Mining the La Crosse Public Library Archives for Nuggets of Your Family Tree

by Anita Taylor Doering
Archivist

Basic resources used in genealogy:

Birth, marriage, death dates and records

Having some knowledge of WHEN and WHERE these basic genealogical and life events took place for ancestors can help you find your way. Before the Internet and Ancestry.com, we usually started with searching the census.� Sometimes we got lucky and there would be an index for a state, and sometimes not.� Even then the quality of the index was certainly suspect.� Now we are not so limited in accessing materials through published books or genealogical magazines.

However, it is still a necessary skill to be flexible about spellings, dates and the like, as well as helpful to know the when and where of basic genealogical events.� Why? Because now you need to sort through the results and sift out the ones that don�t seem to be a good fit.

A really good book we refer to in regards to documentation and citing sources is Elizabeth Shown Mill�s book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace that is available in the Archives Room as well as in the new non-fiction check-out section of the library.� The La Crosse Public Library call number is 808.02 M625E 2007.

A Note About Online Sources�

The La Crosse Public Library has a subscription to the library version of Ancestry.com which must be accessed at a public library facility (north, south or main buildings) with a library card. If you have an LPL card AND are a city of La Crosse resident, then you can access HeritageQuest remotely from your computer at home. Again, you will need your library card.

Cyndislist at http://cyndislist.com/ is a great free source that helps to organize the huge body of genealogical �stuff� available on the Internet, free and otherwise.
Roots Web can also be helpful and is freely available at https://sites.rootsweb.com/.
The Wisconsin Historical Society has lots of material on their site at: http://wisconsinhistory.org/genealogy/.
Minnesota Historical Society has 20^th century birth and death indexes online: http://www.mnhs.org/index.htm or http://greatriversnet.org/mhs/peopleFinder.php.
Lastly, the Mormon site has a pilot project that you can search at: http://pilot.familysearch.org.

Census Related Sources:

Generally we use Ancestry.com or HeritageQuest to access the federal census via indexes.� In the Archives Room, we have the federal census on microfilm for 1850-1930 but are generally not indexed.

State census is slowing being input into Ancestry.com (right now the Wisconsin 1895 and 1905 are available), but the Archives Room has the Wisconsin state census from 1855; 1875-1905.� Censuses were taken by the state of Wisconsin from 1836 when it became a territory until 1905. The 1836, 1838, 1842, 1846, 1847, 1855, 1875, 1885, and 1895 censuses resemble the early federal censuses, listing only the head of a household by name and summarizing the number of others. The 1905 census was the only state census in Wisconsin to list all the members of a household by name.

Death/Obituary Related Sources:

Local obituary index available in the room in binders and online 1904-1959; 1983-present; this is an index to the La Crosse Tribune and you will occasionally find some pre-1904 obituaries indexed here as well.� The address is: http://lacrosselibrary.org/genealogy/

Wisconsin death indexes available in the room on microfiche pre-1907, 1959-1991; online at Ancestry.com pre-1907, 1959-1997; and at http://wisconsinhistory.org for pre-1907 only.

Nationwide index - Ancestry.com or RootsWeb for free Social Security Death Index http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/� Also pointed out during our tour is the ability to obtain, for a fee, a copy of the Social Security Application in the results field (called a form SS-5).� This link will automatically create a letter for you to send into the Social Security Administration with a check or money order for $25.�You can send this letter even if you don�t have the deceased person�s social security number, but will cost an additional $2.

Local cemetery info - contacting the cemetery for more info; at least getting a year off of a stone to help narrow down the choices

http://lacrosselibrary.org/genealogy/

Other cemetery indexes for Wisconsin counties of Monroe on the Monroe Co. Local History Room index

http://www.mclhr.org/ (also their newspaper and census and plat book indexes can be found here)

The Archives also has printed versions of Jackson, Juneau, Vernon; for Minnesota counties of Olmsted, Winona; and La Crescent area cemeteries; and Allamakee Co., IA.

We don�t have birth information here, beyond the pre-1907 Wisconsin birth index available in microfiche, online at the http://wisconsinhistory.org site or online at Ancestry.com.� We do maintain more current lists of births, marriages and divorces from the newspaper 1983-present. �If you have an idea of the date, you can scan the newspapers as well.

