The Williamson County Historical Society was recently awarded a $2,500 grant from the Illinois Humanities COVID-19 Emergency Relief. This program was made possible in part by a grant from Illinois Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly. The grant is designed to cover general operating expenses to smaller organizations with the exception of those in Chicago. The grant helps offset a lack of donations during barred direct access to the society’s museum and library.
The historical society’s museum/genealogy library located at 105 S. Van Buren St. in Marion had just returned on March 2nd back to its 6 day a week schedule after the winter only to have to close to the public on March 16th due to the Covid pandemic. All events and programs have been placed on hold until it looks like things are going to be safe to proceed.
Even though the museum is closed to the public, two volunteers are spending 3 or 4 days a week in the museum while practicing social distancing and taking care of projects that there normally wouldn’t be time for like cleaning, painting, maintenance, reworking displays, indexing and responding to orders, questions and information requests.
In addition to the old county jail museum, the society maintains one of the most expansive county genealogy libraries in Southern Illinois and over the last four years has made available on its website, the indexing to well over 200 of its most often used reference books and resources. The indexes include cemetery audits, funeral home records, marriage records, naturalization petitions, local history, military, early newspapers extracts and many early county clerk records. The site also gives public access to the indexes of original court case records ranging from 1839 through the early 1960’s involving divorce, criminal, common law and chancery records and more that are stored at the museum. The website also documents the history of all of the existing towns and villages in the county, including over 60 ghost towns that no longer exist.
While everyone is restricted to their homes, now might be a good time to learn about our county’s varied past and dig into their family genealogy. The Williamson County Historical Society website can be found at www.wcihs.org and for those seeking further information can reach volunteers at wchsmail@yahoo.com or call 618-997-5863.