What's New - 1999
December 1999
12/29/99: Added Laurie Tanis' transcriptions of the Fulton Street Cemetery burial records for: A part 2, K, L, N, O, P, Q & R. Thanks so much Laurie!!
12/28/99: Added Chapter 29 from Baxter, "Art - Painting, Photography, and Music." This chapter is extremely interesting reading for anyone who wondered whether their might be extant photos of their ancestors or who wants to learn more about the photographers who took their treasured family pictures.
12/28/99: Added "U" burials at Greenwood Cemetery thanks to Debbi!
12/28/99: Added Mme. Valeria Lipczynska as the new featured biography, replaced Roger Chaffee bio on Famous People page with more extensive history from NASA, added link to biography of Dirk Vlug, Congressional Medal of Honor winner.
12/28/99: Added "H" burials at Oakhill thanks to Ronnie.
12/28/99: Added link under the "Picture Album" section to "A Grand Century: One Hundred Years of Photographs from 20th Century Grand Rapids" an online presentation of the Grand Rapids Public Library.
12/28/99: Posted "T" burials at Greenwood Cemetery in Walker Township, thanks to the wonderful Debbi Manni!
12/28/99: Created a message board for lost and found Kent County items of genealogical significance. If you have collected any miscellaneous old family items, please post their descriptions so their rightful owners may be able to find them!
12/28/99: Added subscription box for MIGenWeb-Gazette, the e-newsletter of the Michigan GenWeb Project. Sign up to receive notices about the project's progress, news, and advice for researching your family on and offline in Michigan.
12/28/99: Added several new cemetery photos to the Master Cemetery List.
12/16/99: Added Chapter 38 from Baxter, "Gypsum and Plaster of Paris."
12/16/99: Added thirty more pages of the Etten history. Thank you Ronnie!
12/15/99: Added list of the "Past Presidents of the United Workers' Society" of the Park Congregational Church in G. R., and a bit of genealogical information from that church.
12/15/99: Added "F" of Valley City Cemetery.
12/15/99: Updated the links for the Western Michigan Genealogical Society. All of their pages are now at wmgs.org. Also added link to their site search engine.
12/15/99: Added link to the Dibean Collection of Early Kent County Marriages.
12/14/99: Added ten more sections of the Etten history thanks to Ronnie!
12/14/99: Added pictures and history of Pine Grove Cemetery to the Master Cemetery List, thanks to Ronnie; and a history of Findlay Cemetery from Katie VanDerWarf-Boggs, a relation of the Findlay family. Thanks to all!!
12/14/99: Added the listings for the Ionia border cemeteries.
12/11/99: Substantially updated the communities page with information provided by Debbi Manni. Thank you so much Debbi!
12/11/99: Added Susan M. Gates Davis' transcription of Rosedale Cemetery, which is on the border between Kent and Ottawa counties.
12/10/99: Added several sections of the Etten Campau Centennial book from 1926, including a large section on the Campaus themselves as well as info on the establishment of the city and some of its institutions.
12/10/99: Put Laurie Tanis' beautiful transcriptions of the Fulton Street burial records online A-B-C-D-E-F-G-I-J-Y-Z. Thanks so much Laurie!
12/07/99: Added Gaines Cemetery in Gaines Township thanks to Jolene Pell. Great work Jolene!
12/07/99: Updated and reorganized the lookups page. If you have a resource you are willing to share with others, please let us know.
12/05/99: Added letter "E" from Valley City Cemetery.
12/02/99: Added Chapter 8 from Baxter, "Beginnings in the Two Townships." Thank you so much Ronnie.
12/02/99: Added sets of pictures for three more cemeteries. See Kent County Master Cemetery List. Thank you Ronnie!
12/01/99: Today was a banner day at the Kent County Michigan GenWeb Project for bringing online actual burial records, in addition to the D.A.R. or more recent cemetery readings. Bruce Gerber, who recently brought us the Oakwood and Friant Cemetery records, has now brought us the Plainfield Cemetery records from Plainfield Township. The file includes the names on all the headstones as well as all the lot owners. It looks great Bruce! But ALSO, we have a wonderful new contributor in Laurie J. Tanis. She's gotten a hold of all the burial records for Fulton Street Cemetery in Grand Rapids and has done a wonderful job formatting them. Letter "F" is online today, and we hope to backtrack through "A" and then jump ahead to X-Y-Z in the next couple of days. Thank you VERY much, Laurie and Bruce!!
12/01/99: Created a Kent County Michigan GenWeb Project official logo. We hope that this logo will help identify pages on the site as belonging to this particular project. There will be an effort of the next few weeks to update all the pages on the site with this logo and with the correct email address for the Co-CC in charge of correspondence.
November 1999
11/30/99: Added several new pictures and maps to the Kent County Master Cemetery List.
11/30/99: Added letter "S" of Greenwood Cemetery in Walker thanks to Debbi Manni!
11/30/99: Added Chapter 7 of Baxter from Ronnie, outlining the early governments of Michigan and the area that is now Kent County.
11/29/99: Added the remaining "B" marriages from 1845 to 1870, thanks to the ever-amazing Ronnie!
11/29/99: Added Myers Cemetery in Sparta Township thanks to the fine efforts of Susan Hallock. Thank you very much Susan!
11/21/99: Added R burials at Greenwood Cemetery in Walker thanks to Debbi.
11/21/99: Added B-Ba of the early marriages, thanks to Ronnie Aungst.
11/21/99: Added I-J-K-L-M burials at Oakhill Cemetery. Thank you very much Ronnie!
11/21/99: Added preface, table of contents, and two chapters of Etten's 1926 history of Grand Rapids, thanks to Ronnie Aungst.
11/18/99: Our FreeFind search engine seems to be having trouble indexing the whole site. If you can't find what you are looking for, please visit our central search engines page and use the Seeker search engine instead.
11/18/99: Added link to Family History Library catalog record for Grand Rapids City Directories.
11/18/99: Added a link to a directory of Kent County Historic Sites produced by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office. See pictures and read about nearly 100 historic sites in Kent County.
11/18/99: Updated the Master Cemetery List with several more cemetery descriptions, several historical sketches of important cemeteries and added a section devoted to identifying cemeteries on the border between Kent and neighboring counties. If you have a free moment this weekend, it would be wonderful if you could scout some of the cemeteries in Kent County that remain undescribed. Suggestions about what to look for are available.