Church Records:

When there are no civil registrations of birth, marriage and death records, church records can serve as alternative sources for these vital records. Finding these records can be difficult, frustrating and time consuming. Before you can begin your search for church records, you must determine the religious affiliation and residence of the person you are researching. In addition, you must know the approximate date of the event that you are attempting to document.

Church registers of births, deaths and marriages are the most helpful to genealogists but often there are other types of useful church records available. The existence of these other types of records varies with the denomination and the era of the church. These records can include lists of members, church accounts, journals of clergy, disciplinary records, and family registers. Church newspapers are also useful. They can include obituaries of lay members and clergy and items about church members who have moved away.

Church records of births, deaths and marriage may seem easy to interpret but there is often more information in them than you are first aware. Particular ethnic groups may have traditions in the naming of children or in the choosing of witnesses that can reveal collateral lines or highlight relationships between families. Researching the traditions of a particular ethnic group or church may help you interpret the church records more effectively.

Locally we have developed a tool to help people potentially narrow down the choices of a church based on ethnicity, time period, denomination, and residence (north or south La Crosse).
This can be found on the web at: http://www.lacrosselibrary.org/digital/CHURCHESupdated2.pdf.
This list also contains on the far right if the Archives owns any of that churches� records and their call number.� Most are on microfilm and were filmed by the Mormon Church.� Another trick you might use to find the church name is if you have a marriage certificate or an obituary that mentions the name of the official who performed the service, you can refer to a city directory at that time and determine what church the family was most likely associated.

Immigration Information:

The immigration experience was recorded in a variety of records. Passenger Lists and Naturalization Records are the primary tools for researching your ancestor's immigration into the United States.

Passenger Lists:

Passenger lists are among the most frequently requested genealogical materials, and the Library has a strong collection. As immigrants arrived at North American ports, these lists were compiled at the port of entry. The lists document the names of passengers, their age, their sex, and additional information that varies from the first lists of 1565 to the most recently released lists of 1954. Most of the pre-1820 passenger lists have been published in some format.

Passenger lists usually contain the name of each passenger, the port from which they came, the name of the ship, and the captain of the ship.

Many of the 17th-18th century passenger lists and indexes have been printed in books, pamphlets, or journals. Consult Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1538-1900 by P. William Filby which we have at the Archives.

Other printed lists the Archives owns include: Germans to America (series I: 1850-1897); (series II: 1840s), Famine Immigrants (Irish arriving at New York, 1846-1851); Czech Immigration Passenger Lists; and more!

Ancestry.com has passenger lists as well.� Ellis Island has a free searchable site at http://www.ellisisland.org/ for people who came to the United States via New York between 1892-1924.� Before Ellis Island there was Castle Garden which was the NY port of arrival used between 1830-1892 at http://www.castlegarden.org/ and is also a free site.� The Wisconsin Historical Society has LOTS of passenger immigration lists on microfilm in Madison.

Naturalization Records:

Naturalization is the legal procedure by which an alien becomes a citizen of the United States. Naturalization records may provide a vital link for tracing an ancestor to his or her country of origin and can be a rich source of information about the immigrant and his or her family. This is particularly true for records created after 1906.

Wisconsin naturalization records can be found in municipal, county, circuit, supreme, and United State territorial and district courts. Most naturalization records have been transferred from the Wisconsin court system to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Records from various jurisdictions have been brought together and are available for research at the Society's Area Research Centers http://wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/arcnet/.

The La Crosse Area Research Center is located at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse�s Murphy Library.� The Archives at La Crosse Public Library does not own any naturalization records or indexes.

Newspapers on microfilm:

These can be used to find obituaries and other local and area news.� In the Archives Room we have the following newspapers on microfilm:

Manuscripts:

Manuscripts actually include things such as church records whether they are in microform or paper formats, but can also be copies of someone�s family information, a diary, photographs, and the like.� The Archives maintains lists of their photograph and manuscript collections, but it is probably best to just ask.�

For a good summary of the materials we have in the Archives Room for genealogists, please take a look at: http://www.lacrosselibrary.org/guide/lacrosse_pl.html.

Digitized city directories (1866-1905), county histories, town histories, and the like related to La Crosse County can be found on the library�s companion website called La Crosse History Unbound at http://lacrossehistory.org.

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