Local History

LOCAL HISTORY
The library has a room dedicated to local history – the City of Hudsonville and the surrounding area.  It includes photo albums, family memoirs, yearbooks, obituaries and other newspaper clippings, as well as a number of books and maps.  Many of the books can circulate and most items are able to be copied or scanned.  Feel free to drop in and browse, or if you have specific questions, call or email us and we will try to help you find what you need.

HISTORY DONATIONS
Donations of all kinds that have to do with our local history are always welcome.  We have received everything from a purple heart medal to a celebration candle shaped like an onion!    If you are donating an item that can be digitized easily, consider also donating money to do that.  Just for example, it costs $75 to load an entire yearbook, scrapbook, or photo album.

DIGITIZATION
Available to our patrons are the Michigan Genealogy Web Resources: http://www.wmgs.org/links.htm . Look here for birth records, obituaries, histories, schools, newspapers, maps, and more!
Furthermore, through a grant from the Southeast Ottawa Community Foundation, we have begun to digitize some of our local history items.  They are listed below and are keyword searchable, as well as downloadable.

OTTAWA COUNTY GENEALOGY WEBSITE OR “GENWEB” http://www.migenweb.net/ottawa/

This is a wonderful source of information for anyone doing research about people in Ottawa County.  A chart below shows what categories of information they have: