Welcome to the website for the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society! We are glad you are here. We are an active society that is committed to preserving the history of Lake County and Porter County in Indiana. We have some great resources for you in your research. Many dedicated volunteers have made these available to you. If you are local, we encourage you to attend one of our monthly meetings. You can contact us directly at nwigs@hotmail.com.

Sincerely,
Bill Schu, President

NEW BOOK AVAILABLE FROM NWIGS! AN INDEX OF LAND TRANSFER RECORDS FOR CROWN POINT, LAKE CO., INDIANA FOR THE YEARS 1928 - 1940 This book covers land transfers in and around the City of Crown Point, Indiana, for the years 1928 through 1940. The years of 1936-1940 in this index also include key numbers. If you desire to obtain additional information regarding any particular parcel of land, the county clerks will require you to have a key number for the parcel. Key numbers were not in place previous to that time period. The original deeds for these land parcels are housed at the Lake County Government Center, Office of the Recorder, 2293 North Main Street, Crown Point, Indiana 46307. Originally, land was purchased from the Federal Government (known as a land grant or land patent). When the Federal Government wanted to "get out of the land selling business," they gave grants for whatever land was remaining in each state. The first land office for Lake County was in LaPorte County (Lake County was formed from LaPorte and Porter Counties in February 1837) from 1833 to 1839, at which time the LaPorte Land Office was moved to Winamac, Pulaski County. In 1855, all land offices in the State of Indiana were moved to Indianapolis. After the original purchase, land was transferred between private landowners. All purchases of land were recorded in the county clerk's office and then became known as Land Transfers. One of the best reasons for using land records for genealogy research is to locate your ancestors and also become aware of surrounding neighbors. Oftentimes, young couples met their spouses from one of the neighboring farms, or relatives of these neighbors or even the adjoining farm/land. This book is 375 pages, hard bound, fully indexed, and costs $60.00 plus $3.75 postage for a total of $63.75. This book can be ordered by contacting the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, PO Box 595, Griffith, Indiana 46319, or by downloading, completing, and mailing an order form.

New Research Hardware Available for NWIGS Members Recently, NWIGS purchased a new laptop computer and a scanner for research purposes. This hardware is available for our Society volunteers as an aid to save time in performing NWIGS research projects.   From left: Sally Phillips, Marlene Polster, and Gerard Dupczak. From left: Gerard Dupczak, Marlene Polster, and Sally Phillips. From left: Gerard Dupczak, Marlene Polster, and Sally Phillips. New scanner available to NWIGS research volunteers.

The Society meets each month from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in either the Valparaiso Branch of the Porter County Public Library or the Lake County Library. Check the schedule below for the location.

Saturday, May 17, 2008
10:00 am - “Tips & Tricks for Cook County Vital Records” by Grace DuMelle at the Lake County Public Library, Merrillville Branch located at 1919 West 81st Avenue (US Route 30), Merrillville, Indiana [map]
Grace DuMelle has been a professional researcher since 1995, helping clients from all over the United States and several foreign countries. Her firm, Heartland Historical Research Service (HHRS), has assisted the United States Department of Justice and Graystone Communications (parent company of The History Channel), among others. Heartland’s projects have taken Grace to the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as facilities throughout the greater Chicago area.

Since 2001, Grace has also been on staff at the Newberry Library in Chicago, one of the country’s foremost genealogical libraries. Guiding beginners to discoveries about their families is something she greatly enjoys. Her experience on both sides of the reference desk - as a staffer and as a researcher - influenced the very practical, hands-on approach of her book, Finding Your Chicago Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide to Family History Research in the City and Cook County. It has received state, regional and national awards for instructional nonfiction.

Grace received a B.A. in English, magna cum laude, from  Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois. She lectures frequently on research topics and teaches classes in house history research and Chicago genealogy. Media appearances include “Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan” (WGN Radio), WLS TV, Chicago Tribune, Chicago magazine, Ancestry magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Weekend.

Grace will tell us about alternative methods for finding birth, marriages, divorces and deaths in the second largest county in the United States, Cook County, Illinois. We will learn about hidden sources such as out-of-state indexes and records created after the fact.  She will have some copies of her book to sell.

Saturday, June 21, 2008
10:00 am - Meeting topic to be announced, Porter County Public Library, Valparaiso Branch located at 103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso, Indiana [map]

Saturday, July 19, 2008
10:00 am - “Using PDF Files” by Gerard Dupczak at the Lake County Public Library, Merrillville Branch located at 1919 West 81st Avenue (US Route 30), Merrillville, Indiana [map]
Gerard Dupczak will show the ins-and-outs of using Adobe Acrobat PDF files and how these types of files can assist us in the writing of our family histories.

Saturday, August 16, 2008
10:00 am - “Finding the Children by Using the School Enumeration" by Marlene Polster at the Porter County Public Library, Valparaiso Branch located at 103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso, Indiana [map]
Marlene Polster will show us how the school enumeration (census) can help us find the children in our families. She will also show how migration patterns can be followed by using this alternative source.

Saturday, September 20, 2008 
The Annual Fort Wayne Bus Trip
We will be taking our annual bus trip to Allen County Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is a great way to travel to the largest public library for genealogy in the country. We get a bus for 24 people on a first come first serve basis. We leave Merrillville with a stop in Valparaiso for pick-ups and stay until about 4:30 pm. We stop for dinner on the way back. Plan on join us! Information will be forthcoming.

Saturday, October 11, 2008
10:00 am - Special Meeting at the Lake County Public Library, Merrillville Branch located at 1919 West 81st Avenue (US Route 30), Merrillville, Indiana [map]
The Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society will be co-hosting this meeting with the Lake County Library. It will be a two session meeting consisting of a boxed lunch between meetings. The NWIGS meetings will begin at 10:00 am with the usual business meeting. At 10:30 am our speaker, Eric Basir of Photo Grafix of Evanston, Illinois, will speak on "Repairing our Photographs." He will show us the dos-and-don'ts on photo scanning and how to make repairs to those precious photos we have. He will be using a Photoshop-type program that is available for home computers. We will break for lunch with Shirley Fields from the Indiana Genealogical Society speaking during the lunch on "IGS Happenings." Then at 1:15 pm, Eric Basir will speak again on "Dating Your Photo." Members are asked to bring a photo along with them to this meeting and perhaps Eric will use it to show us how to repair it. Watch this webpage for information concerning how to sign up for your lunch at this meeting.

Saturday, November 15, 2008
10:00 am - “Research Day" at the Porter County Public Library, Valparaiso Branch located at 103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso, Indiana [map]
Following a short business meeting, we will proceed upstairs at the library and research for the remainder of the day. Someone will be available should you need any assistance with any of your research.

YAHOO! Message List
We have an active message list for NWIGS located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InNWIGS/
Consider joining the list to keep informed about upcoming events, post queries, and to communicate with our members.