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Adams County, Indiana |
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GenWeb!
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Picture credit to Berne Library Staff!
Updates for January 2012:The volunteers who are digitizing records from the Courthouse stored in the jail are doing a wonderful job!
In January, we added 158 Estates records, 16 Guardianships, 101 Civil cases, 3 more Plat Books, and 39 Wills (from the 1850-1860). We also added the list of military from Indiana who died as a result of service in Vietnam; updated Mt. Zion UBC Cemetery including some links to both headstone photos and obits, and 99 obits were added to the forum/message board. Decatur Cemetery continues to be updated.
It was a very productive month!
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:
Hello All:
It's hard to believe that it's 2012! Where did the year go? Time sure does seem to fly by quicker and quicker as each year passes.
It has been quite an interesting year though and I must say a big "thank you" to all of you who have given so much of your time and energy toward making more of our history available to others who may not have the opportunity to get it anywhere else.
There have been a lot of changes since we first started our big project of digitizing/photographing the records from the beginning of Adams County; if someone would have said that I would be a part of such a HUGE project earlier in the year - I would have laughed - but I must say it has been a wonderful experience in finding out more and more about our ancestors and how they lived. It has truly been a blessing to be able to get to know all of you, share a few laughs, and enjoy each other's company and life's daily challenges that face us all from time to time.
By year end we completed 300 drawers of documents - WHEW! There is also the completion of over 70 books! WOW!
Special thanks to everyone on the team - Vic & Marge Counterman, Dick & Louise Lambert, Sharon Taylor, Karen Huffine, Penny North, Sharon & Paul Schaffner, Sheryl Poorman and all the others who are working very hard behind the scenes - Karin King, Sara Riley, Margie Roop Pearce, Meredith Thompson, Shana Neuenschwander, The Berne Library, and David Blackford - we certainly wouldn't have made it this far without you! I also would be amiss to not thank Curt Witcher and Marge Graham for their wisdom and constant praise of our hard work. The Sheriff, Shane Reckeweg for the use of his facilities and his staff for their friendliness and willingness to assist where they can.
We have also been blessed from the kind generosity of Jane and Dean Edson who donated two portable hard drives for us to use to store these documents until they can be posted onto the websites. Karen Huffine for the use of her scanner and laptop; and Vic & Marge for the use of so much of their own equipment - scanners, computer, camera, and batteries (it should be about 1000 now, right Marge?) as well as Dick Lambert for keeping our scanners clean and in great working order.
I look forward to working with all of you in the upcoming year; sharing more laughs, hearing about your daily lives and sharing a meal or two along the way. There will be a lot of changes to the area that we are working in starting with all of the Assessor's Books being scanned by the Geneva Library and they will be housed there for the time being. This will begin the eventual removal of all the documents from their current location to a new facility. This is why it is so important that we gather as much of this information as possible while it is still available for public viewing, as we all know due to budget cuts, space limitations, etc, that these records will someday become unavailable or at the very least very inaccessible without special requests. I have reflected many times on how much history has passed through my own hands in working with these original documents, that I sit in amazement at just how lucky we all are to be given this wonderful opportunity not only for our own research, but for future generations to come.
So, in closing, please let me once again say thank you to all of you. You are very special to me and I appreciate your willingness to give of yourselves unconditionally for so many others to have access to our history and of those that made it all possible for us today. Remember to always to keep "sharing the news" of what we do to encourage others to preserve their own family history and to SHARE it with everyone they can. I believe that is what it is all about - recording, preserving and sharing our family histories, stories, antidotes, and life experiences with others so that they in turn will share their stories too!
May your New Year be truly blessed with much happiness and good health!
JimWe are still looking for volunteers who would like to participate in bringing those records to the public. If you are interested in being a part of this project, please contact Jim Cox to let him know when you are available to work.
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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