Kalamazoo history and genealogy

Image is from a Kalamazoo Buggy Co. ad

KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI

GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY

USGenWeb

This site is part of the MIGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects.

See Copyright Notice

Jan Cortez, Kalamazoo County Coordinator, Jan Cortez, Statewide Coordinator

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Table of Contents

a hint for newcomers visitors be sure to check the Resource page and Message Boards

HOME	KALAMAZOO GENEALOGY & LOCAL HISTORY
	What and Where is Kalamazoo
	Famous Statements About Kalamazoo
	Search Engine for the Site
	What's new on the site?
	Visitor Counter
	Kalamazoo Links
	Neighboring County Sites
	Michigan Links
	MIGenWeb Archives - Kalamazoo Records Online - put yours online INCLUDING Michigan Tombstone Photographs
	Michigan Deaths, Births & 1894 Civil War Vets Data Bases
	Vital Records Links
	Genealogy Search Engines
	Mailing Lists: subscribe or read lists
	Guest Book - give us your comments
	About the MIGenWeb project, and MIGenWeb links and Disclaimer page.
	RootsWeb Links
	USGenWeb Links
	Site Purpose, Copyright Notice, and Link Disclaimer
AUGUSTA DIRECTORY 1883	1883 Augusta Village Directory with Occupations
AUGUSTA POSTMASTERS	List of Augusta Village Postmasters
BIRTH RECORDS	Early Birth Records at Family History
CELERY	Development of celery cultivation in Kalamazoo
	History of celery in Kalamazoo
	George Taylor's Recollections - the man who started celery cultivation in Kalamazoo
	Celery Flats Interpretive Center
	Celery Growers and Shippers in Kalamazoo
	Celery Farming Image Gallery
CEMETERIES	Cemetery List, Links, Township and City offices, as well as maps and diagrams.
	Cemeteries A-J
	Cemeteries K - Z
	Cemetery transcriptions & photographs
	Maps of NE and NW County Cemeteries
	Maps of SE and SW County Cemeteries
	Cemetery Diagrams
	KALAMAZOO COUNTY FUNERAL HOMES
	Michigan Cemetery Message Board
	Alamo death records 1887-1997
	Social Security Death Index
	Kalamazoo County Cemetery Index site
CENSUS	Census Data and Links
COUNTY POOR FARM	Kalamazoo's Poorhouse including an 1870 and 1880 census
DUTCH	The Dutch in Kalamazoo
FAMILY GROUP SHEETS	Record family information for like surname researchers.
	Kalamazoo County Family Groups Sheets online
FAMILY PICTURES	Add Your Family Photograph
FAMILY WEB PAGES	Links to family web pages with a Kalamazoo connection
HISTORY	History Pages Index and Links to Histories
	1980 Tornado
	1876 County History from Pioneer Society Reports
	A Glimpse of Early Kalamazoo
	Centennial History and Pageant Program
	Chronology of Township, Village and City Formation
	County History Pages
	Historical Markers
	Indians in Kalamazoo - Early Letters
	Kalamazoo Year by Year 1824 - 1939
	Pioneer Society Obituaries
	Railroads, Interubans, and Transit History
	Reminiscences of Kalamazoo, 1832 -1833 by Jesse Turner
	SCHOOLCRAFT MI HISTORY
	VICKSBURG MI HISTORY SITE
KALAMAZOO VIEWS	Index to pages of different Images of Kalamazoo County
	Kalamazoo views pages
	Kalamazoo Theater views
	Kalamazoo County Fair
	Kalamazoo Mall
	Portage Bicentennial Park
	Milham Park
	Celery Farming Images page
	1904 MI Bus. Inst. Kalamazoo View Book
	1909 GAR Encampment and Kalamazoo View Book - The Lure of Kalamazoo
	1914 Kalamazoo Police Souvenir View Book
LOOKUPS AND RESEARCHERS	A list of volunteers who will lookup information from sources e.g. directories they happen to have. Also professional researchers.
MAPS	Map Links, Local Area Maps, and Plat Maps
	HOW TO READ A LAND DESCRIPTION
	PORTAGE 1873 PLAT
	PORTAGE 1890 PLAT
	PORTAGE 1910 PLAT
	PORTAGE 1928 PLAT
	DOWNTOWN POINTS OF INTEREST
MARRIAGE DATA	Dibean Michigan Early Marriages Data Base by County
Message Boards	Kalamazoo County Message Boards for posting Queries, Biographies, Obituaries, and many others. Also see Genealogy Message Searcher
	Subscribe to the Kalamazoo Mailing List Or, Search the Mailing Lists Archives
	Michigan Counties Mailing Lists and Message Boards
	Queries and surnames before 3/99
	Kalamazoo County GENFORUM
OBITUARIES	Message Board Obituaries thousands posted for Kalamazoo County
	Pioneer Society Obituaries
	SW Michigan Obituary Index - obituaries from five SW MI counties
	See the Resources Page about obituaries from Kalamazoo
RESOURCES	Resources for researchers: information about the county clerk, vital records, court records, libraries, library collections, museums, and numerous related links.
	Death and Marriage Lookup Information Request Form

What and Where is Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo County is located in SW Michigan. Kalamazoo is the name of the county, largest city, and main river. It was organized in 1830 from St. Joseph County - see the History pages.

