Announcements
Welcome to our new Publications Chair Laura Ingling! Laura started volunteering for WCGS in 2022 and has been a great help in several areas including our 2022 Cemetery Restoration Workshop and reorganizing our Resource Library. Most recently, she began the monumental task of setting up a store section in our Resource Library to showcase the many publications we have for sale. Stop by and check it out if you are in the area. And if you happen to buy a book, it's likely that Laura will have had a hand in the process!
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It's official! The 2023 Cemetery Restoration Workshop will be Friday, September 15, 2023, at Crosson Cemetery in Harlan Township. We are thrilled to welcome back Ta Mara Conde, of Historic Gravestone Services, as our conservator again. For more information, or to register for the workshop, please visit our Cemetery Restoration Workshops page. You can even pay for your registration right online!
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We are happy to announce that Diana Lovett has accepted the position of Recording Secretary. Diana volunteers with other organizations, including the Warren County Historical Society, and has experience with nonprofits. She graciously offered to take on the duties of Recording Secretary and her appointment was recommended by Linda L. Eckert, WCGS President, and approved by the WCGS Board. Welcome to Diana Lovett!
We would also like to express our gratitude to Debbie Schneider, who has acted as Interim Recording Secretary while the position has been vacant. Debbie has filled in when needed in this role and will continue to be available as a backup to Diana. Thank you to Debbie!
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The video from the March 8, 2023, presentation by Kelli Bergheimer on "Understanding Inheritance Patterns: Y-DNA, mtDNA, X-DNA" has now been uploaded to the Members Area. WCGS members can click HERE to sign in and view the video. It will remain on the website indefinitely. Thank you to Kelli for allowing us to keep it available for our members.
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SUMMER CLASSES!
Our popular summer classes will take place once again beginning June 7, 2023. These are held most Wednesday afternoons, June through August, from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m., and feature a variety of presenters and subjects. Please visit our 2023 Summer Classes page for more information.
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The video from the October 12, 2022, presentation by Jean Halls Muetzel on "You CAN Master Lineage Society Applications" has now been uploaded to the Members Area. WCGS members can click HERE to sign in and view the video. Our many thanks to Jean for allowing us to keep it available for WCGS members.
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Our great Resource Library just got better. We are now a FamilySearch Affiliate Library! This means when you visit our library you will have access to even MORE records on FamilySearch than you did before. We are very excited to have this available for our library patrons, society members, and volunteers.
Be sure to plan a visit to see us soon and let us help you with your research. We delight in tackling brick walls!
Upcoming Events
We are fortunate to have members and email subscribers from all over the world. Some upcoming meetings, programs, and events will be held virtually using Zoom to enable everyone interested to be able to participate.
Zoom invitations to Virtual Events are sent via Mailchimp email. To receive this email, you can sign up using the e-News subscription form at the lower right-hand side of this page or you can use the Register button.
If you are new to Zoom, the first 1:22 minutes of this YouTube video may be helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAMDxH_H_Cs
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Flyers for programs and events can be found on our Events page.
Since the fall of 2018, the Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project has provided free online public access to digital images of the Lebanon Western Star from 1807 through 1922 on the Ohio Memory Project. These digital images were created from original copies of the newspaper located at the Ohio History Center in Columbus.
The online collection can be found by clicking the blue button with the title "Western Star ONLINE!" at the top of this section. A smaller version of the same button is a permanent link located directly above the menu on all pages.
The Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project is sponsored and maintained by the Warren County Genealogical Society. Using digitization and OCR technology, it provides free public access to nearly 27,000 pages of this historical newspaper. There are some issues missing, but the entire collection on hand is browsable and searchable by titles, names, or dates.
This project is dedicated to the remarkable Alleen Stephenson and was made possible through the generosity of Alleen's son and daughter-in-law, J. Todd and Rebecca Stephenson. For more than 60 years, Alleen wrote a much-loved column about the Kings Mills community that celebrated and preserved many aspects of the County's history.
The Western Star is Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper that started with the first issue on February 13, 1807, and ended with the last publication on January 17, 2013. This newspaper covered mainly Lebanon and southern Warren County. The first publisher was John McLean (March 11, 1785 - April 4, 1861), who was an American attorney, a political activist who served in the United States Congress, and a justice of the Ohio and the U.S. Supreme Courts. He started his legal career in Cincinnati and moved to Lebanon, Ohio, to open a law practice and dedicate his time to opening and running a weekly newspaper.
Recently, we were given a few complete issues of the Western Star publication. These are a GREAT addition to our collection of Warren County information. We would like to expand this collection. If anyone has some editions that have been saved and are no longer of use to you, please consider donating them to us. We are interested in issues from any time period. These can be dropped off or sent to us at the WCGS Resource Library, 406 Justice Drive, Lebanon, Ohio 45036.
We would also welcome donations of old Warren County telephone books or city directories.
August 27, 2022 - WCGS Chapter Meeting and Program
"UNESCO World Heritage Update for the
Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks"
presented by Todd Stephenson
Todd Stephenson is a retired petroleum geologist and seasonal volunteer geological advisor for the Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve. He grew up in Kings Mills and graduated from Kings High School in 1973, Ohio University in 1977, and the University of Cincinnati in 1979. Todd’s Stephenson Family ancestors were early natives of Warren County (First Families of Warren County) who lived on a 70-acre farm, three miles west of Fort Ancient in Turtlecreek Township. Todd is a member of both the Warren County Genealogical and the Warren County Historical Societies. He is also a member of the Ambassadors Group, which is a group of people selected by the leadership of the Ohio History Connection to help coordinate and communicate the status of the UNESCO World Heritage nomination for the Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. Todd is married to Becky, who is an avid genealogist, and they have two adult children, Joel and Heather, who live in Texas.
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During this presentation, Todd Stephenson will provide the latest news and status information from the Ohio History Connection regarding the nomination of the Ohio Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes Fort Ancient near Oregonia, Octagon Works in Newark, and Mound City sites in the Chillicothe area. He will also provide some insights to the scope of the origins of the raw materials that were brought to Ohio and then fashioned into tools, ornaments, pipes, weapons, etc.
Many thanks to Todd for allowing this program to be recorded, and also to Joe Hackman for recording and posting it on YouTube and airing it on Lebanon's Channel 6. This event was held at the Armstrong Conference Center, courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society.
About WCGS
The Warren County Genealogical Society (WCGS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to build and promote interest in collecting and preserving genealogical records. We are here to assist you in finding your ancestors and relatives and have many resources available to help you with your research. WCGS is a Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society.