What's New?A running chronology of website changes . . . .
| 2013 | |
| May 13 | Added links to the Porter County Public Library systems databases for marriages (1921-1953), divorce cases (1908-1963), guardianship cases (1914-1963), and probate cases (1914-1963). |
| March 12 | Added 1974 township plat maps to the Maps webpage. |
| February 28 | Added an enumeration of 1,004 Porter County veterans of World War I listed in Cannon, Loring, and Robb's History of the Lake and Calumet Region of Indiana, which was published in 1927, to the Military Service webpage. |
| January 18 | Added recorded plats of Beverly Shores, Boone Grove, Burdick, City West, Coburg, Fairview, Hurlburt, Lakewood, McCool, Prattville, Riverside, Riverview, Roosevelt, Suman, Tassinong, Tremont, Valparaiso, and Wheeler to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| January 6 | Added an enumeration of Union veterans of the Civil War listed in membership applications and muster rolls for the Chaplain Brown Post No. 106 of the Grand Army of the Republic located in Valparaiso to the Military Service webpage. |
| January 3 | Added numerous sources of information concerning Porter County to the to References webpage. |
| January 1 | Added two articles to the Miscellaneous Items webpage published in the mid-1950s by Alfred H. Meyer, a former professor at Valparaiso University, concerning the settlement patterns of the Calumet Region - including Porter County. The first article, published in September 1954, covers the settlement patterns of the Calumet Region by the Pottawatomie Indians and fur traders (pre-1830). The second article, published in September 1956, details the settlement patterns of the Calumet Region by pioneer settlers (post-1830). |
| 2012 | |
| December 2 | Added LINK to the Surnames webpage. |
| November 24 | Added DONAHUE, GANNON, HANNON, KELLY, and O'DONAHUE to the Surnames webpage. |
| September 26 | Added Trails in Indiana Dunes State Park (undated, circa 1930s) to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| September 16 | Added all four issues of The Country Hearth Journal: The Journal of Northwest Indiana, published in 1993, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Only four issues of The Country Hearth Journal were published before the journal discontinued operations. Added all four issues of Shadbonna: An Historical Journal of Northwest Indiana, published in 1998, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Only four issues of Shadbonna were published before the journal discontinued operations. |
| June 17 | Added plat map of Valparaiso from the Valparaiso City Directory, 1893 to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| June 16 | Added The Popping Corn Book: Orville Redenbacher's Authorized and Complete Popcorn Lover's Guide (1975) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| May 24 | Added BORG to the Surnames webpage. |
| May 4 | Added Announcement of Dodge's Telegraph, Railway Accounting and Radio (Wireless) Institute (1926), Descriptive Map of the Famous Dunes of Indiana (1927), Indiana Dunes State Park: A History and Description (1930), Trails in Indiana Dunes State Park (1932), Trinity Lutheran Church 25th Anniversary (1959), The Guide to Valparaiso (1971), and How We (Valparaiso) Got Our Name (1999) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Added 1927 and 1932 trail maps of the Indiana Dunes to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| May 2 | Added souvenir program from Porter County's Sesquicentennial (1986) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| April 30 | Added a 1990 plat map of Hebron from the town's charter centennial souvenir program to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| April 29 | Added A Quarter Past One: 125th Anniversary, Kouts, Indiana (1990) and Charter Centennial: Hebron, Indiana, 1890-1990 (1990) souvenir programs to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| April 28 | Added Kouts Is Five In Score -- Ready For A Hundred More: Kouts Centennial (1965) souvenir program to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Added a 1965 plat map of Kouts from this souvenir program to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| April 24 | Added souvenir program from The Dunes Under Four Flags: An Historical Pageant of the Dunes of Indiana (1917) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| April 23 | Added Chesterton Retail Merchants' Directory (1949) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Added a 1947 plat map of Chesterton from the 1949 Chesterton Retail Merchant's Directory to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| April 22 | Added souvenir program from Popcorn Festival: Orville