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From: Cindy Birk Conley <>
Subject: [KYDAVIES-L] Williard Library resources on Daviess Co. KY and Griffith family
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 01:11:34 -0500


Last Thursday I had the chance to study Daviess Co. genealogy, especially my
Griffith Line, at Williard Library in Evansville, IN. The library has a
large genealogy department on the second floor of the 1875 structure,
located just off the Lloyd Expressway, and would make a good stop for anyone
traveling near southern IN this summer.

This is a quick survey of the materials available:

An 1883 county history, of approximately 870 pages. It is loaded with
articles about Joshua Griffith and his kin, who were major landowners and
politicians in the county. An every-name index of this book is also on hand.

An 1875 pictorial atlas of the county. It is mostly a duplicate of some of
the biographies, with plat maps thrown in.

A 1960s era county history, which I got excited about but which had few
familiy histories and seemed to be written at a more general level than I
wanted. I didn't even see a bunch of ads in the back, and didn't notice a
good index.

A 1993 or 1994 History of the Catholic Diocese of Owensboro, which has
parish and organization histories and a lot of family histories. This book
resembles the new county histories that have been published in most of
southern Illinois, put out by Turner Publishing and a couple of others. It
has a pretty good index, so if your people are listed you might be able to
add several generations. My Griffith family was not Catholic but they
married into the Catholic Overstreet and Field families.

Several bound volumes of Daviess Co. Historical Society quarterlies. They
looked fairly recent but had trouble finding dates. The society met monthly
at the Daviess Co. historical museum on Griffith Ave.

Transcribed census records from 1840 to 1900. I only looked at the 1870 and
1900 censuses, but didn't see a 1910 or 1920 hard copy.

Several books of marriages, to 1866 or so. A deed or land grant book,
through the 1860s. At least one book of early wills.

At least three volumes of cemetery records--one on the eastern half of the
county, one on the rest, and one just on Rosehill cemetery, a major one in
Owensboro. I did not see anything on Elmwood cemetery, which is just next
Rosehill according to the map. Maybe they were in the same book, published
by the West KY Genealogy Society, and I didn't have time to track down every
Grifith in the book. There are also a number of bound volumes of the West
KY gen soc quarterlies--I didn't find a good index. There are a number of
regional and state-wide genealogy/history magazines available, including
Bluegrass Roots, one on Southern KY, SW KY, etc. The indexes available vary
greatly.

A few church and community histories, perhaps of Knottville and Whitesville.

An interesting book by John? Ford, called Sixty Years in Owensboro, written
in the 1940s. It talked about lots of people who owned businesses or were
professionals, and even contained pictures of Dr. D.M. Griffith and Attorney
Josh T. Griffith, 20th century family members. It even had a nice index.

I did not look at the microfilms to see if any local newspapers were
available. There are similar sections on most KY counties, and a good
selection of other states, including MD, VA, etc, from which our Daviess Co,
ancestories came.

This library is open 7 days a week, from 9-8 on Tuesday, 1-5 on Sunday, and
9-5:30 most other days. There is a self-service copier with
reduction--copies are 15 cents each. It is requested that pencil be used
when taking notes. The only downside of my visit was when the librarian
announced at 5 pm that the library was closing and to finish paying for
copies by 5:20 p.m. She later told me that it did actually close at 5:30
but that she needed to have the books and money counted by then.

I hope this helps someone. I'm sure someone else might be able to fill in
some of my novice gaps.

Cindy Birk Conley
Carmi, IL

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