Fill in the gaps of your family history in Fort Wayne. (Chicago Tribune, 6/10/2011)
Excerpt: Family historian Barbara Moorhouse's most thrilling moment was opening an oversize book of old maps at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Like many modern, tech-savvy amateur genealogists, Moorhouse has been able to do most of her research online. But finding and "actually holding" a book of old county plats, one marked with a family name, was special in a way that cannot be duplicated by computer, she says.
"I have yet to visit a county courthouse," the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., resident admits of a once-necessary stop.
The book is part of the library's Genealogy Center, the nation's largest public genealogy collection.
One of the nation's most complete and important family history research sites, the facility draws visitors from across the country. It is open seven days a week from September through May, closed Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Its location makes it easy for Midwesterners to fill in a branch on the family tree as part of an affordable getaway weekend.
The collection has 1 million textual items and access to millions more, all free to visitors. It includes census records, military records dating to the 1700s, National Archives passenger lists and indexes covering 163 ports of entry on microfilm. It has one of the largest collections of city directories in the country and the largest English-language genealogy and local history periodical collection in the world, with more than 10,000 titles. In addition, the center has access to important national and international genealogy databases.
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