Redenbacher Recognition Day (1979) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| April 21 | Added souvenir programs from Chesterton Centennial (1952) and A Photographic History of Valparaiso (1976) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| April 20 | Added transcription of Mabel Benney's Brief History of Porter County, published in 1936 as part of the Porter County centennial celebration, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Also added souvenir programs from Porter County's Celebration of Indiana's Centennial (1916), Porter County Centennial (1936), and the Valparaiso Woman's Club 50th Anniversary (1945) to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. Added a transcription of Theodore Stephen's Bailly Cemetery - Roman Style, published in 1956, recounting his employment redesigning Bailly Cemetery in 1914. |
| April 15 | Added complete transcription of Timothy H. Ball's 570 page Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900 to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. This expansive history of Northwest Indiana includes significant information concerning Porter County and was published in 1900. |
| March 20 | Added plat maps of Chesterton, Hebron, and Valparaiso from the 1876 book Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Indiana to the City and Village Plat Maps webpage. |
| March 4 | Added 82 plat maps of towns, villages, and additions within Porter County to the Maps webpage. Plat maps date as early as 1833. |
| February 26 | Added a link to the Indiana Historical Aerial Photo Index to the Maps webpage. Aerial photographs for Porter County are available for the years of 1939, 1954, 1958, 1965, and 1973. |
| February 10 | Consolidated existing information on website concerning Native American burial grounds located in Porter County, as well as added new information. |
| February 7 | Added complete transcription of the Porter County portion of Weston A. Goodspeed and Charles Blanchard's 230 page Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. This history of Porter County was published in 1882. |
| January 15 | Added COOLEY to the Surnames webpage. |
|
January 2 |
Added burial and historical information for the obliterated Clifford Cemetery located in Center Township. |
| 2011 | |
| November 8 | Added transcriptions of two very detailed National Park Service reports concerning the history of Bailly Cemetery. |
| November 4 | Added complete transcription of the Lewis Publishing Company's 357 page History of Porter County, Indiana, Volume I, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. This history of Porter County was published in 1912. |
| October 4 | Added plat maps for each township displaying original land patentees, as recorded by the General Land Office, to the Maps webpage. These maps provide information for more than 2,600 land patents in Porter County. |
| October2 | Added James Butz and Daane Adam DeBoer to the list of War in Afghanistan casualties from Porter County. |
| September 28 | Added 23 individuals to the World War II casualties enumeration webpage. The following individuals were added to the enumeration: Arthur I. Berkovitz, Howard Burns, Elton A. Busse, John (Jack) P. Farrington, Donald Joseph Finneran, Walter Fletcher, Lewis F. Henry, Eugene Ray Hesselgrave, James Clancy Hollett, Albert G. Janowski, Robert A. Jensen, Robert Gordon Johnson, Robert W. Kemp, Wallace V. Koselke, Henry Leo Moeller, Gilbert John Neuner, Damon E. Sanders, Louis Dale Schlobohm, Raymond J. Small, Clyde L. Stanley, James A. Wynkoop, Richard Lee Yaeger, and Elmer E. Zacker. |
| August 28 | Added Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Chesterton, Hebron, Porter, and Valparaiso to the Maps webpage. |
| August 13 | The credit ratings of Porter County residents as reported in 1916 in Merchants Rating and Credit Association: Local Credit Reports has been added to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. This database lists 11,364 individuals residing in Lake County and Porter County, as well as their addresses and credit ratings. |
| June 3 | Added 917 records from the Indiana Adjutant General's List of Porter County Civil War Soldiers. This information was compiled and contributed by David Meyer. |
| March 5 | Added ARNOLD to the Surnames webpage. |
| 2010 | |
| December 6 | A land patent index for all land located within the boundaries of Porter County has been added to the Maps webpage. |
| November 29 | Added burial information for Robbins Cemetery. |
| November 28 | Added burial records for Augsburg Cemetery, Burstrom Cemetery and Furnessville Cemetery. |
| November 26 | Updated the list of Porter County veterans serving in World War I on to the Military Service webpage. |
