Imagine for a moment that you’re researching one of your ancestral lines and you’ve hit the proverbial brick wall. You believe you’ve looked at every possible record and exhausted every possible resource. But when you review your notes, you realize you have overlooked an obvious resource—the genealogical society.
Genealogical societies have long been the backbone of progress in the field. Many began as informal clubs that were comprised of friends who had a common interest, but they later evolved into local, county, and state societies. These societies are excellent resources of genealogical source materials, educational opportunities, and special services.
Publications
The most common resource genealogical societies provide is the newsletter. Most societies offer a monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly newsletter as a benefit of membership. These newsletters are a treasure trove of materials about an area. Articles range from Bible records and newspaper abstracts to biographies and tax lists. In addition to publishing articles and source materials, many societies publish queries, which provide an excellent forum for researchers to find others who are researching a common line.
Some genealogical societies have taken publication to the next level and have published books about an area. The subjects of these books are nearly as varied as the topics in the newsletters. The most common are vital records abstracts, cemetery readings, census indexes, and will abstracts.
Web Sites
Like other aspects of genealogy, many societies have a presence on the Internet. Society-maintained Web sites are as varied as the societies themselves. Some are very basic and only include information on how to contact the society. Other sites are extensive and contain source materials, queries, and old photographs from the area. Some can even be navigated with self-contained search engines.
Some societies also maintain mailing lists and chat rooms. Like the query section of the society newsletter, they offer researchers a chance to connect with others.
Knowledge of Records
Genealogical societies often have the most intimate knowledge of the records in an area, and they know what gaps exist in the records due to courthouse fires, floods, etc. Societies also know about accessibility to the records—which ones are held locally, which have been moved to archives, and which are closed to the public.
If you are seeking obscure sources, check with the local society. Perhaps there is a gap in the deed records. The county recorder may not be able to help you find alternate sources, but the genealogical society, being more in tune with a genealogist’s needs, will often suggest searching tax records or ditch and water rights records. A local church may tell you they don’t have the records you need, but the genealogy society may suggest that you look at a diary kept by one of the church’s ministers.
Collections
Whether housed in a public library or a facility maintained by the society, most societies have a research collection. Of course, collections will vary in size and scope from society to society, but they often contain source materials such as census records, newspapers, and microfilms of vital records. And don’t overlook the possibility of finding that long sought-after family history. Society libraries are favored by authors and compilers as repositories for published genealogies.
Many societies also maintain special collections, such as a surname file, a collection of ancestral charts (and in today’s computer age, GEDCOM files), and obituary files, whether actual clippings or an index. Societies such as the Ohio Genealogical Society even encourage researchers to contribute photocopies of family Bible records.
Growing in popularity are the "First Family" or "Pioneers of" programs, which serve as a method of honoring early ancestors and as an opportunity for collecting information. These lineage societies are often sponsored by the genealogical society in the area and provide another resource for researchers. There may be a body of documented research on your family just waiting for you to find it.
Education
Second only to researching, a genealogist’s favorite activity is getting together with other genealogists. Genealogical societies provide this opportunity at their meetings.
Whether they take place monthly, quarterly, or annually, society meetings serve many purposes in addition to giving researchers a chance to meet and tend to the business of the society. Society meetings frequently feature a guest speaker. On any given night, genealogical societies across the nation are holding meetings with topics as diverse as beginning research, using the Internet, and Mennonite research.
Some societies expand these educational opportunities by hosting special workshops and seminars. These one-day or multi-day events may feature nationally known speakers, panel discussions, and exhibitors.
Special Projects
How often have we heard the expression "many hands make light work"? Some projects call for "many hands," and the genealogical society is often the group to get it done. With volunteers from the society, many projects that could not be completed by one person are accomplished.
Examples of this type of project are the official or unofficial adoption of numerous cemeteries, or large indexing and abstracting projects. The Civil War Soldiers System, the project with the goal of creating an every-name index to the participants in the American Civil War—Union and Confederate, Army and Navy—could not have been accomplished without the work of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the dozens of genealogical societies that worked on the project.
Special Services
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to complete all of your research on your own. Genealogical societies can help. Many will conduct research, either free or for a nominal fee. If they don’t do research, or if the research you need is outside the scope of what they can do, many societies will provide a list of researchers in the area.
Societies provide many other types of special services. One example is the Oregon Genealogical Society’s program of visiting the grave of an ancestor buried in Lane County, placing flowers, and taking a picture of the gravesite for a small fee.
How to Find a Society
The Internet is an excellent source to find a genealogical society in your area of interest. The FGS Society Hall allows the user to search for genealogical and historical societies by state, keyword, or zip code. The keyword search is especially helpful when looking for ethnic, religious, or other non-geographic societies.
Cyndi's List is another site to review for a list of societies. They can be found under each state/country category as well as other categories.
For those that prefer their lists to be on paper, Elizabeth Petty Bentley’s Genealogist’s Address Book and Juliana Smith’s The Family Historian’s Address Book are good resources to find the needed society.
Using these guides and finding the society that meets your research needs can be the first step in chipping away at that brick wall problem. The resources that the society makes available to its members and the public can be the blow that knocks it over altogether.
Amy Johnson Crow, CG, is a professional lecturer and genealogist who specializes in Ohio research. She is a recording secretary of the Ohio Genealogical Society, chairperson of First Families of Ohio, and previous editor of the Ohio Civil War Genealogy Journal.
Ancestry Magazine
