KPL Opens Digitization Hub!

We all have items we would love to digitize, but haven't done it because of a lack of time, equipment or know-how.  Although the Kalamazoo Public Library doesn't yet have the technology to add hours to your day, it can help with the rest.  Now, library patrons who live in the KPL Resident Area (mostly Kalamazoo and Oshtemo townships, see here for a map) can utilize The Hub. 

In The Hub you can digitize photos, negatives, slides, records, and cassettes.  You can also convert those old home movies on VHS to DVD.  There are a couple of caveats, however.  1) You need to have a cloud account, a flash drive or an external hard drive on which to save your treasures.  2) Recordings occur in "real time," meaning that if your video lasts 40 minutes you'll have to sit there the whole time waiting for it to finish.  You might consider taking a book along.

If you want to go beyond mere digitization and create narrated videos or podcasts you can use the editing software available in The Hub to create something to really wow your family.  A list of the software programs available is in the sidebar on the Hub's webpage.  A link to the user's guides for these programs can also be found there.

The Hub is located on the third floor of the central library, but is open only limited hours (Tues. 3-8 pm and Thurs. 10 am - 3 pm.)  There are four digitization stations and as many production stations.  Both Macs and PCs are available.  It is advisable to reserve a workstation online ahead of time, which you can do here. 

I'm not certain how much assistance the library staff can provide, but I imagine that they will instruct you in how to use the equipment.  This is a great resource for KPL patrons.

Amazing Civil War Atlas At KPL

The Kalamazoo Public Library local history blog recently posted an article about what looks like an amazing book for anyone interested in the Civil War.  I say amazing, though I have not had the opportunity to really look inside this volume.  However, from the few images I viewed on the website here, I will definitely be spending some time perusing an "Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies."

If you love good maps (in this case battlefield maps); photographs from the Civil War era, including buildings and soldiers; diagrams of war paraphernalia and drawings of military uniforms then you too will want to visit the Local History room and take a look.  I encourage you to follow the above link to watch the slideshow of approximately 30 images from the book.

If visiting the Kalamazoo Library is more than a a short drive for you, you'll be happy to know that I also found the book freely available at Internet Archive here.  While I will still probably look at the book at the KPL, it is nice to know that I can compile a list of the battles I am particularly interested in and the places where my soldiers were during the war and examine the maps in this book sooner rather than later.

Local History Makeover at KPL

If you haven't visited the Local History room at the Kalamazoo Public Library in a while you are in for a surprise. Starting at least as early as July things were being shifted around in preparation for removing the wall separating what used to be Local History from the microfilm reading area. In addition to simply opening up the space, items have been reorganized to facilitate research.

To see some “after” photos you can click here or better yet plan a visit over the holidays and tell me what you think since it will likely be a year before I have a chance to see it for myself.

The library will be closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The KPL will close early (5 pm) on New Year's Eve.

Tagwhat App, Your Personal Kazoo Tour

I just noticed on the Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) website a really exciting feature whether you have a smart phone or not (like me). Using a free app you can access historical information about Kalamazoo county sites, with an emphasis on the downtown Kalamazoo area. With 163 locations tagged in downtown and over one hundred spread over the rest of the county there is a whole lot of history at your fingertips.

Information is provided about buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, neighborhoods, theaters and more. When you click on an item you will see a brief description of the location and if you “view tag” you can read more. Usually there is a link that will take you directly to the KPL website for that location where you can read the full article and find references.

So, if you've ever driven past a building and wondered about its history, this is the app (available for iPhone and Android devices) for you. And if you don't have a smart phone you can still take advantage of this neat resource via your computer. Just click to view the interactive map or to download the app for your phone.  If you hover over a green pin a box will often appear to indicate what is at that location. The numbered circles indicate several sites in close proximity to each other. 

Have fun, exploring!

More Newspapers Online at the KPL

Several additional Kalamazoo area newspapers have now been digitized and can be searched at the Kalamazoo Public Library website (click here to go directly to the search page). They are listed under Miscellaneous Kalamazoo Publications. While I cannot personally verify that all issues are in the database, given the limited run of these papers I would be surprised if they weren't. The following papers are now available for perusal.