11/17/99: Added several new cemetery descriptions from Ronnie and Debbi. More coming soon.
11/17/99: Added link to Julia A. Moore, a Michigan poet native to the Grand Rapids area.
11/17/99: Added link to new Grand Rapids Public Library mailing lists in our mailing lists section.
11/17/99: Ran a link check on the main page. Updated and deleted several links.
11/09/99: Added P and Q of Greenwood Cemetery, thanks to our Queen of Walker Township, Debbi Manni.
11/09/99: Added cemetery inspection reports for Garfield Park, Brooklawn, Pine Hill and Restlawn. Thanks so much to Ronnie and Debbi for the legwork!
11/09/99: Updated the researchers' FAQ and the fine print page.
11/07/99: Added the Table of Contents for Tuttle's 1874 History of Grand Rapids.
11/07/99: Added N & O of Greenwood Cemetery in Walker. Thanks Debbi!
11/07/99: Updated the Master Cemetery List with several new condition reports from Ronnie.
11/06/99: Added the Table of Contents for the 1924 White history of Kent County.
11/06/99: Added "S" through "Z" burials of Garfield Park Cemetery. Thank you Sue for finishing this major Kent Co. cemetery!
11/06/99: Added Chapter 43 of Baxter, Industrial Enterprises Not Classified Elsewhere. Thank you Ronnie!
11/06/99: Added the Index to Advertisers from Tuttle's 1874 history of Grand Rapids. Lookups are also now available in this book.
11/02/99: Added "M" burials in Greenwood Cemetery in Walker. Thanks Debbi.
11/02/99: Added two stereoviews of Kent County in the 1880s.
11/01/99: Ronnie Aungst has written a biography of Mrs. Alice Twamley, a woman Ronnie learned about in working on other transcriptions. Her life was fascinating and eventful and we can all admire her for her personal strength, character, will and determination.
11/01/99: Set up a biographies index page, with links to all the biographies we know of that are for historical persons and not on the GC board, as well as pointers to all of our other biographical resources. (Contemporary folks are under "Famous People" and all the Chapman bios have a stand-alone page.)
11/01/99: East Nelson Cemetery in Nelson Township is now online. Thanks Ronnie!
11/01/99: Letters N, O and P of Oakhill Cemetery are now online. Thanks Ronnie!
11/01/99: Added map of Valley City cemetery to our Master Cemetery List.
October 1999
10/31/99: Updated inks, communities and societies page after finding the new City of Wyoming homepage.
10/31/99: Added link to Cedar Springs map and virtual tour. Added three cemetery images to our Master List, and added suggestions on how folks can help enhance the List.
10/31/99: Posted the Kent County Michigan Master Cemetery List. Please help us enhance this resource by visiting cemeteries in your neighborhood and reporting on their condition.
10/31/99: Added stand-alone pages for search engines, mailing lists and maps.
10/30/99: Set up new Kent County Atlas page for all our maps links and more complete descriptions.
10/30/99: Added two new maps to our Historic Maps section, both from a 1944 pamphlet published by the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. One is of the whole of Kent County and shows roads, towns and fishing spots, the other is of the city of Grand Rapids and features "points of interest."
10/30/99: Added the eastern region of Michigan Territory for the 1830 census! The entire 1830 Michigan Census is now online! THANK YOU RONNIE!
10/30/99: Ronnie has agreed to serve as Co-Coordinator. She's been doing the work since the beginning, and now she'll have a spiffy new title! The division of labor is expected to remain the same. She'll be our eyes and hands in Grand Rapids, and I'll handle most of the email and all the site updates, etc. In case I haven't said it enough Ronnie -- THANKS!
10/30/99: Added several links to our Other Helpful Links page from the Michigan State Archives and Historical Office.
10/30/99: Added link to a list of the Kent County listings for the General Land Office Records from 1807-1907. Thanks very much to Maggie
10/30/99: Added link to naturalization records at the State Archives of Michigan.
10/29/99: Added links to the Kent County pages for Patrick Hays' Michigan Migration Project (MMP). Established new Immigration and Naturalization category.
10/29/99: Added links to ALHN pages for Kent Co. Started Other Regional Genealogy Projects category.
10/27/99: Posted the "M" through "R" burial records from Garfield Park Cemetery. Thanks Sue!
10/27/99: Brought the Chapman bio links up-to-date.
10/26/99: In our biographies section, added a link to the Rix Robinson page and added a new page about Famous People from Kent County -- with links to online bios. If you have any suggestions for other people or better online bios, please let us know!
10/26/99: Added Bowne Cemetery in Bowne Township, thanks to a new volunteer, Jolene Pell. Thanks so much Jolene!
10/24/99: Added Virtual Tour of the Michigan Veterans' Facility. Located in our Photo Album section.
10/24/99: Added links to several pages, including Communities and Societies, from pages at Alpine Township's wonderful new website.
10/24/99: Added Dereka Siegel's offer to do lookups in an East Grand Rapids Interlochen scrapbook, from 1925, for grades 7-12.
10/24/99: Did some work on the Chapman links page to try and catch up with the bios.
10/24/99: Added some new company and organization links to our Additional Helpful Links page.
10/24/99: Added link to the Grand Rapids Press Index, compiled by the staff of the Local History Department at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Subject index to articles from 1982.
10/24/99: 1840 Kent County Michigan Census now online. Abstract courtesy of Dave Wallace. Scanned images produced by Jen Godwin and Ronnie Aungst.
10/24/99: Added three more scans to the Gallery, these donated by Russell Sandy. Started separate categories for John Ball Park, Reed's Lake and the Michigan Veterans' Facility.
10/24/99: Added a number of wonderful scanned postcards to our Historical Image Gallery. The scans were donated in honor of Eloise Heard Jourden by her son Dan.
10/23/99: Added two interesting historical articles brought to us by Ronnie Aungst, one on a band made up entirely of Grand Rapids Press newsboys, and the other regarding the letter carriers of Grand Rapids in 1900.
10/23/99: Added Brooklawn Cemetery in Walker Township -- thanks so very much Debbi!
10/23/99: Ronnie has scanned in Chapter XLIV from Baxter on the topic of farms and agriculture.
