What's New 2020-2021

What's New Archives

31 December 2021 Remainder of the Biographies section has been updated and miscellaneous errors/omissions corrected.

4 December 2021 Reorganized and reformated individual biographies and diaries in the Biographies section.

2 December 2021 Added Urbandale Class of 1951 photo with printed names, found on the site following the loss of the previous County Coordinator. No info could be found regarding the contributor, and it's unknown whether this photo had previously been online.

30 November 2021 Added 5 Unknown Photos found on the site following the loss of the previous County Coordinator. It's currently unknown whether any of the photos were previously online, and we have no info regarding the contributor(s).

29 November 2021 Reformated and updated the 1880 History of Polk County Biographies, correcting miscellaneous errors and omissions, including some biographies that had been skipped. Bios for surnames A through E are now complete.

23 November 2021 Added vintage view of Drake Stadium contributed by the Cass County Genealogical Society.

22 November 2021 Added vintage view of Woodland Cemetery Entrance and began restoring vintage photos of Des Moines, most of which have been offline since at least 2017.

10 September 2021 Restored Part I of American Patriotism, offline since 2017. Special thanks to Mark Christian for his assistance. More coming soon!

8 August 2021 Began reorganizing the vintage postcard section. Numerous additional postcards contributed by David Shedlock have been added. More to come!

24 June 2021 Began restoring the individual pages and images from the 1895 Des Moines Illustrated Souvenir, offline since 2017.

2 June 2021 Restored Unknown Frank and Elenora (Shuck) DeSomber Family Photos, offine since at least 2017. Also added First Des Moines Uniformed Policemen (1878), which apparently was contributed circa 2007, but has been offline for some time.

13 May 2021 Added clarification to the Schools page regarding Des Moines West High School (a.k.a. West Des Moines High School, the predecessor to Roosevelt High School and with no connection to the separate city of West Des Moines).

6 May 2021 Restored the Waukonsa 1885 Delinquent Tax List, which has been offline since at least 2017.

3 May 2021 Restored the remaining Polk County Resident sections from the 1891 Bushnell Directory (N-O-P, S and T-U-V). All County Residents sections have been restored.

30 April 2021 Restored the Polk County Resident "Q" and "R" Surnames sections from the 1891 Bushnell Directory.

29 April 2021 Restored Night in Des Moines, a 1912 photo essay booklet containing wonderful views of Des Moines at night. Also restored the Polk County Resident "M" and "Mc" Surnames sections from the 1891 Bushnell Directory.

28 April 2021 Restored the Hopkins Grove Cemetery list, history and maps, offline since 2017.

26 April 2021 The Polk County Resident "A" through "L" Surnames and "W" through "Z" Surnames sections from the 1891 Bushnell Directory are now back online. Special thanks to Mark Christian for his assistance with recovery of "J" and "K".

17 April 2021 The complete 1860 Des Moines City Census is now back online.

15 April 2021 All the Early Pioneer Photos pages are now back online.

10 April 2021 Restored missing pages 202-205 from the Des Moines City "F" Residents section of the 1891 Bushnell Directory.

9 April 2021 Began restoring the Pioneer Photos page, offline since at least 2017. The first eight pages, Alexander-Harris are now back online. Remaining pages will be restored in coming days (those page links will fail in the interim)

8 April 2021 Restored the Title Page, Introduction and Page Headings Index from the 1895 Des Moines Illustrated Souvenir, also offline since 2017. Individual pages will be restored and linked in the coming days.

7 April 2021 Restored the American Patriotism title page and Preface section, and 1860 Des Moines City Census, Pages 51-60, all offline since 2017.

3 April 2021 Dusting off more treasures from the Polk IAGenWeb attic! Also now back online: Views of Des Moines circa 1911.

31 March 2021 Restored the "E" Surname County Residents section from the 1891 Bushnell Directory, also offline since 2017.

28 March 2021 Restored the 1880 County Poor Farm & Insane Asylum Census, 1900 County Insane Asylum Census, and 1895 Fragment transcriptions, also offline since 2017.

27 March 2021 Restored the 1870 County Poor House Census transcription, also offline since 2017.

26 March 2021 Restored the 1870 Mortality Census transcription, which has been offline since the new website design was implemented in 2017.

15 March 2021 Added Index of Polk County Marriages 1881-1900.

24 February 2021 Added G.A.R. Dorr Post 62 to Military page.

24 August 2020 Added more misc obits to Obits page

21 August 2020 Added more misc obits to Obits page

20 August 2020 Added Lester B. Cook Recognition to Military

20 August 2020 Added Obituaries (new section)

20 August 2020 Added Lester B. Cook to Obits page

8 July 2020 Completed Class listing through 1950

28 Mar 2020 Added 1880 History of Polk County Biographies through letter C, to Biographies and Family Stories page

13 Mar 2020 Added 1880 History of Polk County Biographies through letter B, to Biographies and Family Stories page

12 Mar 2020 Added Funerals & Burials from McLarens Funeral Home to Funeral Homes page

11 Mar 2020 Added Cremations - Placement Unknown to Vitals

10 Mar 2020 Updated information on bio for Thomas J. Jones, M.D.adding information on Iowa Eclectic Physicians & Drake University

8 Mar 2020 Updated the Iowa Gravestone Photo Project Index to from 2018.

18 Jan 2020 Added Items Looking for a Home to Research page.