HWB Local History Department

branch

The Local and Family History Department of Willard Library is located in the Helen Warner Branch Library at 36 Minges Creek Place (off Beckley Road, just south of I-94). Hours are Monday-Thursday, 10-8, Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-5, and Sunday 1-5, between Labor Day and Memorial Day.

This collection includes primary and secondary source materials that document the history of Battle Creek, with a secondary emphasis on Calhoun County and the State of Michigan. Limited information is also available for surrounding communities, and the mid-Atlantic, Eastern and North Central United States.

Items in this collection are not available for circulation or interlibrary loan, with the exception of manuals and guides. Some duplicate items are available in the non-fiction collection for circulation.

Free genealogy classes are offered periodically.  Click here for calendar. Free genealogy tutorials are offered through FamilySearch or Genealogy.com Learning Center.

See additional local history and genealogy RESOURCES BELOW.


 

Online Local History and Genealogy Resources

Genealogy Databases
Willard Library subscribes to many databases.  Among our most popular resources are:

 

americanancestors4 
American Ancestors
(on-site only)
ancestry 
Ancestry
(on-site only)
heritagequest2
Off-site use also
 
Genealogy & History Online Resources

Find the best genealogy and history resources linked in our collection.  Resources include local, state, national, and international resources.

familytree  Genealogy Links historyHistory Links

Historical Images of Battle Creek, Michigan

historicalimages2

The Historical Images of Battle Creek collection includes over 17,000
photographs and is divided into three parts:


  • Battle Creek Homes & Buildings, c. 1940: A catalog, by street, of all of the buildings within the 1940 boundaries of Battle Creek with images
  • Photographs from Battle Creek from Battle Creek's History: A searchable selection of 5,500 photographs selected from the files of Willard Library from 19th and 20th century Battle Creek.
  • Dorothy Martich Black History Photo Archive: represents many years of research by local historians Dorothy and Michael Martich documenting the history of the Battle Creek African American community.
To search across these collections, or each collection individually, click here.
Newspapers

Battle Creek Enquirer: Access Battle Creek Enquirer articles and obituaries from 2002-present online.

bc newspapers

The Newspaper Index covers the local newspapers from 1967-present.

 

 

collerross2

The Coller Collection Index is included in the Newspaper Index.  Ross Coller worked for
47 years as a journalist in Battle Creek and spent much of his lifetime chronicling our area's past.  After his death, his family donated his notes and work to the library.

 

obit

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it an obituary.  Dates of obituaries occurring between 1967-present can be found in the newspaper index.  Prior to 1967, you must know the date of the obituary you are requesting, or
                             use our microfilm on-site to search for the item.

The Stuart A. Lassen Historical Battle Creek Postcard Collection

lassenstuart3

Stuart A. Lassen spent over 21 years collecting postcards, advertising & trade cards of early Battle Creek. Through Stuart's generous donation to digitize this collection, he created a legacy by sharing Battle Creek's history with future generations.
Tales of Battle Creek

talesbc Authored by the city's ideal biographer, Berenice Bryant Lowe, in 1976,
Tales of Battle Creek "...provides a loving, spirited, and always accurate
chronicle of the who-what-when-where-why of Battle Creek's past" with over
16 pages of photographs of early Battle Creek.

Yearbooks
yrbook

This collection includes the digitized yearbooks for the five public high schools in Battle Creek based on the holdings of Willard Library, local high schools and high school alumni associations. Yearbooks are accessible online with a current Willard Library card or on-site to guests, and will not include the last ten years.  Individual yearbooks can be searched. The collection currently includes: Battle Creek Central High School (1894-2000); Harper Creek High School (1962-2000); Lakeview High School (1925-2000); Pennfield High School (1979-2000); and Springfield High School (1956-1989).

NOTE: The yearbook digitization project was undertaken to preserve the yearbooks due to extensive damage. These are now accessible online to current library cardholders both on-site and off-site.  Access to non-library card holders remains available on-site only.

If you need individual pages of a yearbook (up to 5), click This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  You will need to provide us with name of the individual and the specific yearbook to search since we cannot search across books.  We will also need your contact information (name, phone number, e-mail, & mailing address).  We will print the individual page(s) to a .PDF file and e-mail it to you.  We cannot provide non-library card holders with remote access.
Local History Bookshelf Online

bks-lh-google3 Links to books about Battle Creek and Calhoun County history,
including W.K. Kellogg, Kellogg Company, Sojourner Truth,
Underground Railroad, C.W. Post and more.


On-Site Collection

The Local and Family History Department has extensive local historical resources. These include:

Local Newspapers on microfilm from 1852-2002.

City and County Records

  • Probate records from 1835
  • Death records 1867 – 1925
  • Marriage records 1836 -1925
  • Deeds from 1833
  • Plat books from 1873
  • Sanborn fire insurance maps
  • WWI Draft Registration Cards

State and Federal Records

  • All available State Census of Michigan, fully indexed on microfilm
  • Federal Census records of Michigan, fully indexed on microfilm

Books

  • Cemetery transcriptions for Southwest Michigan
  • Battle Creek City Directories (1869-present)
  • Local biographies
  • Publications about local events, buildings, and personalities such as the Underground Railroad, Sojourner Truth, the cereal industry, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, W.K. Kellogg, John Harvey Kellogg, C.W. Post, and the Adventist Church.