October is Family History Month in the U.S. (Photo: Ernest J. Moynahan and grandson Dan M.) |
Since being passed by the United States Congress in 2001, Family History Month as been observed annually during the month of October.
"Funeral service professionals, community groups, historians, storytellers, and genealogical and historical societies promote and celebrate National Family History Month as way to commemorate each family’s rich and deep history." (Source: NFDA)
This is exciting for folks like me who have ancestors in U.S./Canada border cities like Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan.
The Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Facebook group (DSGR) has been placing daily posts about researching your ancestors in Detroit and the state of Michigan. The series is called "31 Days of Detroit Family History Tips" and I am enjoying it so much that I thanked them and have decided to do a list of r
online Detroit genealogy resources here to make it easier for me to find them again in the future AND to share with others with ancestors in the Windsor/Detroit area.
Some examples of the DSGR posts:
DSGR Facebook: "31 Days of Detroit Family History Tips": Day 22 |
I have often taken out a one month subscription with the Detroit Free Press. It is only $7.95 for one month and I have received LOTS of information about my ancestors through articles and obituaries found there. The search field can be found at http://freep.newspapers.com/?xid=547
Some DETROIT ONLINE Resources
Birth
- Michigan Births, 1867 – 1902 Index and images of Michigan statewide birth registration entries for the years 1867 to 1902. 213,435 Detroit records 267,515 Wayne County records
- Michigan, Births and Christenings, 1775-1995 A random collection of indexed Michigan births and christenings during the years 1775 to 1995 342,182 Detroit records 446,484 Wayne County records
- "Where do I find Detroit and Wayne County vital records online?" Blog series
Birth records - http://dsgr.org/blog/?p=637 - The Early U.S. Catholic Church Records part of the Drouin collection at Ancestry.com contains the original register and transcriptions of the records.Choose D for Detroit. (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1111 )
- Genealogy of the French families of the Detroit River region revision, 1701-1936 / by Christian Denissen ( Index to the Denissen Volumes at DSGR)
- Historical art souvenir; Detroit and her bi-centenary, July 24, 25, 26, 1901 by Detroit. Woman's bi-centenary committee.
- Souvenir hand-book, Detroit and memoranda, July, 1899
- All about Detroit; (1899) by Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
- Illustrated souvenir [of carriages] by Studebaker brothers mfg. co Publication date 1893
- Guide and souvenir of Detroit .. Publication date 1891 by Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902. [from old catalog]
- Souvenir of Detroit .. Publication date 1891
- Detroit in 1890 compared with 1870 by Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
- The Detroit Journal Year-book 1890 By Detroit journal (Also: https://archive.org/details/detroitjournaly01jourgoog)
- The Detroit Journal Year-book 1889 By Detroit journal
- The Detroit Journal Year-book 1888 By Detroit journal
- The history of Detroit and Michigan; (Publication date 1884) by Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902
- Detroit and the pleasure resorts of northern Michigan. Compliments of passenger department by Detroit, Lansing & Northern Railroad Company (1883)
- Illustrated guide and souvenir of Detroit .. (1878) by Farmer, Silas,
- Landmarks of Detroit : a history of the city by Robert Ross
- Guide-book to Detroit by Detroit (Mich.). (1922) Committee for the conference of the American library association
- Detroit and vicinity (1909)
- Detroit: A Guide to the Resources in the Bentley Historical Library
- Guide to Manuscripts in the Bentley Historical Library By Bentley Historical Library, Thomas Edgerton
- The City of Detroit Michigan 1701-1922 By C.M. Burton
- Marriage records, Ste. Anne Church, Detroit, 1701-1850 Published 2001 by Detroit Society for Genealogical Research in Detroit, MI
- The largest cemetery in Detroit, Mt Elliott, has a searchable database of burials http://www.mtelliott.com/genealogy
- There are Special Census at Ancestry: Michigan, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1827-1870 http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3554
- Michigan, Deaths and Burials, 1800-1995
140,196 Detroit death records
268,302 Wayne County death records
A random collection of indexed Michigan deaths and burials from 1800-1995 - Michigan, Death Index, 1971-1996
382,644 Detroit death records
622,675 Wayne County death records
The collection is an index is provided by Ancestry.com and consists of indexes to deaths for the years 1971 – 1996 from the Michigan Department of Vital and Health Records (Lansing, MI). - Michigan, Deaths, 1867-1897 **With Images**
73,042 Detroit death records
94,096 Wayne County death records
Registration of Michigan deaths began in 1867 and continued until 1897 when the state required a death certificate be issued. This collection covers deaths registered by county clerks from 1867-1897. With only a smidgen over 500,000 records in the entire collection, Family Search estimates that nearly half of Michigan deaths were not recorded. - Michigan, Death Certificates, 1921-1952
454,692 Detroit death records
592,534 Wayne County death records
The collection consists of an index of death records from the Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics (Lansing, MI) and was indexed by Family Search volunteers in 2012 & 2013. If you were researching your Michigan ancestors at the time, you anxiously awaited (and constantly checked Family Search) for the release of this collection.
