Week 9: Ancestry, Heritage and Sanborn Maps

Ancestry Library
Ancestry Library is the doorway to a wealth of records that allow you to navigate family history. It is almost overwhelming! You can search using the basic search or plug in more information in the field under advanced search. It's easy to miss the arrows under the search windows that allow you to keep the default settings or search by exact terms, using soundex and similar derivations of names. This can generate a little confusion, but the more you play with it, the more you will get the hang of how the searching actually works. Because the number of resulting hits can be enormous, it's handy to be able to limit by the list of source categories on the left, such as birth or immigration records, pictures, maps, directories, etc.

I did find a listing for my marriage certificate, but no image of it available...not surprising. However, I have always found it fascinating to view actual hand written census records. I looked up my mother, father and grandparents and viewed a number of the census records where they were listed. It can be tricky to navigate in order to view the writing and the approporiate entry or entries enough to read them, but still a thrill and a ticket back in time!

When searching on pictures of South Dakota, so many fascinating photos were available. I narrowed the search to historic postcards and after viewing a number from around the state, I narrowed the search to Vermillion. The current post office still stands, looking somewhat different from the original historic photos, although the houses in the back are long gone. I didn't see a date on this photo, just a broad range. Another photo of Main Street in Vermillion dated from perhaps the 40s, judging by the automobiles. The major hotel on the left is long gone, with a non-descript bank now taking it's space. Basically though, Vermillion's Main Street is still recognizable. It's too bad Ancestry Library is only available in the Library, as one could spend many hours on research....actually, maybe that's for the best!

Heritage Quest
I did a search for Henri Dion, my great grandfather who was active in Dakota Territory and then followed the railroad out to Glendive Montana, becoming one of the leading citizens of the area.
I searched for Dion and Glendive and found a number of hits. Once I understood how the site works, it was easy to just look at the pages in books where the search terms were found. I like this site and am glad to know about it....a good resource for looking at history!

Sanborn Maps
I found a number of maps from Vermillion from various time periods, but focused on the maps from 1931. I saw on the index that the Thompson Lumber Company occupied the corner of Court St. and Kidder. When my husband and I first moved to Vermillion in the summer of 2005, this two story historic building housed the Heart & Soul Fitness Center. The building sat empty for several years and was recently just renovated and has reopened as a bar and grill. I notice a couple of weeks ago the permanent signage had gone up....The Old Lumber Company!