Author: Sam

The Williamson County Historical Society held a fall membership meeting Sunday, October 22^nd, 2017 at the Williamson County Museum and Genealogy Library at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion. Society business and projects both completed, ongoing and upcoming were discussed. Elections for the 2018 board of directors was held. Elected to office were Sam Lattuca, President; Colleen Norman, Vice President; Helen Sutt Lind, 2^nd Vice President; Ursula Richey, Secretary; and Bob Jackson for Director. The position of Treasurer was unfilled.

The guest speaker was Jon Musgrave, local historian, who spoke about the scary bits of Southern Illinois found in history including the practice of witchcraft and superstition in the area’s early history.

Society member, Dolores Thetford, was inducted into the Society’s Honor Roll due to her dedicated service to the organization. Thetford joined the society in 1977 and has served as Treasurer for the last 17 years.

Planned renovations on areas of the museum were discussed and recent accessions to the museum were displayed. The museum and genealogy library are currently open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from 9:30 till 3 PM. After Thanksgiving it will reduce its hours over the winter due to heating costs down to Saturdays only until the beginning of March.

The indexes to five volumes of Williamson County marriages covering 1839 to 1902 have been added to the Misc. Court Records Index. Incuded are:

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.

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.

Ten new indexes have been added to our Library Resource Indexes:

• 1926 Bits of News Vol. 7, Marion Daily Republican
• 1927 Bits of News Vol. 8, Marion Daily Republican
• Naturalization Petitions and Records Volumes 1 through 8

All indexes are available form the Library Resource Indexes page

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.

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

With the recent completion and printing of the San Carlo Cemetery book, the index attached to the book has now been added to our indexes under Cemetery Audits. We have also added the first volume of the Bits of News series that are extracts of the Marion Daily Republican. Volume 1 covers the end of 1919 and all of 1921. It was compiled by Mary Jo Moore and can be found under the Newspapers link. both new indexes can be accessed from the Library Reference Index page.

A San Carlo Cemetery audit has been compiled into a book and is in printing now. The book contains 275 pages of burials from San Carlo Cemetery at Herrin and has 66 index pages. The burials range from 1905 to the beginning of August 2017. Included are 25 burials that have no markers. In addition to the reading of the markers, obit and family information from newspapers has been added where available. The book is spiral, soft bound and has laminated covers. This project has been ongoing for years beginning with many of the readings being done by Harry and Dorothy Boyd and being completed by Helen Sutt Lind and Sandy Pinder, all of the Williamson County Historical Society.  Due to the size of the book, the price of the book will be $45 each with $6 additional if mailing is required. All proceeds will go to the historical society. Orders can be placed by stopping by the museum, calling us at 618-997-5863 during open hours or by email at wchsmail@yahoo.com.