to every man, woman and child in our state. The list is worth preserving and is the first correct list ever published.
[ Irony is that there are several typesetting print errors where lines of text are in the wrong line. This was when newspapers where manually typeset using moveable type set by hand. It was not replaced by machines until the 1970s. The day the typesetting industry died at WhatTheyThink ]
