New home for Jefferson County Genealogical Society

STEUEBENVILLE -- Flora VerStraten-Merrin and Sandy Day spent some time Thursday looking back on several decades and seeing just how much progress the Jefferson County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society has made.

“Look at what it’s become,” Day said. “I’m happy it has become like this. It started out small, and we built it up.”

VerStraten-Merrin, the local chapter’s current president, and Day, the organization’s first president, were among the volunteers who were helping guide visitors through its new home during a public open house.

Located inside the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services building at 125 S. Fifth St., the office provides ample space for research areas and numerous volumes and files that are filled with public records, some of which go back to the county’s founding in 1797 -- six years before Ohio would become a stare.

The county’s location and the role it played in the westward expansion make it an important location for those who are trying to learn more about their relatives. Many of the first people who came from the east had to pass through Steubenville when they purchased land at the First Federal Land Office in the Northwest Territory, which opened in 1800.

“People are interested in researching their family history,” said VerStraten-Merrin. “You’re talking about the Northwest Territory and you’re talking about celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary. Our ancestors were coming in here and purchasing land at the land office. It’s so significant because people from all over the country have a lot of ancestors who were right here in this area.

“Having these records accessible -- the original records -- they can see the ‘X’ or the signature of their ancestor,” she added. “They can see some of the naturalization books that have photographs of their ancestors.”

It’s a far cry from the beginning of the organization in 1986. There was no office -- the first meeting was held in the building that has become the Jefferson County Tower, Day said. From there, the organization had a couple of different offices, including locations on Fernwood Road in Wintersville and in Stratton.

Thanks to the work of Michele Santin, the county’s director of job and family services, and county Commissioner Eric Timmons, the chapter has a centralized location with plenty of space available to store records in a way they are accessible to the public. And there are a lot of shelves and rolling files you can look through.

It’s a list that includes estate files, wills, probates, adoptions, naturalization files and high school yearbooks. The county records, VerStraten-Merrin said, go through the early 1930s. The yearbook collection, which continues to grow, goes back to the 1913 edition from Wells High School, which became Steubenville High School.

Some files, like the naturalization information, have been indexed by volunteers, Day said, which makes it easier to find a specific relative.

“Imagine finding a particular yearbook,” VerStraten-Merrin said. “I went to where some of my ancestors are from on my mother’s side. I found a yearbook that included my great-grandfather. He was a football player in 1902, and he had a soft helmet and no pads. and to see my great-grandfather, and my grandfather and my grandmother, who was in the choir, and just to see them in their clothing at the turn of the century. It gives you a connection to your family. It’s really what people are looking for -- connections.”

Also intriguing are the naturalization records, she said. It’s a compilation that includes information about Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti, whose son, Dino, would go on to become Dean Martin.

“Original records -- that’s what people want to see,” VerStraten-Merrin explained. “If you are looking for your ancestor who came over during the Ellis Island period, but who came here and not to Ellis Island to get naturalized, it’s pretty cool. Then you find a picture, and then it tells you that he had brown eyes. He had dark skin. He had a scar on his face. He was tall. He was stout. It’s descriptions of your ancestors. Then it tells you about all of the kids if the kids came with them. How old they were, and what they looked like. Details, details.”

For now, the office is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursdays, or by appointment. Because it is located inside the office building, no access is possible when that facility is closed.

Another interesting set of files contains delayed and corrected births.

“If you were born before 1940 and you wanted to start getting Social Security when it was formed, you had to have a birth certificate,” VerStraten-Merrin said. “Everyone was scrambling. They wanted to get Social Security because they worked hard. And some people were born on farms, and they had to get a birth certificate.

“When they went to the courthouse, they found they had no birth certificate,” she continued. “That’s what led them to the delayed or corrected births. For example, you would have to get your kindergarten teacher to verify that you were born in Smithfield and you were in her class, something like that. It could be a neighbor or an aunt or various people.”

Those files contain a lot of information, she explained, because a teacher, for example, was not able to just say a person was a student. They had to write a detailed letter.

“That’s what we call putting meat in the bonds,” VerStraten-Merrin said. “You’re getting more than just a vital record. Vital records are here, births and deaths, but you are getting meat on the bones -- you’re finding out about your ancestor.”

The genealogical society is a nonprofit, and it operates on volunteers. It does pay for some services, like web design and maintenance, she said. Moving to the downtown Steubenville location will significantly reduce overhead and make it more manageable, she added.

VerStraten-Merrin and Day said collaborations among the genealogical society and organizations like the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County -- where Day worked as the historian and genealogist before her retirement -- are important. That’s another reason why the new location is a good fit, they added.

While the local chapter was founded in 1986, it did not get nonprofit status until 1987. That’s why it’s celebrating its 40th anniversary across this year and next. That will include a presentation about Steubenville’s 1897 Centennial by John Boilegh, an archaeologist with the division of Mineral Resources of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. set to begin at 10 a.m. Nov. 14 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Powells Lane in Wintersville, the chapter is asking for a $10 donation to attend.

For information, contact the chapter at (740) 283-8567; send an e-mail to jeffersoncounty1@ att.net; or visit the website at jeffcochapter.com.