Eddie, Speaker we had once at monthly genealogy meeting had been to Wisconsin searching the Draper Papers for her ancestors. Draper was hired by a wealthy publisher to travel the United States and document live historical individuals. The papers never were published and ended up in Wis U. They have been microfilmed but not indexed. SOooooo, Our speaker and her husband spend nearly a full week going through the films one by one. Good Luck & God Bless, Skip

Actually, as Edie indicates, some of the papers have been indexed. The papers have been broken down into 45 categories, as follows: A George M. Bedinger Papers B Draper's Life of Boone C Border Forays E Brady and Wetzel Papers F-G Joseph Brant Papers H Daniel Brodhead Papers J George Rogers Clark Papers K George Rogers Clark Miscellany L Jonathan Clark Papers M William Clark Papers N William Croghan Papers O Daniel Drake Papers P Draper's Biographical Sketches Q Draper's Historical Miscellanies R Draper's Memoranda Books S Draper's Notes T Thomas Forsyth Papers U Frontier Wars Papers V Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina Papers W Josiah Harmer Papers X William Henry Harrison Papers Y Thomas S. Hinde Papers Z Illinois Papers AA William Irvine Papers BB Simon Kenton Papers CC Kentucky Papers EE Mecklenburg Declaration HH Mecklenburg Declaration Miscellanies JJ Newspaper Extracts KK North Carolina Papers LL Paris Documents at Albany MM Robert Pattern Papers NN Pittsburgh and Northwest Virginia Papers OO Pension Statements PP John and James Potter Papers QQ William Preston Papers RR Randolph-Nevada Papers SS David Shepherd Papers TT South Carolina Papers UU South Carolina in the Revolution Miscellanies VV Thomas Sumter Papers WW John Cleves Symmes Papers XX Tennessee Papers YY Tecumseh Papers ZZ Virginia Papers The following Calendars (Indices) have been created: The Preston & Virginia Papers, Vol. 1 (covers sectons ?? and ZZ) Calendar of the Kentucky Papers, Vol. 2 (covers section CC) Calendar of the Tennessee & King's Mountain Papers, Vol. 3 (covers sections XX and ??) Calendar of the George Rogers Clark Papers, Vol. 4 (covers sections J and K?) Calendar of the Thomas Sumter Papers, Vol. 5 (covers section VV) Calendar of the Frontier Wars Papers, Vol. 6 (covers section U) That's it as far as I know. The breakdowns are not always clean. For example, I found material on SWVA in the Tennessee papers. Once you have the reference, you have to find a library that has the microfilm rolls to read the actual documents and the writing can be pretty hard to read. But, it's like a treasure trove of interesting information about our SWVA ancestors- including narratives and genealogies. You could probably spend a lifetime going through the information in those files and discover something new every day. Phil "Clair D. \"Skip\" Whitlam" wrote: > Eddie, > Speaker we had once at monthly genealogy meeting had been to Wisconsin > searching the Draper Papers for her ancestors. > Draper was hired by a wealthy publisher to travel the United States and > document live historical individuals. > > The papers never were published and ended up in Wis U. They have been > microfilmed but not indexed. SOooooo, > Our speaker and her husband spend nearly a full week going through the > films one by one. > > Good Luck & God Bless, > > Skip > > ==== SW_VA Mailing List ==== > #3 Support the fight against unrequested junk e-mail (SPAM). > Visit the webpage at: http://www.cauce.org/ > -sysop

I have access to the Draper Manuscripts on microfilm at the Marshall University Library in Huntington, WV. I am almost certain that I remember that there is a book that accompanies the microfilmed collection that is helpful in finding what one needs. Also the microfilmed collection is available through your local LDS FHL. I just checked on their website and found that the information that is put forth to help one order the right films is quite helpful. Give it a try. Marsha in WV