Just after the fourth of July I went on a trip to Platteville. Again it was wonderful. The staff at Karrman are fabulous as are the staff at Platteville Public Library (65 Elm Street) a few blocks from the University. The public library has a small microfilm collection too. Here is what is available: Biographical record of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette counties Civil War Veterans 1890-1900 Grant County Census 1850-1920 except 1890 Grant County Witness 26 May 1859 - Dec 1906 Platteville Examiner 11 Feb 1858 - 27 May 1858 Platteville Independent American 11 Jan 1845 - 23 Oct 1857 Platteville Journal 22 Feb 1901 - Dec 1994 Platteville Witness 1907-1937 State Census for Grant County 1905 United Methodist Church of Platteville 1841-1943 ministerial records Wisconsin County Histories 1900 no. 85-86 Wisconsin Necrology 1846-1944 I met with the curator of the Mining Museum to see if she could help me with locating my ggg uncle's mines. And yes, she did by pointing me to the 1959 Geological Survey of the Upper Mississippi Valley Zinc-Lead District. From there she took me to a map of area mines and we located what I was seeking. There is also a book - A Tour Guide to the Mines of Lafayette County, published August 2001. It is designed as a road trip of old lead and zinc mining sites in the Benton, New Diggings, Lead and Shullsburg area. There are some great pictures, although most of the people are not identified. The spiral bound book ($15) is 60 pages written by Loren Farrey. He may be reached at (608) 429-9032. At Jeanne Stewart's suggestion I stayed at the Mound View Inn (608) 348-9518. It worked very well for me, was clean and quiet and I would definitely stay there again. The week was wonderful, locating graves and probate records which had eluded me on my previous visit. The courthouse in Lancaster is a great place to research, plenty of room, very new building, cool in the heat of summer, staff was helpful. On the way home I went to Galena, Illinois and located a marriage certificate. Staff at the courthouse were very accommodating. In Illinois there was no waiting period so many from Platteville went there to marry. Those records do not list the names of parents or other details as in the Wisconsin records. The history library did not open until 11 am so I did not wait to research there. >From there I went to Dubuque to visit the court house, library and the museum for naturalization records. While the courthouse had scads of records there was nothing I could use. The area was small and with four researchers it was almost at its maximum capacity. The library had all sorts of microfilm, two printers and three other viewers. I do not have a list of films and cannot recall what they had. There were five cabinets about 5 feet high. Enough film that I should have stayed another day to complete my search. They also had a good collection of city directories. When I finally found the river museum (next to a river boat casino and in an industrial district) the person with the naturalization records was out of the building and I was not permitted to search for anything myself. There was a form I could complete so I left a detailed message including my e-mail address. They contacted me about a week later and let me know there is one record which matched my criteria, but it is only listed in the index, they could not actually locate the record. The records in Iowa did not seem to have as much detail as those in Wisconsin. Eileen Lund-Johnson Saint Paul, Minnesota