WMGS - Genealogy for Western Michigan
Online Searchable Databases
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We are over 1,360,000 records in the Newspapers Database!!!!!!
And over 3.66 MILLION records online!!!!!!

Summary of WMGS Online Databases at 10 November 2023

Database
# of
Records
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West Michigan Newspapers - An index to the Death Notices and Obituaries published in the Grand Rapids Press and Grand Rapids Herald from 1910 to today. It includes the listings of Engagements, Weddings and Anniversaries from the Saturday papers from today, going back in time to 1966. Starting on 25 January 2008 the index also includes the daily "In Memoriam" entries from the Grand Rapids Press, and also includes an index to the Rockford Register, and over 9,000 records from The Northfield Advance during the 1990s that are linked to scanned images of the notice. The clippings are used with permission of Advance Newspapers. Starting in April 2011 we are now including entries from The Holland Sentinel both ongoing and backwards as they are available.
Update 1 November 2023- added EWA and Obits, from The Grand Rapids Press for October 2023; EWA from The Grand Rapids Press for 1937; and Obits from The Holland Sentinel for October 2023, adding 476 new records. (Note - the database file size on the server is now 666.9MB!!)

THANK YOU to Pat Rademaker who has done the bulk of the indexing.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
1,360,716 
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Kent County School Census - Index to the listings of Student and Teacher names in the Annual Census and Statistic Returns of Kent County Schools from 1903 - 1925. We can provide copies of the pages from these books which show students names and details, as well as details about the school attended.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
232,359 
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West Michigan Church Records - In 1974, the Western Michigan Genealogical Society began the project of collecting and recording the church records in Kent County of those churches which were in existence before 1876. The records included baptisms, marriages, deaths and memberships where possible up to the year 1876.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
102,049 
PayPal Accepted Here
Michigana - Index to the names of people mentioned in the first 64 years of WMGS' quarterly publication Michigana from 1954 - 2018. If you search and find a name, or an article you're interested in you will be able to order a copy of the page(s) the name is on. In many instances you'll be able to order a copy of the whole issue containing the page. This is identified on the Search Results page. Update 10 November 2023- added the Name Index and Subject Index for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 - 5,580 records added.
Copies of an article from this database are $5 each (or $7.50 for a full issue when available). Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
209,821 
PayPal Accepted Here
Veterans - Index of the residents of the "The Grand Rapids Home for Veterans".
29 January 2007. Added another 1,769 records of the men's index to the database. Total Men's records now 10,946. Total including Women 13,697. All records that are available on microfilm at the Grand Rapids Public Library are now listed in this index.
Copies of Records from this database start at $5 each for up to 4 pages. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
13,241 
PayPal Accepted Here
World War One Veterans Census - A searchable database containing the names of Veterans of World War One who were living in Kent County, Michigan after the end of The Great War. Records contain information about the Vet's parents, birth date and place, military service and other information.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
9,916 
WMGS Manuscripts - Update 9 November 2023 - added 75,932 records from another 134 manuscript files and 38 Pioneer Certificates. There are now 3,471 manuscript/pioneer certficate files online. The search results are linked to PDF files that contain scanned images of the pages in the Manuscript. Some files are larger than 10 MB, so please be patient if you try to download one of these files.
Information in this database is free :-)

1,012,591 
WMGS Members' Genealogy - Genealogy files made up from the 4 generation charts that have been submitted by WMGS Members over the 50 years WMGS has been collecting these. These files are slowly being added to as the existing charts are entered. There are now 709 separate trees online.
Information in this database is free :-)
248,471 
Black Monument Company - A listing of names in the Order Books of the Black Monument Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Records in this database indicate the names and dates that were placed on grave markers ordered from the Black Monument Company, and shows the name of the cemetery the marker was placed in.
New Feature 9 July 2010 - added a mechanism linking some entries to the Newspapers database if a person from this (Black Monument) database has an entry in the Newspapers database. See this search for example.

Update 7 November 2013 - added another 193 records, many of them with the link to the deceased person's death certificate on Seeking Michigan. Thanks Marlene Fabbro!!
Information in this database is free :-)
18,365 
PayPal Accepted Here
Farm Bureau News - An every name index to the people listed in the Farm Bureau News published in Kent County Feb. 1918 - Dec. 1926.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
8,585 
Michigan Census - A compilation of census indexes from Western Michigan. The indexes were compiled by Evelyn Sawyer, and include records from Kent, Ottawa, Barry, Newaygo, Mecosta and other counties from 1860, 1870 Federal Censuses and 1884 and 1894 Michigan Censuses. THANK YOU to Evelyn Sawyer who did much of the transcription, and provided the compilations for most of these records.
Information in this database is free :-)
119,849 
Kent County Deaths - Index to the names of the people listed in the Index to the deaths recorded in Kent County, Michigan. Included 2,364 records provided by Karen Blumenshine which include information from the records like Gender, Age at Death, Birth and Death place, Cause of Death and Parents. THANK YOU to all who have done the typing. This page has extra details about the database and those who did the typing for it.
Information in this database is free :-)
97,785 
Kent County Marriages - Index to the names of the people listed in the Index to the marriages recorded in Kent County, Michigan from 1845 to 1929.
Information in this database is free :-)
166,844 
PayPal Accepted Here
Latzek Funeral Home - An index to the Registers of the Latzek Funeral Home in Grand Rapids from 1903 - 1962. If you search it and find a record that is of interest to you, we can provide a hand written transcript of it from the book. See the Search Results page for full details.
Copies of Records from this database are $5 each. Payment can be made by PayPal or by Cheque.
4,868 
Chapman's 1881 History of Kent County - An every name index to the Chapman's History of Kent County, published in 1881. Search results are linked to scanned images made available by the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service, which has provided searchable scanned images of many different books of Michigan History.
Information in this database is free :-)
33,017 
Goss' History of Grand Rapids and its Industries - Index to the names of people in the 1906 Goss History of Grand Rapids.
If you find a person you're looking for, you can click a link to download a PDF file that has an image of that page from the book in it.
Information in this database is free :-)
9,585 
Quigley - An index of Family Names and Articles from various Periodicals compiled by Maud Quigley.
Information in this database is free :-)
10,072 
Western Michigan Surnames and Queries - A place to post your queries of surnames you're working on, and find others working on the same line.
Information in this database is free :-)
3,592 
 
Total
3,661,726
     
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WMGS Online Databases have been online over 20 years!!!!!!!
Now over 3.57 MILLION records online!!!!!!!!
Obituaries and EWA database over 1.36 MILLION!!!!!!!
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Last modified by Roger on: 10 Nov 2023 at 04:51:36 PM
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