10/23/99: Added Q and R burials in Oakhill Cemetery in Grand Rapids thanks to Ronnie.
10/23/99: Added Riverbend Cemetery in Walker Township, thanks to Debbi, who has "adopted" all the cemeteries of Walker -- and will have them all done any day now!
10/23/99: Added F through L burials at Garfield Park Cemetery in Paris Township, thanks to Susan M. Gates Davis.
10/17/99: Added U and V births from the D.A.R. transcriptions, thanks to Robyn Sturtevant.
10/17/99: Added Washington Park Cemetery burials K to Z, thanks to Debbi Manni.
10/17/99: Added a link to a very interesting site on the history of the Indians of the Grand River Valley.
10/17/99: Added Cindy Bryant's lookup offer in 1940s City Commission records to our Lookups page.
10/15/99: Added Mennonite Cemetery in Bowne Township, thanks to a wonderful new volunteer Anna E. Conley. Thanks so much Anna, and welcome!
10/15/99: Washington Park Cemetery, also in Walker Township, is now underway. "A" to "J" burials posted, also thanks to Debbi!
10/15/99: Completed the transcription of Mt. Cavalry Cemetery in Walker Township with the "R" to "Z" burials thanks to Debbi Manni.
10/10/99: Bruce Gerber produced a wonderful document for us, a burial record file for Oakwood and Friant cemeteries in Plainfield township. Sources include the township's records, his own reading of the stones and the D.A.R. reading. Thank you very much, Bruce, for this kind gift of a very helpful and comprehensive resource.
10/10/99: Added an image of downtown Grand Rapids taken from a stereoview.
10/10/99: Added the S burials from the D.A.R. transcription of Oakhill thanks to Ronnie Aungst.
10/10/99: Added Mt. Cavalry burials G-Q thanks to our lovely MIKENT-L listowner Debbi Manni.
10/10/99: Added the S and W entries for the Baxter name index. Thanks again Ronnie!
10/10/99: Added the A-E burials of Garfield Cemetery in Paris Twp. Many thanks to Susan M. Gates Davis.
10/10/99: Added Index of Personal Names for the Lowell History in Baxter. Thanks Ronnie for this great resource on Lowell ancestors.
10/07/99: Added the list of Business Firms Mentioned in the Baxter book. Thanks Ronnie.
10/03/99: Added another contemporary map of Kent County. From the West Michigan Tourist Association.
10/03/99: Added letters H, K, L, O, Q, U of Baxter's index. Thanks Ronnie.
10/03/99: Added links to Maud Quigley's Index to Family Names in Genealogical Periodicals, put online by the WMGS, and to the Letters of Daniel Nash, an early settler of Bowne Township.
10/03/99: Finally posted that page of other helpful links. It's located at the bottom of the historical links section in the left-hand column.
10/03/99: Added 1876 plat maps of Byron, Paris and Wyoming townships, and 1894 plat map of Paris township.
10/03/99: Added a biography of Fred M. Utley. Thanks Ronnie.
10/03/99: Added letters M, N, P, R, T, V letters of the index and the Lowell general index from Baxter. Thank you Ronnie!
September 1999
09/28/99: Added letters T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z for Oakhill Cemetery in Grand Rapids, thanks to the inestimable Ronnie Aungst.
09/26/99: We've got doctors and lawyers today! Added two chapters of Baxter, Chapter 62: Medicine and Surgery and Chapter 64: Bench and Bar.
09/26/99: Completed Chapter 56 of Baxter with the addition of the Golden Weddings section. Thanks to Don Bryant for posting Marriages and Deaths on his homepage.
09/26/99: Added letters D, E, F, G, I and J to the Baxter index, and moved it to its own directory.
09/26/99: Culled the Civil War links from our Military category and put them in their own section. Added link to the Archives and Regional History department of the libraries at Western Michigan University. Added link to an InfoSpace message called "Looking for Someone?" for the Grand Rapids area. Deleted the unavailable link to E. G. R. map.
09/21/99: Added notice that I can do lookups in Baxter's 1891 History of the City of Grand Rapids and plat maps for the years 1876, 1894, 1907 and from the 1930s(?).
09/21/99: Added Oakwood Cemetery in Plainfield Township thanks to Ronnie Aungst, our amazing Assistant County Coordinator.
09/18/99: Replaced RootsWeb's Seeker search engine, which is broken, with a search engine from FreeFind.
09/18/99: Removed the Transportation section temporarily. Will move this section to our historical links page, which will be growing and developing over the next few days.
09/18/99: Brought the page of links of the Chapman bios up-to-date, including the completion of Walker Township, and great advances in Sparta Township, Nelson-Solon Township and the City of Grand Rapids.
09/15/99: Added A-F of Mt. Cavalry Cemetery in Walker Township. Thanks Debbi!
09/15/99: Added Alton Cemetery in Vergennes Township. Thanks Robyn!
09/15/99: Added M-N burials in Fairplains. Thanks Ronnie!
09/15/99: Added explanatory materials for the birth records. Thanks Ronnie!
09/15/99: Added No last name to A burials in Oakhill Cemetery. Thanks Ronnie!
09/14/99: Added page with links to information on James Kent, namesake of Kent County.
09/14/99: Added four new resources to our lookups page, thanks to Kathleen Johnston and Janice Ringold.
09/14/99: Added the "D" burials at Valley City Cemetery in G. R., now the southern section of Oakhill.
09/08/99: Posted all the explanatory material for the D.A.R. cemetery transcriptions from the 1920s and 1930s.
09/07/99: Updated communities page.
09/07/99: Added G-M of Fairplains Cemetery in Grand Rapids.
09/07/99: Added the remainder of the letter "C" burials from the D.A.R. transcription of Valley City.
09/06/99: Added Idlewild Cemetery in Tyrone Township thanks to Tammy Van Putten.
09/06/99: Added the "Bu-Bz" and "Ca-Ch" burials from the D.A.R. transcription of Valley City.
09/03/99: New links relating the Civil War soldiers, veterans and burials: Michigan Veterans of the Civil War Buried at the Soldiers Home, Grand Rapid, MI; Michigan Veterans of the Civil War Burial Sites; Department of Michigan, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, including their query page and a link to a list of Civil War Monuments. If you know of additional monuments in our county, please submit them to the SUVCW and ask them to start a page for our county which we can link to!
