TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City Area District Library has digitized over a century’s worth of marriage, birth, and death records from Immaculate Conception Church in Peshawbestown for genealogy research.

As part of TADL’s efforts to increase access to material, the library released a collection of 18 PDF documents scanned from three reels of microfilm containing various archival records collected by the Immaculate Conception Church, also known as St. Kateri Tekakwitha or the Immaculate Conception Indian Church of Peshawbestown, dating from 1850-1953.

The digital copies were created from a microfilm copy that was donated by Northwestern Michigan College in the spring of 2020. All the original records are privately held by the Diocese of Gaylord and are not open to the public without permission.

“To make these records publicly available is very exciting,’’ said Michele Howard, director of TADL.

Before digitization, the process of going through the reels was incredibly time consuming, and would require an individual to go reel by reel, explained Howard. This format makes them available anytime, anywhere with working internet, and that she hopes this helps “connect the community with more resources.”

Adult Services Coordinator and project lead Melissa McKenna said the idea of formatting them into digital copies was quite simple. “They’re not our records,” she said, adding that it’s important for the families to have ownership of their own history.

The project is a close partnership between the library and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, and both Howard…