Do you have photocopies of book pages in your genealogy files? If so, are any of them indexes to records? If they are, have you used them to locate the digitized images of those records?
Today, I came across an index of Henry County, Illinois marriage records compiled by the Henry County Genealogical Society.
My photocopy from this book includes the entries for females with the surname MINNICK.
When this book was originally published, it provided essential information to locate a marriage record. With the date and page number from the book, one would typically write to the county office and request a photocopy of the record. In today’s digital age, however, this book serves as a valuable hint to access the Henry County, Illinois marriage records available on the FamilySearch website and locate the digitized image.
Not only is Book A digitized, but it is also indexed, allowing for quick and efficient searching.
By searching the index, you can click on the camera icon to view the record’s image. It’s important to note that searching for the groom’s surname “Mentzer” might not have yielded results, as the index used an alternate spelling.
Thanks to FamilySearch’s comprehensive indexing of these records, I was able to easily locate the three Minnick marriage records identified in the book indexing Henry County marriage records.
While the books published by local genealogists and societies were invaluable in my early research days, I am grateful for the accessibility and convenience that FamilySearch provides today.