BLAIR COUNTY, Hollidaysburg PA (WTAJ) – November marks the 40th anniversary of the first meeting held by the Blair County Genealogical Society. They celebrated with an open house and their goal was to attract people who have never seen their library.
“Blair County news papers back from like 1912 on the shelf in here. They’re in chronological order. We have a 600,000 name index on our website where you can go in there in look up by surname obituary dates” – Jim Snyder, President
This is just some of what they showed off at their open house on Sunday afternoon.
“All these little bits and pieces are just priceless.” -Elaine Conrad, Volunteer
You’ll find shelves of county records, wills, deeds, tax and marriage records that date back to the early beginnings of Blair and surrounding counties.
“They have things here that haven’t been downloaded or put into the internet.” – Harriett Gaston, Academic Advisor at Penn State Altoona
Peggy Fields was one of the founding members in 1979. The first meeting was held in her house.
“I’m so pleased that they’ve gotten this far. I cant believe that they have because its one of the largest in the area and in the state… I’m a proud mother today.” – Margaret L. Fields “Peggy”, Founder (90 years old)
The Blair County Genealogical Society offers free classes and say they’ll be glad to help folks find their ancestry. They also say they would love to have more volunteers.
Blair County Genealogical Society
431 Scotch Valley Rd.
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
www.bcgslibrary.org
Library Hours:
Mon 6:30 PM-9:30 PM
Wed 10 AM-3:30 PM & 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Thurs 10 AM-3:30 PM
Sat 10 AM-2 PM