Museum annex offers up history in many forms

PHILOMATH — From the front, the Annex looks like an ordinary house nestled in the shadow of the Benton County Historical Museum. But inside, the dining room table is covered with charts, the walls are filled with bookshelves, and everywhere, documents and books are stacked high.

The Benton County Genealogical Society’s library is a hidden treasure for anyone with an interest in history, family or otherwise. The countless volumes and journals filling the walls offer a way for visitors to explore their roots, not just in Benton County, but around the world. Genealogy is defined as researching ancestral roots, offering enthusiasts a chance to map out their family history.

Back in the 1970s, the library was housed in the basement of the First Christian Church on Monroe Avenue, in Corvallis. But as the collection expanded, and people started absconding with some of the volumes, they needed a new location. So in the early 1990s, they took over what was known as the Teacher’s House, a small home built next to the former Philomath College, which now houses the Benton County Historical Museum, 1101 Main St.

“It’s so important to find out where you came from, to know who you are,” said David Kribs, vice president of the genealogical society.

The library contains more than 2,400 volumes of miscellaneous materials and research resources, journals from state historical societies, family name society publications, and documents from the Linn and Yaquina genealogical societies as well.

The collection is supplemented by donations from members, as well as research gathered by members during their travels around the world.

“Our members contribute a lot,” said Ken Bielman, society librarian. Many times, people doing research on their own family histories will donate the resources they used during that research to the library after they’re finished.

Society members supplement their collection with information now being provided on the Internet. Damaris Reynolds, chairwoman of the book committee, said she uses Google to supplement research into her own family history. Recently, she discovered a Virginia library’s on-line collection contained letters written to her great-great grandmother, and she was actually able to print them out. The letter writer was visiting New York City in the mid-1800s, and described a bustling city not dissimilar than the Big Apple is today.

The society offers much of its information on its own Web site, including an obituary index taken from old editions of the Gazette-Times.

Anyone wishing to research their own family history can explore library resources 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, when the library is open to the public. Reynolds suggests visitors come in with as much information about their immediate ancestors as possible, including parents and grandparents names, birthdates and place of birth, if possible.

“You work backwards,” she explained.

The best part about genealogy, Reynolds said, is that discovering information about your ancestors goes hand in hand with history lessons.

“I learned things about the American Revolution I never learned in school,” she said, while researching family members who fought on both sides during the war.

The society also provides a variety of publications for purchase, including a catalog of every Benton County cemetery’s occupants, interviews of early pioneers by members of the Work Project Administration, and marriage records from the county dating back to the mid-1800s.

For more information on the society, contact Danell Aukerman at 745-2003 (evenings only).