The February 2015 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, Ferbruary 12, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of January:
Do you have a family member that
is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership
in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful
gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected],
about a gift membership.
On February 12, 2015, Beth Phillips
presented a program titled, Hayner Genealogical & Local
History Library, Our Collection and Services.
Beth Phillips grew up in St. Clair County, Illinois. In 1980,
she began looking into her family history and discovered that
she loves the research! She wrote her family memories of growing
up on the farm south of Summerfield and has compiled family history
reports for clients. Currently she works at Hayner Genealogy
& Local History Library in Alton, Illinois. In addition to
helping patrons find information, she helps update the library
collection, answers genealogy mail requests, and writes genealogy
research guides.
There are a lot of genealogical
and historical resources at the Hayner Genealogical & Local
History Library. Our historical books and records are mostly for
the Alton and Madison County area. We have a lot of atlases and
plat maps covering Madison, Jersey, Greene, and Macoupin counties,
along with some other states and countries. We have the cemetery
books published by the Madison County Genealogical Society. Some
of these books of the older cemeteries contain information that
is no longer visible. We have books that were donated by people
from the Alton area on cemeteries all over the Alton area. We
also have cemetery books for some of the surrounding areas - Jersey,
Calhoun, and Greene counties. We have genealogical records for
all of the counties around us, except St. Clair. They have the
wonderful Belleville Library with all that information. We also
have records for St. Charles County in Missouri.
Some people in the Alton area decided they wanted to start photographing
cemeteries, focusing on Madison County. As of now, they have over
93,000 photos on line. On the Hayner Library website, look for
the genealogy and local history section. You should then find
the Cemeteries Photo Project. There are three cemeteries they
want to find - Smith, Springer, and Lanterman. They are all on
Old Birch Road, which runs sort of parallel to South Moreland
Road out of Bethalto. If you have any idea where these cemeteries
are, get in touch with Bettie Flactiff at (618) 465-8165 or [email protected].
They have also photographed a few cemeteries in Greene, Jersey,
and Macoupin Counties. They have photographed the monument to
the Smallpox Island burials across the Mississippi River form
Alton in Missouri, as well as the monument in the Confederate
Cemetery in North Alton. They are currently working on Woodlawn
Cemetery in Edwardsville. They estimate by March 1, 2015, they
will have over 100,000 photos on line. They are also keeping track
of the military burials.
The library has on line archives (digitized microfilms) of the
Alton Telegraph newspapers. Starting in 1836, they go up to some
months of 2012. These archives are searchable by name, date, etc.,
or you can just browse the papers as you wish. The microfilms
are still available as a backup if you desire to use them. Sometimes
the photos from the microfilms are better than those that have
been digitized.
Worldwide newspaper archives, such as access.newspaperarchive.com,
are also available. These are similar in format to the Alton Telegraph
archive but include records from lots of cities throughout the
U.S. and other counties. They do not include every newspaper for
every city. You just have to get on the website and see what is
available.
The library has a collection of digitized Sanborn maps for some
of the towns in Illinois. These maps show the layout of the streets
and the buildings in each block. It gives the address, the shape
of the structure, and the type of material the structure is made
of. For those of you who do not know, the Sanborn maps were created
for fire insurance purposes. Therefore, they tend to concentrate
on the business areas rather than the residential areas.
The library has access to a lot of genealogy websites, including
Ancestory.com and HeritageQuest.com. The staff at the library
will be more than happy to help you if you are not familiar with
using these sites.
There is a lot of focus on history in the library. When the library
was remodeled, several display cases were built. These cases now
contain artifacts from local establishments and institutions:
Monticello College, Walnut Grove Dairy, Owens Illinois Glass Company,
etc. Also available is a vertical file on Alton history. A property
file contains information on various addresses in Alton. Not every
address in town is in the file, but if there were photos or histories
about landmark homes or businesses, they may be available. A lot
of city directories are available, starting with 1858 - more than
you can find on line. These are very useful for genealogy purpose
- you can track people, where they lived, what kind of work they
did, and members of their family.
The library has lots of maps of Alton; the oldest is a copy of
the original plat of Alton by Rufus Easton in 1818. They also
have a lot of books about early Alton industries. Contained in
their collection are many volumes of the Alton High School yearbook,
The Tatler. The earliest volume is dated 1904. Yearbooks from
Marquette Catholic High School are also available beginning in
1961. Yearbooks are available from Western Military Academy, Monticello
College, Shurtleff College, and a few from Lewis & Clark Community
College. Some local church histories and a few membership directories
are available.
A lot of books about Madison County veterans - WWI, WWII, Korea,
and Vietnam have been compiled from newspapers and donated to
the library. Someone is currently working on Civil War veterans.
History of the Alton schools is covered in many books in the collection.
Books about all the Alton mayors, containing information about
their political careers and some personal information can be found
in the library.
Books are available covering the railroads and riverboats in Alton
- Alton started as a river port. Histories of the boat companies,
barge lines, steamboats, etc. are available.
There are books on things unique to Alton: the infamous Alton
Penitentiary, the Piasa Bird, the Hartford Castle, etc.
There is a biography section that covers well-known people from
Alton like Robert Wadlow, Elijah Lovejoy, John Olin, etc. A large
part of the biography section covers Abraham Lincoln - not because
he was from Alton but because of his links with Alton.
The library has a large number of volumes of the Journal of the
Illinois State Historical Society. These are good for finding
information about early settlers across the entire state of Illinois.
The library has a collection of county histories covering 101
of Illinois' 102 counties. They also have some town histories
for the local area. They have a collection of books covering areas
where people might have lived before they migrated into the Alton
area. These would most likely be to the east and south of Illinois.
Books of Revolutionary War service records and pension applications
are available. Illinois veterans in the Civil War, the Mexican
War, and the Black Hawk War are covered in other books.
The library contains some records on ethnic groups, including
a lot on Cherokees, the Dawes Tribal Rolls, and other books on
Native Americans.
Many people have donated their family histories to the library.
Also contained in the library are copies of the American Surname
books, which contain names of many of the early immigrants to
America (Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, etc).
The library staff takes mail requests. Their address is 401 State
Street, Alton, IL 62002. They also have classes and programs.
The Hayner Genealogical and Local History Library has something
for almost everyone with an interest in genealogy or history.
This program was interesting and well received. It generated quite
a few questions and responses.