Indiana County Indexs of Persons and Firms

While doing research at the Allen County Public Library, I stumbled across the Wabash County Index of Persons and Firms. If doing Indiana research for a particular county, this should be a starting place. In the early 1980's the Indiana Historical Society undertook a massive project to index the county histories of each county in the state. Since many counties, including Wabash have had several history books compiled, each of which is several hundred pages, this was a massive undertaking and can save a researcher much time. Many of the county histories themselves are not indexed, although some reprints from the 1990s include the index prepared by the Indiana Historical Society.

The index has a key at the front that gives the codes for which county history book is referenced; the reference for a person uses the code and the page number within the book.

It is important to note that the quality of the index varies; failure of an individual to appear in the index does not mean that the person does not appear in the history, so it is important to look for the names of individuals who are likely to appear in the same entry.  I encountered several instances where a person appeared in the Miami County history, but not in the index of Miami County histories.