Students research genealogy at history center

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BROWNSTOWN

The Jackson County History Center has been the starting point for many on their journey to learning about their past.

That circle of explorers recently got a little larger.

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Students from Andrea McKinley’s fourth-grade class at Lutheran Central School visited the center’s genealogy library to take a few more steps into their voyage of learning about their family.

“We started the project having Mrs. (Nancy) Burge come to class and talk about genealogy and how to record and list information found,” McKinley said.

This was the first time for Burge, a history center volunteer, to work with Lutheran Central students, but she has helped many other local students connect to their pasts.

“In the latter part of March, we invite fourth-graders to come and tour the Jackson County History Center and genealogy center, and we always extend the option to come back and do a genealogy day,” Burge said.

McKinley said since part of her curriculum is to teach about Indiana history and American history, she decided to take the history center up on its offer.

“We want them to learn about their personal history and where their family was during world history,” she said. “A lot of students were surprised how many of their grandparents were involved in World War II.”

Students first were required to go to their families and talk with them as far back as they could go.

For many students, that meant going to grandparents or in some cases great-grandparents and asking about their parents, grandparents, siblings and more.

They then compiled that together and brought it to class.

“From that, we had some holes in the students’ histories, so we came (to the genealogy library) to try and fill those holes,” McKinley said.

Among those who found out her family was in the military was Addie Burcham.

“I found out that my grandpa was in the military. I didn’t know that,” she said.

The trip to the genealogy library allowed students to find documentation and references pertaining to their own personal family tree.

“I learned pretty much how the whole family of Klostermans, Wischmeiers, Schafstalls and Hackmans are related,” said Craig Wischmeier, one of the students in the class.

To receive a complete grade on the project, the students needed to find their grandparents and one great-grandparent.

That might seem easy at first, but for some, it was difficult.

“It’s kind of hard to find all the information,” Burcham said. “I ended up calling all my grandparents to find it.”

Burcham finished the day having found her relations back five generations, but Wischmeier had only gone back four generations but covered a wider breadth of relatives branching into other trees of his family.

“We found out one or two of the kids in the class were even related and they didn’t know,” McKinley said.

While some of the fun is finding distant relations or relations to famous people, she said the students didn’t get too much into that. Burge explained why.

“We didn’t get too much into bloodlines,” Burge said. “With all the stepmothers and -fathers out there, that’s a whole other world.”

Working with Burge served as a good starting place for students to go further, find out more and learn more about their own personal history.

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The Jackson County History Center is a 501(c)(3) organization formed in 2010 with the merger of local historical and genealogical societies.

The Jackson County Historical Society was formed in 1916 as part of the Indiana and Jackson County centennial observance. The Jackson County Genealogical Society was formed in 1983.

The center is at 105 N. Sugar St., Brownstown. The office and genealogy library are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays; from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; and by appointment Wednesdays and weekends. The museums and pioneer village are open from 9 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

An annual membership costs $15 and is tax-deductible.

For information, call 812-358-2118, email [email protected] or search for Jackson County History Center of Indiana on Facebook.

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