(Lansing, MI) - Seeking Michigan has death records for 1897-1920; 1921-1947, 1948-1952 (seekingmichigan.org) http://seekingmichigan.org/discover/death-records-1897-1920
- MDHHS Genealogical Death Indexing System http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/osr/gendisx/search2.asp
- Death - https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=681 (part 1)
Part 2 - https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=695
Part 3 - https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=708Hidden Death lists https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=1249
- FREE eBook: The History of Detroit and Michigan: Or, The Metropolis Illustrated; a Chronological Cyclopaedia of the Past and Present, Including a Full Record of Territorial Days in Michigan, and the Annals of Wayne County by Silas Farmer S. Farmer & Company, 1884 - Detroit (Mich.) - 1024 pages https://books.google.ca/books?id=2dtMHBxD6R8C&hl=e
- A surname index to early french settlers to Munroe and south-west Wayne, Michigan http://www.cliffvenier.com/surname_index.htm
- Detroit Historical Society Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DetroitHistoricalSociety/
- HathiTrust’s digital library https://www.hathitrust.org/
- A wonderful resource one county over (Mt. Clemens) www.mtclib.org
- Detroit Resources on street renumbering: https://stevemorse.org/census/changes/DetroitChanges0.htm
- Burton Historical Collection : Search the digital archives here: https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org//
- Other than the Burton Historical Collection, the Archives of Michigan in Lansing, the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan has on e of the largest historical collections:
- Patron Directory of Wayne County 1876 Land owner directory from the Plat map book titled: "Illustrated Historical Atlas of Wayne County, MI 1876". Patron Directory of Wayne County 1876
- Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1935 22,188 Wayne County marriage records
- Michigan, Marriages, 1822-1995 440,926 Detroit marriage records
659,434 Wayne County marriage records
While this electronic index collection is not complete for all of Michigan, it is a wonderful resource for Wayne County. - Michigan, Marriages, 1868-1925 596,637 Detroit marriage records 748,724 Wayne County marriage records Name index and images of marriages recorded in the State of Michigan. This is an excellent resource for Detroit researchers since the collection doesn’t just contain marriage records but marriage licenses, applications, registers, and certificates as well.
- Marriage/Divorce - http://dsgr.org/blog/?p=662
Miscellaneous:
- You can use Ebay in your Detroit research. I punched in Moynahan and Detroit and I got Monahan's Coffee Shop (1960)! Check out the DSGR 2014 blog post on some of the items that you might just find https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=975
- Naturalization Record Index This Naturalization Record index was compiled from the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research Magazine. From the spring of 1991 through the fall of 2008, the society published transcriptions of Naturalization Records of the Recorder's Court, Detroit, Michigan in their quarterly magazine. In total over 5000 surnames were cited. These records contain a wealth of information for novice and advanced researchers alike. The index is alphabetized by surnames, while also providing volume, date, and page the information can be found upon in the magazine.
- Detroit Free Press: http://freep.newspapers.com/?xid=547
- The Northville Record http://www.northvillehistory.org/keyword.html
- The Redford Observer http://www.redfordlibrary.org/digital-collections/171-redford-observer-archives
- Detroit Michigan Newspaper Portal: https://www.cmich.edu/library/clarke/Pages/Michigan-Digital-Newspaper-Portal.aspx
- Windsor Public Library obituary listing (index from the Windsor Star). http://projects.windsorpubliclibrary.com/digi/obits/index.php
- Livonia Observer Obituary Index Currently, this index covers obituaries from the Livonia Observer newspaper from June 1955 - December 31, 2014.Last Name begins with: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- Detroit News Obituary Index
Currently, this index covers obituaries from the Detroit News newspaper from January 1, 1980 - December 31, 2001. Please Note: we are in the process of converting our index to pdf format in alphabetical order by last name. As new letters are completed, they will be added below.
