One Room Schoolhouse of Dodge County

Some days are just filled with happy dance surprises.  Today was one of those days.  I was online researching a distant relative when I stumbled across the website of the Dodge/Jefferson County Genealogy Society.

One of my burning genealogy questions is where did my grandmother teach?  My father knew she was a teacher before she married his father, but he did not know where she taught.  We knew it was probably Dodge county.  BINGO!  The Dodge/Jefferson County Genealogy Society has an ebook up on their website on the one room schoolhouses of Dodge county.  I found my grandmother (and other relatives) in this book.

Click on this link or put this address in your web browser:  http://www.dodgejeffgen.com/

At the top of the page you will see the link to the ebook, "One Room Schoolhouse of Dodge County."  There are maps and even pictures of the schoolhouses and some of the teachers and students.  I'm going to spend hours with this resource!  A giant thank you to the Dodge/Jefferson County Genealogy Society for putting this reference up on the web.

Land Patents

One of the very first original documents that I found online was the land patent issued to my great great grandfather.  He settled in Wisconsin in 1848.

You can easily find your ancestor by name or research a location at the Bureau of Land Management website.   Click here to go there  http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx

You can also save or print out an image of the land patent.

Michigan Records

I looked for two years for my great great grandfather's sister.  My only trace of her was a family history written in 1964 that said she was last known to be living in Hastings, Michigan.  Many things in this oral history were incorrect, but I clung to this strand of information.  I did narrow in on possible families and at one point thought I had found her.  I sent away for her civil war veteran husband's pension file and had a giant disappointment when the file came and I found out I was wrong.  She was not this man's wife.

One night, when I couldn't sleep, I once again put her name (or her father or mother) into family search and up came a marriage record for her daughter.  I'm not sure what I actually used as my search criteria, but this was a major break as now I had her married name.  With this information, I went to the Seeking Michigan website and found a death certificate for her which correctly listed her mother and father.

Seeking Michigan has online images of death records for 1897 - 1920.   I like to start at the discover page as it shows you all the digital collections that are available at seekingmichigan.com.

http://seekingmichigan.org/discover
Click here to go to the site

This is a wonderful resource.  After I did more research on my long lost ancestor, I found out that her husband was a civil war veteran!  I went back to seekingmichigan.com, it has lots of civil war records.  I especially love looking through the portraits of soldiers.

Illinois Records

I think of Wisconsin and Illinois as sister states.   Here are some useful links for online information.

Cook County Illinois has an excellent site with searchable birth, death and marriage records.  You can search and find the basic information for free.  If you want the full record you pay a fee and then can download a digital image.
http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com
Click here to go to the site.

I discovered (by accident!) that some of the images of records are available for free on www.familysearch.org. I found Illinois, Cook County Deaths 1878-1922, and retrieved a image of a ancestore's death certificate.
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/show#uri=http://hr-search-api:8080/searchapi/search/collection/1463134
Click here to go to this record set.

The state of Illinois has a statewide Marriage index program 1763-1900.  http://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriagesrch.jsp 
Click here to go to this site.

Illinois also has a statewide death index for 1916-1950
http://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/idphdeathsrch.jsp 
Click here to go to this site

There is a separate index for pre-1916 deaths
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases/death.html
Click here to go to this site.

Wisconsin 1885 Census

Tonight I discovered the 1885 Wisconsin census at familysearch.com.

This is a very useful census as it helps fills the gap between 1880 and 1900.  Most of the 1890 federal census was destroyed by a fire.

You will find a transcribed page for each head of household and the actual images.  I love having the real image.  It makes it easy to look at neighbors.

The 1885 Wisconsin census also has a soldiers and sailors section which gives excellent details of the veterans.

Click here to go directly to a page to search this census.