09/03/99: Added Chapter 27 of Baxter, thanks to Ronnie, on the topic of "Academic, Private and Parochial Schools."
09/03/99: Links to outside pages will start opening in new windows.
09/02/99: The Western Michigan Genealogy Society has started a mailing list to keep us all apprised of their projects. Everyone interested in area genealogy ought to join this great-sounding list. To subscribe, send a message to WMGS-NEWS-L-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'subscribe' in the body, without the quotes. This is expected to be a low-traffic, announcements-only list.
09/02/99: Reorganized the directory structure a little bit. No one needs to worry about, but if you find a broken link, will you let me know?
09/02/99: Diane Teelander has put together the "W" birth records from 1867-1870. Thanks for typing this huge file!
09/02/99: Debbi Manni has completed her transcription of Holy Cross Cemetery, also known as the Polish Catholic Cemetery. Thank you very much Debbi!
09/02/99: Added the "Br" burials from Valley City, D.A.R. transcriptions.
09/01/99: Our fourth new Kent County history book this week is now established. It's called "A Third Volume on Kent County" being the third volume in a series on Michigan History. Rebecca Koford was kind enough to transcribe the list of personal records from this 1924 book. Thanks so much Rebecca!
09/01/99: Added four more chapters from Baxter, and A-B-C-Y-Z of the every name index. All the sections are now linked from with in the Table of Contents. The new chapters are: Chapter 13, The City Charter; Chapter 17, Fifty-Six Winters; Chapter 25, Lights and Electricity; Chapter 26, The Public Schools.
09/01/99: Added D-E-F of the D.A.R. transcription of Fairplains in Grand Rapids. Thanks Ronnie and Welcome Back!
09/01/99: Linked to three 19th century Grand Rapids area biographies posted by Don Bryant, including one for Lawrence C. Earle, billed as "Grand Rapids' First Artist."
09/01/99: Check out our Police, Fire & Sheriffs page under Kent County Historical Review Section for two great pictures of Grand Rapids motorcycle policemen. Thanks to Barbara Jones for sharing this pictures!
09/01/99: Deleted the Funding FAQ to put out a few fires, and revised the Volunteers FAQ.
09/01/99: Added some more information to our list of Kent County Michigan Genealogical and Historical Societies, Museums and Commissions.
August 1999
08/31/99: Added a Cedar Springs Image Gallery created from images donated by Dennis Zank, which he found in his mother's scrapbook.
08/31/99: Added links to the Library of Congress American Memory Collection's "Pioneering the Upper Midwest Exhibit" including two older gazetteers and a book of caricatures of important Grand Rapids residents.
08/30/99: Transcribed the second half of Winegar Cemetery in Byron Twp., completing the work begun by Mary Del Rivette.
08/30/99: Added Robyn Sturtevant's transcription of St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Vergennes Township. Thanks Robyn! (Only one more and we're done with Vergennes. Yay!)
08/30/99: Added Tammy Van Putten's transcription of Bailey Cemetery in Vergennes Township. Thanks Tammy!
08/30/99: Updated all the FAQs. Added three new minor history links.
08/26/99: Added the very large and complicated early marriage records for the letter "D." A very big thanks to Diane Decker-Warneke for her painstaking work on this much appreciated and very valuable document.
08/26/99: Added three frequently asked questions pages, one for visitors to the site, one for volunteers and potential volunteers, and one for anyone who would like to contribute financially to the Kent Co. MIGenWeb Project.
08/24/99: Updated the links to the Grand Rapids Public Library. Thanks to Pamela Lucas for letting me know they had changed!
08/24/99: Added the M-P burials at Holy Cross Cemetery (AKA Polish Catholic Cemetery) in Walker Township, thanks to Debbi Manni.
08/11/99: Added Findlay Cemetery in Ada Township from our stellar new volunteer Tammy Van Putten. This completes our transcription of the D.A.R. transcriptions of Ada Cemeteries. Look for a revamped cemetery page in the near future.
08/11/99: Added the burial transcriptions for letters "Bi-Bo" of Valley City Cemetery, Grand Rapids.
08/11/99: Added a wonderful page of photos from Sparta in the 1920s. Generously provided by Susan L. Hallock from her mother's scrapbook.
08/11/99: Updated the communities page with some new post offices from 1851 and 1870, brought the links on the Chapman bios current.
08/08/99: The first half of Holy Cross Cemetery, also known as the Polish Catholic Cemetery, in Walker Township, from Debbi Manni.
08/08/99: Transcription of St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery in Caledonia Township from Tammy Van Putten.
08/08/99: Additional records from the A-N portion of Fairplains Cemetery from Ronnie Aungst.
08/08/99: From Ronnie, added chapters 50 and 58 of Baxter, Village Roads and Streets and Dentists, Drugs and Independent Doctors.
08/08/99: Added all the Bowne Township biographies.
08/08/99: Added links to information and contact information for the Grand Rapids Soldiers' Home (now Home for Veterans) and the affiliated cemetery.
08/03/99: Added Ronnie's new transcriptions of the following chapters from Baxter: 18, The Police Dept.; 20, Notable Fires; 21, Immigration and Nativities; 49, Bridges; 60, Meats and Markets; 66, Statistics.
08/03/99: Added letters A and B of Fairplains Cemetery from Diane Teelander.
July 1999
07/31/99: Added links to two local libraries on our Communities page, one in Cedar Springs, the other in Sparta Township. Links provided by the Library of Michigan.
07/31/99: Chapter 37 of the Baxter history, on salt wells, is now online.
07/30/99: The second half of Fairplains Cemetery in Grand Rapids, letters O through Z, is now online thanks to Ronnie.
07/30/99: Added Ronnie's list of taverns and inns along Kent County stage routes.
07/30/99: Added a thirteen page letter that charts the history of Vinton Family from 1877 to 1928, describing their nearly 80 moves around the area.
07/30/99: Ronnie has pulled together a number of sources that list the early firemen, policemen and sheriffs in the area.
07/30/99: Thanks to Ronnie, we also have a write-up on the Kent County poor farm.
07/30/99: Our new volunteer Tammy already works like an old pro and has brought us the transcription of Ada Cemetery.
