State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia

Earlier this month I visited the State Historical Society of Missouri on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia, also known as MU/Mizzou. 

State Historical Society of Missouri

(573) 882-7083 1020 Lowry Street

Columbia, Missouri 65201

http://shs.umsystem.edu/index.shtml

Procedures

1. Park.  Parking is the only unpleasant part of going to the State Historical Society.  I had a 15-minute walk from my car to the State Historical Society because I had to park off the main campus in the campus housing part of Columbia.  

2. Find your way to the Ellis Library, which is on the main campus.  Bring a map, or ask any of the hundreds of students walking around to point it out.
 

Ellis Library

3. Find the State Historical Society.  There is more than one entrance, but do not use the main entrance to Ellis Library. 

4. Check in at front desk: Show a state ID card, receive a user card, and sign in.
 
5. Take all personal belongings except pencils, paper, binders, flash drives, etc. to lockers down the hall (including all bags, food and beverages).  A locker is large enough to hold a purse of almost any size.  It locks when a quarter is inserted; this is refunded after use.

6. There are no fees for using the library or its equipment.  Photocopying costs 25 cents per page.

Holdings Include:

Numerous books for all Missouri counties

Missouri newspapers on microfilm

City directories

Family surname index covering hundreds of books in the collection

I had two objectives:

·         Objective 1: Check the family surname index (not online- it’s a vintage-looking library card catalog) for people in my family tree

o   Result: I found a few items of interest, but nothing major.  There might be something more there for me at a future date.  I am not yet ready to start researching an ancestor named William Lewis for fear that I will spend the rest of my life sorting through all of the William Lewises in Missouri.    

·         Objective 2: Check newspapers for records of important family events (primarily obituaries)

o   Result: One of the newspapers I wanted to see was checked out, but the librarian helped me find an alternative.  I was only able to find a few obituaries for my ancestors.  That’s research, though.  I was fortunate enough to locate a birth announcement for my great-grandfather.  In 1893, he and his twin brother made the second set of twins in their family.  This must have been a newsworthy item in the days before fertility treatments increased the chances of multiple births.   

Setting and Staff: The library was well-staffed and quiet: no loud talking or phones constantly ringing.  Though on the campus of a notorious party school, undergraduate students don't hang out in the State Historical Society between classes.  The librarians were helpful, friendly, and very prompt when they retrieved items from the stacks. The microfilm machines are all new and easy to use after a librarian explained how one operated.  The images I saved to flash drives were as good as or better than most microfilm machines provide.  

Surprises: The State Historical Society has books from other states (I guess “State Historical Society” had me convinced the collections would be Missouri-only).  I could have looked at books for counties in Tennessee, where many ancestors came from, but ran short on time. 

Can’t Go There? The State Historical Society will do a research request for a fee.

http://shs.umsystem.edu/research/requestform.php

Dining: And after a long day of research, you’ll probably be starving.  Go to the downtown location of Shakespeare’s Pizza, which is less than ½ mile away.  It was voted the Best College Hangout in the United States (according to Good Morning America in 2010) and has excellent pepper cheese pizza. 

Edgewood Memorial Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas: May 2010

Edgewood Memorial Park is in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  I was searching for the graves of some relatives: my great-grandfather’s younger brother, their niece (the daughter of another brother), and her husband and son. 

Background: “Wild Bill” Luhrsen, Lucille Luhrsen Brown, Lucille’s husband Leland Brown, and their son Leland Frederick Brown.  Wild Bill played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1913.  He and two of his brothers (Louis and Gus) moved to Little Rock in the late 1890s/early 1900s from Iroquois County, Illinois. They lived with a maternal aunt and uncle who had moved there from St. Louis, Missouri.  Both Louis and Bill remained in Little Rock for the rest of their lives; Gus Luhrsen settled in St. Louis around 1912.

The office was closed when I got there and the cemetery was fairly large—Find a Grave lists 3,053 interments, but it is much larger than that—and it took me a few minutes to locate the graves.  As I believe I said on the previous post, it was a beautiful day to scour cemeteries. 

The Luhrsen plot at Edgewood Memorial Park.  May 2010.

“Wild Bill” Luhrsen (1884-1973).  May 2010.

