Ball State Alumnus Magazine, Tracing Family Roots

Jane Beekman felt the spark more than 40 years ago. Delving into her passion for genealogy, she began researching her family's history—a process that would lead to many family vacations and result in published books. Intrigued by the story of an ancestor, Beekman discovered from military records that Nicholas Dillinger served in the Black Hawk War in 1832 with the famous Mounted Rangers at Fort Gibson, Arkansas, now Oklahoma.

"Research indicated he was given bounty land for his service," she says. "Census records confirmed that he remarried and had fi ve more children in Illinois. I have been able to contact descendants of his Illinois family, and we can now say that we know the rest of the story about him.

"On a family trip we visited Fort Gibson Historic Site, and I learned about Nicholas' military life there," Beekman continues. "It was quite an adventure!"

Resources are abundant for tracing ancestral lines. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, holds the nation's largest genealogy library. Second to that is the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, which also houses the largest genealogy collection in Indiana. It features 50,000 family histories, census records, immigration passenger lists, military records, Native American records, African-American records, Canadian, and European records. In supplement to these resources, Ball State's Bracken Library also contains a wealth of resources for genealogical searches.

For the novice, a good place to start is by interviewing older relatives to find out the names, counties, townships, and states where ancestors lived. Then, Beekman suggests checking census records from the early 1900s, located in microfiche on the first floor of Bracken Library.

Jan Vance, periodical reserve microform supervisor and 1980 Ball State graduate, assists those who visit Bracken Library for genealogical research. "If you don't have a defi nitive history of your parents or grandparents, when or where they were born, that can be a roadblock," she says.

For ancestry stemming from outside of Indiana, public libraries provide birth, death, and marriage records. In Delaware County, the Muncie Public Library holds such physical documents. The Works Progress Administration microform collection, on Bracken's first floor, is the source for most Indiana counties through the 1920s.

In addition to vital records, one may skim through Bracken's periodical collection, which includes genealogy software and research guidebooks. The Periodical Surname Source Index (PERSI) lists what periodical material has been written about a person.

If one's ancestor once lived in Delaware County, the Archives and Special Collections Research Center on the second fl oor can assist a search with its card index of Delaware County-based families from 1827 through the 1920s, manuscript collections of local family photos, diaries, letters, and city directories. Flipping through city directories will tell the residence and occupation of an individual.

"We also have information on almost everyone who was ever associated with Ball State," says John Straw, director of Archives and Special Collections. "We have alumni directories, B-books, faculty information, The Orient yearbooks, and copies of the Ball State Daily News."

Norma Lasley of the Delaware County Historical Society and a 1961 Ball State graduate is currently compiling an index to the Archives' deed books. She has successfully used the library to find census and probate records of her ancestors. To also help expand the genealogy collection in the Archives, Judith Cobb, a former Ball State librarian who recently passed away, became a major benefactor.

Straw says Cobb's contribution helped the library "to upload digital photographs of Delaware County. We're also using the funds to collect Civil War letters," he adds.

With the address of an ancestor, one can fl ip through plat books in Bracken's Geospatial Center and Map Collections room, which are helpful in looking up the names of towns that no longer exist, names and sites of landowners, and brief histories of buildings. Ball State historical preservation students often use the maps in their work to save historical buildings in Indiana.

According to Straw, genealogy, a growing community both online and offline, has taken off since the miniseries Roots, which aired in 1977. "There was an explosion after that," Straw says, "and the Internet has taken it to another level."

However, Lasley warns people to use caution when researching information on the Internet. "Be sure to see if there's a source given for the information," she says.

For those hoping to find genealogical celebrity connections, Straw says they'll most likely encounter a deadend. "Most people are really not related to King George," he says. "They're more likely to be related to George the horse thief."

Beekman's extensive research hasn't turned up much celebrity skin either, but it has blended into her family's vacations.

"My husband John and I have traveled to Denmark, Norway, and many places in the U.S. in search of our ancestors," she says. "There is something very satisfying about finding out about one's family."

HOOSIER GENEALOGICAL RESOURCES

A wealth of genealogical knowledge lies at one's fi ngertips at libraries and historical societies throughout the nation. In addition to Bracken Library, the Delaware County area has a number of resources open to the public to help get one get started in tracing family lineage:
• Ancestor Hunters: This informal group of genealogical enthusiasts meets the last Monday of every month from 7:00-9:00 p.m. in the Delaware County Historical Society's Heritage Library, 120 E. Washington St. in Muncie, (765) 282-1550, and at the Muncie Public Library's Local History and Genealogy Center, 210 S. Jefferson St., (765) 747-8208. For more information, e-mail dchs@tmcsmail.com.
• The Delaware County Historical Society: Concentrating on local history, the society houses birth, marriage, and death indexes through 1920, as well as cemetery indexes for the area. Contact the society, (765) 282-1550.
• Genealogy Course: Jane Beekman teaches an eight-week course each fall for the UpDate Learning program at the High Street Methodist Church, 219 S. High St., Muncie, (765) 747-8500, www.munciehighstreet.com
• GenFest 2006: The second annual genealogy conference will be conducted at the Anderson Public Library. For details, contact the library, (765) 641-2456.
• Latter-Day Saints Family History Center: This branch of the Mormon Church will lead one to genealogical records, 4800 Robinwood Lane, Muncie, (765) 288-9139, www.familysearch.org.
• Muncie Public Library: The Local History and Genealogy Center features census indexes, Delaware County court documents, county histories, city directories, a local obituary index, and vital records, 210 S. Jefferson St., Muncie, (765) 747-8208, www.munpl.org.