Genealogy & Local History

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Indiana Room
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The Indiana Room, located on the second floor of the Main Library, is dedicated to the study of local history and genealogy. The Indiana Room offers a variety of research collections for genealogists such as census and vital records indexes, access to the leading online genealogy websites, newspapers on microfilm, and volumes on other counties, states, and countries.

If you want to start tracing your family tree or perhaps you're stuck and haven't been able to make any progress, you can request an appointment with a librarian for a one-on-one genealogy consultation at the Main Library. Appointments are scheduled during Indiana Room business hours and typically last 30-60 minutes.

You may also contact Indiana Room staff with research questions or to request a copy of an obituary or newspaper article. We charge $1.00 per obituary to mail them using USPS and obituaries are free if sent via email. Customers are limited to 10 obituary requests per week.

Use our Fee Payment Form to pay for your obituaries online.

Indiana Room hours:

Monday-Thursday: 10:00am-7:00pm

Friday: 10:00am - 5:30pm

Saturday-Sunday: CLOSED

Helpful Handouts and Info

Collections & Resources
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AT HOME OR IN-LIBRARY ACCESS

  • FindMyPast: U.S., Canada, and UK genealogy records - (To access from home log in using Email: reference@andersonlibrary.net Password: APLremote1.) 
  • Fold3: U.S. military records - (To access from home, click here.) 
  • Heritage Quest: U.S. Census records and Freedman's Bank
  • Hoosier State Chronicles: Historical newspapers from other Indiana cities and counties. This free resource is provided by the Indiana State Library in partnership with Newspapers.com through INSPIRE.
  • Indianapolis Star, 1903-present
  • NewsBank: Current and past Herald Bulletin
  • Newspaper Archive: Historical newspapers - (To access from home log into My Account)
  • Newspaper Index: Herald Bulletin (1995-2014) & Madison Co. Monthly (1990-98)
  • Newspapers.com: Local Madison County history or news from around the world. Our library subscription includes the Herald Bulletin, newspapers digitized specifically for Anderson Public Library, and the Newspapers.com World Collection - (To access from home, click here. To access while in the library, click here.)
  • Sanborn Maps: Business property maps, 1867-1970 - (To access from home, click here.)

IN-LIBRARY ACCESS ONLY

MADISON COUNTY DATABASES

A collection of historical databases including:

  • Obituaries
  • Death certificates
  • Funeral home records
  • Coroner's reports
  • Cemetery records
  • Marriages
  • Naturalizations
  • Military records
  • High school student indexes
  • And more indexes coming soon!

View And Search Here

Digital Collections

Browse or search indexes, images, and documents of Anderson and Madison County. Included are scans of yearbooks for schools in Madison County and The X-Ray student newspaper, Madison County birth records, auto industry labor union newsletters, and more.

View And Search Here

Picturing Madison County

A collection of over 500 images of Anderson and surrounding areas that is part of the Indiana Memory Digital Collections, hosted by the Indiana State Library.

View And Search Here

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