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Research your history from home online

Thursday, February 17, 2005 11:06 AM EST

HeritageQuest Online is now available to all Niles District Library patrons from their home computer.

Patrons may access it by going to the library's home page . "HeritageQuest" is one of the choices on the side bar, near the bottom. You will be asked to enter your library card number.

HeritageQuest provides a unique and growing collection of research materials for tracing family history and American culture.

Beginning or professional genealogists can now access these resources from their home or library. Indexes and original page images mean no additional trips, inter-library loan requests or work by researchers or staff.

The entire U.S. Federal Census 1790-1930 is available. In addition to the ability to search by name, census records can be searched by place of birth, age, ethnicity and other variables making this the most versatile census searching available online.

PERSI� - The PERiodical Source Index is a comprehensive subject index covering more than 6,500 genealogy and local history periodicals.

There are more than 1.6 million article citations currently available, with updates occurring annually. PERSI� is produced in cooperation with the Allen County Public Library Foundation.

Researchers will find records of 80,000+ individuals who served in the Revolutionary War, including both genealogical and historical information. Each veteran's file usually contains six or more pages on each veteran and normally includes the veteran's former rank, unit, and period of service, age or date of birth, residence, and sometimes-genealogical information on other family members.

At the close of the Civil War, the Freedman's Savings & Trust Company was the primary bank for America's freed slaves and others from 1865-1874.

HeritageQuest offers documents for more than 70,000 bank depositors and nearly 480,000 of their dependants and heirs.

It is considered one of the most important resources for African-American genealogical research.

The full-text of more than 25,000 family and local histories is available, including many books about our local area.

The following are a few of the titles about the Niles area which are available in full text.

The Conquest of St. Joseph, Michigan by the Spaniards in 1781 (1908) by Clarence Walworth Alvord

The Pokagons by Cecilia Bain Buechner (1933)

The Region of Three Oaks by Robert Burgh (1939)

A twentieth century history of Berrien County, Michigan by Orville W. Coolidge (1906)

Berrien County Directory and History: Containing Historical and Discriptive [sic] Sketches of the Villages and Townships Within the County, and The Names and Occupations of Persons Residing Therein by E.B. Cowles (1871)

Early Navigation on the St. Joseph River Otto M. Knoblock (1925)

Old Fort St. Joseph, or, Michigan Under Four Flags by Daniel McCoy (1907)

Nancy Studebaker is director of the Niles Distrist Library. For more information call 683-8545.

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