Medina County Genealogical Society
Medina County
Genealogical Society
a Chapter of
The Ohio Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 804
Medina, OH 44258-0804

The Chapter meets on the 2nd Sunday of the month except for July and August when we meet on the 2nd Saturday of the month. We have a social hour at 1:30 and our programs begin at 2:00 p.m. We meet at the Medina County Public Library in Medina, OH. Because of the current economy and budget cuts at the library, please make sure you check for updates on meeting dates.

    2014 Meeting Agenda

  • Sunday, January 12 � Beyond the Docket Books: Digging For Gold In Probate Packets� � presented by Chris Staats. Will books and probate dockets can provide a great deal of information about our ancestors, but the original estate (probate) file can reveal details about our ancestors and their families that no other record group is likely to document. Family relationships, occupations, personal possessions, and even family squabbles may all be contained in that little packet. Administrator bonds, inventories, sale lists, distributive accounts, and other items found in the estate file breathe life into our ancestors and provide us with a glimpse of the person behind the names and dates.�

  • Sunday, February 9 � �Cemetery Preservation� - Jay Russell of Respectful Interment Preservations will discuss the correct techniques to clean, repair, and care for cemetery markers.

  • Sunday, March 9 � �Ask the Genealogists�� Experienced genealogists will be on hand to answer questions about family research problems and brick walls.

  • Sunday, April 13 � �Using Maps to Solve Genealogical Puzzles� � Tom Neel, Director of the OGS Library, will explain how using maps can illustrate how the changes in boundaries affected the location of an ancestor�s residence.

  • Saturday, May 10 � Pre-1850 Tic-Marks � What Can They Tell Me? - Peggy Clemmens Lauritzen, AG will reveal the information that can be gleaned from the US Federal Census records prior to 1850 that substitute tic-marks for names of individuals in the household.

  • June � Vacation time! No meeting is scheduled.

  • Saturday, July 12 - �Newspaper Research� � OGS Trustee, Debbie Abbott, will discuss the genealogical treasures found in newspapers, how to search for the genealogical information, and how to locate old newspapers that are microfilmed and/or digitized..

  • Saturday, August 9 - "German Research is like Strudel: It Unfolds One Layer at a Time." Betty Franklin of the Family History Center in Westlake will outline the basic steps needed to research German ancestry.

  • Saturday, September 13 - TBA.

  • Sunday, October 12 - TBA.

  • Sunday, November 9 - TBA.

  • Sunday, December ?? - TBA.

2013-2014 Officers

President - Patricia Morgan
Vice-President - Jean Copeland
Secretary - Char Graf
Treasurer - Marcia Hart

Want to become a member? Click here for our MEMBERSHIP FORM. It has all the information for joining us.

PUBLICATIONS

New Publications

NEW!! We would like to announce the release of its latest publication: Cherished Memories: A Collection of Obituaries and Death Notices of Ancestors Buried in Liverpool Township Cemeteries 1871-1985. This publication is issued in conjunction with the Liverpool Township's Bicentennial Celebration which is being conducted throughout 2010. The publication replicates the actual obituaries and transcribes many of the death notices for burials in the nine cemeteries of Liverpool Township, Medina County. It is sorted by cemetery and contains over 1700 indexed names of burials in the time period of 1871 through 1985. Containing 650 pages it is available via a CD versus paper publication. Primary research was conducted by Chapter member Ann Stroth, who spent hundreds of hours reviewing microfilm at the Medina Library as well as visiting each of the cemeteries. The purpose of the publication is to assist people researching their family members or early Liverpool residents buried in Liverpool cemeteries. The obituaries often reveal the life styles, trials and tribulations of early life in Medina county. The CD is available for $15.00 + $3.00 shipping and handling for non-chapter members and $12.00 + $3.00 shipping and handling for chapter members from the Medina County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 804, Medina, Ohio 44256.

Two new DVD's are now available that chronicle the lives of early Valley City, OH ancestors. Several years ago, Paul Hartman undertook the arduous task of indexing these church records having to read from the old German handwritings. He chronicled the births, marriages, deaths and confirmations of the members of each church. The Medina County Genealogical Society and Terry and Marcia Hart were recently granted permission to digitize the records of both churches. We most graciously thank both organizations as well as Terry and Marcia for pulling this all together.

Emmanuel UCC Church index and digital images on DVD. This church was originally the Emmanuel Evangelical & Reform church founded in established in 1838. The index and images are from 1847 to 1920. This sells for $25 for chapter members and $30 for non-members.

The Zion Lutheran Church was established in 1830. The records are indexed from 1851 to 1903. Some records were found that Paul Hartman had overlooked as well as some newer records. This sells for $25 for chapter members and $30 for non-members.

If you had early ancestors in the area of Valley City, OH, these two DVD's are must haves for your research. You are getting the original handwritten ledger entry along with the indexes originally done by Paul Hartman.

To order these and any of our other publications, see our PUBLICATION ORDER FORM here.

Lineage Societies of Medina County

Lineage Societies are a way of celebrating the achievements of our ancestors that arrived here first.

Applications for each group will be found on the page that describes the qualifications for each group. At this time, all application deadlines are July 1.

Be sure to check out the Lineage Society Guidelines for rules on filling out the applications.

If you have questions, please contact our Lineage chair, at: [email protected] with any questions you might have.

APPLICATION FORMS

Medina County Chapter of OGS Research Policy

If you are not a member, but are interested in having our chapter do research for you, please see our research policy listed HERE.

Pictures of Medina County

Recently, the MCGS was presented with pictures obtained at an estate auction from a photographer in Medina. These pictures were taken over a time span from about 1945 to 1953. Some may be earlier and some may be later.

These photographs represent births, marriages, deaths and other community events. There is an index to these photos HERE. If you find your family mentioned here and are interested in obtaining the pictures, please contact Bob Hyde at: [email protected] to make arrangements to pick up the photos or to have them sent to you.

It is because of generous and caring people that our past is still our present. Enjoy looking, Margaret Cheney

Tombstone Inscriptions of Spencer Cemetery

Francis Stuart has submitted this huge and very comprehensive database for us. Right now, it's being indexed, but for the moment, you can view the pdf file of it. In the near future, it will be broken down into several pages, much easier to load. This file will take some time to download, and is very large, so please be patient and allow time for it to load. To view the file, click HERE.

Some Helpful (and our favorite) Links!

Ohio Genealogical Society: http://www.ogs.org
MCGS Members Only Website: http://www.myfamily.com
Medina County Historical Society: http://www.medinahistorical.com/
LDS Library, Family Search: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp

Hank Cradduck, Webmaster
Last updated 7 - January 2014