07/30/99: Robyn Sturtevant has completed the "S" marriages. Thank you very much for all your hard work on these time-consuming records.
07/30/99: From the McGee book, a list of Catholics in the area from an 1859 directory, a census of Catholics from the late 1860s to early 1870s and a list of pioneer Catholic families outside the city limits.
07/30/99: Chapters from the 1891 Baxter history of the City of Grand Rapids are now available from Ronnie for anyone who would like to transcribe them. Chapter 45, on Navigation, Chapter 16, on Climate and Weather, the Errata and Addendum section, and the Table of Contents are now online.
07/27/99: Ronnie is now working with Father Morrow of the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids to bring resources about Catholic residents of Kent County online. Many of the new records will be from an 1950 history of the church in the area, by John McGee. The first records online are already very impressive: a list of Catholic Indians in the region in 1833, the marriages in St. Andrew's Church from 1850 to 1855, and a census of St. Andrew's parishioners in 1858. More to come.
07/27/99: Added the record of the County Home Cemetery in Paris Township, as transcribed by a new volunteer Tammy Van Putten. We're very happy to have you Tammy. Great work!
07/27/99: Added list of Kent County casualties during the First World War, produced for the project by Ronnie.
07/27/99: Added 1859 Grand Rapids City Business Directory. Great resource Ronnie!
07/27/99: Added an amazing history of local and statewide weather from the always-dazzling Ronnie Aungst, produced with an eye to how weather, environmental and climactic conditions would have affected our ancestors. Fascinating!
07/27/99: Added a page that charts of the history of floods of the Grand River, also from Ronnie.
07/27/99: Added list of mayors of Grand Rapids from 1926 to present, updating the list in the 1926 Etten history. Thanks to Ronnie and the folks at the Mayor's Office.
07/24/99: Added the D.A.R. transcriptions of Fulton St. Cemetery for letters N and W and completed letter M, thanks to Susan M. Gates Davis. This completes our presentation of the D.A.R. transcription of Fulton Street Cemetery. Thanks to all the volunteers for their great work! Look for Laurie Tanin's production of the cemetery's burial records soon!
07/24/99: Added new entries to Robyn Sturtevant's transcription of the early "S" marriage records.
07/24/99: Added link to the vital records request forms for the state vital records bureau.
07/24/99: Updated links to Bonnie Pattok websites.
07/22/99: Added letters R and S of the D.A.R. transcription of Fulton Street Cemetery thanks to Sue Davis. Thank you!
07/22/99: Added Martin Cemetery in Grand Rapids Township, as transcribed by Diane Teelander. Thanks Diane!
07/21/99: Denny Zank is working on an updated transcription of Solon Township Cemetery in Solon and I have added a link to the file he has placed in the archives, from the page we already have for the D.A.R. transcription, copied recently for us by Rebecca Koford.
07/21/99: Updated the researchers page, revising the information for Susan McGaughey and linking to a new page describing the experience of Shirley M. DeBoer.
June 1999
06/27/99: Updated the list of links to biographies transcribed out of the Chapman history of 1881. Thanks to the amazing work of some wonderful volunteers we now have several more townships online. Algoma from Jessica Trotter, Alpine is nearly done thanks to Kathy Behling and Diane Teelander, Tyrone from Ronnie Aungst, and Vergennes from Dottie Piechocki, and the second half of Walker is underway thanks to Elsie Vredenburg. (I hope I got all the credits right guys, please correct me if not -- I'm all scattered right now!) Anyway, I am SO proud of you all and very grateful for your wonderful help!
06/27/99: Posted P of the marriage records from Debbi Manni, a large part of S from Robyn Sturtevant, and T from Ronnie Aungst. Thanks girls! Gorgeous!
06/20/99: Posted L of the Kent County Court Marriage Records from 1845-1870, thanks to Ronnie Aungst.
06/20/99: Posted A and B-Be of Valley City Cemetery. This cemetery is now integrated with Oakhill.
06/20/99: Added Englishville Cemetery in Alpine, Solon Cemetery in Solon and Pine Wood Cemetery in Tyrone thanks to Rebecca Koford.
06/20/99: The D.A.R. reading of Fulton Street Cemetery is almost all online. We now have letters E, F, G, T, U, V, Y and Z thanks to Ronnie Aungst, K an L from Susan Gates Davis as well as O, P and Q from Helen Brown. Wow!
06/20/99: Added transcription of Gilbert Cemetery in Byron Twp. thanks to the great work of Diane Teelander.
06/20/99: Added the remaining records from Alaska Cemetery in Caledonia Twp., from letters D to Z, again thanks to Diane T.
06/20/99: Jeri Cooper DeVries has completed the Algoma Cemetery transcription, which brings all of the Algoma cemeteries we know about online! Thanks Jeri!!
06/20/99: Marriage records, for letter M, as produced by Debbi Manni, and marriage records for letter R, as produced by Robyn Sturtevant, are now online. Thanks girls! (FYI: I usually like to put all the surnames in the marriage records in boldface, but it takes an awfully long time, so I cut that corner for now in hopes of getting all these records up at the same time. Will add the boldface later.)
06/20/99: Birth records, for letters X, Y, Z, as produced by Diane Teelander.
06/20/99: Information about the Grandville Historical Commission and Museum, written up for the Kent Co. GenWeb Project by the Commission's secretary, Karen Anderson.
06/20/99: Started a separate page for anything related to plat maps.
06/10/99: Added Sand Lake Cemetery in Nelson Twp. and Dutton Cemetery in Gaines Twp. thanks to the work of Diane Teelander. Thank you Diane!
06/09/99: Added link to search 1870 Michigan census index.
06/08/99: Added Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Wyoming Twp., Grattan Center Cemetery in Grattan Twp. and Sparta Cemetery in Sparta Twp. thanks to the work of Rebecca Koford. Thank you!
06/08/99: Added Grattan Twp. school censuses for 1873 and 1876 and a list of teachers in Grand Rapids city schools in 1881.
06/08/99: Letter "J" of the D.A.R. gravestone readings of Fulton St. Cemetery now online thanks to Susan M. Gates Davis. Thanks Sue!
06/07/99: Ronnie has agreed to let me call her Assistant County Coordinator in thanks for all her amazing hard work, but all questions, comments and other email should still be directed my way. Thanks everybody! Welcome Ronnie!!
