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Local Obituaries Indexes

Looking for family members from Jasper County? Look through our online indexes to local obituaries. If you can't find the record you are searching for, you can contact the library for assistance.

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Vintage Views Index

The Rensselaer Genealogy department has copies of the Vintage Views local history magazine that can be read in the library.

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Main Street DeMotte in the early 1900s

Jasper County Oral Histories

Step back into the early history of northern Jasper County with these oral histories sponsored by the DeMotte - Kankakee Valley Rotary Club.

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JCPL Library History

Rensselaer's Carnegie Center, home to the Prairie Arts Council and the Jasper Foundation, was built in 1904, but it was not the first library in the county. Learn more about the history of your local library.

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JCPL Genealogy & Local History

Welcome to the Jasper County Public Library Genealogy and Local History Department

The materials on these pages are presented by library staff to help you with your personal and local history inquiries.

Explore the index at left to see what is available on this site.

For more information, or to get help with your genealogy requests, please check out our online contact form and select the genealogy category that best matches the region of your inquiry.

About our Local History Collections Online

General Milroy Collection - Hundreds of original letters and documents from a noted figure of the U.S. Civil War.

Oral Histories - First-hand accounts of life in northern Jasper and Newton County at the start of the 20th century. Sponsored by DeMotte-Kankakee Valley Rotary Club - Oral History Project

News Files - Assorted records from our Microfilm and Vertical File Collection

Other Local History Collections available by request:

Catalogued from the KV Post-News and available at the DeMotte Library:

  • Birth Announcements 1930s – present
  • Marriage Announcements 1930s – present
  • Obituaries 1930s – present

Catalogued from the Rensselaer Republican and available at the Rensselaer Library:

  • Obituaries 1910-1939, selected years 1940-present

Newspapers on Microfilm

The DeMotte Library has all of the back issues on microfilm of the KV Post-News.

The Rensselaer Library contains several back issues on microfilm of various current and historical newspapers, including:

  • Rensselaer Republican
  • Jasper County Democrat
  • Rensselaer Standard

Recommended Links

These sites should be helpful in exploring your personal or local history.

Lanewood Jasper County Genealogy Resources. Award-winning site.

Jasper County Cemetery Records at Find a Grave.com Extensive records from the DeMotte area.

Genealogy Web Sites Hand-Picked Links from free, local, state and government websites (via Delicious.com)

Indiana Roots State geneaology records from Elkhart, Kosciusko, Lake and Porter counties

Vine Searchable state index of vital records. Volunteer-driven. Limited Jasper County records are available in this database at this time.

Jasper County History

B065_Rensselaer_High_Homecoming_Court_1966-67

(upper photo) Last week, we asked people to call in and identify these seven lovely women, who were Homecoming Court candidates at Rensselaer Central High School in 1966-67. After fielding several calls, the identity of these seven women was revealed. They are, with married names in parenthesis where possible, (front row, L to R) Pama Tonner (Schreeg), Pam Mackey and Pat Woodworth (Riley). (Back row, L to R) Cindy Kanne, Linda Foulks, Marcia Hurley and Jane Pfledderer. Photo provided. Rensselaer Republican 10/16/00
(lower photo) The 1966 Homecoming Court included eventual queen winner Linda Foulks (second from left in back row). Please help us identify the other candidates and we’ll include the results in next week’s paper. Photo from Chaos. Rensselaer Republican 10/9/00

See more Jasper County History photos at our Flickr site.

Help with research

Ancestry - Library

Included in Ancestry Library are the digitized images of the U.S. Federal Census from 1790 forward, Passenger and Immigration Lists index, and much more. This database can only be accessed while inside the library.

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Heritage Quest

A resource for census data, family records and local histories, this collection contains U.S. federal census, banking and military records, genealogies, primary source materials, and more.

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For other history and research databases, check out our online resources collection.