Welcome to my obsession. About 8 years ago, my mother in law asked my husband and myself to see if there was anything at the Eagle Harbor lighthouse in Michigan about his great great grandfather, since he was stationed there at the time of his death and family lore said he was famous. Well, we asked around and found many people in the peninsula knew who he was. We were amazed and hooked. We went to the courthouse, the local historical societies and bookshops, other government offices and the cemetery. We talked to some people in the bookshop in Eagle Harbor and by the time we got home from vacation we had a packet of stories and papers all about Grandpa. He was part of Michigan history which we loved.
I live in the middle of Michigan and have access to the Michigan State Library and Archives, Central Michigan University's Clark Library, Saginaw's Hoyt Library, and many local courthouses in surrounding counties. Our local LDS has many of the Michigan's county vital records on film and are adding more.
I volunteer at that LDS to help others find their family records held by LDS and also the USGenWeb project as a County Coordinator for Gratiot (my home), Houghton and Keweenaw Counties. I am also special project coordinator for MIGenWeb's Great Lakes Shipping's "Downward Bound".
Current projects are ExpertCentral.com in which I volunteer as an expert advisor to help genealogists find Michigan records. Also, I am currently transcribing Gratiot County's marriage records to put online and creating a database of ship captains that sailed the Great Lakes. Since I have been doing my own family history, it has been deemed that my title is "The Family Know It All."If you decide you need some help finding a record here in Michigan and want someone to do it for you, I will be glad to do that and charge $10.00 per hour. Visit my websites.
I will first go to the local LDS to see if they have your county records. There first to keep your costs down. Then to the other places that would apply to your request. My charge is $10.00 an hour and I will only charge for ½ hour if that is all it takes. Mileage and copy fees are applied, if your record needs require it. I will search the Clark Historical Library, LDS and Gratiot County with no mileage fees. Please e-mail me with as many details as you can to also keep your cost down. If you have the year, county, name of the event that will shorten my research time, and charges to you. One hour retainer charge is required with a refund if all went well, but if I feel it will take more research time than an hour I will let you know before you decide to hire me.
Michigan births are closed. I cannot get them for you from the courthouses, but LDS has microfilmed courthouse records of births and after a point there are only indexes of the births. I will check to see if church records might be available for a baptism or christening record, usually on film at LDS for older county churches, varying denominations. If your county birth record year was not filmed by LDS you will have to contact the courthouse to get a copy and will usually have to sign some sort of waiver.
Contact Information
Pat (Patricia) Wazny-Hamp
8461 W. Monroe Rd.
Elwell, MI 48832
Phone: 1-517-463-1267
Fax: 1-517-463-5739
E-Mail: [email protected]Websites I have created.
Websites To Help With Your Michigan Research.
Or..The ones I use the most....
Use The Following Form For Advice or Discussing Your Research Need
© copyright 1999 Patricia Hamp