About Our Board Members
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How did you become interested in Genealogy?
How I Became Interested in Genealogy (And A Member of the Christian County Genealogical Society)
"My interest in family history began as far back as I can remember. I loved to visit my Grandpa and my Aunt Grace, who never married and lived with him and cared for him in his home. Grandpa, born in 1864, would tell me stories of when he was a boy and about his ancestors. Stories of him listening to the Christian County early settlers as they gathered at the Bulpitt store, which adjoined the family farm or at Blackburn store only a mile southwest. Some of those he listened to were Martin Hanon, the Richardsons, Vandeveers, Whitecrafts, as well as his Uncles, Presley Peak, and Joseph and Drury Bondurant, all who came before Christian County was formed.
My Aunt would tell me of my grandmother's family. Her ancestors had come to this country in the mid 1600's, and their descendants had recorded their history down to that present day. Aunt Grace carried on communication with distant cousins from Delaware to California and would share those letters with me. At that time some were rather boring to me but later I realized their importance. Many letters were preserved and came to me following the death of Grandpa and my Aunt. They helped me locate the burial of one cousin this last fall.
My Grandpa and my Grandmother, who died before my birth and who had been a school teacher, had several bookcases of books of county histories, U.S. History, and novels of that time, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Mark Twain, and early American poetry. When I was old enough to read I would look at the books when I visited there. Grandpa then told me he would loan me one to take home to study. Note he did not say read. I would bring that book back when I came to visit next time, and he would loan me another. Always he said, "Take good care of this, books are valuable." It was years later I realized he was not referring to monetary value. Aunt Grace in later years made her home with relatives in Kansas City but continued to write letters to me telling me more family history. In her last years, living in a care home in Jacksonville, IL, I visited her often. We always talked of family history, for at her age of 97 she could recount dates of births, deaths, marriages, relationships going back several hundred years, with accuracy. My wife would record her talking or take notes of our conversation. My research later proved she was correct.
In about 1975, while attending a reunion of my wife's family, she was appointed to gather her family history and publish it for all the family members. This was a project that took several years. It was then we began our research in earnest, travelling back to eastern states on numerous trips, visiting dozens of courthouses, searching cemeteries, most of them several times, but most rewarding was meeting those, until then, "unknown cousins". I, too was researching, as we travelled, my grandmother's family. Interestingly, we found we both had, at one time, distant cousins as neighbors in Ohio. Also, we both had ancestors who went on a winter camping trip to Valley Forge with Gen. Washington. Since then genealogy has been a "full time hobby" taking us all over the U.S.
We supposed we were the only "history nuts" around until 1983, a group in Taylorville advertised a meeting to find if there was interest in starting a Genealogical Society. We attended, became charter members, and have enjoyed meeting dozens of people who have become very close friends with common interest.
As I now look back I realize how my ancestor felt that it was so important to pass their history down to me. Also, I think of hundreds of people, many their names unknown or unremembered by me, who have given me help in learning much more than I have given others. Clerks in courthouses in distant states who have said, "you need to talk to -----", or "I will look up their phone number for you". People who would say, "Come by the house, I will share info with you", or "get in my car and I will give you a guided tour of your family's neighborhood and point out where they lived".
Can I do less for fellow researchers?"
Nelvin Sloman
"I was actually interested in knowing about my ancestors for quite some time. Perhaps my taking so long to get into it was the lack of really knowing how to start gathering and organizing it. No knowledge at all about the whole process.
Then enters Vauna Stahl who has been ruthless in her addiction to genealogy and making sure that I get my "stuff" together and get it done. By the time I realized what was happening, she had already helped my Uncle Bob with getting my Dad's side traced back to the Revolutionary War.
Meanwhile, on my Mom's side, a cousin, Donna Johnson Phillips, living in Texas had been at it for a LONG time too. So, I had two sides well on their way to being perfect.
I have learned there is so much more than just recording your family tree. You find people in genealogy that have special projects dear to their heart and do things to reach out and teach anyone who is willing to learn. I have been lucky to find great friends here at the Christian County Genealogical Society and I know their whole hearts are in it for more than just Their family trees."
