Friends of the Indiana State Archives, Inc.

New Digital Archives!

Indiana Digital Archives

The Indiana State Archives is thrilled to announce our new online Digital Archives.

This invaluable new resource is the result of a cooperative partnership made possible by a grant from the Library of Congress and administered by the Washington State Archives. Other state partners include Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, and Oregon.

Friends of the Indiana State Archive Volunteers have been busily processing and indexing records for more than fifteen years. All of their hard work and effort had an immediate effect for archivists and researchers contacting the archives. Using the databases within the archives meant that archivists could instantly locate records for patrons instead of spending hours plowing through old volumes of often un-indexed records.

Despite budget constraints, archivists have been raising awareness of the collections through public presentations, exhibits, and publications. Now the new online digital archive will be able to reach out to anyone with access to the Internet. Patrons can search the indexes and order records via email online.

The First Round

The first round of records available includes information for state prisoners in Indiana’s Department of Correction facilities as well as military records, land records, naturalization records, and Marion County Court Records and Wills. Our Military Collections include indexes of the World War I Gold Star and Book of Merit Recipients. Both collections refer to the original files of correspondence and sometimes photographs submitted by the soldier or his or her family for inclusion in the final published books. The files offer far more information than the brief paragraphs in the books first published by the Indiana Historical Commission after the Great War. Other Military collections currently available include the Mexican War and indexes to the files of the Indiana Veteran’s Home in Lafayette, Indiana.

One of our more unique collections is the 1853 Registers of Negroes and Mulattos. Individual counties maintained these registers. The Archives holdings include Clark, Franklin, Orange, Switzerland, Vigo, and Ohio. Additionally, the Archives holds the 1805 Clark County Slave Register, which is also available online. An enhanced feature for this particular collection allows virtual patrons to click on the links and actually view the images on their computer.

Also available online is the index to the Admission Record of the Julia E. Work Training School in Plymouth, Indiana. This industrial training school, an alternative to reform school or an orphanage, was also known as Brightside. The register contains brief but invaluable information about each of the children placed in the home. The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home index has also moved from our old website to the new digital archive. The Fort Wayne and the LaPorte-Winamac Land Office Database have also moved to the new site. These two favorites will be joined in the future by the Vincennes Land Office and the Crawfordsville-Terre Haute Land Office.

More to Follow Soon!

This is just the beginning! Collections soon to follow include more than 200,000 Hoosier Civil War soldiers. Our new National Guard and Early Military Records Databases are also in the final stages. Additional Naturalization records will be updated very soon including Marion and Saint Joseph Counties.