Though its membership has not convened in person since early last year, the Gilmer County Genealogical Society (GCGS) is still a functioning organization that, during the continuing pandemic, is planning for an eventual return to live meetings.
The local special interest group previously met to discuss business and present guest speakers every second Thursday in the Gilmer County Library’s conference room.
The library has not yet resumed holding in-person educational programs and meetings since it ceased doing so last spring. Its manager, Alex Thomerson, confirmed that in-person meetings inside the library aren’t expected to resume anytime in the near future out of concern for patron and staff safety.
In the meantime, genealogical society board members will continue to meet virtually via Zoom, confirmed GCGS Publications Chairperson Barbra Dover.
“We had a combined in-person and virtual planning meeting Thursday, Jan. 21. The officers have discussed possible programs, modes of communication among our members, genealogical research and ideas for retaining and gaining new members,” she added. “We’ve briefly discussed (eventually) holding some meetings on Saturdays to accommodate those who work and we also want to bring back the Treasure Chest program, a show-and-tell of ancestral antiques and artifacts. Most of all, we want to see each other in a social setting again.”
On the heels of its most thorough publication to date, 2019’s Faces of Our Ancestors: First Families of Gilmer County, GCGS recently released two of its long out-of-print publications in digital form as a means of fundraising and a pandemic-time project.
First published in 2009, Family Legends of Gilmer County is a 500-page collection of family stories and histories submitted by local contributors. A Revenuer’s Diary is a collection of first-hand reports taken by Warren Cagle, a former ATF investigator who worked in Gilmer, Pickens, Fannin and Cherokee counties during the 1950s.
Both books are now available in either CD or flash drive format, said Dover. Some of the genealogical society’s other publications are also being offered at discounted prices, she added.
The organization is still welcoming new members. More details about membership and publications can be found online at GCGSI.org.