Hi Andrea and anyone else that might be thinking the same thing. :-)
This is a partial answer to your question of where the information comes
from. The material I have in my possession are actual books that you can
pull off the shelf and blow the dust off of. Other than what I post to this
list, nothing I have is on the computer.
The books consist of cemetery inscriptions and newspaper indexes. The South
Bend Area Genealogical Society is in the process of publishing a series of
volumes of cemetery inscriptions of every tombstone and cemetery that has
ever existed in St. Joseph County. So far, they have published five volumes
with more in the works. Dave Eisen has published two newspaper indexes,
with one being for the "Mishawaka Enterprise" and the other one is a
two-volume set that covers all of the other newspapers that were published
in between 1831 and 1912. Dave Eisen's Mishawaka book goes all the way up
to the 1970's. Several of us on this list have these books and they are
also available in both the South Bend and Mishawaka libraries.
Also another source of information is the South Bend Area Genealogical
Society's website.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~insbags
Another good source of information is the St. Joseph County Library's
Obituary Index for the "South Bend Tribune" going back to 1920.
http://www.libraryforlife.org/databases/obituary/obituaryonline/obituarysear
ch.html
You also might want to check out the archives of this list. Lots of good
information there as well.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/INSTJOSE/
Elkhart County's library has an obituary index on line as well. I've found
quite a few St. Joseph Co. people mentioned in "The Elkhart Truth".
http://www.elkhart.lib.in.us/elkhart.hp/html/obit_db.html
BTW, for those of you who are waiting for lookups from me, things have been
so crazy around our house that my head is spinning. I got hit broadside
with a bunch of unexpected things. OOPS! As soon as things settle down a
bit, I'll get those lookups finished. They are all in my file folder just
waiting for that trip downtown. I thank you in advance for your patience
and I apologize for any inconveniences.
Hope all of this helps!
Rick B
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrea Welter" <aylayla(a)mac.com>
To: <INSTJOSE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 7:35 PM
Subject: [INSTJOE] index to marriage/birth records
Everyone once in a while folks from various mailing lists have emailed
me very helpful info from birth, marriage & indexes. Yet I have no idea
how these are being accessed. If it's on a CD-Rom, logging in to a web
site or physically looking up. I even got a random email from SKS (did
not leave their name) giving all kinds of marriage, divorce & birth
dates from 1890-1981 from OH, IN to FL. Where is this stuff being
found? Do I need to belong to a specific historical or genealogy
society? What am I missing?
Andrea