County History Books

County history books are available for most if not all counties in the United States. These books typically cover subjects from the physical landscape of the county to its very early history to the founders of the villages in the county to prominent individuals and families. When you're able to find your ancestors listed in one of these books, it will typically tell at least the region they came from before arriving in the county, their occupation, their immediate family and the life they lived. Many times it will also provide a bit more information on the individual's parents and grandparents and children and grandchildren. This can prove to be a huge help if you don't already have this information.

Indiana Marriage Records - Bixenmans - Family Search Newsletter

First, thank you all for getting me to 2000 page views! It took 6 months to get to the first 1000 hits and only 3 months for the next 1000. Thank you!

Next, I've mentioned this tip before but I'm going to mention it again because I have another example of why it's a good thing to do. The tip is this: Create a free account on familysearch.org, then sign up for the Family Search Newsletter. The Family Search Newsletter is sent out by familysearch.org, which is the LDS Family History Center. These are the people that have all the microfilm that you can order and have delivered to your local family history center. They are in the middle of a huge project to digitize and index all their microfilm rolls so, in the future, you won't have to order them and view them at your local family history center. You can just look at them online...for free!

Bixenman Family Tree - Volume 2 Republished

After scanning in an original copy of "Bixenman Family Tree - Volume 2" by Sister Catherine Seemann, cropping and cleaning up the scans and fixing some minor errors, I've just made the book available to purchase on Lulu. She originally published the book in 2001. It has been out of print since then. She made it clear that her relatives were free to do as they pleased with the book. I really wanted to make sure it was available for anyone to order now and in the future.

You can purchase the book here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/sister-catherine-seemann/bixenman-family-history-volume-2/hardcover/product-21234653.html

Volume 1 was republished about a year ago and is available here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/sister-catherine-seemann/the-bixenman-family-volume-1/hardcover/product-20477261.html


For those interested in the Bixenmans, my father's father's mother was Philomena Bixenman, born in Lawrence, Lake County, Indiana, lived about 25 years and was married in Wien, Chariton County, Missouri then lived out her remaining years and died in Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa.

Tomorrow, I will be taking my mother to visit her sisters in southeast Iowa (the West Point, Fort Madison, Burlington area). While there, I will be getting some photos at area cemeteries and looking through the church records at Sts. John and Paul Church in Burlington. My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Dunzinger Panther's death record reports that she moved to Dodgeville when she was 23 years old. This was the year she was married. Their marriage was officiated by a priest from St. John's, although it wasn't at the church itself. She would have lived in the area and attended church at St. John's at least from the time she was 17 until she was 23 and likely from the time she was just a few years old. I hope I'll find some sort of records that mention her parents' names, who family stories say died when she was three years old. I'll be sure to let you know what I find.

--Matt