Search Local are posts covering the free digital collections available from libraries and archives in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. It is published twice monthly.
Lake County is located in northwest Indiana, bordered by Lake Michigan to the north and Chicago, Illinois to the west, hence a migration path for those heading west. The Lake County Public Library’s Genealogy & Local History page provides access to their digital materials through their “Quick Links.”
One of their collections is the “Historic Yearbooks” which features thirty local yearbook titles, ranging from 1900 to 2015.
The “Indiana Room Online” [https://archive.org/details/indiana-room], accessible through the Internet Archive, hosts 481 items from the Indiana Room Collection. The historic books, newsletters, pamphlets, and reports for the surrounding area in Indiana and Illinois includes 154 city directories, 217 phone directories, 173 local histories, church histories, and much more.
The “Obituaries” database offers the following newspapers and indexes:
- Obituary index for The (Hammond) Times,1929-1934, 1939-2014.
- Obituary index for the Hobart Gazette, 1891-1895.
- Obituary index for the Lowell Tribune, 1920-2022.
- Obituary index for the Post Tribune, 1921 – current, covers Gary, Indiana.
- Obituary index for The Sun Journal, 1981.
- Obituary index for the Whiting, 1919-1965.
- Obituary index for the Lake County Star, 1972-1999.
- Birth, marriage, and death index for the Lake County Star, 1931-1938.
- Marriage and death index for the Crown Point Register and Star, 1857-1934.
The “Obituaries” database can be searched initially by the first and/or last name or click on “more search options” to add the middle name, maiden name, event date, city, age, or newspaper title to expand the search. The results give the date, record type (birth, marriage, or death), age, town, and source, which is the newspaper title, date, and page. One can browse the database alphabetically by surname as well. Once an index entry is found, a copy of the article can be requested from the Ask A Librarian page.
The Lake County Public Library’s Genealogy & Local History page is another example of a local library providing easy digital access to local and genealogical information.