Bas-Rhin, France Church Records and Early Civil Records Online

As everyone has noticed, I haven't posted in several months because I was busy with school work, but I just wanted to let everyone know about some church and civil records that have been put online within the past month or so. The Archive of Bas-Rhin, France has posted images of parish records (both Protestant and Catholic) and vital records from 1792 to 1902 online. Although the website is only in French, the images can be browsed by locality and viewed for free. You can view the records here. (I should also note that the Protestant parish records are primarily in German.)

I am excited about the website because I have some ancestors who resided in Strasbourg before and during the French Revolution, and this website will definitely make my research into those families much easier. I hope others will find this website to beneficial as well. Enjoy!

That Reminds Me ... The Archives and Regional History Library at Western Michigan University

I happened to notice Harold's post on the Archives and Regional History Library at Western Michigan University earlier this week, but I hadn't had a chance to write anything about the library until now.

As I mentioned in my comment to Harold's article, Western Michigan's Archives and Regional History Library holds documents and records relating to the Southwestern part of Michigan. So, if you have ancestors from the region of Michigan, it might be a place to look into to see if there are any records that might assist you in your research. Since I have ancestors from Saint Joseph County, I definitely want to go there to do research, although I haven't had a chance to do so yet. I hope I am able to go there one of these days.

You can look at their catalog here to see if there are any records you may be interested in, and the archives is located in the older section of Western's campus. You can read more about the archives here. Enjoy!

More Cuyahoga County, Ohio Records - Orders Two and Three ...

Today I received some more records from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio archives that I ordered within the past week-in-a-half to two weeks ago. This happens to be the third time that I ordered records from this archives, and I thought I would talk a little about the records that I ordered in my last two requests. (I did not write about the second batch of records that I ordered when they came in because I was away at school. I did not write about the second batch when I first came home because I did not think about doing so until the other records came today. Plus, I hadn't had very much time to look at the other records until now.)

So, what records did I order in the second batch? Well, I ordered a marriage record, a naturalization record, and a probate file. Unfortunately, the archive was not able to find a probate file for my ancestor, so I was only received the naturalization record and the marriage record. The marriage and naturalization were the same person, my ancestor's youngest son. (As for the naturalization record, as I mentioned in a previous post, I received part of his naturalization record in an earlier request. That naturalization record turned out to be his declaration of intent, and this record I ordered turned out to be the paper that bestowed his citizenship upon him.)

The third batch consisted of five marriage records. Those marriage records were of my ancestor's brothers. Of course, a couple of those marriage records have left me with a few more unanswered questions. I will probably have to order more records to find the answers to my questions. I will let all of you know if I have my answers when I am able to do more research on that branch.

My Visit to the Howell Library Archives

Earlier today, I visited the Howell, Michigan District Library, and I did some research in the library's archives. The archives hold records and history on Livingston County. (I just happen to have a couple links to this county, and I thought I would just try to do some research on an ancestor's brother. He owned a bakery in and lived in Brighton, Michigan, and I thought I would try to find some information on his bakery.

Well, to make a long story short, I was unable to find anything on him or the bakery in the archives records. I suspect the bakery only existed for a small time period. Despite my inability to find any information, I spent time talking to the two men working in the archives about the history of Brighton and Livingston county, and I learned somethings about the history of this area. These men were also able to help me contact someone who had lived in Brighton (and still does) at the time the bakery would have existed. Oh well, the hunt continues ...