Drop by and discover your ancestors' -- and your -- secret, adventurous past. Who knew family could be so interesting?
P.S. Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest Online rely upon digitized genealogical and historical records preserved in archives. Our promo trailer above honors all such archives for their important preservation of our historical heritage.
The Library now subscribes to Ancestry Library Edition (ALE), an online genealogical research database from ProQuest. If you plan to research your family tree, then you'll want to use this service.
Now Available at MPL (Onsite Use Only)
ProQuest has a short video that explains ALE in a nutshell.
Ancestry Library Edition
Two-Minute Promo Video
by ProQuest
Now that the Library has database accessibility, patrons will be able to log-into Ancestry.com to do genealogy research. There are some important rules, however:
MPL patrons may ONLY log-into Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) from the Library's campus. So there is no remote access available.
The good news is that you may log-into ALE using your wireless device (laptop or notebook computer or other web-browsing gadget), but, again, you must connect while you are physically at the Library.
ALE will also be available at the Library's computer lab work stations and on the Indiana Room public PC.
If you need remote accessibility, the Library also offers Heritage Quest Online (HQ), another popular genealogy database. You may access that anywhere you have an Internet connection. All you need is your MPL-issued Evergreen Indiana library card (or MPL Access library card). Click the icon below to jump to Heritage Quest's log-in screen.
Click Logo to Log-in
Heritage Quest Online
Two-Minute Tutorial by ProQuest
FREE ONLINE TRAINING WEBINARS & LIBGUIDES
Learning how to use Ancestry Library Edition or Heritage Quest Online is easy. ProQuest offers FREE online training webinars.
The Library will also have free bookmarks with quick tips and strategies you may use to enhance your ALE research.
You may also ask the MPL Indiana Room Historian to assist you. That's me. I will be happy to help.
Mooresville Public Library has a History Diggers group. Patrons in grades K-6 learn how to make historical research fun. On December 3, 2012, our History Diggers will make their own state or town flag designs and will uncover answers to many popular local history questions. You, too, can play along! We have a list of questions (click images below to enlarge) for our history diggers. Mooresville mysteries to be solved!
The key to using the blog as a local historical research tool is your command of the search line. In the upper left-hand corner of the blog, there is a search line. Our handy red arrow illustrates.
Click Image to Bigify
If you're looking for specific information about a particular place, person, or thing (nouns, in a word), type in your search word(s). For example, if you want to learn about any dry goods stores that operated in downtown Mooresville, say, a century ago, try out dry goods downtown in the search line. If you'd like to dig out the history about songs written in praise of Mooresville (or the people who settled around there nearly 200 years ago), try Mooresville song. Interested in the history of hospitals in Mooresville? Search for Mooresville hospital. You will find answers! See how much fun digging for local history can be?
Local history "treasure trove" videos. Our playlist is below. Click it, and the videos play! Amazing thing, technology. (Click the "next" button on the player below to jump to the next video in the playlist.)
Suppose, for instance, you'd like to know more about the history of the Mooresville Sanitarium. Click the next button on the player above until you reach the video that talks about it. Easy as pie! But you'd have to talk to Miss Meg and Miss Rachel about that.
2022 UPDATE: The History Diggers group has been discontinued at the library.
UPDATE: Mooresville (Indiana) Public Library (MPL) revamped its website several times over the years. This blog post refers to the 2012 upgrade. The links have been updated to reflect the current version (as of February, 2025) of the library's website.
In August, 2012, MPL launched its new website. Recently, the Indiana Room and Local History web pages were updated and expanded. Click the images below to go directly to those web pages.
MPL has an extensive collection of old photographs from Mooresville and the surrounding area in its Indiana Room. Our promo trailer below gives a glimpse. Click the play button (in the center of the image below) to start the video.
The Library has just made a promo trailer for 2012 Banned Books Week,
which is September 30 through October 6, and which this year features a
virtual read-out of banned books. It is the 30th anniversary of BBW,
and this year's theme celebrates "30 years of liberating literature."
For more information, visit the American Library Association (ALA) website.
