Porter County, Indiana Genealogy

United States &gt; Indiana &gt; Porter County

Parent County
1835--Porter County was created 7 February 1835 from La Porte and Newton Counties. County seat: Valparaiso

Neighboring Counties

 * Jasper
 * La Porte
 * Lake
 * Starke

Societies and Libraries
== The Valparaiso Branch of the Porter County Library (VPL) located at 103 Jefferson Street, Valparaiso, Indiana has a genealogy department located on the second floor headed by Larry Clark, Porter County genealogist. They are open from 9am-9pm Monday through Thursday, 9-5 Friday, and 9-6 Saturdays and are always staffed with at least two librarians. It is the second largest public library genealogical collection in the state, second to the well known Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne. The library contains many family histories, and many local histories on the county and Northwest Indiana area. VPL also subscribes to many genealogical periodicals. There is a collection of historical newspapers on microfilm in the genealogy department. They are all non-circulating and all are on microfilm. The earliest local paper VPL has is the Western Ranger. As time went by the paper’s name was changed or was merged with other papers so that the library holds continuous newspaper coverage for Porter County from 1847-2010. Names were changed from the Western Ranger to the Valparaiso Republican to the Valparaiso Messenger to the Valparaiso Vidette, to the Vidette Times, to now just The Times. VPL has a manuscript collection located in the Genealogy Department. It is included in their Indiana collection, also referred to as the vertical files. It contains donated family histories, Indiana genealogies, family genealogies, obituaries cut from newspapers, photographs, and other miscellaneous documents that patrons have donated. It is indexed by file description and this index is located in the front of the file cabinets and is not available on their online catalog. Sometimes this manuscript collection is also referred to as their special collections. The Porter county library catalog is available on computers in the library or online through their website at http://pcpls.lib.in.us, the exception being the manuscript collection that was mentioned previously. The library has 3 photocopiers. One located in the genealogy department, one in the youth department, and the other is on the main floor by the reference desk. The library has five microfilm readers and three microfiche readers in the genealogy department along with four reader printers that can also be used as readers. The library has many online databases some subscription, some not, some are accessible from home, others available only at the library. Those available at home are Porter County 1930 Census, Porter County Obituary Index 1938-2010, Porter County Marriage Index 1921-1946, and Porter County Herald Index1933-1938. The following are available only in the library 1937 Liberty Township and 1943 Morgan Township enumeration of males in Porter County, and 1920-1921 Milk producers Association in Porter County. The following subscription sites are available at home with a valid library card: Historic Map Works, InspireIndiana.gov, ReferenceUSA, and ProquestObituaries.com. The following subscription sites are usable in the library only: Ancestry, Heritage Quest, Access Newspaper Archives, BooksinPrint.com, NewEnglandAncestors.org, and Politicalfamilytree.org. The Porter County library does participate in the interlibrary loan program through INCOLSA available at the reference desk on the main floor. A patron must have a valid Porter County library card and a $2.00 fee per item is charged. Items are loaned for 1-5 weeks depending on the lending library’s rules. The library does not loan out their collection of newspapers, but refers all inquiries to Indiana State Library which has copies of all the newspapers from the state and they will loan the papers to participating libraries. Our library does, however, put in requests for newspapers in the genealogy department and will receive them for patrons, usually these are on microfilm. If actual papers are received, and this is rare, they are to be read in the library and are not to be removed from the reading room. The loaning library sets the fees and time limits for the loans. The genealogy department of Porter County Library also has many other records of significant value to the genealogist. In addition to the US Census on microfilm, and a large microfilm collection, they have the original Porter County sheriff records from 1907-1989, court dockets, marriage records, and probate records that are on extended loan from the Porter county courthouse. They also have high school yearbooks beginning from the early 1900’s and many original family histories that were privately published and donated to the library. These histories are rarely found elsewhere as they were written and copied only for family members. They also have copies of all Porter County Catholic and Presbyterian Church records that were sent to their church headquarters out of state. The Valparaiso branch of Porter County Library also has lending privileges from the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City. This allows them to order films for patrons from the FHL and keep them on extended loan if the correct lending fees are paid. The library has done this for all vital records for the state of Indiana up to 1920. All extended loan films are on their catalog. Web Sites ==


 * USGenWeb project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Porter County, Indiana: A Part of the Indiana GenWeb Project
 * Family History Library Catalog
 * Swedish Farmsteads of Porter County, Indiana
 * Porter County, Indiana Genealogy and Family History (Linkpendium)