Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor

Bloomington

Monroe County, Indiana




    Located an hour southwest of Indianapolis, 2 hours northwest of Louisville, 2 hours west of Cincinnati, and 4 hours southeast of Chicago, the City of Bloomington is nestled amid the rolling wooded hills of southern Indiana.

    Many people believe that the first settlers in about 1815, selected the name of Bloomington based on the breathtaking blooms that adorn southcentral Indiana each Spring. Who has not noticed the endless spray of purple and white flowers that cover the hillsides each Spring when the Rosebud and Dogwood trees come back to life? And these are followed each year by the unparalleled frangrance of lilac and, then, honeysuckle. And the wooded beauty continues into the city, as Bloomington has been designated a "tree city" for many years.

    Home to the main campus of Indiana University, Bloomington is filled with fascinating diversions ranging from opera stars of the world to the Little 500 bicycle races. Or, catch "Hoosier Hysteria" over Indiana University basketball, even though our infamous chair-throwing coach, Bobbie Knight, is no longer here. You can enjoy live theatre, seasonal festivals, and art galleries.

    For a quieter activity, you can enter the building where Hoagy Carmichael wrote, Stardust, or visit Hoagy's grave off of West 5th Street. Then you might drive through the locations where the movies, Breaking Away (1979), Viper (1987), and The Redemption (2001) were filmed. Rock n roll icon, John Mellencamp, also lives here.

    From the world-renowned Kinsey Institute for Sex Research, which was home base for the noted researcher, Alfred Kinsey, to the Lilly Library, Bloomington holds one-of-a-kind treasures that would usually be expected in much larger cities. The new WonderLab science museum for children also fascinates adult visitors. The Monroe County Historical Society not only features displays of local history, but also has a shop that sells a variety of local genealogy books and other items relating to local culture.

    Then, there are the surrounding resources. A 25-minute drive East of Bloomington will take you to Nashville, a town in scenic Brown County that carries out the theme of early-settlement even in the design of the local restaurants and service stations. If that's not rustic enough, try the smaller towns in Brown County, such as Gnawbone, Indiana. A 15-minute drive north of Bloomington takes you to Morgan-Monroe State Forest, while 15-minutes east gets you Yellowood State Forest, and 20 minutes west takes you to McCormick's Creek State Park. Minutes south of Bloomington you will find Lake Monroe, Indiana's largest lake, as well as Hoosier National Forest. Continue south for another 40 minutes and visit historic French Lick and West Baden, once spas for the rich and famous and now being renovated to restore their glory. And all of this is in addition to the network of city and county parks.

    Given the University's influence, Bloomington is a rather transient city, with many residents coming from somewhere else. In fact, our residents come from all over the world! Cultural diversity is one of Bloomington's greatest strengths.

    But, those of us who are natives ("townies" or "stonies") know the true treasures of this region -- such as the hot spots for finding morels (a.k.a. honeycomb mushrooms) in the spring, the unmarked waterfall at Cascades Park, Stipp Cemetery with it's scarey legends, persimmons that rippen for pudding in the fall, structures still standing that were part of the underground railroad in the 1800's, John Cougar Mellencamp's "little pink house," and a maze of local caves. We know that Greene County to the west has about as many scenic vistas as the renowned Brown County to the east, but without the crowds and traffic (but, of course, also without the charming log and clapboard specialty shops and ol' time food that typify Brown County to the east).

    And so it is, many Bloomington cultures, side by side and interspersed. You can eat at a Japanese or Ethiopian restaurant at the same time that kitchens across town have the sweet smell of buttermilk biscuit or cornbread made from generations-old receipes from south-central Indiana. French pastries are not hard to find here, but neither is the taste of freshly-cranked homemade ice cream in the summer time.

    Welcome to Bloomington and scenic Monroe County.

    Provided below are links to other pages about Bloomington, as well as information that may help you search for your Bloomington area ancestors and kin.


Monroe County Historical Society
Office, Museum, and Genealogy Library

202 East Sixth Street
Bloomington, IN 47408

Telephone: (812) 332-2517
Fax: (812) 355-5593
Library: (812) 355-5588

Web site: http://www.kiva.net/~mchm/monroe.html



Indiana Room
(Genealogy Collections)

Monroe County Public Library

303 East Kirkwood Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47408

Indiana Room Telephone: (812) 349-3080
Web site: http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/indiana_room/indiana_room_home.html



Cities, Towns and Villages of Monroe County, Indiana
          • Bloomington
          • Chapel Hill
          • Clear Creek
          • Dolan
          • Ellettsville
          • Elwren
          • Fairfax
          • Handy
          • Harrodsburg
          • Hindustan
          • Kirksville
          • Modesto
          • New Unionville
          • Sanders
          • Smithville
          • Stanford
          • Stinesville
          • Unionville
          • Victor
          • Yellowstone


Monroe County, Indiana has eleven townships
          • Bean Blossom
          • Benton
          • Bloomington
          • Clear Creek
          • Indian Creek
          • Perry
          • Richland
          • Salt Creek
          • Polk
          • Van Buren
          • Washington


Other Counties Adjacent to Monroe County, Indiana
          • Morgan County (to the North)
          • Lawrence County (to the South)
          • Greene County (to the West)
          • Owen County (to the West)
          • Brown County (to the East)
          • Jackson County (to the South-East)


MONROE LIST SERVER

    "Monroe County, Indiana" has been added to the lists at Rootsweb.

    To subscribe, send a message to INMONROE-L-request@rootsweb.com. Be sure to put ONLY the word "subscribe" (without the quotation marks) in the body of the message and don't put anything on the subject line.


Office of Monroe County Clerk
(marriages and court records)
P.O. Box 547
Bloomington, IN, 47404
Telephone: (812) 349-2614


Monroe County Health Department
(birth and death records)
119 West Seventh Street
Bloomington, IN 47404
Telephone: (812) 349-2543


Office of Monroe County Recorder
(land records)
Courthouse
Bloomington, IN 47401
Telephone: (812) 349-2520
















Copyright 1996-2006, Granduncle Mark
(Mark Ellsworth Hickman, PhD)



Granduncle Mark's Genealogy Parlor

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