06/07/99: Letters "H" and "I" of the Fulton Street Cemetery are now online thanks to the work of Susan M. Gates Davis! Letter "D" also posted. Thank you Ronnie!
06/07/99: Added St. Sebastian Cemetery in Byron Township, White Cemetery in Walker Township and up to the letter "D" of Alaska Cemetery in Caledonia Township, all from Diane Teelander -- Thank you so much for preparing these!
06/07/99: Added letter "O" of the Kent Co. Court Marriages from the years 1845-1870. Thank you Ronnie!
06/07/99: Updated the communities page with several more historical details and corrected or updated location information, provided by Ronnie Aungst or from the Chapman history.
06/05/99: Through the hard work of our wonderful MIKENT-L listowner, Debbi Manni, we now have Mill Creek Cemetery in Walker Township and the "G" marriages from the courthouse online. Thanks so much Debbi!
06/05/99: Three new links to local Catholic resources from the Diocese of Grand Rapids. Made some additions to the image gallery.
06/02/99: Added Ahavis Achim Cemetery in Walker Township, St. Mary's Cemetery in Nelson Township, St. Margaret's Cemetery in Spencer Township and the W and Y marriages from the County Clerk's Office from 1845-1870. All transcribed by Rebecca Koford. They're beautiful Rebecca -- thank you!
06/02/99: Added links to brief histories of furniture companies and the Voight Victorian House Museum.
06/02/99: Replaced the Townships and the About Kent County sections, and the information contained therein, with a page called Kent County Communities which combines the information and provides a resource for learning about the many places in the county. As always, additions, corrections and suggestions are welcomed.
06/01/99: Added link to the Rockford Historical Museum and fabulous links to histories of Rockford, Algoma, Walker and East Grand Rapids. Updated the genealogy and historical societies page again!
06/01/99: Added letter C of Fulton Cemetery transcription along with a transcription of Alpine Town Hall Cemetery. Both provided by Ronnie Aungst.
06/01/99: Updated our list of genealogy and history societies again. We now have two addresses for several of the societies. If you know the correct address, information about phone numbers or addresses for other societies not yet listed, please inform the county coordinator by email. Also added a writeup about the Fallasburg Historical Society and Museum.
May 1999
05/31/99: Angela Nyburg has prepared the transcription of Barber Cemetery in Caledonia Township for us. Looks great! Thanks Angie!
05/31/99: Added a new calendar program! This wonderful publicly accessible resource can be used by anyone to announce a genealogy related meeting, event, class, project work-day or family reunion. Also added links to the WMGS and GRPL events calendar pages.
05/31/99: Added link to new contemporary map.
05/31/99: Added link to an 1835 map of territorial Michigan, located at the wonderful new USGenWeb Digital Map Library. Added links to two new maps originally scanned and put online by the Library of Congress. One depicts all the mail stops/significant towns in Kent County in 1897, and the other is from an "official" map of the state, published in 1885.
05/30/99: Added a much larger version of the 1891 skeleton map of the city of Grand Rapids from the Baxter history so that street names, etc. are readable. Added map of the state of Michigan, depicting the growth of railroad lines, from the 1870 directory of Kent County.
05/30/99: Added description of cemeteries in Grand Rapids city from the 1891 Baxter history. Includes information on Native American burial grounds and the Civil War Soldiers' Monument.
05/30/99: The membership roll of the Kent County Old Residents' Association, to the year 1888, is now online. From Baxter's 1891 history.
05/29/99: In addition to bringing you early marriage files produced by the Work Projects Administration, we have begun transcribing the marriage records held by the Kent County Clerk, up to the year 1870. The queenly letter Q is first!
05/29/99: Ronnie completed the transcription of the marriages associated with St. Mark's Cathedral in Grand Rapids, 1867-1870. Thanks Ronnie! Great work!
05/29/99: Added transcription of Bostwick Cemetery in Cannon Township, prepared for the GenWeb Project by Diane Teelander. This is the first transcription online by our new crop of volunteers. Thanks Diane!
05/29/99: Added lookup offers from Don Bryant and Marilyn DeVries.
05/29/99: Added centennial farms directory from 1972, narratives about early African-American families in Kent Co.
05/27/99: Updated the Kent County Historical and Genealogy Societies page, added links to Gaines centennial farms and Caledonia historic barns project pages, and to the Grand Rapids Civil War Roundtable.
05/27/99: Added two links from the Gaines Twp. Historical Society: Detray School and Centennial Farms.
05/27/99: Added all Spencer Twp. bios from Chapman. Added stories about first African-American families in Kent Co.
05/23/99: Added all Oakfield Twp. bios from Chapman.
05/23/99: Added letter "B" of the Fulton St. cemetery transcription. Added all Courtland bios. Added page with links to all Chapman bios now online at GenConnect. Will add links to Ada, Cannon and Plainfield pages in the near future.
05/22/99: Added the missing Chapman bios from Paris and Byron townships. Cascade, Byron, Paris, Wyoming are now all online at the GenConnect Biographies Board.
05/22/99: Added transcription of Teeple Cemetery in Cascade Twp., a schematic map of townships in 1849 and letters E, F and G of the St. Mark's marriages. Link to the Korean War fatalities in Michigan, Social Security Death Index for Kent Co., helpful links regarding Lithuanian and Jewish cemeteries, a history of the Grandville Fire Department. Thanks Ronnie.
05/21/99: Added transcription of Fallasburg Cemetery in Vergennes Twp., marriages performed by Rev. Bingham. Link to records of Lithuanian Freedom Cemetery, created to the late Geo. Rodgers.
05/21/99: Added new contemporary map of Kent Co. from the "Fishweb."
05/21/99: Added 1830 census of Michigan Territory, Western Region. This includes what is today Kent Co., much of the rest of western Michigan and parts of Wisconsin. Located in the Census section in the right-hand column.
05/21/99: Organized the historical image gallery into category, added six new postcards, thanks to Steve Colby.
05/21/99: Added early history of Oakfield and Cannon townships, completing the transcription of the histories in the 1870 directory.
05/18/99: Added early history of Bowne township
05/18/99: Added early history of Solon township, letter A of the birth records 1867-1870, a piece on hospitals of Grand Rapids, and pictures of the Campau family. Links to histories of Mary Free Bed and Pine Rest Hospitals.
