Elkhart County Genealogical Society

Elkhart County Genealogical Society Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Elkhart County Genealogical Society, Nonprofit Organization, PO Box 623, Bristol, IN.

09/02/2026

Our Elkhart County Genealogical library , we have many resources in the back room, and have volunteers to help you with your research.

09/02/2026

Important Schedule Update: New Library Research Sessions in Bristol

After careful consideration, we have found that it is no longer feasible to bring in guest speakers for our meetings. In listening to your feedback, we are actively revamping our time schedule to better accommodate what our members actuallly want out of their membership experience.

First, we want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out our recent membership survey. Your input was incredibly valuable. As a direct result of thos survey responses, we are shifting our focus toward, hands-on , localized research support. Moving forward, we will now be hosting our sessionis at our library in Bristol, which is located in the Elkhart County Historical Museum, 304 W. Vistula , Bristol, Indiana

Instead of our traditional formal meetings, we invite you to Open-house style research at our library during our nomal meeting time from 10:30 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. on the third Saturday during September, October, and Novermber 2026. We will continue to be there every week on Wednesday mornings from 9:00 A.M. to 12:00P.M.

We are not completley eliminating all of our meetings during the year. Instead of a monthly schedule , we will host three or four meeting in 2007. You will be notified by e-mail or on our social media and website, when those meetings will be held.

What to expect at our Bristol Library Sessions:

Overcome Research Roadblocks: Bring any specific questions or difficulties you have run into during your ancestry search .

Elkhart County Focus: Our Volunteers will be on hand to specificallly help youo track down and research you Elkhart County Relatives.

Dedicated Resources: Enjoy full access to our local physical collections, family records and genealogy tools in a collaborative environment.

Your membership status remains fullly active, and you will continue to receive the Elkhart County Searcher and access to our webpage. Thank you again for helping us shape the future of our group. We are excited about this new chapter and look forward to working side-by -side with you in our library in Bristol.

Our genealogical library volunteers are working hard , we want to make our library a must stop for your Elkhart County r...
08/27/2026

Our genealogical library volunteers are working hard , we want to make our library a must stop for your Elkhart County research. We are busy with queries , organizing school pictures, putting more obits on our website, and many more projects!

08/17/2026

I would like to share with you, what some friends have been doing in northern Indiana.
Have you ever considered joining an organization that helps bring history and genealogy alive? Check out the John Auten Camp 8 Union Sons of the Civil War face book page. They recently did a Memorial event honoring nurses of the Civil War. They are not reenactors , they do so much in northern Indiana and a great group of guys as well.
Our own member Pat Johnson has done extensive research of the Civil War Veterans buried in Elkhart County.She has found many unmarked Veteran's graves, and made sure tombstones were put on the graves after many years of them being forgotten, she has had many broken stones replaced. This is not always an easy endeavor, Pat has been doing this for many years, and I am sure she will continue.
If you need help with research, please join us at our Elkhart County Genealogical Library in the Museum ,on State Road 120 in Bristol, Indiana. We have many books geared to help with your research for Civil War and other Veteran groups.
Also check out our Elkhart County Genealogical Society website , we offer many databases to aid you in your research. elkhartcogensoc.org
We can help you learn to trace your family tree , we are in the library every Wednesday morning, from 9:00 A.M until noon.
Our website is a work in process, we add materials all the time, so check back often. Our library is constantly adding new materials and working to make it an important stop for your genealogical research.
We look forward to helping you !

07/10/2026

Our July 18,2026 meeting will be held on Saturday at 10:30- a.m. at the Bristol Public Library. This month we will be celebrating our Countrys 250th Birthday !
We have all done some research to find out just who helped to build Elkhart County and who were the first settlers. We have heard about many that are well known throughout the years, but there are many hard working people that not only came to our county, they raised families and are buried here. They all pushed themselves into making a successful life, neighbor , and actually probably teaching others the skills they learned from their own forefathers.

I am sure many of you know of Bonneyville Mill Park, and heard about the settler Edward Bonney. There was far more to the man than many of us know, yes he had a great vision for his property , in which the mill still is a working mill and one of the most beautiful parks in Elkhart County. Did you know he was an author, a counterfeiter , ended up in prison at one point, traveled all over leaving his mark, and also served in the Civil War ? Edwarrds wife and child are buried at Bonneyville Cemetery near Bristol, and he also has a Union Veteran Stone there, but there is no real proof that he is buried in that cemetery.

Did you know there was part of the Underground Railroad that ran in both Jefferson and Washington townships? Learn more about a couple of these participants . They are both interesting men and had interesting famiies. One of these early settlers had a daughter that put her mark in the history books of Elkhart County.

We will also talk briefly about the 5 Revoluntionary War Patriots that are buried in Elkhart County.

Come join us and share any of your early settlers !

07/08/2026

The Elkhart County Genealogical Society are cancelling the bus trip to Ft. Wayne, the response has been almost 0 , and we need to make sure that we cancel in time for the bus complany and for the Veteran's Shrine and Museum and Ft. Wayne genealogical library to be notified. We put a lot of time planning this trip and are very sad that we must cancel. We presented this trip two months ago, and had hoped by now we would have a lot more interest.

We are excited to offer this bus trip to Ft. Wayne, Indiana and sure would like to see all of you. We all love genealogy...
06/26/2026

We are excited to offer this bus trip to Ft. Wayne, Indiana and sure would like to see all of you. We all love genealogy and the Library sure offers help, we all are celebrating our country's 250 Birthday and a good place to go and appreciate those that fought for our freedom, than the Ft. Wayne Veterans National Museum and Shrine.

06/18/2026

The Elkhart County Genealogical Society are cancelling their Saturday June 20, 2026, due to a family death and other personal problems. We will be back in July. Please don't forget our Bus trip in August, reserve your seat as soon as possible. Thank you

06/08/2026

Come join us for our Saturday June 20th monthly meeting and program. Our meeting starts at 10:30 A. M. at the Bristol Public LIbrary , Bristol , Indiana and is free and open to the public.

Martha Owens is the Heritage Collection Manager of the ELC Heritage Collection and loves to talk about family history and helping others discover theirs. When she is not falling down the rabbit holes researching her family history , you can find her talking about Nappanee's rich history.

Learn more about the genealogy resources offered by the ELC Heritage Collection that focuses on local and regional families, offering access to census records, vital records, newspapers, directories, photographs, amd specialized indexes unique to the Nappanee area, with knowledgeable staff to guide your research, the ELC Heritage Collection is the perfect place to being ---or deepen--- your family history journey and connect with the generations who came before you.

Come join us for this bus trip, we always have a great time. August will soon be here, so reserve your seat now .
06/01/2026

Come join us for this bus trip, we always have a great time. August will soon be here, so reserve your seat now .

Address

PO Box 623
Bristol, IN
46507

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15748481623

Website

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