Lake County Courthouse
Crown Point, Indiana
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Porter County Courthouse
Valparaiso, Indiana
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Welcome to the website for the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society! We are
glad you are here. We are an active society that is committed to preserving the
history of Lake County and Porter County in Indiana. We have some great
resources for you in your research. Many dedicated volunteers have made these
available to you. If you are local, we encourage you to attend one of our
monthly meetings. You can contact us directly at
nwigs@hotmail.com.
RECENT BOOKS
PUBLISHED BY NWIGS
Chapel Lawn Cemetery and Fern Oaks Cemetery Indexes
- January 2009
The Northwest Indiana Genealogical
Society is please to announce the publication of their final two books in
the series of cemetery books for Lake County, Indiana.
Chapel Lawn Cemetery is located in Schererville, Indiana. There are
over 28,000 burials in this cemetery as of the summer 2008. This book has
been laid out in two sections. The first section is a row by row index
showing the details of what is found on each stone plus any military
information. The second section of the book is an alphabetical index
containing all names (with married and maiden names) in the cemetery. The
book has 750 pages, is hard bound and ready for any library shelf. The
cost of the book is $125.00 Plus $13.00 S&H. Bringing the total to
$138.00.
Fern Oaks Cemetery is located in Griffith, Indiana, and contains over
7,500 burials. Many of the burials are for African-Americans that lived in
Lake County, Indiana. The Cemetery was read for Northwest Indiana
Genealogical Society by volunteers and finalized in the fall of 2008. This
book is arranged with two sections. The first one is a row by row with
details of what is found on each stone plus any military information. The
second section is an alphabetical index containing all names (with married
and maiden names) in the cemetery. This book has 200 pages and is hard
bound ready for any library shelf. The cost is $35.00 plus $5.00 S&H
bringing the total to $40.00.
Members get a 10% discount and may save on S & H when picking their
publication up at a meeting.
These books can be order by writing Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society
at PO Box 595, Griffith, Indiana 46319 or by using our
order form.
Lake County Marriage
Book and Land Transfer Deed Books - June 2008
CROWN POINT JUSTICES OF THE PEACE MARRIAGES
This is a two volume set which contains the
records of marriages performed by four Justices of the Peace in Crown
Point, Indiana, during the period when the city was known as a “Marriage
Mill.”
Those appearing before a Justice of the Peace could be married with a
wedding license issued from the County in which they lived. The major
significance of these records is that it records marriages of many people
who did not obtain a wedding license in Lake County, Indiana, of which
Crown Point is the County Seat and thus would not appear in the indexes of
marriage records for the county.
Approximately 42,400 names are indexed and arranged by Grooms and Brides.
We started this project assuming most people would be from Lake County,
but that was not the case.
The top states were:
1. Illinois 18,909 individuals
2. Indiana 18,061 individuals
3. Wisconsin 2,724 individuals
4. Michigan f 974 individuals
5. Ohio 257 individuals
6. Iowa 157 individuals
7. New York 131 individuals
8. Minnesota 116 individuals
9. California 103 individuals
10. Missouri 99 individuals
Overwhelmingly, the top city was Chicago 15,140. Milwaukee represented a
total 1,308, and 311 came from Detroit.
A 3-day waiting period was enacted in March 1940, thereby bringing the
“Marriage Mill” to an end.
Cost for this fully indexed, 1,100-page, two volume, hardbound set is
$150.00 plus $16.25 postage for a total of $166.25.
This book can be ordered
by contacting the Northwest Indiana Genealogical Society, PO Box 595, Griffith,
Indiana 46319, or by downloading, completing, and mailing an
order form.
AN INDEX OF LAND TRANSFER RECORDS
FOR CROWN POINT, LAKE CO., INDIANA
FOR THE YEARS 1928 - 1940
This book covers land transfers in and around the City of
Crown Point, Indiana, for the years 1928
through 1940. The years of 1936-1940 in this index also include key
numbers. If you desire to obtain additional information regarding any
particular parcel of land, the county clerks will require you to have a
key number for the parcel. Key numbers were not in place previous to that
time period.
The original deeds for these land parcels are housed at
the Lake County Government Center, Office
of the Recorder, 2293 North Main Street, Crown
Point, Indiana 46307.
Originally, land was purchased from the Federal Government (known as a
land grant or land patent). When the Federal Government wanted to "get out
of the land selling business," they gave grants for whatever land was
remaining in each state. The first land office for Lake County was in
LaPorte County (Lake County was formed from LaPorte and Porter Counties in
February 1837) from 1833 to 1839, at which time the LaPorte Land Office
was moved to Winamac, Pulaski County. In 1855, all land offices in the
State of Indiana were moved to Indianapolis. After the original purchase,
land was transferred between private landowners. All purchases of land
were recorded in the county clerk's office and then became known as Land
Transfers.
One of the best reasons for using land records for genealogy research is
to locate your ancestors and also become aware of surrounding neighbors.
Oftentimes, young couples met their spouses from one of the neighboring
farms, or relatives of these neighbors or even the adjoining farm/land.
This book is 375 pages, hardbound, fully indexed, and costs $60.00 plus
$3.75 postage for a total of $63.75. This book can be ordered by contacting the Northwest Indiana
Genealogical Society, PO Box 595, Griffith,
Indiana 46319, or by downloading, completing, and mailing an
order form. |
Upcoming
Society Meeting Information
The Society meets each month from 10:00 a.m.
to 11:30 a.m. in either the Valparaiso Branch of the Porter County Public
Library or the Lake County Library. Check the schedule below for the
location.
Saturday, November 21,
2009
10:00 am - Show and Tell, bring a family heirloom to show and tell with
other attendees - Porter County Public Library, Valparaiso
Branch located at 103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso, Indiana [map]
YAHOO! Message List
We have an active message list for NWIGS located at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InNWIGS/
Consider joining the list to keep informed about upcoming events, post
queries, and to
communicate with our members.
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