Kalamazoo County is named for the river that runs through it, the Native American form of which was probably "Ke-Ken-a-ma-zoo." A widely used translation is "boiling water" . Among other possible translations are "otter tail" and "reflected river"

County seat: City of Kalamazoo

Population: 238,603 (2000)

Area: square miles

Townships: 15

Villages: 4

Cities: 4

See the MAPS , CENSUS , Chronology of Township, Village and City Formation pages

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Famous statements about Kalamazoo:

"In the whole wide world there is only one Kalamazoo."

Willis Dunbar, Kalamazoo and Michigan Historian.

"Yes, Kalamazoo is a spot on the map...Listen with your ears on a Saturday night in Kalamazoo. And say to yourself: I hear America..."

Carl Sandburg, The Sins of Kalamazoo

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What's new on the site

03/02/07 Added pages to the Kalamazoo Theater Views pages.
02/24/07 updated the KALAMAZOO VIEWS with new views of WMU, bird's eye view of Kalamazoo, People's church, and Superior Paper Company
02/17/07 updated the LOOKUPS PAGE with a new volunteer:Joe Ferrara,ferrara@btc-bci.com , will do lookups for the following:Birth Index: 1867-1975 Birth Records: 1867-1903 Marriage Index: 1831-1975 Marriage Records: 1831-1907 Death Records starting 1867: Index to 1975 and Records to 1901 Foreign Deaths and Marriages
Catholic Burials (Mt. Olivet to 1936, Cath Riverside inscriptions) County Transcriptions to 1980 City Cemeteries-100,000 Kal Public Lib 3x5" Vital Records File(like 1850s to 1940s, lots of church records) over 30,000. Directories City: 1860-1, 67-8, '73, '76, '83, '87, 1895, 1905 and 1915.County: 1873, '83, '87, 1895, and 1905. U.S. Census 1860-1880 [Not Proof Read] Augustinian Newspaper[1893-1897]--will increase. Family trees: Ernest's mostly Dutch 100,000, Mine mostly Catholics 10,000. Working on Kal Central HS yearbook at present; have photos 1908, 1915-1960 (with a few missing years--will increase).
02/02/07 revised the MIlHAM PARK PAGE
01/27/07 added some views of the 2006 fair to the COUNTY FAIR PAGE
12/20/06 added KALAMAZOO MALL page 3

This site, Kalamazoo County Genealogy & Local History, has been recognized by its parent organization, USGenWeb; each month the USGenWeb Newsletter spotlights a county website or two in the from all the counties in country as worth of some recognition In the October, 2006 Newsletter, USGenWeb spotlighted Kalamazoo County's site:
The USGenWeb Project N E W S
Volume 3, Number 8
October 2006

Site Spotlights
Kalamazoo County, MIGenWeb
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mikalama/

"The Kalamazoo County, MI site is overseen by Dick Branch. Mr. Branch has been responsible for Kalamazoo County for about 6 years, first taking over in the year 2000, at which time he reports the site had "only a few pages." Antique postcards illustrate this site from a collection of images he has acquired over the years. Dick is also an amateur photographer and has taken photos of Kalamazoo since the 1960's.
This county site uses tables to display the extremely varied information located here, as well as links to other web sites containing history of the community, photographs and vital record information. The county history pages are Dick's favorite, and he reports that the Kalamazoo Mall and Theater Views are garnering many hits at this site. As Mr. Branch is constantly revising and adding to the site, his mission is to consistently "improve the download times and readability of the image rich pages." For Dick, it is very rewarding to build a site and assist his visitors with their genealogy research. This is a site well worth visiting, cram packed with wonderful data about Kalamazoo. It is easy to see that he loves this county."

