On my many trips to central Indiana with my mother, whenever we crossed the border from Michigan, she would break into song with “Back Home Again In Indiana”. As a youngster this mortified me (as if anyone else could hear her singing), but now I find myself at least humming it when I make the trek. While not a Hoosier myself – I was born and raised in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, the land of celery, pedestrian malls, Gibson Guitars, Dr. Upjohn’s friable pills, and most recently the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine – my Indiana roots run deep, and I think of myself as a Hoosier by proxy.
From an early age I loved history and became very interested in my own family’s history, much of it from Indiana, but throughout the US and reaching across the Atlantic, as well. My maternal-grandmother had done a fair amount of family research, so I had a head start, but I lament daily that I didn’t ask more questions while all my older relations were here. Instead, I’ve been rooting out relations since I was a teenager, and along the way finding fascinating stories about them, the things they did, the places they lived, and the history that surrounded them.
Without children of my own – although I do have a couple of amazing step-daughters – I knew these stories and the boxes and files of pictures, clippings, notes, and ephemera I have acquired through years needed a place where they could ‘live’ and be shared with those whose roots might intertwine with my relations.
Welcome to their stories.