05/16/99: Added early history of Tyrone township, list of Grand Rapids mayors from 1850-1926.
05/16/99: Added early histories of Courtland and Sparta townships.
05/16/99: Added file of marriages performed by Rev. Goodman.
05/16/99: Added 1850 map of Michigan counties, letter B of the Fulton Cemetery transcription and letters C, D and E of the St. Mark's marriages.
05/15/99: Added early history of Cascade township.
05/11/99: Added scans of the maps from the 1891 Baxter history.
05/11/99: Added information about cemeteries within Grand Rapids City from Chapman's 1881 history.
05/11/99: Added "First Weddings and Births" from Etten. Just a very short narrative, but interesting.
05/11/99: Added new W.P.A. marriage transcription, reorganized the page. Added "Grand Rapids in Service" images of Grand Rapids soldiers from American wars. Reorganized military section chronologically.
05/10/99: Added historical accounts of steaming up the Grand River in 1857, the Grand Rapids Study Club and the use of goat carts by Dutch immigrants.
05/10/99: Added beginning of Fulton St. Cemetery transcription, letter B of the St. Mark's Cathedral WPA marriage records, 1892 memorial biographies from Michigan Pioneer Collections.
05/10/99: Added early township histories from the 1870 directory for Ada, Algoma, Caledonia, Gaines, Grattan, Spencer, Vergennes, Walker. Added a reference associating post offices/towns/settlements with townships and general introduction to Kent Co. from same source. Added histories of G. R. service in Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I, including a list of G. R. casualties from the Great War.
05/04/99: Added early history of Lowell and Nelson townships. Forgot to list a couple of days ago that Ronnie has started transcribing marriage records. Added bibliography link.
05/04/99: Added map of Grand Rapids city growth by annexation, scanned by Ronnie Aungst.
05/04/99: Added JavaScript menu for selecting cemetery transcriptions.
05/04/99: Added transcriptions of Friant and Foxes Corner's Cemeteries. Provided by Ronnie Aungst.
05/04/99: Finished transcribing the Cascade Township biographies onto the GenConnect board.
05/04/99: Added article on the history of the D. A. Blodgett Children's Homes; placed article in new Historical Documents, separated out from Historical links and for text not derived from one of the major histories.
05/04/99: Added four new images to the gallery.
05/02/99: Added the biographies from the 1891 Memorial Reports, marriage record abstractions done by the WPA in the 1930s and several new postcard views to our historical image gallery.
April 1999
04/30/99: Added link to the Lycos Vintage View collection of old Grand Rapids images; started Historical Image Gallery on the site as our catalog of images and old postcard views archived at this location.
04/30/99: Added another new map of the Grand Rapids area.
04/28/99: Added "Newspapers of Grand Rapids" from Michigan Pioneer Collections.
04/28/99: Added the Advertisers' Index to the 1870 City Directory.
04/27/99: Added Ethnic-Specific Research Resources Category.
04/27/99: Added all the Byron Twp. biographies from Chapman, minus one missing page, to the GenConnect biographies board.
04/27/99: Added 1830 map of Michigan counties.
04/27/99: Added transcription of Chapter 5 of the Chapman history, "Pioneers of Kent County."
04/27/99: Added a document "Earliest History of Kent County" from the 1874 Tuttle history.
04/26/99: Added narratives about "Early Days in Kent County" from the Michigan Pioneer Collections books.
04/26/99: Added transcription of Yerkes Cemetery in Vergennes Twp., Memorial Biographies from 1899 and 1900.
04/25/99: Added memorial resolutions of the Mich. Pioneer Soc. for 1887; list of societies and incorporated companies in Grand Rapids from the 1878 Everett History.
04/24/99: Added early history of Plainfield Twp. from 1870 directory.
04/23/99: Added link to 1876 Grattan Twp. plat map under Land Records.
04/23/99: Transcribed the township of Grand Rapids history from the 1870 directory and added an 1860 view of Grand Rapids from the top of the Michigan Street Hill.
04/23/99: Completed transcribing the city of Grand Rapids history from the 1870 directory. Added links to web pages for the Fallasburg and Ada Covered Bridges and historic bridges of Grand Rapids.
04/22/99: Added 1873 railroad map of Kent County.
04/22/99: Added "Deaths of Inmates of the Soldiers' Home" from the 1891 Baxter history.
04/22/99: Updated the GenConnect Guide.
04/22/99: Added link to Library of Congress American Memory Collection which has several excellent historic photographs of Kent Co. buildings and places.
04/21/99: Added fragments of the 1880 Kent Co. census from Genealogy Online.
04/20/99: Added links to 1820 Michigan Census, History of Newaygo County - a part of Kent County until 1851, history of the Grand Rapids Guard, African-American History Research Guide from the GRPL. Added maps that show the organization of counties in Michigan in 1818 and 1840.
04/20/99: Added another section of the early history of Grand Rapids from the 1870 directory.
04/20/99: All the landowners indexes for the 1863 plat maps are now online, with the addition of G, H, I, J, K & L. Thanks for all the hard work Ronnie!
04/20/99: Added Ronnie Aungst's transcription of Punches Cemetery in Nelson Township.
04/18/99: Added first section of early history of the City of Grand Rapids from the 1870 directory. Will add the remaining sections over time.
04/18/99 Added 1863 landowners indexes for D, E & F.
04/18/99 Added Paris Township early history from the 1870 directory.
04/09/99: Added 1863 landowners indexes for letters M, N & O.
04/09/99: Added Byron Township early history from the 1870 directory.
04/07/99: Added transcriptions of Mason, Restlawn and Sts. Peter and Paul Lithuanian Catholic Cemetery.
04/03/99: Added map of Kent County from the 1881 Chapman history. Shows townships in relation to one another, etc.
04/03/99: Added Horton and Holy Trinity Cemetery transcriptions from Ronnie Aungst. At her suggestion, dug out several transcriptions that were in the USGenWeb archives and linked them up. Thanks to Jennifer O'Connor and Mary Del Rivette for Oakwood, St. Mary's, St. Patrick's and Pine Grove.
04/03/99: Added 1863 landowners indexes for letters A, B, C, P, Q, R & S.
