WMGS-Blog

Western Michigan Genealogical Society

Some of our most precious moments get captured in photographs. Before digital cameras came along, many people kept photos in picture frames or albums.

Throughout many living rooms in homes across the country, you can still find displays like these. The problem now is that these photos are deteriorating. There could come a time, in the not too distant future, that the pictures will disintegrate, losing the image forever.

There’s a solution, though! This should be the way anyone who wants to preserve these precious memories needs to go about the matter.

A Brief History

Photography gets traced back to the early 1500s. However, it was during the mid-1800s that the process of turning the film into pictures was perfected. The type of photograph was called the daguerreotype, because of the inventor, Frenchman Louis Daguerre. These photos remained in use until the introduction of the commercial digital camera in 1990. continue reading…

– By Mary Alt

After the Civil War, Ottawa County officials found they had veterans who needed a home. In May, a documentary film on The Ottawa County Poor Farm will have its premiere in Holland and Grand Haven.

When the Ottawa County Poor Farm received its first resident in 1866, no one could have imagined the benefits it would provide to residents of Ottawa County over the decades. The Poor Farm was a haven for indigent people who, due to the happenstance of birth, misfortune, or poverty, were in dire straits and needed a place to call home.

Ottawa County Poor Farm

Residents and staff pose outside the farm’s infirmary house, which was demolished in the 1990s. Courtesy of Coopersville Area Historical Society

Inspired by the success of the Poor Farm Sesquicentennial Celebration in October of 2016, Marjie Viveen, a local historian, worked on a documentary film featuring the facility and will premiere May 2019 in Holland and Grand Haven. continue reading…

Pieces of my family history are “news” in the Grand Rapids Press. This snippet published in 1950 is an interview with my grandfather, Kenneth Bennett. Both he and my grandmother were rural delivery mail route carriers. My earliest memories of him involve the many cars he owned and I was fascinated how he could drive from the middle of the front seat. After finding this article, I have a brand new respect for what he did for a living.

Kenneth Bennett

PREPARES FOR THE OPEN ROAD – Grand Rapids Press Photographer

PREPARES FOR THE OPEN ROAD – the still common notion that the job of carrying mail to farm folk is hardly more than a pleasant ride through the countryside is all wrong, according to Kenneth Bennett, who runs an RFD route out of postal station A on Bridge-st. For him it’s a 50-mile string of starts and stops, a potential 450 of them, six days a week, with a load of mail that may run to 800 pounds. Even from the middle of the seat, which is the way rural carriers drive, the long reaching to the mail boxes is hard on spines and shoulders.

Rural Mail Carriers Vexed by Sore Backs

If you see a car coming down a highway with the driver right of center on the front seat, you probably are looking at a rural letter carrier going about his business of getting the mail through.

For the peculiar way of doing of the rural letter carrier there is an obvious explanation for those who are curious. Automobiles have left hand drives by American convention. Rural mail boxes are on the right side of the road by governmental regulations. Sitting conventionally behind the wheel at the left side, a carrier would have to have arms at least five feet long in reach through the window on the right side to get at all those boxes. continue reading…

At the Western Michigan Genealogical Society monthly meeting on Saturday 10 November, 2018, longtime WMGS member and volunteer Shirley DeBoerCG  was presented with the Michigan Genealogical Council’s Lucy Mary Kellogg Award.

MGC President Katherine Willson and Awards Chair Chelsea Johnson with Lucy Mary Kellogg Award winner Shirley DeBoer.

See below for picture gallery. Photos by Lisa Christensen and Roger Moffat.

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by:  Jeanne Rollberg

When convention goers gathered in Grand Rapids for the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference earlier in May, many of us also explored Kent County resources and nearby places in pursuit of our own families’ histories. In Grand Rapids, a priest helped me find the luck of the Irish. continue reading…

DeVos Place has a underground parking ramp. It is on Michigan St across from the downtown US Post Office. You can park in that lot if you are Volunteering and ask the attendant the best price to pay,depending on estimated hours to park. If only for a couple of hours you might take a ticket and pay 1.50 per 1/2 hour, if longer it might be better to pay upfront for the day or event price which can range from $10-$12.

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The welcome mats are rolled out at DeVos Place

Decor reflects Secchia family history and Italian immigrant experience

One local spot about fifteen-minutes from DeVos Place is Pietro’s Italian Restaurant. A sentimental favorite in Grand Rapids originally opened in 1980 by Peter Secchia (former Ambassador to Italy from 1989-1993), the restaurant is named after his Italian immigrant grandfather who came to the United States in 1906 armed with family recipes. 

Pietro’s has an old-world charm combined with a great menu. You can order traditional Italian favorites like homemade spaghetti and meatballs, Fettucine Alfredo, lasagna, eggplant Parmesan or different offerings such as hand-breaded tilapia or crab stuffed mushroom caps. The food served here is made from scratch and purchased from local farmers whenever possible. continue reading…

The Mitten Brewing Company, formerly Engine House #9 at 527 Leonard St., NW, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Courtesy Mary Rasch Alt

The Mitten Brewing Co., at 527 Leonard St. NW in Grand Rapids embraces history, especially the history of its own building. Owners Max Trierweiler and Chris Andrus, seen in the photo with their wives and Oprah, chose the historic Engine House No. 9 as the home for their brewery in 2012 and have spent a good amount of time restoring the building to honor its past.

The street level taproom is where the wagons and steam engines were housed, while the brew house and kitchen were the stables for the horses. The upstairs taproom was the living quarters. It was a fire house from 1890 to 1966.

Courtesy Mary Rasch Alt

The Mitten is a vintage baseball-themed microbrewery/pizzeria/restaurant with a focus on community involvement and charitable giving. Andrus and Trierweiler were dedicated homebrewers who saw an opportunity to broaden the city’s craft beer scene and also have an impact on the community at large. continue reading…

Grand Rapids History & Special Collections

Grand Rapids Public Library – Main, 111 Library St. NE, Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503
Phone: 616-988-5400; E-mail: Contact us
Hours: Sun 1-5p.m.; M-Th 9a.m.-9p.m. F-Sat 9a.m.-6p.m.

“The Grand Rapids History & Special Collections area of the library, including the archival collections, is one of the largest collections of historical [& genealogical] material in the state. Included are more than 30,000 books and periodicals, plus holdings on microfilm. Collecting emphasis is on the Grand Rapids and Kent County area, with additional sources on Western Michigan, Michigan and the Old Northwest. County and state histories, atlases & maps, family histories & biographical information, census data, city directories, local newspapers on microfilm, and vertical files are just some of the items to be found.”

City Archives & Research Center (Grand Rapids)

City Archives and Research Center
223 Washington Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Phone 616-456-4127 or 616-456-3114
Email mellis@grcity.us or awright@grcity.us

We are open to the public by appointment only. Our hours are Monday – Friday from 8am until 5pm.

City Archives & Records Center n Grand Rapids

City Archives & Records Center in Grand Rapids

“The City Archives and Research Center stores all the City’s government records. We make sure they’re preserved and accessible to citizens and employees to research.”

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