Why dig up the past? Why look for dead people?

Some call it Diggin' up Bones! Welcome to your family! They have always been here but you haven't. When you get to research your family history, not only are your ancestors found so are you.

Information seekers come from all over to dig into Pike County History. Most of the time their Pike County History. With gas prices the way they are the quickest and cheapest way to visit Pike is the internet. Our website is one of many resources for Pike County and Family research. When they are here for a visit they find the Genealogical Society's library at 205 W. Main St. in Bowling Green very helpful. People travel from all over just to come and look up family history.

The library offers lots of resources, from family history books, marriage records from 1820--1940(new), Funeral home records, a very large obituary collection that grows each day & year. Logs of local cemeteries and now a cemetery location book and map (new), Census records in book form and microfilm 1790-1930, Probate indexes on film, resources from various other counties and states are also available, and our Platt maps of the area are fun too. Especially the 1875. Death records of Pike 1883-1884 (new)

The library offers several books that contain information most commonly requested records for sale to people for researching their heritage. The retail sections include: local cemeteries, census, veterans census, funeral home records, obituary indexes and for a $5.00 donation we offer a beginners handbook with tips, info, group sheets, and other resources to help you with your search.

Library resources are available free to others and the society is constantly working to expand those resources with projects like: Marriage book 1868--1940 (new), Pioneer cemetery location book and map (new), CCC Camp Book (new), 1860 census in book form (new), Obituaries in book form and on cd, group sheet project (newly added), Ashburn's Dupont Powder Plant file (new), Numerous photos on the computer of in and around Pike County for sale, our beginners program (new), and our cemetery group project to go out and clean old family cemeteries unattended to (new), photos and narrative on cemeteries in Salt River township by Barry Zbornik is available on his website (new) http://public.fotki.com/iowaz/pike-co-missouri/

Donations play a major part in the library's expansion and existence, along with its resources from other states and counties, so a donation of any kind is always welcome.

The Society meets the first Tuesday of every month and attendees hear about a range of topics like: Learning to research on the computer; The history of the Mountain Dulcimer; Learning to begin a family tree project; History of slavery and the salt mines of Audrain, Ralls and Pike counties; Learning about the County poor farm. Other topics for the future will be Scott Springs Settlement and photos, and our Pioneer Cemetery projects we are cleaning up pioneer cemeteries in Pike County. Our first one was Rudd Schoolhouse Cemetery, our second was Shotwell Cemetery, next on the list is Randy Dempsey farm and Draper Cemetery and Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

The library prints a quarterly newsletter to all who become members, the newsletter is called the ECHO. We have over 100 members. Membership is still $10.00/year. The new newsletter committee is: Nina Peden, Audrey Jones, Sharon Coose, and Dorothy McCarthy. The newsletter has a new look and we hope you enjoy the articles as well as the history added.

Old newspapers and old history books provide a wealth of information about life in Pike County as well as a good resource for researching. Sometimes even the neighbors of your ancestors can add a huge clue to finding someone. Always look in the households around your ancestors you'll never know what you might find.

Our library focuses on preserving the history of Pike Co residents and does not only serve locals we try and help anyone who asks. With Pike County being one of the oldest counties in MO. there is a lot of history here, far more than you could ever imagine. It's hard to believe someone would travel from coast to coast and ending up here in little Pike Co Mo to just look up family history. But it happens right here and all the time.

The library is staffed by a great bunch of volunteers. Who donate their time to help others in their quest. They do it for the love of family, history, the past and preserving it for the future. The library also have volunteers who do look ups and copying for those who cant be here to gather the information themselves. Most requests are from the internet. Our website is www.pcgenweb.com and in the past few months we have had over 196,625 hits. By those numbers I think there's a few people looking for their family roots and guess what? They were in Pike County Missouri.

For those who need help or has any questions please go to our website and email us or call: Audrey Jones at 573-324-5810 if she can't help you she will give you to someone who can.

 

 

 


© 2000-2016, Rhonda Stolte Darnell