Projects for Marion County

Here is a list of current projects that I am orchestrating. If you can help by contributing to one or more of these, that would be great. If you decide to work on a project, please contact me so that I can update this page to prevent duplication of efforts. Thanks so much for helping this site become a useful tool for those interested in genealogy for Marion County, Iowa.

Build an index to the obituaries found in the newspaper Pella Chronicle (including various predecessors). This involves going to http://pella.advantage-preservation.com to find the newspaper online. This site has the years 1855 through 2011 (with earlier ones to be added soon). If you would like to help, check out the details.
Transcribe the burial records for Oakwood Cemetery in Pella. While there is already a limited transcription of one set of records for this cemetery here, most of these do not include the more detailed information that is listed in the burial records books that the cemetery uses. The pages of these burial records books have been scanned are currently being entered into a database that merges the records here with the books. This typically includes death date, age, burial location, sometimes birth place or residence and sometimes family names.
Work on transcribing the book Souvenir History of Pella. This is a book that was written about Pella in about 1922 and has quite a bit of history. It is in the public domain now and can be downloaded page by page. If you would like to help, check out the details. Also, see what is done so far.
Work on proof-checking the transcriptions of the book Souvenir History of Pella. This is a book that was written about Pella in about 1922 and has quite a bit of history. The previous project has its focus on downloading the pages and transcribing (via OCR) but these pages need a final proof-reading. If you would like to help, check out the details.
There are also a number of general ideas for help. Can you connect with any of these?