United States County Histories

GEN
973.016
FILG
A Bibliography of American County Histories
Compiled by P. William Filby
c 1985

This book can be found in the Indiana Room at the Central branch of the Lake County Public Library. It has a nice compilation of County Histories for each state in the U.S. A description of this book from Genealogical.com can be found at the following link:

http://www.genealogical.com/products/A%20Bibliography%20of%20American%20County%20Histories/1825.html

County Histories are an important source of genealogical information. The biographical sketches give details about occupation, education, politics, military service, vital statistics and other background information. Sometimes there is a picture of the person and his business or farm.

Even if your ancestors are not included in the County History you can learn more about the history of the area where they lived. There are often sketches of important places in the county such as the courthouse, schools, churches and businesses.

Under Lake County Indiana the following county histories are mentioned on pages 100 and 101:

**Lake County, Indiana, from 1834 to 1872, by Rev. Timothy H. Ball. Chicago: J.W. Goodspeed, 1873. 364 pp.

**County of Lake, 1882, see Porter County.

**Lake County, Indiana, 1884; an Account of the Semi-centennial Celebration...with Historical Papers...Old Settler & Historical Association of Lake County, Indiana, ed. by T.H. Ball. Crown Point: T.H. Ball, 1884. 486pp.

**Encyclopedia of Genealogy and Biography of Lake County, with a Compendium of History...Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1904. 674 pp. (Repr. Evansville: Unigraphic, 1979.)

**A Standard History of Lake County, Indiana, ed. by William F. Howat. 2 vols. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1915

**History of the Lake and Calumet Regions of Indiana, Embracing the Counties of Lake, Porter and LaPorte...comp. by Thomas H. Cannon 2 vols. Indianapolis: Hist. Assoc., 1927.

**First Hundred Years of Lake County, Indiana, by Sam B. Woods. [Crown Point?: n.p.], 1938. 418 pp.

**This Is Lake County, Indiana: an Up-to-date Historical Narrative...by John Drury. Chicago: Inland Photo Co., 1956. vi, 250 pp.

Lake County Public Library has all the early Indiana County Histories on microfilm in the Periodicals Department. We also have a hard copy of many of the County Histories for Indiana.


We also have an Indiana Biography Index to the early County Histories and other Indiana History Titles. The actual list of names is on microfilm. The call number is 977.20099 INDT