A little over a year ago I sat in my office working when my coworker, archivist Barbara Quigley, appeared in my doorway. In her hand, she held several 5×7 photographs. She asked, “Do you know someone named Janice Steimel?” For a moment, my answer was no. I didn’t know Janice Steimel. And then it dawned […]
This month we explore a family name with a common issue…multiple or changing spellings. My colleague, Lauren, is one of the first members of her direct line to leave the family stronghold in Pennsylvania. When she got here and started working with Indiana-related materials, she saw a name similar to another found in her family […]
June 6, 1944, is certainly a date the world remembers when 73,000 Americans joined the Allied forces for one of the greatest military missions ever. On that night 80 years ago, President Roosevelt asked the Nation for prayers as these men “set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and […]
This month we explore the potential connection between my colleague Kathy’s Shank ancestors and those of Indianapolis Mayor, Samuel Lewis ‘Lew’ Shank. Lew Shank was elected mayor twice, non-consecutively and served from 1910-1913 and 1922-1925. He was an interesting political figure, decrying and combatting what he saw as high cost of living by selling products […]
As I continue this monthly blog series, I have expanded my surname reach beyond the Indiana Historical Society’s Archives and Library department. I reached out to my good friend, Dan, in our Exhibits department to see if he had any surnames about which he was interested in learning more. He kindly provided me with several […]
Some surnames are common while others are rarer or nonexistent within our collections. When looking into names for my colleague Regan, I had four last names to search. One was very common, one was almost impossible to locate (due to similarities with standard words), and one was not found in our collection. The last, Hutchinson, […]
Depending on the size and age of one’s family, you may personally know everyone within the most recent two or three generations, or you may only know a select number of those relatives. The latter is more likely if within a generation or two there were many progenies for one couple – think eight or […]
Some surnames are more difficult to find in our collection than others. There are many reasons this may be the case, but in this instance, it is the fact that the surname is also a commonplace word: Nation. Not only is it a word in its own right, but it is also a common word […]
I’ve decided to expand my surname list by reaching out to my colleagues. Luckily, we’re all a curious sort, so a long list of new surnames and connections to research suddenly appeared. This month’s article features my long-time coworker and friend Susan’s family, the Stanfields. For more than 40 years IHS has had a collection […]
The early Mexican communities of the 1920s in Indiana Harbor (East Chicago) and Gary were socially active and culturally vibrant. Early laborers came to Northwest Indiana and Chicago around 1918, recruited as foreign laborers to work in war-relief-related industries during World War I via Departmental Order No. 52461/202. The 1920s saw an increase in arrivals […]
