A Library Visit is Never Wasted

A word to the wise researcher: Never pass up an opportunity to visit a genealogical library!

Our son recently relocated near to Independence, Missouri, so on a recent visit, I had to make a stop at the Midwest Genealogy Center (MGC) there. 

MGS is by far the largest genealogy library I have ever visited. I attempted "due diligence" to plan out what I wanted to accomplish. However, even though I looked through MGS's excellent website, finding aids, and catalog, nothing jumped out to me as a "must see" that applied to my ancestors or research. Most of my folk come from Ohio and Pennsylvania. I almost cancelled going, thinking that it would not be worth my time without a plan. I was wrong.

I set aside a few hours, and decided to spend my time browsing through their state collections. When I arrived, the front desk staff gave me a code to sign into a computer if needed. I also received a nice folder with some basic information and genealogy forms. I was sent upstairs to meet with Mary, one of their librarians, who gave me a brief intro and answered my questions. I shared my plan to look through their state collections. Fortunately, she pointed me to a binder with the library locations for collections—some large and some small—from every county in the U.S. I started with that index, noting where on the floor my counties of interest were located. I grabbed a handy "shopping cart" to gather the books and off I went.

In two hours' time I had collected about 20-30 books from various counties. I staked out a table, and began to look through them. I snapped a cell phone photo of any item of interest—careful to also photograph the covers and title pages (so I could create citations if needed). I came away with 51 photos, and had to ask the Hubs to lunch without me so I could get through all the books I had collected! 

Did I find anything earth-shattering? Not really, but I did find three interesting items.

First, in Enumerations of Males in Defiance County, Ohio, 1847-1895, I found an entry for the Hubs' 3rd great-grandfather "Dewit Blockman." Unfortunately, the list was not dated, but it's an interesting find nonetheless. Dewitt's birth year has been estimated as 1830 or so. Since this list includes males over the age of 21, it could mean that Dewitt was born as early as 1826, if enumerated in 1847.¹

My second find was in The Heritage of Blue Earth County Minnesota. One brother from my immigrant family, Martin Gilbride, eventually moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota. One of his sons lived in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. My find referenced a one-room schoolhouse being relocated, "Clarence Lysdale moved the Foster School to his place back of the Gilbride house on Duck Lake for storage..." Duck Lake is nearby Madison Lake, where Martin's wife Mary Newcomb Gilbride passed away at her son's house in 1904.²

In one more volume, Tombstone Inscriptions for the Cemeteries in Noble Township, Defiance County, Ohio, Vol. 5-NB, I found cemetery information for Jim's 4th great-grandfather Sylvester Blackman and his second wife, Mary Bruner Zellers. I noted that Henry Zeller and Elias Zellers were buried on either side of Sylvester and Mary. Henry Zellers was Mary's first husband, and Elias appears to be her son. If ever I have the opportunity to visit the cemetery, the book also provided a cemetery map showing the various sections.³

Entries for Sylvester and Mary Blackman in Tombstone Transcriptions.

Brunersburg Cemetery map provided in Tombstone Transcriptions.

One current genealogical mantra is "It's not all online." The books I found at the MGC are not available anywhere online that I can see. Enumerations and Tombstone Inscriptions were the work of local volunteers who walked cemeteries and transcribed documents well before the advent of the internet and digitization. Thank goodness for institutions like the MGC which are preserving these works.

It's well worth the time to check out your local library's genealogical or special collections to see what treasures you can find. And never pass up the opportunity to visit a large genealogical library like the Midwest Genealogy Center when you are nearby.

Until next time... 

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© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2024. All rights reserved.

 

NOTES

¹ Defiance County Genealogical Society, Enumerations of Males in Defiance County, Ohio, 1847-1895, (Defiance, Ohio: 2006), p. 33, Dewit Blockman; citing Midwest Genealogical Center, Independence, Missouri.

² Julie Hiller Schrader, The Heritage of Blue Earth County Minnesota (Dallas, Tex.: Curtis Media Corp.,1990), p. 575-576, "The One-Room Schoolhouse," submitted by Ted Roemer; citing Midwest Genealogical Center, Independence, Missouri. Also: “Over Century Old,” Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press, 8 April 1904, p. 7, col. 3, death of Mrs. Mary Gilbride; image, Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub (https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/PsImageViewer.jsp : accessed 24 May 2024); citing Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.

³ Defiance County Chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society, Tombstone Inscriptions for the Cemeteries in Noble Township, Defiance County, Ohio, Vol. 5-NB (Defiance, Ohio: 2000). n.p., Brunersburg Cemetery, Zeller and Blackman graves; citing Midwest Genealogical Center, Independence, Missouri. Also: Williams County, Ohio, Record of Marriages, Vol. 1, p. 76, Sylvester Blackmon and Mary Zellers, 19 Aug. 1840; imaged, "Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016," FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9392-S59C-8T : accessed 8 September 2024). Also: Find a Grave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117617451/mary-ann-blackman : accessed 8 September 2024), "Mary Ann Bruner Blackman" (1814-1890), memorial created by and headstone photo by "Rita Zipfel"; citing Brunersburg Cemetery, Noble Twp., Defiance County, Ohio. Henry Zellers is listed as Mary's spouse, and Elias Zellers as her child in this memorial. Interestingly, photos show that Sylvester's tombstone is joined with Henry Zellers', and Mary is in a different plot.