Digital Genealogy Resources

By: Dellie Craig and Michelle Ogden

In our June article, we covered the resources available on the Crawfordsville District Public Library website. In this follow-up, we will explore other digital resources available that are fun ways to explore genealogy and the history of our county and state.

Providing a broad range of services and digital ephemera is the Indiana State Library collection and genealogy: https://www.in.gov/library/collections-and-services/genealogy/

Family Tree Magazine named it one of the best state websites in 2023. The genealogy section of the site has become one of the largest digital collections of family history in the Midwest, containing more than 40,000 print items. A search field in the upper right-hand corner makes targeted research easy while selecting Online Resources from the left sidebar opens a link page to explore. The first section is for Subscription Resources, these can only be accessed within the State Library but the next section, Resources Provided by the Indiana State Library, is accessible from anywhere. You can search historic Indiana newspapers, cemeteries, marriage license databases, state documents, and more. If you need help, located at the bottom of the page is Ask-A-Librarian, to connect with staff at the State Library.

A similar effort has been made by other Indiana institutions and libraries to share information on Indiana Memory: https://digital.library.in.gov/ This project was made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. While you can use the search box in the upper right-hand corner, my favorite thing to do is browse the collections. To browse, select either Collections Across Indiana or Collections Lists at the bottom of the Home page. On the Collections Across Indiana page, you can select a collection or use the Indiana map to select a county to view the collections for that county. Hovering your cursor over the county will bring up the name of each county. View historic Indiana maps, including old maps of the state parks, muster rolls from the Civil War, old photographs and works of art, trade catalogs from Indiana businesses, and so much more. Indiana Memory is a gold mine of state history.

Purdue University also has e-archives, which can be found at https://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/digital/ Included are many papers from famous astronaut Neil Armstrong, aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan, and other famous graduates. If you or a family member attended Purdue, search for them in the online version of the Debris yearbook (1889-2008). Early theses from the founding of Purdue to 1923 have also been digitized for online reading as PDF files. Medieval holdings, old photographs, Purdue periodicals, scrapbooks, and more have also been made available in the e-archives. The Purdue Archives also offers a reproduction service if you would like to order a high quality copy of a digitized item.

Another library that has digitized yearbooks is the Frankfort Community Public Library. Thanks to grant funding, scanned copies of yearbooks from Clinton Prairie, Clinton Central, Rossville, and Frankfort High Schools are available. The digital scans can be found on the Libby app for checkout using your Crawfordsville District Public Library card. While you are using the Libby app be sure to search for other genealogy books and magazines. Local library patrons also have access to the Hoopla app with their card. Hoopla provides access to The Great Courses, which has a Genealogy course that is a great starting point for beginning family historians. Hoopla also has some census records for checkout and a selection of hundreds of other genealogy books.

Genealogy and historic documents are more accessible with the digitization and preservation efforts of genealogists. You no longer need to travel long distances to look up references, you can view them at home. If you would like to learn more about researching your family tree, please visit the Marian Morrison Local History section on the second floor of the Crawfordsville District Public Library or the Local History webpage https://www.cdpl.lib.in.us/services/local-history-and-genealogy/ . You can also make research appointments with the library’s Local History Specialist by emailing [email protected] For questions on using the Libby or Hoopla apps call (765-362-2242), or visit the library reference desk on the second floor. Library hours are Sunday 1-5 pm, Monday through Thursday 9 am-9 pm, and Friday and Saturday 9 am-5 pm.

-Dellie Craig is a Local History specialist and Michelle Ogden is a Reference Library Assistant. Both work in the Reference and Local History Department at the Crawfordsville District Public Library.