Christmas Help Needed

Posted on by December 17, 2014

The Williamson County Museum is host to one of the best genealogical libraries in Southern Illinois and in addition, hosts an incredibly eclectic mix of Williamson County history within its walls. Whereas many museums are more topical in nature, i.e.  Civil War museum or Battle of Gettysburg museum, this museum attempts to contain and catalog as much information as possible about an entire county.

To properly catalog all the information contained in the museum in the past, it has been done on paper and partially on computer files. We are now in the process of transferring this information to databases and expanding on it, which will give us the ability to instantly search for surnames or objects through tens of thousands of photos, objects and references, an incredibly more efficient way to search for information which will benefit all.

To accomplish this will require two things. First, volunteer help to enter data or research historical objects. Second, we need to expand our software and computer abilities in the museum.  We really need about $1,000 to do it right.

If you have any time to volunteer please get ahold of us using the Contact Us page on this site.

If you are tired of getting presents on Christmas that you don’t need or want, ask a friend or family member to donate to the museum in your honor instead. Donations can be made securely using PayPal by clicking the Donate Button on the right side of the page. Even if you don’t have a PayPal account you can still securely use your credit card.

Our history is our heritage and needs to be preserved and accessible.

Please support the museum and help us turn a good library and museum into an even better one.

WCHS Held Annual Christmas Lunch

Posted on by December 7, 2014

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The annual Christmas lunch for the Williamson County Historical Society was held on December 3, 2014 at Bennie’s restaurant in Marion. The society typically gathers to share a meal prior to the season’s holidays and celebrate the year’s work.

At the lunch, long time society President, Bob Jackson, was awarded a plaque to commemorate his twelve years of service as President of the historical society, having served in that position from 2003 to 2014. Jackson was awarded the plaque by Sam Lattuca, incoming 2015 board President.

Also recognized at the lunch was museum coordinator, Sharon Vansaghi, who was hired by the board in March 2014. The new position was created so that the museum could stay open 6 days a week through the warm months of the year allowing increased public access to the museum. This position was made possible by a stipend paid by the Marion city council and has paid off. The museum this year saw approximately 1,400 visitors. Many of the visitors were genealogy researchers from not only out of the region, but out of the state, having come from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, California, Canada and many other locations to research lost ancestors and historical events.

Southern Illinois Heritage Expo kicks off Dec. 6

Posted on by November 28, 2014

HERRIN – The Southern Illinois Heritage Expo will kick off its inaugural event Saturday, Dec. 6, at the Herrin Civic Center featuring Chris Vallillo, a nationally acclaimed singer/songwriter and folk musician, and Ruthie Shelton, author and heir of the infamous Shelton Brothers.

Vallillo makes the people and places of “un-metropolitan” America come to life in song by weaving songs and narratives into a compelling portrait of the history and lifestyles in the Midwest. He will be performing such songs as “The Death of Carl Shelton” plus his own 2013 release, “Bloody Williamson”, a song telling the Herrin Massacre story from a UMWA miner’s viewpoint. Continue reading →

What’s Going on at the Museum

Posted on by November 11, 2014

There are a number of projects in the works at the Williamson County Historical Society which we hope to have implemented over the winter months as follows:

  • Online membership applications and renewals will be made available on our website through a secure PayPal account which means you can use your PayPal account or a credit card to join or pay your dues.
  • Indexes for all of our Williamson County records related to divorce, chancery, criminal, common law, partitions and injunctions will be made available online and the ability to purchase the contents of these files using a credit card or PayPal account will be made available online.
  • Our bookstore list of items we sell will be improved dramatically with photos and complete descriptions of each book or article. Orders will be able to be placed and paid for online instead of having to rely on regular mail and sending a check.
  • Numerous federal, state, and private grants are being looked into to improve the museum and preserve and display its artifacts. This has become an ongoing project that is taking a lot of volunteer time, but hopefully will pay off eventually down the road.
  • A digital media project is now underway and will hopefully be completed over the winter. This project is related to the inventorying and cataloging of all photos and pictures contained within the museum. All photos are being scanned, cleaned up and catalogued into a database which will allow searches for specific people, places and things. An earlier failed attempt to get this done under an Illinois Humanities Council grant only resulted in the resolve to get it done anyway. As much data as can be known about each photo will be retained in the database.
  • The new Marion High School in Marion is going to have some very large murals in it which will be collages of historic photos related to the Marion High School past in various areas such as athletics and art. The museum has been helping the company involved find plenty of photos for them to use on the project.
  • There is an attempt being made to encourage volunteer museum workers to develop areas of expertise related to our counties history such as Civil War, the depression, prohibition, etc. If you have an area of expertise already or wish to do research on a particular area of interest, please contact us.
  • We are seeking volunteers who can help field answers to queries on this website.

As always, we really need volunteer help for our organization to work and, of course, a number of us are stretched pretty thin. If you have a skill set related to research, grant writing, website or computer expertise, fundraising or video production, we could use your help. Use the Contact Us page to volunteer.