Kalamazoo Advocate:               Dec. 30, 1921 to Jun. 30, 1922

Kalamazoo Evening News:        Apr. 1, 1898 to Mar. 20, 1900

Kalamazoo Evening Press:        Feb. 9, 1909 to May 13, 1911

Kalamazoo Star:                       Oct. 9, 1921 to Dec. 31, 1921

The People:                              Mar. 7, 1918 to Jun. 8, 1922

Trench & Camp (Fort Custer):   Oct. 22, 1917 to Nov. 14, 1918

Publication dates come from the KPL website.

I want to thank the Kalamazoo Public Library for all they do. In this age of belt-tightening the fact that they continue to devote staff and money to promoting Kalamazoo history (and making it available online) speaks to their commitment to the community.

*Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the library. I'm just a fan.

Online Kalamazoo Photograph Index

Did you know that you can view about 3000 photographs related to Kalamazoo on the Kalamazoo Public Library website? This index is a collaboration between the KPL, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and the WMU Archives and Regional History Collections. Each institution provided photos: KPL (about 1200), KVM (about 1000) and WMU (800).

Some of the photos are more recent, from the 1980s and 1990s, but you can also find old photographs as well (into the late 1860s). Unsure where to begin? Try searching for a street name, building (e.g. library), or event (e.g. parade). More recent photos appear first in the search results. The results page includes a brief description of each photograph. Select “Take me to it” to view the photograph and click to enlarge. Be sure to make a mental note of where you are in the search results (the number) because when you close the photo window the results revert to the top of the page.

All of these photographs are searchable here.

You can also conduct a photo search anytime you are in the “local indexes and community information” database by scrolling to the bottom of the results page and selecting “photograph” in the “Type” drop-down box.

On an unrelated note, the KPL is hosting another Genealogy Lock-In on Friday October 26, 2012. This event lasts from 6 pm to 10 pm. The description of this event from the KPL website is as follows. “Explore databases and Kalamazoo County vital records, learn how to use the microfilm reader/scanner/printer, save microfilm images to CD or flash drive—or just take advantage of free copying and printing during the event. If you like, bring your own laptop and use the library's WiFi network. Free parking in the library lot.” Registration is required and begins on Oct. 3.

City Directories: More Than Just Names

I'm sure that we have all used city directories at some point in our genealogical research to find out where an ancestor lived, but have you ever looked beyond the list of names? You can learn a lot about the community by looking through the rest of the directory and you may just find your relatives mentioned in an unexpected place. Here are some of the things you might learn.

History: Many city directories, particularly earlier ones may describe the settling of the town in addition to features of the land and soil. The 1869 Kalamazoo directory, for example has a history of Kalamazoo as well as histories and descriptions of the various townships in the county. If you have ancestors who were early settlers in Kalamazoo county (I don't, but surely someone does) then you might find them mentioned here.

County Officials and Institutions: In addition to local government officials, you may find a list and/or brief description of libraries, churches, cemeteries, schools, societies and unions. These entries also often include the address and sometimes their officers and the days they meet. The 1906 Kalamazoo directory even lists “secret and benevolent societies.” This always amuses me because I can't help but think they are not “secret” anymore. We have all heard of the Masons and the Knights Templar, but have you heard of the Prudent Patricians of Pompeii or the Tribe of Ben Hur? If your ancestors were listed as officers you now have a new place to search for records.

Businesses: A business directory can be quite interesting as well. If nothing else it provides a basic look at the local economy. The 1869 directory includes 23 lawyers, 11 washerwomen, whip and glove manufacturers, a hoop skirt manufacturer and a soap and candle maker. In 1899 there were nearly 3 pages of carpenters, over six pages of celery growers and shippers, 3 carpet weavers and more than a dozen cigar manufacturers.

