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Archiver > MNLYON > 2000-10 > 0971672218


From: "Poor House Lady" <>
Subject: More Poorhouse Information
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 23:56:58 -0500


We recently posted a couple of new items about MINNESOTA Poorhouses on our
website called The POORHOUSE STORY (a clearinghouse for information about
19th century American poorhouses) at http://www.poorhousestory.com

Well...so MANY of you wrote to us for information that we decided to spend a
couple of days doing research. We found that the Minnesota Historical
Society has poorhouse records for 16 (SIXTEEN!!!!) counties.

They include: Beltrami, Blue Earth, Crow Wing, Goodhue, Hennepin, Houston,
Kittson, Koochiching, Lyon, Redwood, Rice,
St. Louis, Washington, Wilkin, Winona, and Yellow Medicine.

Here is how you can find the information. When you go to the homepage (link
above) click on POORHOUSES BY STATE, then on OTHER STATES, then on MINNESOTA
on the table of states. When you get to the MINNESOTA page (click REFRESH on
your browser if you have been to the site recently) ... scroll down to the
Records section where you will find a yellow link that says:
LIST of MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY POORHOUSE HOLDINGS by county.

But the information does not stop there. When I started my website it was my
hope that I could teach people how to search for poorhouse records and that
they would then submit the information they found to The POORHOUSE STORY
website ... which, as the subtitle indicates, is meant to be a
clearinghouse. Unfortunately, more people have wanted me to give them a fish
than have wanted to learn to fish. (Sigh) There are just too many counties
in this country for me (even with the help of a handful of very dedicated
volunteers) to do this research by myself.

However, in Minnesota you are fortunate to have some excellent GenWeb and
other sites on-line. So there is another page on our website ... the one you
should consult if the MHS does NOT have holdings for the county in which you
are interested. (You will find it linked off the page which lists the MHS
holdings.)

We invite you to USE it!!!! Let's go on a Treasure Hunt to see how many
poorhouse records we can ... collectively ... locate in Minnesota. Your
participation in this effort may help to preserve an important part of our
genealogical history which is otherwise still at risk of being lost ...
because people who have those records may not know of our interest in them.

Thanks for your interest.
Linda Crannell
(aka=The Poorhouse Lady)

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