| November 24 | Added burial records for Campbell Cemetery. |
| November 23 | Added burial information for Bates Cemetery, Betholene Cemetery, Brough/Five Pines Cemetery, Cornell Cemetery, Crisman Cemetery, Dunn Cemetery, James/Schrock Cemetery, Lake Eliza Cemetery, Seven Dolors Shrine/Friar's Cemetery, Sheffield Cemetery, Smith Cemetery (Boone Township), Smith Cemetery (Porter Township), and Wolf Cemetery. |
| November 20 | Added burial records for Clifford/Old Catholic Cemetery, Kinne No. 1/Flint Lake Cemetery, Kinne No. 2 Cemetery, and Kinne No. 3 Cemetery. |
| November 15 | Added burial information for Bailly Cemetery. |
| November 12 | Added An Archeological Overview and Assessment of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana, to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| November 10 | Added burial information for Adams Cemetery. |
| November 5 | Added burial records for Agnew Cemetery, Carter Cemetery, Lansing/Jackson Center Cemetery, Link Cemetery, Noble Cemetery, Paine Cemetery, Quakerdom/Barnard Cemetery, Stoner Cemetery, Suman Cemetery, Tassinong Cemetery, Warner Cemetery, and White Cemetery. |
| October 31 | Added burial information for Bedenkop/Burdick Cemetery, Mosier/Betz Cemetery, and Pine Township Beach Burials. |
| October 28 | Added burial records for Blachly Cemetery and Janes Cemetery. |
| October 25 | Added burial information for Hoosier Nest Cemetery, Leonard Family Cemetery, and an Unnamed Union Township Cemetery. |
| October 24 | Added burial records for Cadwell Cemetery, Congdon/Sauk Trail Cemetery, Sedley Cemetery, Strong Cemetery, and Union Center Cemetery. |
| May 14 | Several additions and corrections were made in the Essex Cemetery (Salem-Freidhoff Cemetery) burial list. |
| January 22 | Approximately 300 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed biographies have been added to the website. A total of more than 1,300 Porter County biographies are now available. |
| 2009 | |
| December 2 | Added DISNMORE to the Surnames webpage. |
| November 29 | Added a list of Liberty Center High School Alumni from 1914 through 1929 to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| November 23 | Added 2,008 aerial images from John Drury's book This Is Porter County. |
| November 16 |
Added complete scans of high school annuals for
Valparaiso High School for the years of
1907,
1909,
1911,
1920, and
1923 to the Miscellaneous
webpage. Each annual is searchable using Adobe Acrobat Reader's pdf search feature. Added city and county directories for 1885, 1893, and 1902 to the Miscellaneous webpage. Each directory is searchable using Adobe Acrobat Reader's pdf search feature. |
| November 8 | Added a list of Crisman High School Alumni (Portage Township) from 1918 through 1930 to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| October 5 | Added list of Porter County veterans that served in the Seminole War of 1835-1842 to the Military Service webpage. |
| September 11 | Completed the transcription of the August 18, 1936, edition of The Vidette-Messenger. This edition included the Porter County Centennial, 1836-1936, Special Edition, a 94-page compendium of Porter County history that included 174 articles. |
| August 29 | Added list of Porter County veterans that served in the Mexican Expedition of 1916-1917 in the pursuit of Pancho Villa to the Military Service webpage. |
| August 28 | Added list of Porter County veterans that perished in World War II to the Military Service webpage. |
| August 14 |
Added
Pioneer Life and Impressions written by Mrs. Isabel McKnight,
circa 1917, discussing various people and places in Porter County to the
Miscellaneous
webpage. Added numerous articles from the Porter County Centennial edition of The Vidette-Messenger newspaper, published on August 18, 1936, to the Miscellaneous webpage. Added list of Porter County veterans that perished in the Korean War to the Military Service webpage. Also added remembrance page for Staff Sergeant James P. Thorstad, who perished in the 1983 bombing of the Beirut Marine barracks in Lebanon. |
| August 11 | Added an 1878 History of Porter County written by Hubert M. Skinner. |
| August 7 | Lists of Porter County veterans serving in the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Black Hawk War, as well as a list of casualties of the Iraq War and the Occupation of Iraq have been added to the Military Service webpage. |
| August 3 | Lists of Porter County veterans serving in the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, World War I, and the Vietnam War have been added to the Military Service webpage. |
| June 23 | Added BROBECK, EICHENSEHER, EICHENSEHR, JOHNSON, KELEHER, KELLIHER, REASON, RIESSEN, RUHSEN, RUSHEN, SCOTT, STRANGEWAY, and WHITHOF to the Surnames webpage. |
