Have you wondered how you might go about starting research on your family in Montgomery County? Let me show you some easy ways to get your family tree started. First of all, start with yourself, writing down all you know about you. Write down your birth date, parents’ names, schools, marriage, military service, divorce, children, anything that may have a legal document. Remember where you lived throughout your life. Then go back to your parents. Do the same for them. See if you can get at least a copy of birth and marriage certificates, baby pictures, school diplomas, old addresses, and if they lived in 1940, the latest released U.S. Census records. Ask your parents about their parents—you might be surprised by what you find out!
At CDPL, we have all sorts of local history records for Montgomery and many surrounding counties. On microfilm, we have the local county newspapers back to 1831, and now you may search them online with “Hoosier Chronicles,” available on our library website at http://www.cdpl.lib.in.us/services/reference/hoosier-chronicles.
Also, through our local history online database are available newspapers indexed for birth announcements, adoptions, marriages, engagements, obituaries, reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, and other significant life events that may have made it into our local newspapers. Cemetery records are searchable, along with having printed records in our local history department.
A very popular section in our local history department is the old school yearbooks. They are searchable by school and name, and the volumes we have in the library are listed. We are always looking for spare old copies that anyone would like to donate.
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This is the 1985 Swing Choir for North Montgomery High School. The people in this picture are as follows: First Row (bottom row, crouching, left to right): S. Irvin, M. Bymaster, and K. Evans; Second Row (left to right): T. French, B. Skinner, and ---; Third Row (left to right): J. Stoneceipher, B. Wathen, R. White, ---, J. Kirkpatrick, K. Karle, and D. Thompson; Fourth Row (left to right): E. Runyan, A. Clinton, J. Rooze, S. Schenck, B. Crosier, A. Horney, B. Vance, A. Horn, and T. Budd. The names for this photo came from a similar photo of the same swing choir in the 1985 Charger Flashback (the yearbook for North Montgomery High School) on pages 26-27. The photo was taken on the North Montgomery High School stage.
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Back before we had at least two cars in every driveway, people actually had to walk to the grocery store. Therefore, grocery stores abounded in Crawfordsville. In the 1891 city directory, there are at least 35 groceries listed. One to the far west was Mr. Watson’s, at 819 W. Pike Street. It is easy to identify today, as it is a long, narrow building on the corner of Pike and Blair Streets. Several were in the downtown area, such as Barnhill, Hornaday, and Pickett’s at 229, 231, and 233 E. Main Street. Gus Truitt sold foodstuffs at 131 N. Washington, right next door to Vancleave & Houlehan, at 127 N. Washington. 
