52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Checking Out an Online College Library Catalog

A prompt from We Tree, "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy," hosted by Geneabloggers, has challenged bloggers to: Check out the online library catalog of a university. I have chosen to visit the website of the libraries at my alma mater, Bowling Green State University. The homepage of the University Libraries of Bowling Green State University is found at http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library.


The library catalog is found on the left sidebar of the homepage, or at http://maurice.bgsu.edu.

When I did a search for the key words Erie County Ohio Cemeteries, ten titles were retrieved. The title below provides information about the individuals who died in the 1849 Cholera Epidemic at Sandusky. The BGSU Libraries Card Catalog features holdings at the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center’s library, along with several other facilities. I can make a note of the call number, and the next time I visit the Hayes Center, I can view this item about Sandusky. A guide to all the locations cited in the BGSU card catalog gives more details about the various locations.


On the right sidebar of the homepage of the University Libraries of Bowling Green State University are links to Specialized Libraries and Collections. The tan bar is a link to the Center for Archival Collections.













The CAC is a repository for many historical local government records. There is a listing of holdings for historical local government records from Erie County,Ohio.

If anyone would like to see the Erie County Coroner’s records, here is a precise listing of the holdings at the BGSU’s Center for Archival Collections.
















Another informative collection housed at the CAC is the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.


















You can search for information about Great Lakes vessels at the
Great Lakes Vessels Online Index.

By searching under “Place Built” I retrieved two separate listings for a vessel named the G.A. Boeckling. The G.A. Boeckling and G.A. Boeckling II transported passengers to Cedar Point for many years.


The B.G.S.U. Center for Archival Collections includes a link to the Archival Chronicle. Previous editions of the Archival Chronicle have covered such topics as Holiday Memories, Politics in Northwest Ohio, and Commerce on Lake Erie. Look around the website of the University Libraries of B.G.S.U. as well as the Center for Archival Collections. There are many treasures to be found there. I have only just begun to uncover them!