Within the past week, I visited the Allen County Public Library, the Fayette County Public Library, and the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library. The first two visits were for my own genealogy research purposes and the last visit was to participate in the Hendricks County probate papers work session.
The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana is renowned for its genealogy and family history collection. The last time that I visited, they were at a temporary location. I planned my current visit to the Genealogy Center by watching their video tour of the collection, by searching the online microform and book catalogs, and by organizing my charts, documents, and research citations.
I was impressed with the space on the second floor devoted to the microfilm room, book stacks, research tables, and computer stations. The digital microfilm scanner was easy to use while I searched through marriage and court records. I perused the stacks containing the bound periodicals to find the articles for the PERSI citations I needed. Their less frequently used materials are stored in open access compact movable shelving units. I am certain that I could have spent the rest of the week (or month) at ACPL using the collection, but I was pleased with what I found and will certainly return.
My next destination was Connersville, Indiana and the Fayette County Public Library. I had previously used their online obituary index to track down information on a great-granduncle who lived there, but I couldn't find additional information about my great-grandmother or her mother. The FCPL has an Indiana Room, complete with microfilm readers, a local subject file, the card index of their obituary file, and a book collection that includes not only local history and genealogies, but also Indiana and other states. Their collection of Connersville City Directories is quite comprehensive, and much of my time was focused on checking those volumes.
This past Saturday, I participated in the Hendricks County Probate Papers work session at the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library. I have experience working with the probate papers in the genealogy library at the Johnson County Museum, but these papers have already been unfolded, organized and filed in drawers. I wanted to experience what it is like to unfold the original probate packets as they had been stored at the courthouse. It was interesting to see that there were not only probate papers from a person's estate, but there were guardianship papers for minor heirs to the decedent. I opened packets that ranged from the 1840s through the 1890s. Additionally, there were guardianship packets for adults. One of these packets that I opened was in the matter of the "insanity of" someone. The wording on the accompanying papers more diplomatically referred to the "unsound mind" of this person. After unfolding, we placed the papers in acid-free folders in preparation for the next step which involves taking digital images of them. The packets that have already gone through the entire process are available to view for free on the Indiana Genealogical Society's website. The entire project is described here: http://www.indgensoc.org/projects/records_preservation.php
To conclude my visit to the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library, I explored their Indiana Room and was given a behind-the-scenes tour and overview of the genealogy and local history resources in the library's collection. I highly recommend their collection for anyone needing to research ancestors in Hendricks County. They have Hendricks County marriage records on microfilm, local newspaper indexes, family files, and many useful genealogy research guides.
I think my three library visits showed me that regardless of the size of the library or its collection there are unique and useful resources in all. Your research goals will determine where you should start looking.
