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Celebrating history at the log courthouse

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WAYNESBURG – Cornerstone Genealogical Society is throwing a party today at the log courthouse to celebrate 40 years of record keeping.

“We’re more than family history,” society President David Cressey said. “It’s the history of the community along with a very comprehensive, fully indexed obituary file going back to the start of the Civil War.

“People really appreciate how easy it is to do research here.”

And who would know better than the oil and gas workers who come to do title searches, along with the families who come to find census records, microfilmed newspaper obituaries and other treasures kept here.

During today’s open house, all are invited to visit the society and its old log cabin front room that is considered the only original county courthouse in Pennsylvania still on its original site. There’s also history on display inside, which include artifacts unearthed during the archaeological dig of the site, and tables of books, booklets, scrapbooks, school yearbooks and original manuscripts.

Artist David Lesako, one of the volunteers who helped restore the log structure, has a display of his chalk drawings of county scenes and society volunteers will show visitors the ins and outs of doing research.

When the Cornerstone Genealogical Society was founded in 1975, the United States was getting ready to celebrate its bicentennial and the time was ripe for the county to celebrate its own colonial history with an independent, full-fledged library focused on the history and families of early Greene County.

Founding members Dorothy and James Hennen were busy for years, compiling cemetery books, gathered from the names they found in many of the forgotten family plots that dotted the county. Census information from the 19th century was gathered and published as booklets and newsletters. The newly formed society soon outgrew the member’s den where these records were stored and the move was made upstairs rooms at Bowlby Library.

Sparked by the nation’s bicentennial, volunteers began restoring the old log courthouse and a modern annex was added to accommodate the history that was waiting to find its perfect home. In 2002, the genealogical society moved to the log courthouse at 144 E. Greene St.

Cressey said the society put out displays beyond Greene County that showcase Washington County, West Virginia and parts of Ohio.”

“We have very detailed church records and a complete school directory, from the one room schoolhouses dating from 1833 to yearbooks from all our county schools, including Point Marion, W.Va.,” Cressey said.

Light refreshments will be served from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today. Visitors will receive a full tour of the library and its resources, including wills that go back to 1796 when Greene County separated from Washington County and this first log cabin was built out of necessity until a proper brick structure could be constructed.

For more information about the open house and genealogical records, visit the society’s website at www.cornerstonegenealogy.com.

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