On Monday, Dec. 17, the Fayette County Genealogical Society held its annual holiday dinner at the at the Pinkerton House, 605 N. North St. in Washington Court House, with a delicious meal served by Jason Gilmore. The social hour began at 6:30 p.m. with dinner served at 7 p.m.
Members of the society and their guests enjoyed an evening of holiday games, the annual ornament exchange, and fellowship. The dinner was the last activity for the society for 2018.
The Fayette County Genealogical Society would like to announce its schedule for 2019. The society will open its 2019 season on March 18 when Paul LaRue, a local acclaimed retired social studies teacher, will return with a program entitled, “Past Glory: The lives of Ohio’s African American Civil War Veterans 1865-1915.” This a is a prequel to the program he presented to our society last year on our African-American WWI veterans.
On Monday, April 15, the president of the society in Fayette County, Sue Gilmore, will demonstrate to members and guests how to make a pictorial family tree and other genealogical gifts for your family.
Monday, May 20 will be the date of our annual Linage Society Dinner. Those individuals who have proven an ancestor(s) residing in Fayette County by Dec. 31, 1820 can be inducted into the First Family Society of Fayette County. Those proving an ancestor(s) living in Fayette County by Dec. 31, 1916 can be inducted into the Century Family Society. Those proving an ancestor(s) serving in the Civil War for the Union or the Confederacy between April 12, 1861 and April 18, 1865 can be inducted into the Civil War Family Society. Forms and rules can be obtained from the society.
On Monday, June 17, Nancy Ottoman from Pickerington will visiting the society for a presentation of different tombstones and the meanings of various symbols found on tombstones. Your walks through cemeteries should be more interesting after meeting Nancy.
For July the society is planning a tour of the Fayette County Museum and the Fayette County Court House with lunch locally. The time and date will be announced. This will be an excellent adventure and with a background and history to go with our family searches.
The date and time for our annual picnic for members and guests in August will also be announced as soon as final plans are made.
September will start a new if not the renewal of an annual event for the society. On Monday, Sept. 16, members and any guests will be encouraged to bring a family heirloom, artifact, family history story, story about the county, state or anything they feel will be of genealogical or historical interest to share with the group. These programs always prove to be very interesting and a true time of learning and sharing.
Kelli Bergheimer, DNA expert from Powell, will return on Monday, Oct. 21 for her third visit to our society. Kelli presents programs that help individuals in the use of DNA in genealogical searches and educates them in the understanding of DNA and how it relates to you, your family and your ancestors. We look forward to our continued work with Kelli.
All county genealogical societies are a part of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS), and on Monday, Nov. 18, our society will be visited by Russ Pollitt. Russ is the vice president of administration of the board of trustees of OGS and head of special subjects at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in the Department of Genealogy and History. He will be sharing his expertise with our members and guests.
This brings us back to our holiday dinner, which will be held the evening of Monday, Dec. 16, and will close the season of 2019 with details to be announced. We at the society are excited about our schedule of events for our members and hope members of the community will join as our program meetings are open to the public. All meetings unless otherwise announced take place in the meeting room at Carnegie Library at 127 S. North St. in Washington Court House at 7 p.m. Please enter the library on the Catholic church side of the building.
Membership dues for the society are $10 per individual or household. The society is announcing a change in the payment of dues. Dues are now payable for all members by March 31 of each year instead of different pay dates for different members. As a transition period any member who paid dues between Oct. 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019, will have their dues payable March 31, 2020. Dues paid on or after March 31, 2019 or in any subsequent years shall be payable the next March 31 regardless of when dues are paid. This will make paying dues simpler for members and bookkeeping will be better for our treasurer. Lifetime memberships are available and information is available from the society.
For any additional information about meetings, Linage Societies, or membership, contact Cathy Massie White at 740-333-7227 or [email protected] or Sue Gilmore at 614-864-9609 or [email protected]. We will publish updated articles throughout the year.
