The Johnson County Genealogical Society (JCGS) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. As a special 50th anniversary project the JCGS in cooperation with the Johnson County Library has established a free Memory Lab at the Central Resource Library in the genealogy area. JCGS is providing equipment and assistance to help patrons digitize family photos, negatives, slides, 8 mm movies and documents so they may be kept for future generations and easily shared with other family members. This service was seen as a priority since so many older media formats are fragile, degrading or obsolete and require considerable space to store. Those wishing to use the equipment may reserve a 2 ½ hour appointment through the JCGS website to bring in their materials and transfer to USB or other digital media. Detailed instructions will be provided on how to prepare materials prior to the visit, how to use the equipment and save to a digital file. JCGS volunteers will be present at each session to help the users get started.
Equipment at this time includes:
- Epson FastFoto: Scans multiple photos or documents in an automatic feeder. The capacity is 36 photos. Size range from 3″ x 5″ to 8″ x 20″ including, Polaroid photos. This machine is not for fragile or curled photos.
- Epson V39 Flatbed Scanner: Perfect for fragile or curled photos. Also good for odd-sized photos and documents. Up to 8.5″ x 17″ photos or documents.
- Large flatbed scanner: Can scan up to 11″ x 17″ documents or photos.
- Wolverine Titan Slide and Film Scanner: 35mm slides and 35mm, 127, 127, 110, and APS negatives.
- Epson V600 Flatbed Scanner: Converts 35mm slides and 35mm, 120 and 620 negatives. Up to 8.5″ x 17″ photos or documents.
- Wolverine Movie Maker Pro: 8mm and Super 8 Film on reels up to 7 inches. Silent only.
Funding for the Memory Lab was provided by a grant from the Johnson County Library Foundation. Phase 2 of the project will include digitization equipment for VHS and audio cassette tapes.
For more information on the Johnson County Genealogical Society or the Memory Lab, visit jcgsks.org or email information@jcgsks.org.
Johnson County Genealogical Society Turns 50
The Society was formed in December 1972 with 98 charter members as an outgrowth of a genealogical workshop with representatives from the Johnson County Library, Johnson County Community College and volunteers interested in genealogy. The society’s first regular meeting was held in 1973 at the Johnson County Library headquarters, now known as the Antioch branch. From that meeting the organization began to collect materials of genealogical interest from the public, hold programs and staff the Kansas Room with volunteers who began to help patrons with their family histories.
Today the JCGS has 250 members, conducts monthly public programs, beginner classes and skill building sessions, hosts the Genealogy Day Open House and Resource Fair, and provides volunteers for the Genealogy Desk at the Central Resource Library, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to assist patrons with their family histories. The society has six special interest groups which meet monthly: FamilySearch, Family Tree Maker, Roots Magic, and Legacy users groups as well as the Writing Group and Digital Scrapbooking. The Society also offers one-on-one help for patrons who have questions relating to their research or DNA and genetic genealogy. JCGS also supports the Library by providing information for patrons around the world requesting local obituary information.
The Johnson County Genealogical Society has a collection or more than 7,000 items that are housed at the Central Resource Library and are made available to the public for reference. The titles are listed in the Library’s online catalog. The materials relate to genealogy topics from many geographic regions, ethnic, religious, military to specific families. Books, periodicals, written family histories and microfilm are all available for use within the library in additional to many online genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.
Membership in JCGS is open to anyone who has an interest in genealogy. Annual dues are $25 for individuals and $30 for a family membership. Most people join to benefit from the network of genealogists helping each other with research and breaking down those brick walls they have encountered in their searches. Monthly programs, workshops and other educational opportunities are very popular and well attended.
The JCGS website provides information about the society, meetings and events, plus some essential genealogy resources and forms such as ancestor charts, census, worksheets, timelines, finding aids and checklists that can be downloaded and filled in as research progresses.
-Marsha Bennett, Johnson County Genealogical Society
JoCoHistory Blog 
What a dynamic genealogy society!! The volunteer leadership for the last dozen or so years has done a wonderful job of creating dynamic programs that have increased interest in genealogy. They have overcome many obstacles, including a world-wide pandemic that proved to be a death nell to hundreds of genealogy societies. They are deserving of respect and recognition. The library, members of the JCGS and every library user interested in genealogy, or their family history have been fortunate to benefit from their hard work and the thousands of hours of their time they have donated.