Allen County Public Library

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:ask@acpl.info ask@acpl.info]

Website: http://www.acpl.lib.in.us

Address:


 * 900 Library Plaza
 * Fort Wayne, IN 46802

Telephone: 260-421-1200

Hours:


 * Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur: 9am-9pm; Friday, Saturday: 9am-6pm; Sunday*: 12NOON-5pm
 * For holiday schedule, click here.


 * * Closed Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day

Directions and public parking map:


 * Directions (Google map)
 * Parking map

Internet sites and databases:


 * Allen County Public Library Internet Site at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/index.html
 * ACPL Catalog Online at http://webcat.acpl.lib.in.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/X7hKi6e8a0/MAIN/32520467/60/1180/X
 * ACPL Genealogy Center at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/index.html

Collection Description
The Fred J. Reynolds Historical Genealogy Collection is the second-largest genealogy collection in the United States with more than 350,000 printed volumes and 513,000 items on microform. Users in Fort Wayne also have access, for a small fee, to over 2 million additional microfilms from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. ACPL creates the Periodical Source Index (PERSI), the world's largest genealogy magazine subject index. It is based on their premier collection of French-Canadian and English-language genealogical and local history periodicals (5,100 current subscriptions).

Major online databases at the ACPL include: Ancestry.com· African American Heritage· Footnote.com· HeritageQuestOnline.com· Historical Detroit Free Press· NewEnglandAncestors.org· Origins Network-British, Irish, and Scots· Paper of Record-Historical Newspapers· and WorldVitalRecords.com.

ACPL has over 50,000 family histories, all federal, and many state and territorial censuses, city directories, passenger lists, military records, nearly 200,000 local histories, the Boston Transcript, colonial newspapers of VA, MD, and PA, native American, African American, Canadian, British, and German collections. For more details see Genealogy Center and the ACPL catalog.

Tips

 * Prepare for a genealogical trip to the ACPL by using the online ACPL catalog ahead of time.
 * Also consult the microtext catalog before you go. The Genealogy Center has an extensive microfilm and microfiche collection, much of which is not included in the main ACPL catalog.
 * It also helps to prepare by using the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) at HeritageQuestOnline available at many U.S. public libraries.

Guides

 * ACPL, The Genealogy Center: A Tradition of Excellence (brochure).
 * Genealogy Center, Allen County Public Library, part 1 (You Tube online video, 9:17)
 * Genealogy Center, Allen County Public Library, part 2 (You Tube online video, 7:30)

Substitute Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a record at the Allen County Public Library, a similar record may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * ACPL branches of the Main Library
 * National Archives, Chicago Great Lakes Region federal censuses 1790–1930; selected military service indexes, pension indexes, passenger lists, and naturalizations. Free computers for Ancestry, Heritage Quest, or Footnote.

Similar Collections


 * FHL, large United States, Canada, and European genealogical and local history collections
 * St. Louis County Library, a Missouri collection including the St. Louis Genealogical Society, and the National Genealogical Society, online databases, federal censuses, African American records, &amp; access to LDS microfilms.
 * Allen County Public Library (Indiana) has a premier genealogical periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, American Indians, African Americans, Canadians.
 * Newberry Library a large Chicago repository with genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, &amp; British Isles.


 * LC
 * NYC PL

Neighboring Collections


 * Indiana State Libr