The monthly KYOWVA Genealogy and Historical Society meeting occurred this past Tuesday.
A few fun facts about the group:
- KYOWVA is a mash up of the state abbreviations for Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia
- The meetings are held in the basement of the Second Presbyterian Church in Huntington, WV – located at: 901 Jefferson Avenue.
- In the basement of the Second Presbyterian Church is the KYOWVA G&HS library. There they house numerous volumes of family histories, genealogical research, periodicals, county vital statistics materials and a host of other useful research material.
- Although the library contains volumes of work from various counties in the states listed above, it has a rather extensive bit of information for Cabell County, WV (the county in which it resides).
- The people are warm and welcoming and eager to help/discuss your research items.
- Monthly meetings are held every third Tuesday of the month from 7PM until 9PM.
- The library used to hold regular hours but (I believe and will confirm later) now you have to call to make sure they are there.
The Second Presbyterian Church is quite gorgeous with its dome and its patchwork stained glass windows. It was a beautiful and warm night this month and Renau and I stopped to take a couple of pictures to memorialize the evening.
This month we had a packed house! We had a very interesting speaker, Carrie Eldridge. She spoke about German immigrants and their migration to the United States, how they dispersed within the country once they arrived and what contributing factors influenced their final destination plans. For instance, she mentioned something that makes total sense but that I would not have thought of: the German climate tends to be cooler. When Germans landed in the United States, they would continue inland and northward to find an area that was more like the climate they were accustomed to. Also, it tended to be an easier journey for them if they traveled by boat on the various rivers, that is why you may find a higher concentration of German immigrants in the river cities/towns.
We arrived a little before the event began and I looked through a number of books trying to locate Husband’s people.
I won the speaker’s door prize: On The Frontier of VA and NC. It is a wonderful collection of county maps by state. I will share it with Renau (she really should have won, gave the right answer but she cheated! ha ha ha ha)
Ms Eldridge distributed a reference handout as well:
What a great evening. And we wrapped it up with a few of us straggling behind and discussing family histories. It is wonderful to be among like-minded people.
Do you research your family history? Do you belong to any genealogy groups or historical societies? PLEASE tell me about them in the comments below.
We have requested the possibility of a historical tour of the church. We would LOVE to see the view from the dome’s windows!
Also: during the meeting I realized that I want to find out specifics regarding the Taraczkozy migration to the United States. My Great Grandpa was afraid of military involvement by his country. I want to read more about that involvement and what prompted his move to the US.
Thoughts and Ponderances 