Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - February 12, 2015
The February 2015 meeting of the
Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library
on Thursday, February 12, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the
meeting to order.
GIFT MEMBERSHIPS
AVAILABLE
Do you have a family member that is
interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership in the Madison
County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful gift. A gift card will
be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at petie8135@att.net,
about a gift membership.
February
Meeting
On February 12, 2015, Beth Phillips
presented a program titled, Hayner
Genealogical & Local History Library, Our Collection and Services.
Beth Phillips grew up in St. Clair County, Illinois. In 1980, she began looking
into her family history and discovered that she loves the research! She wrote
her family memories of growing up on the farm south of Summerfield and has
compiled family history reports for clients. Currently she works at Hayner
Genealogy & Local History Library in Alton, Illinois. In addition to
helping patrons find information, she helps update the library collection,
answers genealogy mail requests, and writes genealogy research guides.
There are a lot of genealogical and
historical resources at the Hayner Genealogical & Local History Library.
Our historical books and records are mostly for the Alton and Madison County
area. We have a lot of atlases and plat maps covering Madison, Jersey, Greene,
and Macoupin counties, along with some other states and countries. We have the
cemetery books published by the Madison County Genealogical Society. Some of
these books of the older cemeteries contain information that is no longer
visible. We have books that were donated by people from the Alton area on
cemeteries all over the Alton area. We also have cemetery books for some of the
surrounding areas - Jersey, Calhoun, and Greene counties. We have genealogical
records for all of the counties around us, except St. Clair. They have the
wonderful Belleville Library with all that information. We also have records
for St. Charles County in Missouri.
Some people in the Alton area decided they wanted to start photographing
cemeteries, focusing on Madison County. As of now, they have over 93,000 photos
on line. On the Hayner Library website, look for the genealogy and local
history section. You should then find the Cemeteries Photo Project. There are
three cemeteries they want to find - Smith, Springer, and Lanterman. They are
all on Old Birch Road, which runs sort of parallel to South Moreland Road out
of Bethalto. If you have any idea where these cemeteries are, get in touch with
Bettie Flactiff at (618) 465-8165 or bettejean37@gmail.com.
They have also photographed a few cemeteries in Greene, Jersey, and Macoupin
Counties. They have photographed the monument to the Smallpox Island burials
across the Mississippi River form Alton in Missouri, as well as the monument in
the Confederate Cemetery in North Alton. They are currently working on Woodlawn
Cemetery in Edwardsville. They estimate by March 1, 2015, they will have over
100,000 photos on line. They are also keeping track of the military burials.
The library has on line archives (digitized microfilms) of the Alton Telegraph
newspapers. Starting in 1836, they go up to some months of 2012. These archives
are searchable by name, date, etc., or you can just browse the papers as you
wish. The microfilms are still available as a backup if you desire to use them.
Sometimes the photos from the microfilms are better than those that have been
digitized.
Worldwide newspaper archives, such as access.newspaperarchive.com, are also
available. These are similar in format to the Alton Telegraph archive but
include records from lots of cities throughout the U.S. and other counties.
They do not include every newspaper for every city. You just have to get on the
website and see what is available.
The library has a collection of digitized Sanborn maps for some of the towns in
Illinois. These maps show the layout of the streets and the buildings in each
block. It gives the address, the shape of the structure, and the type of
material the structure is made of. For those of you who do not know, the
Sanborn maps were created for fire insurance purposes. Therefore, they tend to
concentrate on the business areas rather than the residential areas.
The library has access to a lot of genealogy websites, including Ancestory.com
and HeritageQuest.com. The staff at the library will be more than happy to help
you if you are not familiar with using these sites.
There is a lot of focus on history in the library. When the library was
remodeled, several display cases were built. These cases now contain artifacts
from local establishments and institutions: Monticello College, Walnut Grove
Dairy, Owens Illinois Glass Company, etc. Also available is a vertical file on
Alton history. A property file contains information on various addresses in
Alton. Not every address in town is in the file, but if there were photos or
histories about landmark homes or businesses, they may be available. A lot of
city directories are available, starting with 1858 - more than you can find on
line. These are very useful for genealogy purpose - you can track people, where
they lived, what kind of work they did, and members of their family.
The library has lots of maps of Alton; the oldest is a copy of the original
plat of Alton by Rufus Easton in 1818. They also have a lot of books about
early Alton industries. Contained in their collection are many volumes of the
Alton High School yearbook, The Tatler. The earliest volume is dated 1904.
Yearbooks from Marquette Catholic High School are also available beginning in
1961. Yearbooks are available from Western Military Academy, Monticello
College, Shurtleff College, and a few from Lewis & Clark Community College.
Some local church histories and a few membership directories are available.
A lot of books about Madison County veterans - WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam
have been compiled from newspapers and donated to the library. Someone is
currently working on Civil War veterans.
History of the Alton schools is covered in many books in the collection. Books
about all the Alton mayors, containing information about their political
careers and some personal information can be found in the library.
Books are available covering the railroads and riverboats in Alton - Alton
started as a river port. Histories of the boat companies, barge lines,
steamboats, etc. are available.
There are books on things unique to Alton: the infamous Alton Penitentiary, the
Piasa Bird, the Hartford Castle, etc.
There is a biography section that covers well-known people from Alton like
Robert Wadlow, Elijah Lovejoy, John Olin, etc. A large part of the biography
section covers Abraham Lincoln - not because he was from Alton but because of
his links with Alton.
The library has a large number of volumes of the Journal of the Illinois State
Historical Society. These are good for finding information about early settlers
across the entire state of Illinois. The library has a collection of county
histories covering 101 of Illinois' 102 counties. They also have some town
histories for the local area. They have a collection of books covering areas
where people might have lived before they migrated into the Alton area. These
would most likely be to the east and south of Illinois.
Books of Revolutionary War service records and pension applications are
available. Illinois veterans in the Civil War, the Mexican War, and the Black
Hawk War are covered in other books.
The library contains some records on ethnic groups, including a lot on
Cherokees, the Dawes Tribal Rolls, and other books on Native Americans.
Many people have donated their family histories to the library. Also contained
in the library are copies of the American Surname books, which contain names of
many of the early immigrants to America (Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, etc).
The library staff takes mail requests. Their address is 401 State Street,
Alton, IL 62002. They also have classes and programs.
The Hayner Genealogical and Local History Library has
something for almost everyone with an interest in genealogy or history.
This program was interesting and well received. It generated quite a few
questions and responses.