Polk Genealogy Center to host grand opening April 3

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, March 28, 2018

The grand opening of the Polk Genealogy Center will be Tuesday, April 3, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the ribbon cutting at 5:30 p.m.

Light refreshments will be served.

According to USA Today, the only hobby more popular than genealogy is gardening. Tracking down ancestors is a hobby for many, and an obsession for some.

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At the grand opening, visitors can meet a few of the obsessed in the area and learn what they have found about their local ancestries of bootleggers  and revenuers, preachers and soldiers, and hard-working folks raising very large families. 

“We were accumulating more and more family records,” said Becky Hudson, board genealogist and  director at the Polk County Historical Museum. “We had to break a doorway through the wall to make  room for a new genealogy center, not only to organize and preserve, but also make the collection  more easily accessible. We now also have about 150 books in the center’s library…many rare.”

“Many of the 70 family names in the center may be familiar, from Arledge and Badwell to Lynch and Womach,” said Pat McCool, vice president of the Polk County Historical Association and one of the genealogy docents and researchers. “Metcalf, Pace and McCool are some of the names coming together in my own ancestry research. We’re asking association members and all others to bring in more. For anyone who wants to learn more about their family tree, we offer staff-assisted research,” 

With the extended hours at the museum, visitors will have plenty of time to explore on their own or chat with a docent: stories to intrigue and educate, artifacts to make one wonder, suppositions to entertain and mysteries to solve.

Polk County Historical Museum is located at 60 Walker St., Columbus. The entrance is on the lower level at the rear of the building.

For more info, call 828-894-3351 or visit www.polknchistory.org

– Submitted by Vincent Verrecchio