04/03/99: All the Wyoming Twp. biographies from Chapman are now online at the Biographies Board. All of the Paris bios are also up, except for one page which I forgot to photocopy. Will add that page in the future. Currently working on Byron Twp. bios.
04/03/99: Copied the historical section of an 1870 history and will begin putting the township histories online. It's a nice perspective on both the township and early events. Wyoming Twp. is up first.
04/03/99: Added the Special Personal Paragraphs Index from Baxter's 1891 history and the list of Portraits in Chapman.
04/03/99: Copied the list Kent County Civil War Casualties from Chapman. Now online under Books & Periodicals and Military.
04/03/99: Added various links to History, Transportation and Education sections. Fixed broken Cedar Springs Death link.
March 1999
03/21/99: Added several links to the About Kent County section and the Township Resources Guide from Multimag, a commercial local guide and from the Michigan Electronic Library, from the Library of Michigan.
03/19/99: This site now has a search engine! Test it out and try links to other relevant search sites in our new Search Engines section at the bottom of the left column.
03/19/99: Added a wonderful new link our Picture Album section. Bonnie Pattok scanned and placed online over twenty postcard images of Grand Rapids in 1905. The scenes are fascinating and the way Bonnie has presented them is just beautiful. Thanks Bonnie!
03/19/99 Two new cemetery transcriptions now online from Ronnie Aungst, Snow Cemetery in Cascade Twp. and Saur or Old Cemetery in Alpine.
03/19/99: Name index for U & V now online for 1863 Landowners maps. Transcribed by Ronnie Aungst.
03/19/99: Biographies from 1924 Michigan Biographies now online for surnames J through S at our GenConnect Biographies Board. Added link to Mark Reed's Census Online page for the State of Michigan.
03/17/99: Name index for W, Y & Z now online for 1863 Landowners maps. Transcribed by Ronnie Aungst.
03/17/99: Added Transportation section with links to images and brief histories of local railways and interurbans, along with information on genealogical research through the Railroad Retirement Board. Added new links on the history of Calvin College, the history of the Grand Rapids Bar Association and Law Library, list of educational links for Western Michigan.
03/17/99: Biographies from 1924 Michigan Biographies now online for surnames E through H. At GenConnect Biographies Board. Added biography describing life of Madame LaFramboise. Thanks to Ronnie Aungst for finding it.
03/16/99: Added link to a history of Michigan at the Making of America web site, with sketches of G. R. and biographies.
03/15/99: Reposted Rix Robinson bio, now with links. Added 1838 description of Kent Co. to Historical section.
03/15/99: Landowners maps for Ada, Algoma, Alpine, Bowne, Byron, Caledonia, Cannon, Cascade, Courtland, Gaines, Grand Rapids, Grattan, Lowell and Nelson now online. Thanks Ronnie!
03/14/99: Landowners maps for Oakfield, Paris, Plainfield, Solon, Sparta, Spencer, Walker, Wyoming Twps. now online. Cross-referenced from Historical Maps to Land Records.
03/14/99: Started transcribing the Kent-Co. relevant biographies from a 1924 publication of the Michigan Historical Commission; contains mostly men who held state-wide political office. A through D now online at the GenConnect Bios Board.
03/14/99: Beth Bourque has very kindly volunteered to do lookups in the History of Wyoming and she also suggested two Wyoming links which are now online.
03/14/99: Separated out the paid researchers from the Lookups page; a good reference for anyone unable to travel to Grand Rapids themselves to do searches.
03/13/99: Ronnie Aungst delivered several wonderful new resources today. Thanks to her work, we now have two 1863 landowners maps, for Tyrone and Vergennes Twps., with more on the way. Also, she copied the list of cemeteries transcribed by the D.A.R. in the early part of this century, as well as the records for three of those cemeteries: Briggs, DeGraw and the Catholic Cemetery of Plainfield. Meanwhile, I hiked down to the Stanford Auxiliary Library and copied the Memorial Reports from Mich. Pioneer and Historical Collections for 1887, 1889, 1890, 1892 and 1896 through 1903. Enjoy!
03/13/99: Don Bryant of the WMGS provided us with two more biographies lists, the extended biographies in Baxter (1891) and the bios in an 1878 area history called Memorials of the Grand River Valley.
03/13/99: Added two new sections: Historical Area Maps and Schools. The old maps are from the Stanford U. Earth Systems library and depict the city of G.R. in 1874 and 1889 respectively. The back of the 1889 map had a number of interesting ads so that's been scanned and indexed as well. The Schools section is starting out with a yearbook record from 1916 and some info on the Godwin Schools I realized I had filed away.
03/12/99: Added Reformed Churches of Grand Rapids resources to the Churches section; new Grand Rapids Area map.
03/11/99: Added History of Blodgett Hospital and Norton Mound Historical Site to the history section; added City of Rockford, Rockford Chamber of Commerce and City of Cedar Springs to City/Town section.
03/11/99: Ann Segard has volunteered to do lookups for us in her copy of The Story of Kentwood. Thanks Ann!
03/10/99: Added the county clerks' procedures for inspecting records at their offices. Thanks to A. Segard for sharing this with us.
03/10/99: Added a wonderful outline of the history of Grand Rapids area churches. This new resource was provided to us by Ronnie Aungst who has also volunteered to transcribe one cemetery a month from the records of the Grand Rapids Library. We'd love to have other volunteers help Ronnie out!
03/10/99: Reorganized the genealogy subject sections into alphabetical order, other than Queries, Surnames and Lookups which will stay on top. Added Churches and Church Histories section, added Picture Album section, added front page links to some information which was previously only accessible through the Township Resource Guide.
03/09/99: Added "The Oakfield Eagle 1892-1893" to our Diaries and Letters section. These charming newsletters from George Morton Wood, Jr. of Rockford to his aunt Martha McMullen offer wonderful insight into the area in the 1890s. Thanks to Bonnie Pattok for sharing these with us.
03/02/99: Carole McDonald found information on her grandfather from a post on the GenConnect Biographies Message Board.
February 1999
02/28/99: Added three new lookup resources, offered by Debbi Manni, who also runs the MIKENT-L Mailing List.
02/25/99: Complete site revision. Read about the updates and changes as announced to the MIKENT-L list.