Miscellaneous: The 1869 directory also has a section entitled “Notices of Enterprising Business Men” with a brief description of each. Here is yet another place you might find something to aid your family history research. Also included in this directory was the number of children in the school district (between ages 5 and 20) for Aug. 1868: 2646. It also names teachers for 1869 by school. The 1906 Kalamazoo directory even lists parks and “places of amusement.”

I have found three Kalamazoo city directories free on the internet: 1869, 1899 and 1906. All three are available from Google books. The 1869 directory can also be downloaded from www.archive.org. Both the Kalamazoo Public Library and the WMU Archives have complete runs of Kalamazoo city directories (some of these also include a county directory). Keep in mind that directories were not published every year. The WMU Archives also has a run of directories for the “Kalamazoo suburban” area from 1966-1976.

In addition to Kalamazoo area directories, the WMU Archives also possesses extensive holdings (hard copy and microfilm) for Battle Creek, Cold Water, Benton Harbor, and Greenville. They also have many years on microfilm for Grand Rapids. Many of these are now available on Ancestry Library Edition to which both the KPL and the WMU Archives subscribe.

The Van Buren District Library also has some city directories for Allegan, Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties, most of them from the 1900s.  For a listing of these sources click here.

The Kalamazoo Public Library also has several city directories for Three Rivers (mostly from the 1940s and 1950s).  The Three Rivers Library also has a complete run of directories for that city.  To learn more read my post here.

To see which city directories are available online for other cities where your ancestors lived a good place to start is the Online Historical Directories Website.

 To see how city directories can help you answer some ancestor mysteries read my post Clues in City Directories.

The Kalamazoo Telegraph is Online

Extra, extra, read all about it. The Regional Publications & Images database, currently featuring the Kalamazoo Telegraph has just gone live. I would like to give a big thank you to the Kalamazoo Public Library for digitizing this valuable resource. So far, the images available are for the Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph (1868-1885) and the Kalamazoo Weekly Telegraph (1893-1899), but more is planned.

Published with generous permission of the Kalamazoo Public Library.

In addition to a continuation of the Telegraph digitization process (currently ongoing) they intend to digitize other records previously available only in hard copy or on microfilm. One of the items planned for inclusion is the Grand Army memorial record. This book, published in 1884, is “for the purpose of securing and perpetuating the military history of every Grand Army comrade .” If you have Civil War ancestors who lived in Kalamazoo you will likely find something once this record is available online.

So, before you head straight to the website there are a few things you should know. First, this is a beta site, which means that it is still being refined so you may encounter a few bugs while doing your searches (you can email them your feedback at the bottom of the search or grid pages). I ran into a few bugs, but they were intermittent and nothing that couldn't be worked around in most cases. I'll mention them as I describe how the system works.

On the search page you can choose which resources you want to search, what years you wish to search and then your search term(s). You can choose “all of these words,” “any of these words” or “exact phrase.” You can't do proximity searching, so you'll have to try variations of names if you hope to find them together or use the exact phrase option. I also tried searching with initials, but this didn't work for me even when I selected “exact phrase.”

Once on the results page, I found it easier to select “grid” view at the top of the page. The hits will be in a list of 25 per page. Occasionally, I have had a problem continuing on the the next page, but this has been sporadic. Once you have brought up the image you'll want to watch on the left panel of the screen for it to pull up your hit(s). The first hit will appear in a blue-outlined box with your search term highlighted in blue. To go to the next hit click on it in the list in the left panel.

One quirk I have noticed is that sometimes when I click on the image the left panel indicates that there are no hits in that issue of the newspaper. When this happens I click back onto the “grid” view and look for the words immediately next to my search term. Back on the image at the bottom of the left panel is a “Find” feature. Try searching for one of the alternate words or part of your original search term. Sometimes this works and sometimes not. One difficulty is that in grid view only a few of the words surrounding your search term pertain to your hit. Most of the rest is irrelevant.

