WCHS Soft Opening Held

Posted on by June 18, 2021

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A soft opening of the WCHS museum and library was held on June 16th and 17th with invitations sent out to city, county and state officials as well as school and library personnel to come and check out the resources of our facility. This event was held to make local organizations and politicians aware of the vast resources the museum has to offer before completely opening to the public.

Some of those who visited the museum during the soft opening were State Representative Dave Severin, County Sheriff Bennie Vick, County commissioners Tim Atkisson and Jim Marlo, Carterville author/historian Jennifer Spence, and the Marion Carnegie Library was represented by Kelley McMullen and Loretta Broomfield.

The museum is set to reopen to the public four days a week from Wednesday through Saturday starting on Wednesday June 23rd from 9:30 to 3:00 P.M.

Marion Garden Club Makes Donation

Posted on by June 7, 2021

The Marion Garden Club presented the historical society with a check for $150 on Monday, the 7th, 2021. The garden club has supported the historical society every year for a long time with a yearly donation and the planting of two large planters that sit in front of the museum. Shown presenting the check is Garden Club president, Debbie Lattuca to Historical Society president, Sam Lattuca. Garden club members present were Sandy Long, Sheila Dingrando, Connie Hayes and Linda Minnis was the photographer. The museum will be reopening to the public at first on a four day a week basis starting on June 23th.

Early Birth Record Books Added to Indexes

Posted on by May 27, 2021
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Birth Records of Williamson County, Illinois, Book One (1877-1883) transcribed by Dorothy Boyd  (2,469 entries)

Williamson County, Illinois Birth Records 1877-1879 Volume 1 by Mary Jo Moore (3,126 entries)

Williamson County, Illinois Birth Records 1879-1881 Volume 2 by Mary Jo Moore (2,767 entries)

Apparently, the first attempt to record births in the state of Illinois occurred in 1877, however I am reasonably sure that many births were never recorded during this period.

The three books recently added are transcripts from the Williamson County birth book 1 that got registered. The birth records are handwritten and hard to read. Information found in the birth records are supposed to contain, but don’t always have the name, birth date, place of birth, residence and nationality of the parents, as well as the names of the parents, the fathers occupation, number of children born to the mother and the name of the person who attended the birth. Unfortunately many of the records are incomplete and often the child was yet to be named and only has the sex of the child, date of birth and parent’s names to go by which is better than nothing.

These books are duplicates of each other for the same period, Moore’s books contains indexing to each separate name and the Boyd book contains the parents indexed on the same line as the child. Since the books are hard to read, having two versions of the same information could be a good thing since there might be a better chance of identifying the person you are looking for.

The indexing for these books has been placed in the Misc. County Records Index which can be found under the Records tab.

Gallatin County Historical Society Visits our Museum

Posted on by May 24, 2021

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The Gallatin County Historical Society visited our museum and library on Saturday, May 22nd, 2021. Ten members of the society were on hand to tour the museum including a few recently reworked exhibits and rooms. Members of the Gallatin County society were Laura Benson-Henson, Bruce and Tamara Buddick, Terry Butts, Cindy Decker, Diane Patrick and  Christy and Wayne Short. The tour of the museum was arranged by John Wohlwend of Marion who is a member of both Gallatin and Williamson County. Tours were given by WCHS President, Sam Lattuca and Curator/Coordinator, Sharon Vansaghi. 

While the museum remains mostly closed to the public at the moment due to the pandemic it will be reopening to the public in some fashion during the month of June.

Library Available on Saturdays for Research by Appointment

Posted on by February 27, 2021

In order to ease back into a full time museum/library again during the pandemic, we will be allowing visitors who want to do research in our library on Saturdays only and by appointment only. Of course, masks are required as well as social distancing. 

To make an appointment, call 618-997-5863 or email us at wchsmail@yahoo.com