The Fayette County Genealogical Society members celebrated the lives of their ancestors at their annual sharing night.
Members shared treasured family heirlooms which included family trees, pictures, family albums, an antique rolling pin owned and used by a great-grandmother, a treasured family trunk, and a family wall hanging written in German from the early 1800s.
Among those sharing were Edmond Rumer, who shared the story of his second great-grandfather on his mother’s side of the family, and William Goings, who had been a prisoner in the Andersonville Prison during the Civil War. The Goings had lived in the Milledgeville area in Fayette County.
Elizabeth Maust Taylor shared a newspaper article she had saved from her high school years. Betty Gray, a former president of the Society, organized a group of high school genealogists with the assistance of then-high school teachers Robert “Bob” Grim and Paul LaRue. Elizabeth belonged to this group called Genes for Jeans. Genes for Jeans had taken a field trip to the Good Hope Cemetery in Fayette County as shown in the Record-Herald article and pictures Elizabeth shared. Elizabeth stated that Betty Gray’s group had started her in a lifelong love for the study of genealogy.
The Society will conduct a Lineage Workshop in the Genealogy Department upstairs at the Carnegie Library in Washington Court House on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Society’s Lineage Committee will assist participants with applications for induction into the Lineage Societies within the Fayette County Genealogy Society. The three lineage societies available within the Society include First Families of Fayette County, open to individuals able to prove a direct ancestor(s) who lived in Fayette County by Dec. 31, 1820. The Century Family Society of Fayette County is open to individuals who can prove a direct ancestor(s) lived in Fayette County a hundred years ago. Individuals are eligible for the Civil War Families of Fayette County Society if an ancestor(s) served in the Civil War, the Union or the Confederacy, between April 12, 1861, and April 18, 1865, and lived in Fayette County or served out of Fayette County.
You may contact Lineage Chair Cathy Massie White, as listed, for forms and rules or obtain them at the workshop. Members and any interested persons are invited to attend.
The next regular meeting of the Society will be held Monday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. in the downstairs meeting room of the Economic Development Building at 101 E. East St. in Washington Court House. Kelli Bergheimer from Powell, Ohio will present “What You Should Know About the Five DNA Testing Companies.” Kelli is a writer, teacher, editor, national genealogical speaker, and DNA expert. Kelli holds a bachelor’s in biology, a master’s in education, curriculum and instruction and a master’s in business management.
For additional information concerning these meetings, the Society, or membership, please contact Cathy Massie White, lineage chair, at 740-333-7227 or [email protected], or Sue Gilmore, president, at 614-864-9609 or [email protected], or Peggy Lester, research chair, at 740-495-5720 or [email protected].
