Membership in Century Families of Ohio

Tonight, at a dinner at the Ohio Genealogical Conference, I was inducted into the Ohio Genealogical Society's brand-new Century Families of Ohio, a lineage program to honor ancestors who had lived in Ohio at least 100 years ago and back to 1851.

I wanted to file the application for this program because it gave me the opportunity to honor my paternal ancestors, Evert Huuskonen and Ida Maria Hytonen Huuskonen, immigrants from Finland in 1902 and 1903 rexpectively. I also filed information about my ancestors Wallce Betts Dingman and his wife, Grace Darling Green Dingman, and my mother, Mary Jane Dingman.

I also successfully filed an application for my wife and her ancestors James S Van Court and his wife, Mary Margaret Caroline Heinselman Van Court, and Clyde H Van Court, their son and my father-in -law. The family moved to Ohio from West Virginia in time for the 1910 census, and thus were elgible for recognition in the Century Families of Ohio.

I want to thank Margaret Cheney for for spearheading the organization of this program for OGS and for serving as chief judge for all the applications that were submitted for the charter year. The fact that 93 applications were approved is a good indication that adding the Century Families of Ohio was a great idea.

OGS is looking for a strong showing of new applicants to this program next year when the conference is being held in Cleveland, with its broad ethnic diversity.

OGS has three other lineage programs: the First Families of Ohio, the Settlers and Builders of Ohio, and the Society of Civil War Families of Ohio. I am happy to say that I have successfully filed applications for these three programs as well.

Finding and preserving the documentation required for any lineage program gives you a strong foundation for presenting your family history to other family members. I have found the process and results to be very rewarding.

If you are interested in filing for one or more of these OGS lineage programs, you can find the applications and instructions on the OGS website at www.ogs.org.