York County Historical Association Gets Better Organized to Better Connect Families & Their Histories
York News-Times Reprint
Written by Parker Garlough
The York County Historical Association focuses on York County history, but its reach extends far beyond York County’s borders.
For example, last fall, a volunteer helped a pair of siblings living in Oregon and Minnesota find information on a family member who lived in Gresham in the late 19th century, then after several decades migrated west to California. With that volunteer’s help, the siblings learned about their relative’s career path as a lawyer, then a judge, then a banker, and finally as a real estate agent in California.
History association volunteers have given many other people family history research help. The research process involves resources within the history association’s collection as well as outside of it.
For a long time, the association’s resources were difficult to get information from, because they were not well-organized.
“A lot of the things in the old building were just all stacked together, and there was no time and no space to put things,” volunteer Carolyn Sandall said.
Back then, YCHA was run almost entirely by one person: Nancy Beach.
“She held us together for like 30 years,” Sandall said.
The historical association reorganized in May. Now, there’s a six-person board and a larger group of volunteers. Beach was appointed to the board when it first formed but has since stepped away from it.
With the additional resources, the association is also reorganizing its collection.
“We’re just trying to put things in a logical order,” Sandall said.
That will make it easier to do historical research in the future. For example, Sandall was alphabetizing the obituary collection and attaching the obituaries to postcards with basic details such as date of death and location of burial.
Someday, the volunteers hope to digitize the collection, but that may be far in the future.
“I’m not sure that’ll happen in my lifetime,” Sandall said.
While going through the collection, volunteers also have found some strange and surprising artifacts, including hair swatches and a cat’s tail.
“With its little vertebrae, it was just a black cat’s tail,” Sandall said. “Well, that’s interesting. Why would anybody, first of all, keep it, and why would anybody donate it?”
The majority of the artifacts are books or other printed materials. There are genealogical records, high school and college yearbooks, sheet music, Bibles, old newspapers, and more. The collection of newspapers reveals that York used to boast an impressive set of competing papers, including the York Democrat, the York Republican, the York Daily News, the York Times, and others.
Other items in the collection include a puzzle that, when assembled, forms a map; a round, bugle-like brass instrument; mannequins displaying historical clothes; and three pieces of a mammoth skeleton.
Lynn Ericson recently joined the team of volunteers, and she described it as a positive experience so far.
“It’s fun,” Ericson said. “It’s just fun. I grew up in York County, and I left. I just recently moved back, and it’s just nice to be back.”
York County Historical Association is open Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Walk-in visitors are welcome. They are located at 109 East 6th Street, York, NE.
