The Allen County (Indiana) Public Library’s Genealogy Center is rich in resources for the family historian, not the least of which is the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) maintained by its staff. It is a subject index to articles on local history and genealogy topics published in the vast numbers of newsletters, magazines, journals, and other serial publications held by the Center.
The publications themselves are largely U.S.-based, though countries across the globe (particularly ethnic groups emigrating to English-speaking locations) are represented in the indexed articles. The ACPL Center’s recently-introduced, easy-to-use online search interface makes finding the most useful citations for your research a snap.
You can search by location, article title keyword, and even surname! Click on the “Research Techniques” button to search for “how to” articles on using specific types of records to find the information you need, such as census records, church records, court records, wills, deeds, etc.
You can search to the county level with a U.S. location search. Here is the list of topics (and the number of citations for articles about each) for Scott County, Iowa:
Naturally, the Scott County Iowa Genealogical Society’s Scott County Iowan is the source of many of these articles. Those from other periodical titles in the RSSC Center’s collection, such as the Annals of Iowa, the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society Newsletter, and perhaps titles in other genealogical periodical collections close to you, are also indexed in PERSI.
PERSI is not a full-text database (meaning you won’t be able to view entire articles reproduced online), but the chance to find that one key piece of information not available on Ancestry.com or FamilySearch is well-worth the ACPL Genealogical Center’s small article copy fee!
Happy searching!
(posted by Katie)
