by Meredith Gadzinski, MPL Librarian
This is the time of year when I usually think about researching my family history. It’s cold and snowy outside and it’s a great time to do research inside where it is warm. I have been helping people with local history and genealogy research for fifteen years at MPL. When I first started and was learning the ropes, I was surprised to discover the number of fantastic resources MPL had to offer for a community this size. Also, just how much of it was available online for anyone to use and look at from anywhere with an internet connection.
Hold on to your seats because I’m going to share some of the resources available at your fingertips because part of my job is to empower you to use MPL’s local history resources on your own.
If you have never done any family history research or genealogy, you may be wondering where to start. The answer is pretty basic—start with yourself and move backwards as far as you are able to go. Write down what you know so you know where you have holes and where you should start. What I mean by “holes” is something along the lines of not having a death date for your great-great-great-grandma or you are not sure when your grandfather’s great-great grandpa immigrated to the United States.
Then what? Well, I suggest you go to Manitowoc Public Library and check out a genealogy manual that can point you in the right direction based on the holes in the information for your family tree. The manuals describe the types of records and resources you want to start looking for and can lead you in the right direction on where, generally, to start looking for these types of records. I highly recommend checking out a genealogy manual.
What other genealogy resources do we have at MPL? Let’s say you need an obituary for great-great-great-grandma. You know from your uncle that she did die in Manitowoc County and he thinks she died in 1915. Theoretically, she should have a death certificate at the courthouse and an obituary in the newspaper. These records can lead you to other family members you want to research and you have proof that the person died when they did to support your family tree research.
But, what if you don’t have an exact date or even a couple month time span to start combing through historic newspapers on microfilm? Even if you don’t have very much to go on, MPL does have resources that can help narrow down the death date so you can request death records. To start off narrowing down the death date of great-great-great-grandma, I would recommend asking other family members first, if any are available (other than your uncle; he’s already told you everything he knows on the topic). Family is a great resource, plus they may have stories that will add life and context to the names and dates on your family tree.
For whatever reason, if asking family doesn’t help, then I would start by coming to Manitowoc Public Library to use the Ancestry.com library edition. You can bring your laptop or use one of our computers to get online. You can keyword search by name and location in Ancestry pretty easily and if the date you are looking for is out there, that’s where you can easily find it (Pro-Tip: if you’re looking for immigration or birth dates, look at the census records on Ancestry).
If Ancestry doesn’t turn up anything, then I would take a look at the Manitowoc Genealogy and Local History Database (http://www.manitowoccollection.org/). You can access it through our website (www.manitowoclibrary.org), as well. You can search for names and events on this database. If you’ve never heard of this website, it started out originally as the Proper Name Index, which was created by volunteers in the 1970s at the Genealogical Society of Manitowoc County. Then, between 2010 and 2012, that index was moved to a database or website and once all that local history data was relocated, we continued to add to it. We still do so today. It has a variety of information that will point you to resources on MPL’s microfilm and local history collection.
Another great resource you could try is Newspaper Archive. MPL subscribes to this historical newspapers website for newspapers in Wisconsin. The Manitowoc newspapers run through about 1972 in this resource and newspapers listed are as old as the 1800s for Manitowoc-based papers. Although, from personal experience I can tell you that the scanned Manitowoc papers are more consistent for the years 1920 to 1972. You could try looking for great-great-great-grandma here. You never know what you may find doing a keyword search using her name. Maybe, great-great-great grandma was involved in something scandalous that that family doesn’t normally talk about or mention, but the newspaper did. Even the stories that no one spoke about in your family are important. It paints a beautiful truthful picture of your human family.
One more fantastic online resource for genealogy in our county is a website called Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Genealogy (www.2manitowoc.com). This website has a ton of information on deaths for our area. Some of the death information has full obituaries with references. You can keyword search this whole website.
Now, I have mentioned a lot of online resources at your disposal, but MPL still does have print resources if that is your preference. We have newspaper indexes in book form that you can look at in the Manitowoc Collection for some of our historic newspapers on microfilm. We also have Tombstone Inscriptions books that you can pursue in-house. These are just a few of the many resources that can help you research your family tree and find that elusive date for your great-great-great-grandma.
And this is really just the tip of the iceberg for Local History resources at MPL. To learn more about great resources, Head to Facebook to watch Coolest Coast Manitowoc County’s online talk show, “Coffee on the Coast,” on January 19 at 2 PM. I’ll be talking about MPL’s Local History Collection and the genealogy resources right here in Manitowoc County.