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Visitor Count

Visitors since October 1, 1996:

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Kalamazoo Links

Kalamazoo Public Library

Kalamazoo Genealogy Resources

Kalamazoo Family Group Sheet Collection

Kalamazoo River History

Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society

Vicksburg Historical Society

Kalamazoo County Government Site

Encyclopedia 4u.com Kalamazoo County

Kalamazoo County GENFORUM

Kalamazoo Visitor's Bureau

Kalamazoo Area Schools

WMU Herald

Kalamazoo Arts and Entertainment

Downtown Kalamazoo - areas and plans

Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts

County and Township Officials

City of Portage Site

Village of Vicksburg Site

Schoolcraft pages

Kalamazoo Community website

Kalamazoo Historic Districts

Kalamazoo Co. American Local History Network

Kalamazoo Gazette

News from WWMT-TV, channel 3

More Links can be found on the RESOURCE , HISTORY, CEMETERY, MAPS, and CENSUS Pages

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Neighboring County USGenWeb Sites:

Allegan County

Barry County

Branch County

Calhoun County

Cass County

St. Joseph County

Van Buren County

see the MAPS page

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Michigan Links

Michigan Research Family Resources

Michigan Backroads

Michigan History, Arts, and Libraries

Michigan Biographies Project

Michigan Indian Tribes

The Michigan Manual on line

Michigan Municipal League

MEL Michigan Electronic Library

State of Michigan Government

MI State & Local Govts on the Net

Michigan Rootsweb Resources Page

Michigan Culture Link

Gongwer Michigan Information Service

Kidon Michigan News Links

Michigan In Brief

Historic Stained Glass in Michigan

MICHIGAN HISTORIC SITES ON LINE

More Links can be found on the RESOURCE and HISTORY Pages

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Archived Records

MIGENWEB ARCHIVES: MICHIGAN'S RECORDS ONLINE

The USGenWeb Project is always looking for items for the Archives. This can include family narratives, biographies, obituaries, as well as extracts from public records. If you have anything you would like to submit, please contact the Michigan Archives coordinator.

The archives have a new project, the Michigan Tombstone Photo Project , which provides a repository for photographs of tombstones in Michigan cemeteries.

View Kalamazoo County Tombstones
Contribute Your Tombstone Photographs

Kalamazoo Archives at MIGenWeb:

Biography

Cemetery

Census

Court Records

Death Notices

History

Index to Diary

Land Records

Marriages

Military

Newspapers

Obituary

Photographs

Schools

Michigan Tombstone Photographs

USGenWeb Archives

USGenWeb Archives Search Engine

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Michigan Deaths

And, Early Births, & 1894 Civil War Vets Databases by Michigan Family History

Michigan Death Database:
A database for deaths that covers Michigan. You can search in those entered or include your own.

Early Birth Database:
A database for early births that covers Michigan. You can search in those entered or include your own.

1894 Civil War Vets Census Database:
A database of the State of Michigan 1894 Civil War Veteran's and Widows census now containing over 40,000 records.

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Vital Records links

Michigan Vital Records

Birth and Death records

Also, check , the National Archives and Records Administration ( NARA ) Genealogy Resources Page.

In addition, be sure to check the RESOURCES page on this site

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Genealogy Search Engines

Michigan Genealogical Death Indexing System 1867 - 1884
GENDIS

Search Michigan Surnames

Social Security Death Index

Search USGenWeb Surnames

Search Worldwide Surnames

Know the Town Find the County

for more information: Resources Page

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MAILING LISTS:

SUBSCRIBE

Kalamazoo County (MIKALAMA-L)
To subscribe send an email to MIKALAMA-L-request@rootsweb.com (list mode) or MIKALAMA-D-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode) with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message.

Michigan Genealogy (MI-GENEALOGY-L)
To subscribe send an email to MI-GENEALOGY-L-request@rootsweb.com (list mode) or MI-GENEALOGY-D-request@rootsweb.com (digest mode) with the word "subscribe" in the body of the message.

SEARCH/BROWSE MICHIGAN MAILING LISTS ARCHIVES:

http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MI/

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About the MIGenWeb Project

MIGenWeb

In early 1996, a group of genealogists organized the Michigan GenWeb. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all Michigan counties, where collected databases would be stored.

In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index. At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to co-ordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page.

There are MIGEN web sites for every county in Michigan as well as a statewide site.

Please Visit the Disclaimer Page

MIGenWeb Home Page

Master County Table

County Clickable Map

Tombstone Transcription Project

Michigan Unknown County Queries

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USGenWeb Project Links

The USGenWeb Project

Tombstone Transcription Project

USGenWeb Digital Map Library

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Site Purpose, Copyright, and Link Disclaimer

This web site serves as a resource and exchange for genealogical and historical information about KALAMAZOO County. Visitors can read and post queries, obituaries, bible records and other family information. In addition, resource materials including biographies, census, cemeteries, images, photographs, marriages, maps and transcribed records are located on, or are accessible through, this site. The site contains many links to sites with information about Kalamazoo County, southwestern Michigan, and Michigan.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The information you have found on this website is protected by the US Copyright Law, Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Individual genealogists may copy and use the information found on this website for personal use "ONLY". It is not to be copied or altered in any way for commercial use nor for use on another webpage without the written permission of the webmaster.

Disclaimer: "Links to external web sites are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or approval of any of the products, services or opinions contained in any external web site."