The Road to Research

You can immerse yourself in the city's past at the Detroit Historical Museum (5401 Woodward Ave., 313-833-1805, www.detroithistorical.org; adults $4.50). There you can walk the Streets of Old Detroit, from log to cobblestone to brick, and visit shops and businesses from past eras.

Neighbors of the museum in the city's Cultural Center include Wayne State University, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Public Library (5201 Woodward Ave., 313-833-1000, www.detroit.lib.mi.us; open Tuesday-Saturday). For the genealogist, the "DPL" will be your headquarters in Detroit.

The DPL's Burton Historical Collection (313-833-1480, www.detroit.lib.mi.us/burton/) is a treasury of primary and secondary source materials for family researchers. Among its holdings are US and Canadian county and local histories, federal censuses for all states and some Canadian provinces, land and military records, genealogies and photographs. The 38-volume set of American State Papers is here as are many city directories. Church holdings include microfilmed records of St. Anne de Detroit (1000 Ste. Anne, 313-496-1701, kqa.com/deDetroit/), founded in 1701 and the only area church until after the War of 1812; Protestants also used its services for baptism, marriage and burial. (The church will celebrate its own tricentennial as part of Detroit 300 on July 26.)

Manuscripts make up a significant share of Burton's holdings, including family papers, correspondence, ledgers, scrapbooks, voyageur licenses and Detroit's earliest colonial records. Many individuals prominent in Michigan history moved here from other places, so it's not unusual for family papers to include documents originating elsewhere, such as wills, marriage registers and slaveholders' inventories. City archives and those of Wayne County and Michigan Territory provide probate, tax and other early records. Children's Aid Society and Children's Home of Detroit records may provide information on an orphaned ancestor.

Unfortunately, most of Burton's collection is not included in DPL's online catalog, except for material acquired since 1987. You'll need to rely on published guides. Burton is a reference library, so material must be used on site. If you can't get there, a list of researchers is available.

Now for the bad news. Public hours at Burton have been reduced since a July 2000 storm caused flooding of basement storage. Although damaged items were cleaned and restored, hours of access remain a casualty. The most recent public schedule is 1-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 5-9 p.m. Wednesday.

Three other library departments hold material of interest. Old newspapers are on microfilm in the General Information Department. The Great Lakes Patent & Trademark Center is useful for inventive ancestors. And the Map Collection contains wonderful old maps. If your forebears owned property in Wayne County outside of Detroit in 1855, look for their names on John Farmer's Map of Wayne County Michigan. Some maps from the 1700s name earlier property owners in Detroit and Macomb County.

Kitty-corner from DPL is the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University (5401 Cass Ave., 313-577-4024, www.reuther.wayne.edu). Its focus is the development of labor unions and related social, economic and political reform movements. Besides union archives, you'll find personal papers, family correspondence and audiovisuals, such as photographic collections from Detroit newspapers back to the early 1900s. Oral history projects include Women and Work, minorities and Depression-era artists and writers.

If your ancestors owned property in Detroit or Wayne County, visit the Wayne County Register of Deeds Office (International Center Building, 400 Monroe St., Sixth Floor, 313-224-5850). Its index of land transactions goes back to 1703; the office is working on an online database you can search at home. Ribbon farms of early Detroit settlers extended up the shoreline into what became Macomb County, so some records may be at the Macomb County Clerk's Office (40 N. Main St., First Floor,Mount Clemens, 810-469-5120,www.libcoop.net/sabaugh/clerkindex.htm). Macomb separated from Detroit in 1818; the clerk's office has vital records since 1867, marriage records since 1819.

If research reveals ancestors who died in Detroit, check out Mt. Elliott Cemetery (1701 Mt. Elliott Road, 313-567-0048) or Elmwood Cemetery (1200 Elmwood Ave., 313-567-3453). Elmwood also offers black heritage tours highlighting historic grave sites.