Ohio Genealogical Society’s Jefferson County Chapter Holds Open House
Christopher Dacanay Trending
Roughly one week after purchasing and installing new industrial shelves to store its millions of pages of records, the Jefferson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society invited visitors in for an open house Sunday.
Several local, volunteer genealogists were on hand to answer questions, help visitors with their research projects and give tours of the chapter's building, located at 501 Fifth Street, Stratton.
Volunteers held hourly drawings for a chance to win a free one-year membership in the chapter, a free research query and a copy of local author Robert Richardson's book "Tilton Territory." In addition, visitors received a complimentary genealogy gift bag on their way out.
Located in a former Nazarene church, the chapter's center is home to an extensive collection of records on loan permanently from the Jefferson County court system. With more than 2 million pages in total, the collection includes vital statistics like brith and death certificates, grave registrations, naturalization records, cemetery records, war records from the Revolutionary War up to World War I, coroner's reports, inventory lists, wills and much more.
For individuals wishing to learn more about their ancestors, the chapter helps with researching records to put fill in the blanks or put more "meat on the bones" of those individuals' life stories, said Flora VerStraten-Merrin, who has been the chapter's president for 21 years.
"Genealogy is more than just the beginning and the end. It's the dash in between," VerStraten-Merrin said.
The chapter is a nonprofit organization, propped up entirely by volunteer efforts and donations, VerStraten-Merrin said. The center is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday, with an additional 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on every first and fifth Thursday, as well as by appointment on Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Most of the chapter's collection was loaned by contract from the court system 12 years ago, through the late Judge Samuel Wagner Kerr. The records themselves date from the 1930s back to 1797, the founding year of Jefferson County. With the state of Ohio only dating back to 1803, some of the chapter's records predate the state itself.
Individuals from all over the US. make use of the the chapter's collection, sending requests for research on an individual -- in the digital age, correspondence is much more streamlined, allowing for communication over long distances near instantaneously, whereas inquiries used to be limited to letters.
A research request is $30 to pay the volunteers for the time, VerStraten-Merrin said. To save time, individuals can look at the chapter's spreadsheet of indexes, available for free on the chapter's website, http://www.jeffcochapter.com/, to find what it is they'd like accessed. Records themselves can also be viewed digitally for free on familysearch.org.
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the purpose of genealogical record keeping.
The Jefferson County chapter worked with FamilySearch to digitize its records, which are kept on FamilySearch's website. Missionary representatives from the website spent four years manually digitizing the records, with one couple staying for 18 months straight, VerStraten-Merrin said.
The chapter is chiefly concerned with making sure records are kept in more than one spot, in the event that an accident takes out one of them, VerStraten-Merrin said. Thus, the records can be accessed in person in Stratton or online through FamilySearch, which also keeps a physical copy in secure storage.
Gloria Dunlap Bandy was among visitors to the chapter Sunday. Currently living in Winona but having relatives in Jefferson County, Bandy heard about the open house through her local newspaper and decided to stop by.
Bandy was primarily interested in researching her grandmother, Jennie Garren, who was from the Stratton area. Bandy said she found good information during her visit and plans to come back to gain more.
Matt Detchon, vice president of the chapter, found out during the open house that he's distantly related to Bandy. Detchon, whose ancestors were involved in the founding of Bergholz, has been researching genealogy for 25 years, having gained an interest through a family tree club in middle school.
Detchon said genealogy is "like a jigsaw puzzle, (but) it doesn't really have an end. You just keep looking for the next piece."
The great thing about genealogy is it's "making history personal," Detchon said. That's especially helpful for youth, as it makes the information tangible and interesting. Getting more youth involved in history and genealogy is important as older generations pass away, he noted.
The chapter's secretary, Rena Glover Goss, is currently working on publishing her own book, written about a murder in her family that made daily news headlines between 1899 and 1900. Goss, who has family in Jefferson County, drives down from Hudson to spend time with the society -- an hour-and-a-half drive one way.
Goss has been actively volunteering with the chapter since 2014, but she's been a member for 30 years. Regarding her volunteer work, Goss said she appreciates helping people find the information they're looking for.
"It's a privilege to be able to share what you've learned through decades of research," Goss added.