A few final things. If you find there is no scroll bar on the right side, click the button next to the box displaying the percent magnification. When you save be sure to include the page number and column number (I also add T, M or B for top, middle or bottom; my typical notation is KT1876-5-4P4Col3M) so you can more easily find your hit later, otherwise you'll have to read the entire issue to find it. While that would certainly be interesting, it would be more than a tad irritating if you wanted to quickly find your hit again.

One last thing I did discover is that, although the KPL website says digitized images only go through 1885, I found hits in the Daily Telegraph as late as 1899. As for my research, I found the first indication in print of my bad boy, Henry Harrigan's, run-ins with the law. As a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old (in 1876) he was sent to Detroit for ninety days for assault and battery of a woman upon his forcibly entering her house to retrieve a baseball that went through her window. It's disturbing, but I can't really say that I'm surprised.

Kalamazoo Public Library

We are very lucky to have the wonderful resource that is the Kalamazoo Public Library! Not only do they have a variety of books, photos, maps, local newspapers on microfilm, yearbooks and city directories on site, but they also have a useful and informative website which is quite user-friendly. The Research page has a list of subtopics. Choose “Genealogy” and it brings up news, events and select books. Along the right margin are links to articles and other resources especially useful to beginners. For those who have the basics under their belts, navigate to the “Local History Collection.”

While there is quite a lot of information about resources available I will highlight a few of them.

The Local Information Database is a good place to begin. Items in the database include names from many resources in the local history room as well as vital records found in the Kalamazoo Gazette (check the website to see the types of entries available by year and note that indexing is ongoing). I usually begin with a surname search. Click on the link to see more information (the citation includes page and column number). You may start a list to print or email simply by checking the Print/Email box. When you finish searching click on “Print/Email Temporary List” at the top of the results page. Select “Full” from the “view of records” drop down box under options to be certain the name you are looking for is present on your list or you may find yourself wondering who you are supposed to be looking for once you hit the microfilm. Finally, remember to print the list before you navigate away from the page or you will have to start over. If you live in the area simply bring along your list and plenty of dimes. Even if you cannot visit, don't despair. Obituaries can be ordered from the library for the ridiculously low price of $2 each (as of Jan 2012). If you have ever searched through days of microfilm to find an obituary, you know that this is a bargain.

For those able to visit the library there is much more available. The website should be your starting point to prioritize your time once you are there. Unlike many other library websites that have a sentence or two indicating they have many local history resources the KPL website does an excellent job of describing their holdings of city directories, yearbooks, maps, newspapers on microfilm, etc. As you may suspect, materials from the local history room cannot be checked out, but additional copies of more general books may be available in the circulating portion of the main library (check the catalog or ask a volunteer).

In addition to the above, the KPL also has an ever increasing number of articles discussing items of local interest. You may know that Kalamazoo was known for celery, Checker cab and Gibson guitars, but did you realize that horse racing was big in Kalamazoo or that there was a corset factory there? The “All About Kalamazoo History” section, which was recently awarded the 2011 State History Award, is the place to go. Each topic has several articles. Even better, references are listed at the end of each article for those who want more information.

If you are relatively new to genealogy and live in the Kalamazoo area, I encourage you to check the KPL website for the date of their next “Intro to Genealogy” session. While I have not been able to attend one, as I now live out-of-state, from the caliber of the website I am sure it would be valuable to those unsure where to begin or to anyone wishing to better understand the resources available at the KPL.

In addition to the books, etc. found in the local history room you may also wish to utilize their online resources. The KPL has subscriptions to AmericanAncestors.org (website of the New England Historical Genealogical Society), Ancestry.com (library edition), HeritageQuest and a few others. A few of these can be accessed from home with a library card.

More exciting still is the recent digitization of the Kalamazoo Telegraph and several other local papers.  To read more about these projects see The Kalamazoo Telegraph is Online and More Newspapers Online at the KPL.

In my opinion, anyone with ancestors in Kalamazoo should avail themselves of the resources provided by this wonderful library. And if you haven't gone to the website lately, I recommend that you spend some time looking it over. Don't forget to check back periodically; every time I do, I seem to find something new.