Monday, April 12, 2010

St. Joseph County Indiana Public Library - Obituary Index

I have been inspired to write this post by Karen at Genealogy Frame of Mind.  Her post today is on resources.  Specifically she is referring to the Obituary Index at the Medina, Ohio County Library.

While I live in St. Joseph County, Indiana, I don't actually do any personal research in this area.  However, my mom and I volunteer for RAOGK and use the resouces of the public library frequently.

One of the resources we use the most is the Obituary Index of the South Bend Tribune.  This database is a digital index to obituaries that appeared in the South Bend Tribune, from 1913 through the present, for people with ties to St. Joseph County. (For obituaries from 1831 through 1912, or that appeared in other newspapers, St. Joseph County Public Library's Local & Family History Services has printed indexes in its room.) "People with ties to St. Joseph County" includes people who lived or had lived, worked or had worked, died, were buried, or had relatives in the county. Geographical coverage is not limited to South Bend and Mishawaka, but also includes all townships and smaller towns. Types of records included in this index include obituaries, death records, arrangements pending notices, funeral notes, news items/articles, legal notices, and memorial announcements.



This index is ongoing. Volunteers and staff continually add current obituaries, hunt for and enter missing records, and make corrections to existing records.


To find a record for a person you are interested in, simply type the name. You can choose to look at the records sorted by Name, Address, City, State, or Year Published.

It is only one of the many resources availble in the Local and Family History Department of our library.  If you have relatives in St. Joseph County, Indiana I encourage you to make a trip to visit.  Libby and Sara are more than willing to help anyone with their genealogy questions.  Sadly, our library has not been spared the budget cuts that other libraries are currently facing. Hours in the Family History Department have been cut to save money.  Below is a schedule of the current times they are open.  Before you plan a trip I would encourage you to call and verify these hours (574-282-4621).

Sunday  Closed 

Monday  10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Tuesday  10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Wednesday  10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Thursday 10:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
Friday  10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Saturday  10:00 a.m.-6:00 p. m.

The entire SJCPL system, including Local & Family History. is closed on the following holidays:


New Year's Eve and Day
Easter
Memorial Day
Mother's Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve and Day

1 comment:

  1. I was fooling around finding books, into world cat and not sure what else. You were suppose to see where a book was held. It amazed me how many books, Indiana has. Also surprising to me that Madison, wi. held quite a few too. It is complicated in some respects, but we should use the resource more. thanks for your post on this library.

    ReplyDelete