1853 Grenville Dodge Railroad Survey near Crescent
1853 Dodge Survey Party near Crescent
bigpigeon.us webpage Home > Resources > Web Resources, updated by RAC 14 Feb 2020.
Below you'll find a collection of links to web resources that I use in my research. From here you can also: Links to my own historical reports are distributed in different pages in this website.

Parts: 
  1. Pottawattamie County, Iowa on the Web
  2. Iowa History on the Web
  3. United States History on the Web
  4. Additional Big Pigeon Links Information

==> Part 1 -  Pottawattamie County, Iowa on the Web
​
​Pottawattamie County historical and genealogical research sites:
Pottawattamie County historical locations and museums:
Council Bluffs Historic Locations: Some Greater Omaha Area Historic Locations (all are a few miles west of the Big Pigeon area): Avoca Area Websites: ​
Pottawattamie County historical and biographical books: Commentary: 
  • Some on-line books at books.google.com are not available in their entirety.
  • The Field book consists of two volumes - Vol. 1 pp 1-562; vol. 2 pp. 566-1200, with an index at the end.There is also an on-line index to the Field books at https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE951186
  • Some excerpts from the above books are on the websites listed in the previous paragraph.

Directories for Pottawattamie County or for portions thereof: Commentary:
  • Some early Council Bluffs city directories also included a section for outlying areas. At a minimum this section gave for each rural family the head of household and post office. Many of these directories are available through the search feature at ancestry.com.
  • The 1929 Council Bluffs directory was on-line at distantcousin.com but no longer is accessible.

Pottawattamie County map from 1875 Andreas Historical Atlas of Iowa:  Commentary:
  • Scroll down the thumbnail column on right-hand side to access Map of Pottawattamie County.

Current Pottawattamie County Maps: Commentary:
  • Thanks to Dennis Weeks for producing the index map, which shows all townships and incorporated towns. A copy is in the page heading for the Local History page.

Other Sources: Commentary:
  • Neola was founded in 1869 but the Neola centennial book may cover the years 1882 -1982.
  • The Neola cemetery has two parts: The township cemetery and the St. Patrick’s cemetery, but both parts are treated together.

​Major On-line Pottawattamie County Vital Records Databases:
Below are major on-line databases containing information specific to past Pottawattamie County residents.  The sites listed elsewhere may have additional information.  This list is a summary and reflects my own interests, namely the early history of rural northwestern Pottawattamie County, Iowa. 
By vital records I include data such as the following:
  • birth, christening and confirmation records
  • marriage and divorce records
  • death, obituary and cemetery records
Commentary:
  • Most on-line vital records are indices containing only basic information.
  • findagrave often has more information such as obituaries, names of parents and spouses, or partial lists of siblings and children.
Indices courtesy of the Pottawattamie County Genealogy Society - rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iapcgs Commentary:
  • Find the index you’re looking for in the Quick Links portion of the landing page.
  • The Marriage Record Index contains Pottawattamie County Marriages recorded at Council Bluffs 1902-1940 and at Avoca 1885-1921.
  • The Marriage Record index is meant to be used in conjunction with the printed marriage indices mentioned in the following section. 
  • The Obituary Index covers years 1857 - 2014 and contains 236,392 listings. Unfortunately it does not include dates.
Indices courtesy of http://iagenweb.org/pottawattamie Commentary:
  • The above links take you to the first part of each index.

==> Part 2  - Iowa History on the Web

Iowa History and Genealogical Sites: Iowa Maps and Directories: Commentary:
  • Pottawattamie County information is mostly in Volume 3 of the Gazetteer.
Iowa Indices: Other Iowa Sources: Commentary: 
  • iowagravestones.org has photos of over a miliion gravestones in Iowa.

==> Part 3  - United States History on the Web

Free nation-wide historical data:
  • Selected newspapers from the Library of Congress, including the Omaha Bee (1872-1916) and Missouri Valley Times (1899-1920) - chroniclingamerica.loc.gov​

​Free nation-wide burial data: Commentary:
  • Findagrave currently contains about 130 million burial records, often with some biographical information and gravestone photos.
  • Billiongraves is free, but requires registration.

​==> Part 4 - Additional Big Pigeon Links Information

Miscellaneous Notes:
  • Despite the page name of Big Pigeon Links, this page can help those  doing historical or genealogical research for any area of Pottawattamie County, Iowa.  
  • This page focuses on Internet resources. There is a shorter Printed Resources companion page. 
  • Please notify me of broken links.
  • Aside from google.com, I believe that ancestry.com is the most-useful on-line research tool. Thus I have added a companion page, Ancestry.com Use, which contains links to the ancestry.com databases that I frequently use. There is a link to this companion page at the beginning of this page.