Fall Membership Meeting Coming Up

Our next membership meeting will be held on Sunday, October 22nd, 2:00 PM at the museum. Elections will be held to compose the board of directors for the year 2018. All board positions except for two director slots are to be voted on. Nominations can be made all the way up to election time, so if you have an interest in helping guide our society or know someone who might be interested, be sure to contact us or you may place the name in nomination at the meeting prior to the election. Only paid members are allowed to vote at the election. All positions are one year terms except for directors which serve for three years.

During the meeting, improvements, society activities and projects will be discussed. The program for the meeting will be given by local historian Jon Musgrave and the seasonal topic will be “The Scary Bits of Southern Illinois History: Witches, Haunts and the Road of the Werewolf.” As always, feel free to bring any “show and tell” items of historical or genealogical interest to the society and share them with us.

As a reminder, the museum will switch from operating six days a week to our winter hours of operation, Saturdays only, from after this Thanksgiving through the beginning of March next spring.

Delayed Birth Records, 6 Volume Set, Indexes added

Indexes to the series of books, Delayed Birth Records, Prior to 1917, Williamson County, Volumes 1 to 6 have been added to a new category, Misc. Court Records, and have been added to the 8 Volume set of Naturalization Petitions and Records on our Library Resource Indexes Page.

The Delayed birth records were transcribed from county records by Billie Jean Burke, Dolores Thetford and Jean Jones of the Williamson County Historical Society. Combined with the naturalization records, the combined list has over 26,600 entries.

New Display System for Framed Pictures Installed

We recently installed a new framed picture display system in our display room at the museum. In order to avoid putting a large number of holes in the wall, this system was purchased and installed. It consists of a rail system high on the wall with a moveable cable system that moves left and right. Once the cable is fixed left and right the framed pictures can be moved up and down as needed on the cable giving the ability to position pictures anywhere in two dimensions on the wall.

Several New Index References Added

Indexes to the following reference books have been added to our Master Newspaper Index

  • 1894-95, Events in Egypt, Helen Lind, (Marion, Herrin, Carterville news extracts)
  • 1919, Event in Egypt, Helen Lind, (Marion, Herrin, Carterville news extracts)
  • 1921 Bits of News Vol. 2, Marion Daily Republican, by Mary Joe Moore
  • 1922 Bits of News Vol. 3, Marion Daily Republican, by Mary Joe Moore
  • 1923 Bits of News Vol. 4, Marion Daily Republican, by Mary Joe Moore
  • 1924 Bits of News Vol. 5, Marion Daily Republican, by Mary Joe Moore
  • 1925 Bits of News Vol. 6, Marion Daily Republican, by Mary Joe Moore