Elaine Lederbrand
Treasurer
I got into genealogy 20 years ago because a cousin was looking up our Family Tree. We had a GGG grandfather who died in the Civil War so it was he who got my interest in family history, so the more I dug the more I enjoyed the hunt. I also enjoy putting soldiers on find a grave so their memory is not lost. I like being a part of this society because we all have the same interest in family history and helping others find their roots.
I read this somewhere: We are given the responsibility to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, to tell the person's life story and to feel that somehow they know they are not forgotten but remembered by mankind. . Doing genealogy is not a cold gathering of facts, but instead, breathing life into all who have gone before. We are the storytellers of those who treaded this earth before us. Help keep their memory alive.
Chuck Dilley
1st Vice President & Publications
"I started my search into my family's genealogy as a promise to my grandfather before he passed to find our Scottish ancestors. Somehow time got in the way and I didn't start it right away.... until three years ago. Once started, it became one of my most valued past times and more. My interest and findings got my husband interested in doing his family genealogy search and both searches have evolved to include our families, even my 11 year old granddaughter. Our searches have led us to find new family members.. some near and some far... and has brought to light an exciting finding of a long forgotten 16 year trial in our county's history.
Along the way, I have made valued friends and acquaintances in other board members of the Christian County Genealogy and Historical Societies. I also found that I enjoyed genealogy so much that I wanted to help preserve family histories for all who have come before us in this county and help others in their genealogy searching. My genealogy search has also revived an interest in the history of Taylorville and Christian County.
Without the genealogy and family histories who have come before all of us, Taylorville and Christian County would not have the history as it is known today. So good, bad or indifferent; all family history and genealogy findings are important and everyone should have at least one family historian and genealogist to pass along the families' history down to all who come after us.
Lorrie M. Foor
Librarian
My interest in Genealogy began many years ago when at my Dad's Family Reunion I was asked to write up a "family history". My Dad had passed away and all the Aunts and Uncles (ten in all) had gone. We cousins realized we knew very little about our ancestors and we needed to record what we did know and what we could learn or much would be lost with another generation. This was back when research on the internet was not so common.
I wrote lots of letters, made many phone calls and my husband and I traveled all over the country visiting Courthouses, Cemeteries, Libraries, Funeral Homes, Churches, etc., and met many "new cousins". We found some wonderful people and made many life-long friends, and saw areas of the country that we otherwise would never have seen. The help I received with my research from the contacts I had made was tremendous.
So, when a group of young women in Christian County began talking about forming a County Genealogical Society I knew I wanted to be a part of it. For I thought through working with this group I could help those researching their roots here in Christian County and in this way "pay back" for all the assistance I received.
The Christian County Genealogical Society has had some wonderful, dedicated workers who carried on the work of this organization through the years. It has been my privilege to work with them from the Society's beginning in 1983 through today. I will forever cherish the friendships we have built together. This has always been a very close knit group.
The goal of the CC Genealogical Society is to collect and preserve the history of Christian County by collecting and preserving the history of the lives of the people of the county.
A quote from Thomas B. Macaulay, a noted British Historian, says it best "the history of a country is best told in a record of the lives of its people".
Ida Sloman
CCGS Board of Directors
I did not get interested in Genealogy until I retired and my cousin, who has been interested in it for years, asked me to go to the museum library to find out about a deceased family member. Just finding the information that she wanted was exciting and informative. It was something that I didn't know about my relatives. Well, Chuck Courtwright started talking to me and I ended up joining the Genealogical Society. A couple of months later, I was their recording secretary.
Now, I find myself constantly looking up information about my relatives. The more I find out, the more I want to know. You get so excited when you find something that you have been desperately seeking. I know none of my children are interested in the past, but one day, probably after I am gone, they will say like I did, "I wish I would have asked Mom and Dad questions when I was growing up." It would have been so much easier than trying to look up information now.
Not, only are we curious to know about our relatives, but what if one of our children have an inherited disease and we need to know on what side of the family it originated. That is another reason I think genealogy is not only interesting, but important to find out and leave to our following generations.
Irene Rickman
Recording Secretary