Wednesday, August 8, 2012

MN Historical Society ?Scrapbooks? ? Irish Genealogical Society ...

It?s always valuable to review your complete family history file, to go back to the beginning and see if there might be a clue?that escaped you.

When I?started researching?my husband?s Irish ancestors, I had?little more than?the names of his paternal grandparents. Census records for 1870 and 1880 were initially more puzzling than helpful.?Family lore indicated?Hickey ancestors?lived and worked in Minneapolis. When I found?Hickey farm families in Waseca County in 1870 and 1880, I thought I?d tracked the wrong family. Certainly there were some of the usual first names ? James, Michael, William, Patrick ? but those were frequently found in Irish families of that period.??Bartholomew Hickey??seemed an unlikely relative.

One?day at the Minnesota Historical Society Library, I stopped by the card catalog.? Looking?under ?Hickey?, I again?encountered the name ?Bartholomew?. The card referred to ?MHS Scrapbook Vol. 11?.? ?Well,? I said to myself, ?I don?t know what that means, but it doesn?t matter. I don?t think?Bartholomew is part of?our family.??

Months passed before I?confirmed?Bartholomew was, in fact,?a brother of Patrick Hickey, my husband?s great-grandfather. More months passed before I?happened again on?my note about the MHS Scrapbook. When I next visited the library, I asked about this resource and was told where to find the microfilmed records. Imagine my surprise and delight when I found?Bartholomew?s obituary provided details about the Hickey?s county of origin in Ireland (Tipperary) and?where they settled before coming to Minnesota (Oneida County, NY and Janesville, WI).

I recently stopped to reconsider that important discovery. I contacted the MHS Library and learned a little more about their ?scrapbooks?.? The Minnesota Historical Society collected newspaper clippings of obituaries and other news articles?from 1861 to 1922. These clippings ultimately filled 83 volumes and were?later converted to 27 reels of microfilm. In addition, there are two reels of indexes. ?

I think it might be interesting to go back to the library and take a look at those indexes.??Library personnel told me the MHS Scrapbook microfilm, including the indexes, can be requested through Inter-library loan.??

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Source: http://blog.irishgenealogical.org/?p=636

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