Saturday, July 7, 2012

Kalamazoo US GenWeb site


Where should you turn for a wide range of Kalamazoo-related information? To the Kalamazoo County US GenWeb site. For those who are unfamiliar with the USGenWeb, it is an all volunteer project. As a result, each state and county site is arranged differently. In addition, the type and number of records available vary by county. The Kalamazoo site has a little bit of everything so you are sure to find something helpful.

Some information is available here, while some is available via links to other sites. Among other things, you will find information on or links to:
Census records
Celery
Cemeteries
Family webpages, just a few
Funeral homes with addresses and phone numbers
County history, numerous articles on various topics
Vital records (some) with links to more
Links to military information
Some obits
Photos in various categories

My favorite part of the website without a doubt is the history section. There are several topics listed, but in many cases clicking on a particular one leads to several more. Articles include ones on early life in Kalamazoo county, Indians in Kalamazoo, the county poor farm, the Dutch, railroads and much more. I can't tell you how many times I have Googled something and been directed to an article on the Kalamazoo GenWeb site.

As this is an all volunteer effort you'll find a patch-work quilt of information here. To make it easier to find a particular surname you can take advantage of the search feature. You can search just the Kalamazoo county page or all of the Michigan GenWeb.

After you are done perusing the Kalamazoo county page, you may want to look at the Michigan GenWeb site as well. If you are really lucky you may just find a rescued family treasure at Michigan's Orphan Artifacts.  You can also visit the Michigan Tombstone Photo/Transcription Project to see if your relatives are represented (select a county and then a cemetery to get started).

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