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Adams County, Indiana |
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GenWeb!
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Picture credit to Berne Library Staff!
In April, we added 56 more civil cases, 47 guardianships, two more plat books (1880 Jefferson & 1886 Root) and linked almost 500 obits and/or biographies to individuals in Decatur Cemetery (letters F-H). More than 120 obits or abstracts were added to the forum/message board.
The ongoing process of digitizing the old records from the Courthouse continues, thanks to our dedicated volunteers. The records include estates, probate, insanity, civil cases, plat books, wills, divorces to name just a few. These records date back to the 1830's. We want to thank the Adams County Sheriff, Shane Rekeweg, The Adams County Commissioners and all of the volunteers that are assisting in providing access and availability to these wonderful resources.
A note from the project coordinator, Jim Cox:
Greeting Fellow Genealogists:
April already? Wow! It seems like just yesterday we were thinking about the cold weather, the snow, the ice, and of course driving in all that mess. Fortunately, mother nature gave us a break this year and we certainly did have a mild winter. As I am writing this today, I'm enjoying all of the wonderful colors of Spring. My flowers are blooming, the trees are exploding with exuberant colors and the birds are returning to our area. It will soon be time to work in our yards, enjoy family cookouts and sharing stories with family and friends.
Contact your local Commissioner's, Clerk of Courts, or your local genealogical groups to see how you can make a difference. It is also so very important to preserve your own history and share it with others.
The Preservation Project at the County Jail will be ending very soon. We have digitized over 100 years of records. As you can see by all of the postings that Margie has done, the site has really grown and will continue to grow with new information for many months to come. It is with great pleasure that I want to thank especially the dedicated volunteer workers that have given so much of their time to bring this information to you: Karen Huffine, Karin King, Dick & Louise Lambert, Sharon Taylor, Penny North, Sharon & Paul Shaffner, & Marge & Vic Counterman. Without these individuals, this information would not be readily available. Jane Edson's invaluable contributions have made the work go much quicker. Karin, Margie, and I work daily to get the information ready for the site. We encourage everyone to keep checking our site for new additions.
Finally, I would like to share part of Curt Witcher's message from the Allen County Public Library -- as many (if not all) know that the 1940 Census will be available this month. While everyone is excited about this new information, let's not forget so many other important aspects of genealogy research.
"Let the release of this tremendous data set encourage us to again commit to a discover-document-disseminate posture for our research. Let's commit to researching and finding our family histories, to compiling with appropriate sources what we have found, and to sharing our histories with family members, libraries and online research communities so that our histories will live on for generations.
At no other time have the records that document our nation's history been at such great risk. Natural and man-made disasters, over-reaching governments at all levels "protecting" us from historic information, and the lack of attention being given to data integrity and redundancy/back-up at all levels and in all sectors of society is converging to place our historic records at greater and greater risk. Many are committed to continuing the fight for the appropriate preservation of, and access to, records on the local, state, and national levels. At the end of the day, however, most successes in this arena are compromises, and these compromises continue to erode our access to the evidence of our history."
Please continue to share your family history with everyone that is available and prove to all arenas that we are serious about preserving our history and strive to bring it to others, so that future generations will have it to share, enrich and continue the history for us all.
Happy Researching!Jim
As GenWeb county coordinator, I am getting the actual documents online as quickly as possible. We look forward to bringing more and more information to you free of charge so that future generations can use what is posted for their research into their family heritage.
Margie Roop Pearce
In June 1996 a group of genealogists organized the Indiana Comprehensive Genealogy Database. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Indiana where collected databases would be stored. The databases were indexed and cross-linked so that even if an individual were found in more than one county they could be located in the index. At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page. Tim Singleton created the Adams County, Indiana INGenWeb page in 1996 and served as the volunteer coordinator for Adams County, Indiana, for almost 14 years and has helped hundreds of ancestor hunters with the information he has posted on the site. Many thanks to Tim and the other volunteers who have shared their talents and knowledge to help the rest of us!
Margie Pearce is the INGenWeb volunteer coordinator for Adams County, Indiana. Jim Cox is our co-coordinator. Both of us are working hard to add, update, and try to make the Adams County site ever more useful and user-friendly.
If you would like to contribute your information to this page, please let me know by clicking on my name and sending an email message describing the format and content of the data. If you would like to be a volunteer coordinator for an Indiana county, please contact Indiana State Coordinator Katy Hestand.
There is an Adams Co., Indiana email discussion list for anyone having a genealogical interest in Adams County. To subscribe to the list, just follow the instructions.
Adams County was created on March 1, 1836 and was formed from the Adams New Purchase, the renamed Delaware New Purchase, which was formed in 1820 from unorganized land, and renamed Adams New Purchase in 1827. The Adams New Purchase existed until 1844, when it became the counties of Adams, Clinton, Grant, Huntington, Jay, and Wells, and portions of the counties of Boone, Carroll, Tipton, and Wabash. Adams County was named for U.S. President John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States.
Decatur is the county seat. Samuel Rugg envisioned a town that would be the county seat and would grow to be a city of importance. Samuel Johnson offered as an inducement to have the county seat located on his land, the sum of $3,100, four church lots, half an acre for a public square, one acre for a seminary and two acres for a cemetery. He further agreed to pay the expenses of the locating commissioners, and furnish a house to hold court in until suitable buildings could be erected. The county commissioners promptly accepted the offer "and proceeded to the aforesaid town site, and marked a white oak tree with blazes on four sides, on each of which they individually inscribed their names." Decatur was probably named in honor of Commodore Stephen Decatur and in 1849 it had seventy houses (three of which were brick, twenty-one frame and the remainder of logs) with a population of about 400. One of the focal points of downtown Decatur is the magnificent Victorian courthouse that was built in 1873 and remains the home of the county government. The county historical society is also located near downtown in a beautiful home once occupied by a prominent family of Decatur. The only hospital in Adams County is also located in Decatur and has provided the best of care for more than eighty years through a network of local and visiting physicians and specialists from nearby Fort Wayne.
Adams County is divided into 12 Civil Townships: Blue Creek, French, Hartford, Jefferson, Kirkland, Monroe, Preble, Root, St. Marys, Union, Wabash and Washington. Townships Map
Cities, Towns and Communities include Berne, Coppess Corner, Decatur, Elm Tree Crossroads, Geneva, Honduras, Linn Grove, Magley, Monmouth, Monroe, Perryville, Peterson, Pleasant Mills, Preble, Rivare, and Salem.
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