I love to learn about and/or visit ghost towns, counties that no longer exist, and the majestic buildings (or former sites) that were demolished for “progress.” Minnesota has a former county that was home to several towns. Sarah Given will explore the history of Columbia Heights and Hilltop, Minnesota, at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 25, […]
Yes, cousin Dave is correct. He reminded me in a comment on my earlier post that it wasn’t an umlaut. The “ö ” in Lindström, Minnesota is not really an umlaut. It actually has no name. It’s a special letter. The media headlines needed something to call it. Maybe drafting a German term to fill […]
Umlaut: a mark placed over the top of a vowel to indicate a specific pronunciation. I see the use of umlauts in my Swedish and German research. Minnesota Department of Transportation sign rules meant the lack of the umlaut over the “o” for a sign in the town of Lindström, Minnesota. This caused a furor […]
I am challenging myself to discover these and other links. The historical societies, libraries, and archives I mention in this series also have fantastic in-house resources for researchers. St. Cloud Times [Stearns County and area] www.griver.org/sctimes-index Obituaries index 01/02/1928 through 12/31/2013 News index 01/03/1928 through 12/31/2008 Pennington County Cemetery and obituary index [no date parameters […]
This is the first of occasional posts regarding websites that are helpful to researchers working on their Minnesota ancestry, a community history, biographies, and other projects. All are free sites unless otherwise noted. Even though searching is free, some have a cost involved when ordering a record that is not digitized. Dalby Database: www.dalbydata.com [The […]
I love to just get in the car and drive out of the city on county roads and highways rather than always being on the interstate. The great variety of barns that I see is one reason, though I do not descend from a family of farmers. One of the first genealogy lectures I attended […]
I love progress! The Hennepin County (Minnesota) government is finally announcing the consolidation of court cases. A plus is that records once stored offsite will be more readily available once the project is finished. “The new Records Center allows citizens to look up records from various cases in one place, ranging from civil and conciliation […]
Sasha Aslanian, a reporter from Minnesota Public Radio, has a wonderful story today about Pilgrim Baptist Church. The church is celebrating 150 year of existence. It was founded by former slaves. Sasha relates “. . . Robert Hickman, an escaped slave from Missouri who 150 years ago led slaves traveling north on the Underground Railroad, […]
Have you recently checked the Minnesota category of the Historical Record Collections at FamilySearch? It has 22 section of material related to the state. Add a lot more when you check out the U.S. census records. Many have digitized images, some are record abstracts, and some are indexes. Check out the list below (and many […]
Why is it that some dates just stick in our minds? For me, one is the date of Minnesota statehood. On May 11, 1858 Minnesota became the 32nd state in the United States. That’s 155 years ago. One of my great grandfathers, Michael Hanley, had already arrived in Minnesota Territory. He is on the 1857 […]