MGC Projects
Throughout its history, the Michigan Genealogical Council has been involved in many projects.
MGC’s current project is the Pioneer Certificate project. For a searchable index of names submitted to this project, visit the Pioneer Certificate Database and Index page.
The Pioneer Certificates Database – is contains the names and basic details of people who are the ancestors of applicants for one of the certificates – i.e. First Families and Pre-Statehood. It currently contains 3,923 records, although note that many entries are duplicate, so it’s well less than 3,923 unique individuals.
Each record is linked to a PDF file of the documents that were provided in support of the application, and contains scanned images of those documents – eg birth, marriage and death records, personal letters, headstone photos etc. The applicants’ information is not included, nor is the information of any person within the 3 closest generations to the applicant.
Previous Michigan Genealogical Council Projects:
The Michigan Genealogical Council and our member societies assisted with the indexing of Michigan Naturalization Records. WIth FamilySearch and the Archives of Michigan, we were asked to help index this important recordset. Records involved are those held at the Archives of Michigan and digitized by Family Search. In addition to approximately 70 Michigan county court Naturalization Record files the Burton Historical Collection (Detroit Public Library) loaned the Detroit Recorders Court Naturalization records to be included in this project.
They will be available on Family Search and Michiganology, with images exclusively available on Michiganology.
The “Muriel Links Obituaries” are approximately 85,000 Obituaries clipped from Grand Rapids Newspapers covering the period 1930–1970 and pasted onto cards that are kept at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Indexing was done by volunteers through FamilySearch, many of whom were members of MGC member societies. The index and images are now available on http://familysearch.org.
US, Michigan –Port of Detroit Manifests, 1906-1954. (FamilySearch) The index and images are now available on Detroit Manifests of Arrivals at the Port of Detroit, Michigan 1906-1954.
Michigan County Marriages (FamilySearch) Please be sure to read the description before beginning your search. There are 15 counties whose marriage registers are included in this record set. The index and images are now available on Michigan, County Marriages, 1820-1935.
The Centennial Families Indexing Project consisted of creating an electronic index of the 1976 MGC Centennial Family Project. This index is searchable, and researchers can easily locate the original application at the Library of Michigan and Archives of Michigan. The searchable index for the 1976 Centennial Families Project is now available. Original records are available at the Archives of Michigan. Records on microfilm are available at the Library of Michigan in Lansing and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, these films do not circulate to local Family History Centers. There are 110,930 records in this database.
Death Without Record – This Michigan Genealogical Council Project no longer accepts registrations for persons who died and left no Michigan official record. Submitted data remains available.
GENDIS The Genealogical Death Indexing System was a joint project using data from the Michigan Department of Community Health and volunteer genealogist transcribers from Michigan Genealogical Council member societies. Funding for keying the transcriptions came from the Abrams Foundation. The last update from this project was posted in March 2002. While incomplete, this offers an alternate finding aid for Michigan deaths. The original GENDIS lives on the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) website. A more complete and robust index was created by FamilySearch, along with the original images from MDCH from this period. The index and images became available in 2007 on FamilySearch.org, under the title Michigan Deaths (1867-1897).
Death Without Record Project
Death Without Record Submissions.
Death without Record Submissions
The following individuals have been submitted to the Michigan Genealogical Council’s Death Without Record Project. This project accepts registrations for persons who died in or before 1900, and left no Michigan official record. Persons may be registered who lived in Michigan, had lived in Michigan and died elsewhere, died in Michigan and were not usual Michigan residents, or were children of lifetime Michigan residents.
- Duty Benson (2 Aug 1792 Glocester, Rhode Island – 13 Jul 1852 Orangeville Township, Barry Co., Michigan)
- Phebe Benson maiden name Coots (29 Dec 1789 probably at Easton, New York – 8 Apr 1855 Irving, Barry Co., Michigan)
- Mary D. Chamberlin maiden name Morrow (10 May 1817 Mendham, Morris Co., New York – 22 Aug 1884 Jackson, Jackson Co., Michigan)
- Owen Deal (2 Jul 1816 Amsterdam, Montgomery Co., New York – 22 Mar 1880 Constantine, St. Joseph Co., Michigan)
- Othniel A. Gould (1802 Syracuse, New York – 27 Dec 1878 Albee Township, Saginaw Co., Michigan)
- Lemuel Olmstead Hammond (29 Feb 1808 Vernon, Rolland Co., Connecticut – 12 Jul 1875 Constantine, St. Joseph Co., Michigan)
- Luther Jones (1 Jun 1801 Town Records, Reading, Windsor Co., Vermont – 13 Aug 1848 Pontiac, Oakland Co., Michigan)
- John Kingscott (3 Oct 1797 Gloucestershire, England – 25 Mar 1863 Warren Township, Macomb Co., Michigan)
- Guy Chester McIntyre (4 Jul 1820 Montreal, Quebec, Canada – 6 Mar 1899 Vilas, South Dakota)
- Milo R. Moore (10 Aug 1841 Wayne Co., New York – 9 Jan 1882 DeWitt Township, Clinton Co., Michigan)
- Amasa Nash (27 Jun 1794 Weymouth, Massachusetts – 21 Nov 1867 Campbell Township, Ionia Co., Michigan)
- Sophia Nash maiden name Ladd (1 Oct 1798 probably Amsterdam, New York – 15 Jun 1863 Campbell Township, Ionia Co., Michigan)
- Eli Riggs (28 Aug 1802 – 13 Sep 1859 Saline Township, Washtenaw Co., Michigan)
- Wincenty Skorupski (3 Jul 1850 Tanibórz, Poland – 3 Jul 1889 Bay City, Michigan)
- Thomas Jefferson Smith (4 Feb 1821 New York – 6 Jan 1897 Jackson Co., Michigan)
- Thomas Thiell (c. 1811 Niagara County, New York – 27 Sep 1889 Swartz Creek, Genesee Co., Michigan)
- Eliza H. Wing maiden name Ingalls (1845 Michigan – 7 Apr 1881 Jackson, Michigan)
For additional information of any of these submissions, please write and include a SASE:
Michigan Genealogical Council – DWR
P.O. Box 80953
Lansing, MI 48908-0953
The “Muriel Links Obituaries” are approximately 85,000 Obituaries clipped from Grand Rapids Newspapers covering the period 1930–1970 and pasted onto cards that are kept at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Indexing was done by volunteers through FamilySearch, many of whom were members of MGC member societies. The index and images are now available on FamilySearch as one component of the Michigan Obituaries 1820-2006 record set.