Last Name begins with:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
- Dead Fred's Genealogy Photo Archive is a free searchable photo database for genealogists that currently has 200+ photographs from Detroit http://www.deadfred.com/searchform_05.php
- Some staff records are available in the Burton Historical Library and at the Archives of Michigan in Lansing. https://dsgr.org/blog/?p=903
- The DetroitYes website (where all things Detroit have been chatted about on their forums for the past 17 years) has a search page. Try searching for street names, surnames or events https://www.detroityes.com/search.php
- The Wayne Co. Record Room has an email address (wcrecordroom@waynecounty.com) That is primarily used to answer inquiries related to court cases including divorces and name changes. (DSCR Tip: Day 1)Even their website has become more "research" friendly http://www.waynecounty.com/clerk/records-division.htm
- Local Library: Livonia: http://livoniapubliclibrary.org/genealogy (DSCR Tip: Day 1)
- You can receive FREE Wayne County (excluding Detroit) death certificates (1934-1953) if you visit the Burton Historical Collection. You can also order the ($15) and receive them in the mail) http://www.detroitpubliclibrary.org/wayne-county-death-record-index
- Jack and Marianne Didbean collected marriage information over the years from various researchers and archivists (My 3rd great grandfather's 1833 marriage certificate is in their index!) http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/wayne/vitals/marriages/dbn/
wayne-dbn-dec2013-a.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 95K wayne-dbn-dec2013-b.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 391K wayne-dbn-dec2013-c.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 330K wayne-dbn-dec2013-d.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 249K wayne-dbn-dec2013-e.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 52K wayne-dbn-dec2013-f.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 118K wayne-dbn-dec2013-g.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 191K wayne-dbn-dec2013-h.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 201K wayne-dbn-dec2013-i.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 12K wayne-dbn-dec2013-j.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 77K wayne-dbn-dec2013-k.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 97K wayne-dbn-dec2013-l.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:47 291K wayne-dbn-dec2013-m.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 311K wayne-dbn-dec2013-n.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 50K wayne-dbn-dec2013-o.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 32K wayne-dbn-dec2013-p.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 223K wayne-dbn-dec2013-q.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 4.4K wayne-dbn-dec2013-r.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 196K wayne-dbn-dec2013-s.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 313K wayne-dbn-dec2013-t.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 162K wayne-dbn-dec2013-u.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 3.8K wayne-dbn-dec2013-v.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 69K wayne-dbn-dec2013-w.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 151K wayne-dbn-dec2013-x.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 1.4K wayne-dbn-dec2013-y.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 11K wayne-dbn-dec2013-z.txt 05-Aug-2014 07:50 11K
An index to original records held at the Burton Historical
Collection, Detroit Public Library. These records do not include deaths
that occurred within the City of Detroit. All indexes compiled by Ruth
McMahon.
To order a copy of a death record, please complete the form below. Cost per death record is $15.00, payable by check or money order. Please allow 1-2 weeks for processing. For questions, please call (313) 481-1401 or email bhc@detroitpubliclibrary.org
To order a copy of a death record, please complete the form below. Cost per death record is $15.00, payable by check or money order. Please allow 1-2 weeks for processing. For questions, please call (313) 481-1401 or email bhc@detroitpubliclibrary.org
- School records, Yearbooks, teacher files and so much more! How much more? The finding aid for this collection at the Walter P. Reuther Library is 42 pages!! (DSCR Tip: Day 2) http://reuther.wayne.edu/files/WSR000681.pdf
- Michigan Probate Records, 1797-1973 Description Probate records from county courthouses in Michigan. Most of the collection contains estate files. Helpful post: How to search Wayne County Probate Records on Family Search The content and time period varies by county. Some of the records date before 1837 when Michigan became a state. Browse through 4,723,861 images
- Wayne County (Detroit) https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/index?owc=QD9Y-RM8%3A376683801%3Fcc%3D2013878
No comments:
Post a Comment