ResearchRoom

The Butler County
Historical & Genealogical Society
Research Room

is located in the Greenville/Butler County Public Library

309 Fort Dale Road
Greenville, Alabama 36037

[Just a few minutes from Interstate 65 with restaurants, hotels and other conveniences]

WHAT DOES OUR COLLECTION INCLUDE?

Our family surname files are a wonderful source of information found nowhere else -- news clippings, obituaries, pedigree charts, photographs, bible records, family letters and diaries, and many other research items contributed by members and visitors over the past four decades. We also have hundreds of family genealogy books, Alabama and Butler County histories, genealogical quarterlies, books and publications from throughout the South, cemetery records, censuses and state records, old photographs, microfilm of Butler County courthouse records, military records, newspaper records, and more.

Frank Parmer & little brother Ray Parmer, 1928

VISITING THE BCHGS RESEARCH ROOM: If you plan a visit from out-of-town, we recommend that you contact us in advance so that a volunteer can be at the library to assist you. All records are not available for open browsing, and research room volunteers may be able to show you sources that you were unaware of. We ask that you treat all our books, microfilm, vertical files and open-shelf collections with care. Tuesday is usually a "work" day when volunteers are in the research room, but other days are variable. (Please note: The public library staff is NOT responsible for managing the Historical Society collection, but they will be glad to direct you to our research room.)

A COPY MACHINE (coin-operated) is in the MAIN LIBRARY ROOM, opposite the FRONT DESK. You may take materials from the BCHGS research room to copy in the main library room, but PLEASE respect the hard work that went into our collection, and DO NOT REMOVE FILES OF ANY KIND FROM THE BUILDING.

                        The Butler County Historical & Genealogical Society
                        P. O. Box 561
                        Greenville, Alabama 36037

                        Research Collection: 309 Fort Dale Road, Greenville, AL
                        Phone: (334) 383-9564 (leave a message and we'll respond as soon as possible)
                        E-mail:   [email protected]

For those who need help from a distance, we can answer brief questions at no cost, but there is a research fee if you would like a full index search of our surname files and publications for an ancestor's name.

Your contributions through membership, research fees and publication purchases help us to maintain the research room and continue preserving the records of YOUR ancestors' lives.

A researcher who only "surfs the Net" may never get to meet or know these amazing living resources who write stories for our quarterly, visit our research room, help us identify photographs and "lost" ancestors, and enjoy attending our meetings. Their family stories, knowledge and memories are priceless glimpses into the past. But you don't have to join our society just to meet people. The preservation of our Butler County heritage is an ongoing process -- especially necessary in today's world with the increasing deterioration of old cemeteries and churches, theft and damage of original records, and other modern stresses that are gradually destroying the past. You can share in our efforts to save that heritage by joining The Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society. "Free" Internet research is fantastic, but someone in every town, in every county, at every courthouse, church and cemetery, must constantly work to PRESERVE your ancestors' history at that location. The dedicated volunteers of the Butler County Historical and Genealogical Society are doing just that, and they've been doing it for nearly sixty years.

The Butler County Historical & Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 561, Greenville, Alabama 36037