“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.” --- Martin Luther King Jr.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” --- Marcus Garvey

“History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man.” --- Percy Bysshe Shelley.

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.” --- Pearl Buck.

FOLEY, Alabama --- For over 25 years, the Baldwin County Genealogical Society has not only been recording history, but has been making history.

Created in January 1987 by journalist Dorothy Skipper “Dot” Brown and Berdine Rittenhouse the group grew to over 60 members the first month and now boasts nearly 100, said Vice President Mary Adams, who is in charge of arranging speakers for the monthly meetings.

About 30 to 40 members regularly attend the meetings which are held at 10 a.m. the second Saturday of every month at the Foley Public Library.

“We have speakers who talk about the history, not only of Baldwin County and Alabama, but all over focusing primarily on the South,” Adams said. “But mainly it is about exchanging ideas and helping people find their family’s history.”

On Saturday, March 10, from 10 a.m. to noon, the Genealogical Society will host a special meeting celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the club’s organization.

Jeanette Bornholt, genealogy specialist at the Library, will open the event with a historical brief on the founding of the Society and its developments over the past two years, followed by cake cutting and attendees can choose to tour the genealogy resource area, hear an explanation of the various research material available, view the pictorial exhibits and be introduced to the many ways to compile the information found in an efficient manner.

Money raised through the years has been used to help stock and fund the genealogy library, which is located on the second floor of the Foley Public Library.

“From the beginning it was important that we have a central location for the meetings and the archives,” said Jeanette Bornholt, genealogy specialist at the Library.

At first, the library was located at the Baldwin County Heritage Museum, but both soon moved to Foley.

The library includes books on local, state, national and international history, Bornholt said.

“We all come from somewhere, and we have records here from every county in Alabama and many of the states where people can come and research their family’s history,” she said.

The library also maintains surname files on many of the area families, obituary files, both from hard copy newspaper clippings and on microfilm and maintains memberships to the websites ancestry.com and heritagequestonline.com.

“With the backing of the (Genealogical) Society we’ve always maintained records and stayed ahead of the game as far as technology,” Bornholt said, “and we’re very fortunate that one of our directors had the foresight to maintain membership with ancestry.com. It is such a good resource, but a lot of people can’t afford the monthly fee. Now they can come here and use it free of charge. We weren’t sure in the beginning how much it will be used, but right now we have over 3,000 users per month on the sight.”

In addition to the two computers in use in the library’s genealogy room, there are also over 20 computers throughout the library, all with access to the sites.

Computers will be set up at Saturday’s event to give guests a demonstration of Internet research, access to ancestry.com and pick up free guides to start their own family tree.

Drawings will also be held for door prizes and refreshments will be served.

 “Our main goal is to let people know they don’t need a degree to research their family’s history,” Adams said. “You can start with the basics and work from there. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.”

For more information about the event contact Adams at 251-949-6174 or email sadams@gulftel.com.