Lucille Luhrsen Brown (1912-2007) and her family. 

Lucille's didn't have a date of death, but the ground indicated a burial in the last few years.  May 2010.

Leland Brown (1922-1986). Leland was 10 years Lucille's junior.  May 2010.

Leland Frederick Brown (1952-1968).  May 2010.

Luhrsen Plot in Edgewood Memorial Park.  May 2010.

I still find it interesting that Lucille is buried with her uncle rather than with her parents, siblings, and grandparents at Elmlawn in Little Rock.  Neither of Wild Bill's two children are buried with him: his daughter Marilynn is buried in Rest Hills Memorial Park in North Little Rock, and his son William, Jr. is buried in Waveland, Mississippi.  Availability and other family ties can explain this, however. 

Edgewood is well-kept.  You may want to visit the office or call in advance to get directions to where people are buried in advance of going. 

Edgewood Memorial Park is located at:

4200 Division Street
North Little Rock, AR
72118, US
Phone: (501) 753-3930

http://www.serenityandcompany.com/Edgewood_Memorila_Park_667271.html

If you have any questions or comments about the cemetery, my photos, or the people mentioned in this post, I'd love to hear from you.  And have a happy holiday!

Elmlawn Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas: May 2010

I visited Little Rock in May 2010 with one day to do research at the Arkansas History Commission and find the grave sites of several relatives at two cemeteries.  I’d never been to Little Rock, and I realized that this was a tall order for a single day in town.  This first post is about Elmlawn Cemetery. 

Elmlawn Cemetery, also known as St. Paul's Cemetery, is in the middle of Little Rock.  It was established by St. Paul's German Evangelical Church (now Faith United Church of Christ) on March 22, 1897.  You can read about the history of the cemetery here.  My great-grandfather’s older brother Louis Luhrsen, Louis' wife Martha Jaronitzky, their daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and Martha’s parents are buried at Elmlawn.  A list of burials is available at the Arkansas Ties website.

The cemetery was well-kept when I visited.  In fact, as I began to look around for their headstones, an employee was mowing the lawn.  He stopped working to ask me who I was looking for and then took me right to the Luhrsens and Jaronitzkys.

The Jaronitzky plot is under a tree at Elmlawn Cemetery. May 2010.

Louis F. Luhrsen (1880-1925), born in Buckley, Illinois, and his wife Martha Jaronitzky Luhrsen (1878-1968). May 2010.

Louis G. Luhrsen, son of Louis and Martha Luhrsen, and his wife Helen Martin Luhrsen. May 2010.

Baby Martha Luhrsen, daughter of Louis and Martha Luhrsen (1904). May 2010.

Then the employee took me into the cemetery office and looked up the family's burial records. 

Elmlawn Cemetery office. May 2010.

I photographed the page on the Luhrsens and Jaronitzkys, which lists names and burial numbers and also includes a plot diagram.  There were more people in the family plot than I had expected to see, and I have not researched the relationships of some individuals to the Luhrsen and Jaronitzky families.  The plot diagram shows that Baby Luhrsen's first name was Martha, which was new information to me.

Summing up:  Even if you already have photos of headstones, you may want to visit the office at Elmlawn Cemetery to do additional research on your family.

Elmlawn Cemetery
5810 W 12th
Little Rock, AR 72204
(501) 952-3154

First Post

I love genealogy.  Every family has its characters, triumphs, and tragedies, and learning about some of the most important people in history—the people who made it possible for me to be born—is one of my favorite things to do.

Though I frequent familysearch.org, ancestry.com, and findagrave.com, researching in libraries and the strolling through cemeteries is just as good for research and maybe better.  Getting out and talking to other researchers and experienced librarians has provided historical context that I could not get elsewhere.  Not everything is available online, and I doubt that it ever will be.

I’m blogging about the libraries and cemeteries I visit because I’ve noticed that there is a lack of information about some places in St. Louis and in other areas around Missouri.  Occasionally I may write posts about out-of-state research trips (to Arkansas and Illinois, and I hope to Pennsylvania in the next couple of years). 

My great-grandmother Minnie Bruegger Luhrsen (1898-1986).

The blog is called Travels with My Foremothers because the search for my female ancestors’ roots is a difficult and rewarding challenge that I find representative of genealogy.