In November 2010, my family and I had the great honor to be invited to a naturalization ceremony. Kidist, a young Ethiopian woman who had married a friend, asked us to share her special day. We jumped at the opportunity as U.S.-born citizens, we had never witnessed a naturalization ceremony. The ceremony was held in […]
In March, attend a Computer Lab: Navigating the Maze Finding Indiana Records Online. Discover a wealth of free information available from Indiana?s libraries, state agencies and historical societies with Suzanne Hahn, director, Reference Services, IHS library. Sign up for one of two sessions from 10 a.m. to noon, March 18 or 19. (Librarians: Approved for […]
When the city of Salem began its Web site development in late 2003, administration officials were quick to realize the importance of including information about the city?s many historical assets as part of its presentation. One of these was Crown Hill Cemetery. The number of burials in the cemetery since its creation in 1824 had […]
Friends of the Indiana State Archives volunteers processed the collection, creating files for individuals, including enlistment papers, service record cards and other records. They entered into a database each soldier?s name, enlistment date, and place of enrollment. Researchers may search thousands of names in the database, dating from 1898 through 1940, on the Indiana Digital […]
If you have old family photos that you would like to preserve and pass on to your children or grandchildren, you?ll want to attend Joan Hostetler?s workshop, Care and Identification of Historic Family Photographs.? It will be held in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center?s Multipurpose Room on the canal level, from 9 […]
The Indiana Historical Society?s Midwestern Roots 2010 Conference was hugely successful! Thanks to everyone who participated! There were so many interesting sessions from getting started doing research to understanding immigration history to learning about DNA. One session I attended had an unusual perspective: David Rencher, chief genealogical officer for FamilySearch, talked about ways that researchers […]
Those of us involved with putting on? IHS?s biennial Midwestern Roots Conference are getting excited about seeing old friends, meeting new ones and talking together about family history. The session tracks about the history and records involved in migration and ethnicity and about DNA and advancing technologies are sure to be energizing. One of the […]
My husband and I had a tough week recently, attending funerals for the mothers of two friends. At middle age, as our parents? generation is melting quickly away, we are becoming the memory bearers of our grandparents? and parents? lives. Funerals are wake-up calls to tell their stories and ours and record them for posterity. […]
Easter came early this year, and in Indiana, the snow had no sooner melted than the air warmed up, the grass turned green, and the trees started budding in earnest. This is the fastest transformation I can remember from one season to the next. In my family of numerous children, spouses and grandchildren, we get […]
Spring heralds the beginning of conference season for family historians, a time to get away from archives and computers and visit with like-minded people. It?s difficult to unchain myself from deadlines and the office, but I?m always glad I do. Just as the physical exertion of carting books to and from exhibition halls is good […]