| June 20 | A brief history of the Porter County school system, written in 1917 by Fred H. Cole, Superintendent of Porter County Schools, has been added to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| June 14 | Added BIGELOW to the Surnames webpage. |
| May 17 | Added the 1893 Valparaiso City Directory to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| April 25 | An article published in 1919 titled Fishing in a Mid-West College Town has been added to the Miscellaneous webpage. |
| April 10 | Added CLIFFORD, McGILLICUDDY, and THUNE to the Surnames webpage. |
| March 28 | We have completed the process of adding nearly 2,300 unique images to the Photographs & Historical Images webpage. |
| March 20 | Added a link to Porter County GIS to the Maps webpage. This mapping service is provided to the general public by the Porter County GIS Office, a unit of the Porter County Auditor's Department. |
| March 13 | We have added a complete transcription of a Vidette-Messenger newspaper article concerning the memories of Broncho John H. Sullivan published in 1935. |
| March 6 | Added indexes for the Eight Square Cemetery in Pine Township and the Essex Cemetery (Salem-Friedhoff Cemetery) in Washington Township to the Porter County Cemetery Index webpage. Special thanks is extended to Deanna West for providing these indexes for use on the Porter County GenWeb. |
| March 5 | We have added a complete transcription of a book written in 1896 by Broncho John H. Sullivan, one of Valparaiso's most colorful citizens, titled Life and Adventures of Broncho John: His First Trip Up the Trail. |
| February 6 | We have started the process of adding approximately 2,200 unique images to the Photographs & Historical Images webpage. |
| January 31 | More than 300 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed biographies have been added to the website. |
| January 25 |
Added contemporary newspaper articles concerning the
Woodville Train Wreck of 1906 that killed between 55 and 61
individuals. Added Liberty Township Newspaper Transcriptions, 1884-1900, to the website. |
| January 24 | Added indexes to all Liberty Township cemeteries to the website. |
| January 18 |
Added an article to website titled
Dream Cities of The Calumet written by John O. Bowers and published
in 1929. Added an essay to the website titled Villages and Towns of Porter written by Timothy H. Ball and published in 1900. Added railroad right-of-way plat maps for Porter County to the website. |
| January 17 | Added a 1956 History of Porter County by John Drury to the website. |
| January 15 | Added an 1876 History of Porter County written by A. G. Hardesty and a 1923 History of Porter County written by Deborah H. Shults-Gay. |
| January 12 | Added a Brief History of Porter County in the Civil War to the website. |
| January 11 | Added 1,103 records from the Hardesty List of Porter County Civil War Soldiers. |
| January 9 |
Added
1876 township plat maps and
1895 township plat maps. Added AUSTIN, EDWARDS, GARRISON, GORDON, LUDINGTON, and WATTS to the Surnames webpage. |
| January 8 | Added 1906 township plat maps and 1921 township plat maps. |
| January 7 | Added 1973 township plat maps and 1976 township plat maps, and 1988 township plat maps. |
| January 6 | Added 1969 township plat maps. |
| January 5 | Added USGS topographical maps covering the entire area of Porter County, as well as 1938 township plat maps. |
| January 4 | Added pdf files of the books Some Bible Records in Porter County, Indiana, and Index to Part I of Counties Lake and Porter, Indiana (1882) published by the William Henry Harrison Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, to the Miscellaneous Items webpage. |
| January 2 | An additional 220 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed biographies have been added to the website, bringing the total to more than 770. Many more additions are forthcoming. |
| 2008 | |
| December 15 | An additional 150 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed biographies have been added to the website. Many more additions are forthcoming. |
| December 8 | More than 400 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed biographies have been added to the website. |
| December 7 | More than 6,700 fully transcribed, cited, and indexed Porter County obituaries and death notices were added to the website. |
| December 6 | Completed the addition of Will and Probate abstracts, including an index, from Porter County Will Books A and B to the website. |
| November 29 | Added Find A Grave search feature for Porter County cemeteries to the Cemeteries webpage. |
| November 28 | Introduced redesigned website. |
