ACHS Digital Collections

Presenting a digital collection is challenging. Images may represent various sources so categorization often is subjective. ACHS has tried to make it as simple as possible to find what you want. Each location (county, township, city or village) has up to four separate types of images: documents, news clippings, photos and postcards. Each set of images has a companion “Captions/Descriptions” PDF providing detailed explanations of the photos that include names of identified individuals. This Digital Collection overview page has five groupings:

• Arenac County items may (1) cover a general or unspecified locale (like snowplowing) or they (2) highlight single-subject content of cultural or social interest (like a traveling dance instructor).
• Township categories present images known to have occurred within the township or pertaining to township individuals or families.
• City/Village contains images about individuals, families, events or buildings in that municipality or settlement. Non-incorporated or defunct locales will be grouped within the photos of the township in which they are located. (Example: Perkins (renamed Sterling) will be found in Sterling images, defunct Odgen will be in Adams Twp images.) These locales included in township collections may or may not have images.
• Glass negatives of the Point Lookout area by turn-of-the-19th century photographer Bruce VanHorn.
• Unidentified photos with potential historical or genealogical value that just may answer a genealogist or historian’s question. 

When using the site search function to find photo subjects, the results will take you to either a digital collection page with PDFs or directly to a PDF. The purpose of the PDF is to describe the photos in a specfic gallery. Please look at a digital collection’s companion PDF if a search leads you to the collection page. If your result goes directly to a PDF, the title of that page will tell you which digital collection it’s referencing.

We encourage you to help preserve family histories; if you can identify faces, names or places, please contact us with your contribution.

PLEASE READ: Although these images occur online, it doesn’t necessarily mean they can be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to publish these photos in any way that may break US copyright laws, please contact us. Read more about image copyright laws: “Legally Using Images” (CopyrightLaws.com) and “The Other (Non-copyright) Issue with Online Photographs that Nobody Talks About” (EvidenceExplained.com).