WESTERN MICHIGAN GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY ONLINE!

RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH

COVID-19

A GRPL or other library card number is required for some resources.  Don't have one? A temporary e-card for residents of the city of Grand Rapids is offered at https://www.grpl.org/temporary-e-cards/

Have a KDL library card?

  *           For logging onto the Wi-Fi at a GRPL library, use your KDL number with *no* punctuation -- no spaces, no hyphens.  Use your password as you would at a KDL library.

  *           For using https://www.grpl.org resources that say "Library Card Required", instead use https://kdl.org/online-resources

 From elsewhere in Michigan?  See https://mel.org  > link "eResources" or "Participating Libraries".

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." -- Wernher von Braun

After you've had a chance to view the online surnames and queries, and hopefully have posted your own interests, you may also be interested to know about our affordable research service! And don't forget about our mailing lists.

• Here is a valuable document compiled by Shirley M. De Boer CG. Entitled, What Do You Mean, "Cite Your Source"?
  Download it now. CiteYourSource.pdf
   

• Shirley has also compiled a unique resource - a finding aid for Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve.
  Read about the Memorial and access the finding aid here.
   

• Card File Subject Index to Grand Rapids Newspapers
  The Story of Grand Rapids was edited by Z. Z. Lydens
  (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1966). A subject card file, citing primarily newspaper articles was prepared during the project and serves as an indirect index to Grand Rapids newspapers.

NEW MEMBER BENEFITS

• New Site for on-line Family Trees (Members' submissions)
   

• Free BRICK WALL help

ONLINE SEARCHABLE DATABASES

The link above will take you to an index to our online databases including:

• WMGS Members' Genealogy
• Black Monument Company Name Index
• Chapman's History of Kent County Index
• Kent County Farm Bureau News
• History of Grand Rapids & its Industries (1906: Dwight Goss)
• West Michigan Census Index
• Kent County Marriages Index
• West Michigan Newspapers Index (1910 - 2002)
  Includes obituaries, engagement, anniversary and wedding announcements)
• Kent County School Records 1903-1925
• Latzek Funeral Home Registers
• Michigana Every Name Index
• Maude Quigley Index of Periodicals
• Grand Rapids Home for Veterans (Michigan Soldiers' Home) Resident Index
• WMGS Surnames and Queries
• Census of World War One Veterans, Kent County

Special Request Regarding OBITUARY ORDERS: We are interested in adding Obituary transcriptions to the database, so that future researchers will be able to view a transcription of an obituary online for free. If you would like to contribute transcriptions of the Obituaries you have requested to this database after you've received them, you can eMail them to datamaster@wmgs.org Please include the name of the newspaper, the date and page number as well as the transcription in something like this form... BARNUM Randy R. Obituary 2002, Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Kent Co., MI; Published Tuesday, 21 May 2002, Page C6. [Transcription Here.] The posted record will include your name, and a link to your eMail address so that anyone else searching this might also have the opportunity to contact you directly. Thank You!!!

• Biographical Resources (Name Indexes)
  • History of Kent County (Fisher)
  • History of Grand Rapids (Baxter)
  • Memorials of the Grand River Valley (Everett)
• GENEALOGICAL PERIODICALS IN MICHIGAN
• WMGS Members' on-line Family Trees
• Genealogy Periodicals in the Grand Rapids History and Special Collections Center at the Grand Rapids Public Library – Main

• Online Research Service Information

• Online Research Request Form

• Family Group Sheet

• Four-Generation Chart

• Library of Michigan Pedigree Chart

• Library of Michigan Family Group Sheet