Local History & Genealogy

This is quite possibly the most useful manual on Hispanic ancestry ever published. Building on the previously published Tracing Your Hispanic Heritage (1984), it provides detailed information on the records, sources, and reference works used in research in all major Hispanic countries.

Still Here is a pictorial of several participating individuals in Indiana's Native American Culture, Activities and events throughout the State. Contains a listing of Powwows, Groups, Businesses, Dictonary, places, names and more. Full color pictures from several State Wide Powwows and events

What did it mean to be a Jew in Muncie? That is what this book seeks to discover, through a series of oral narratives.

Prompted by the overt omission of Muncie's black community from the famous community study by Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd, Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture, the authors initiated this project to reveal the unrecorded historical and contemporary life of Middletown, a well-known pseudonym for the Midwestern city of Muncie, Indiana. As a collaboration of community and campus, this book recounts the early efforts of Hurley Goodall to develop a community history and archive that told the story of the African American community, and rectify the representation of small town America as exclusively white. The authors designed and implemented a collaborative ethnographic field project that involved intensive interviews, research, and writing between community organizations, local experts, ethnographers, and teams of college students. This book is a unique model for collaborative research, easily accessible to students. It will be a valuable resource for instructors in anthropology, creative writing, sociology, community research, and African American studies.

From “We present this essay, a translation from the German, as an example of one ethnic group’s experience in the United States. At a time, when ethnic or nationalist conflicts have caused some countries to disintegrate, ethnicity has become associated with nationalist passions, fundamentalist ideology and religious fervor. Actually, the term ‘ethnicity’ refers to group identification, to things held in common, such as language, cultural values, and history. It is about our lives as part of deeply-felt traditions, about cultural identity, belonging and understanding, based on these commonalities. After a half century of dormancy, the interest in roots re-awakened; in the United States during the 1960s, ethnicity has become respectable. In the political arena this resulted in demands for, and acceptance of, civil rights, the eschewing of once popular ethnic jokes and slurs, and an affirmative approach to cultivating the status of minorities. In family circles it generated a vigorous pursuit of genealogy and heritage which today is fostered by ready access to records. These include microfilms of federal manuscript censuses, the Latter-day Saints’ Library in Salt Lake City which opened its vast records to the public, and organizations and commercial services that have arisen in many countries to assist the researcher. And it has led to affirming the United States as a multicultural nation, not a melting pot, but a patchwork quilt, in which the various elements are a source of strength and pride. The motto of the United States, e pluribus Unum (One out of many), reminds us that each generation is called upon to work toward ethnic and racial harmony and to overcome tensions and violence born out of indifference, misunderstanding and distrust. Professor Adams’ essay wants to be such a reminder.”--LaVern J. Rippley, Eberhard Reichmann

Volume I - Peopling Indiana Book Series

Muncie, Indiana, remains the epitome of an American town. Yet scholars built the image of so-called typical communities across the United States on an illusion. Their decades of studies ignored the racial, ethnic, and religious diversity and tensions woven into the American communities that Muncie supposedly embodied. Himanee Gupta-Carlson puts forth an essential question: what do nonwhites, non-Christians, and/or non-natives mean when they call themselves American? A daughter in one of Muncie's first Indian American families, Gupta-Carlson merges personal experience, the life histories of others, and critical analysis to explore the answers. Her stories of members of Muncie's South Asian communities unearth the silences imposed by past studies while challenging the body of scholarship in fundamental ways. At the same time, Gupta-Carlson shares personal memories and experiences that illuminate her place within the historical, political, and socio-cultural currents she engages in her work. It also reveals how that work informs and transforms her as a scholar and a person. As meditative as it is insightful, Muncie, India(na) invites readers to feel the truth of the fascinating stories behind one woman's revised portrait of an American community.

Research techniques specific to the reader's own ancestors' national and ethnic backgrounds enable them to learn where and how to find information they need. Ethnic research techniques and ethnic resources make this book unique from any we've ever published. Ethnic research techniques lead researchers to records based on customs or migration patterns of specific ethnic groups. Ethnic resources are organized around national and cultural backgrounds rather than geography and social statuses such as married, divorced, sued, and so on. Clear, authoritative instruction typifies both the content of this book and the reputation of its author, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack.

Chances are excellent that your ancestors came to America from somewhere-England, Spain, Germany, China, Africa. Can you imagine how they felt as they left their homes, what they left behind? Do you want to know? Would you know where to even start looking for the details? Author and genealogist John P. Colletta prepares you to undertake the search. He tells you not only what fundamental facts you need to know about your immigrant ancestor before beginning, but suggests where you may find that information as well.