Livingston County, MI- Obits

The best place to look for obits in this county is at the public library in Brighton. They have a extensive collection of newspapers in the county.

Remember before tracing obits you need to know when a particular person died. From that date work forward for sometimes as many days as a week to check for a obit. Most obits are not the best on information on our ancestors, but must be located. Pay special attention to names mentioned in the article, because they will often provide clues later in your search on relationships and ancestry. Always make copies of the obits when available. Be sure to note name of the Newspaper, date and page. This will help in your proof and verification.

The records are as follows.

Brighton Argus - microfilm
1880 - 1883	April - December
1895 - 1896	December - November
1900 - 1939	January - December
1965	January - December
1968	January - December
1970 - 2000	January - September
Livingston County Daily Press and Argus - microfilm
2000	September - Current

Tomorrow I will profile the Brighton library. Have a great day.

Ft. Wayne Trip- Detroit area

For those folks in the Detroit area here is a wonderful opportunity to go to one of the premier genealogical libraries in the country.

The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research is taking a bus trip to Ft
Wayne to the Allen County Public Library to research for the day.   They
will be leaving Southfield, Michigan on Feb 23 in the early morning (ca
6:30am) and returning that same night.  Dinner is available on the way home
for an additional fee. 
Contact me off list for more details.   All are welcome!


I was there in August and it is wonderful what they have done.  Have a great day.

Lvingston County -Civil War Records

Many counties have records on a local basis for their soldiers that participated in the war. Be certain to check with the courthouse in the county of Livingston for these records. They are often in the probate court and tend to be records that are often overlooked for information.

Here is another excellent link I found on the Civil War in Michigan. http://users.aol.com/dlharvey/

Have a great day.

Livingston County Cemetery Records

The majority cemetery inscriptions in the county of Livingston have been indexed at the following web site. http://www.livgenmi.com/cemetery.htm Understand that this is a very early county and over time stones have gone missing for a variety of reasons. The copies of these records is also located at the library in Howell.

When planning to visit the graveyard be sure to check for a care taker of the records for the cemetery you are looking for your ancestor. They often provide valuable clues to your families ancestry.

Good luck in your family search.

Upcoming Workshop

It is always a good idea to attend the presentations put on by the local genealogical
groups in your area.  The learning genealogy never ends and you always have room
to learn new things.  Here is one coming up in March.

The Polish Genealogical Society of Michigan, in cooperation with the
Programs Department of the Sterling Heights Public Library, is hosting a
Genealogy Technical Workshop on Saturday, March 8, 2008 at the Sterling
Heights Public Library, 40255 Dodge Park Rd., Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Welcome and late registration at 9:30 a.m.  Workshop is 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

The workshop is open to PGSM members and the public.  The lecture will be a
live Internet demonstration. You can bring your own laptop computer and
follow along.  Wireless service is available at the library.  One segment of
the demonstration will be setting up a free website on aol or comcast.  You
must bring your own login username and password to access your personal
system provider online.

To register, e-mail:  info@mipolonia.net
                     Please register early.

Have a great weekend.

Break

I will be traveling to the library today to conduct some research. Should hopefully be able to post the results next Saturday. Have a wonderful weekend.

Livingston Co., MI- Naturalization Records

When researching naturalization records in Livingston County you have two excellent places to find the records. The first is at the probate court in Howell and the second is a book published on the topic that is located at the local Howell library.

Naturalization records offer us clues to the potential origin of our ancestors. The document indicate the person nationality, ship, time arrival, location at time of application and port of arrival. In my searches it has been very rare to find the information necessary to pinpoint exact locations of origin, but they do exist.

The book of interest at the library on the topic is

Charboneau, Milton, Naturalization Records, Livingston County Michigan, (Howell, MI, Livingston County Genealogical Society, 1991, No film) This covers court records from 1847- 1851 and indexes from 1859 to 1957.

The actual documents can be found at the courthouse in the Probate Court. The book will help you in narrowing down your search.

Get out there and support your local genealogical groups they are doing wonderful work at preserving our historical past. Have a great weekend.