Mom's Margaretta Alumni Collection is Listed in NUCMC!

After my mother's death in 2010, my siblings and I agreed that we should donate her collection of Margaretta High School Alumni materials to the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center. I found Mom's collection listed at NUCMC, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections. I had seen the finding aid at the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center, but I had not previously seen the entry at NUCMC. The mission of the NUCMC is in part to "provide and promote bibliographic access to the nation's documentary heritage." The free cooperative cataloging program is operated by the Library of Congress.

To find family history materials on NUCMC, click on:

Searching on OCLC WorldCat

in the center column of NUCMC's home page.

I put Mom's name in the Easy Search Form. Her name is Joyce Orshoski. It brought me to this result.

For more details, click on:

More on this record

Mom's collection of Margaretta High School Alumni materials includes news clippings, photographs, obituaries, and bound copies of The Margaretta News covering the dates 1943 to 1948. Though Mom did not start attending Margaretta High School until her sophomore year in high school, she made lifelong friends with both students and teachers, and she was active in writing for the school newspaper. All six of her children, and several grandchildren also graduated from Margaretta. Anyone can view the Joyce Parker Orshoski collection at the library of the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center. The Hayes library also features valuable genealogical and historical information, and an outstanding and ever-growing Obituary Index. It is definitely worth a visit if you have Ohio ancestors!

Pictured below is a photo of Joyce Parker Orshoski, and just a few of her descendants, in front of her beloved alma mater, Margaretta High School, in the summer of 2007.

Happy Independence Day!

Pictures are from the Independence Day Concert held in Spiegel Grove at the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center on July 4, 2011. Several patriotic numbers were performed, and the 1812 Overture was accompanied by live cannon-fire!

Tombstone of President Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy Webb Hayes

President Rutherford B. Hayes, and his wife, Lucy Webb Hayes, are both buried on the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. President Hayes, the 19th President of the United States, served from 1877 through 1881. Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio on October 4, 1822. He was a graduate of Kenyon College, and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1843. He practiced law in Fremont and Cincinnati. During the Civil War, Hayes served with the Ohio 23rd Volunteer Infantry, and rose to the rank of Major General. From 1868 to 1872, Hayes was Ohio's Governor.

Lucy Ware Webb and Rutherford B. Hayes were married on 1852. Lucy helped care for Union soldiers during the Civil War, and she was a popular First Lady during her years in the White House.















Rutherford B. Hayes died on January 17, 1893. His wife Lucy had died on June 25, 1889. Both the former President and First Lady were interred on the grounds of their home in Fremont, Ohio, now the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center.

The mansion which was the Hayes home for several years was originally built as a summer home for the uncle of Rutherford B. Hayes, Sardis Birchard.















The R.B. Hayes Presidential Center offers tours of the Hayes Home and the Hayes Museum.














On the upper level of the Hayes Museum is the Hayes Presidential Center Library. The library was the nation's first Presidential Library; it was established in 1916 by the Hayes family. The resources found at the Hayes Presidential Center Library cover the entire state of Ohio. A visit to the Hayes Presidential Center is a must for anyone doing historical or genealogical research in the state of Ohio. You can visit the website of the R.B. Hayes Presidential Center for more details about the Hayes Home, the Hayes Museum, and the Hayes Presidential Center Library, as well as excellent information about the Hayes family.

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Week 2

A prompt from We Tree, "52 Weeks to Better Genealogy," hosted by Geneabloggers, has challenged bloggers to examine the local history, archives and/or special collections section. A library that Ohio genealogists, Graveyard Rabbits, and anyone researching their family heritage would find helpful is the Sandusky Library, close to the shores of Sandusky Bay in Erie County, Ohio. The Sandusky Library is dear to my heart, as I have worked there on and off since I was age 18 years old. (Let’s just say that I began working there long ago….) The items that I find especially helpful for local history and genealogy are:

High School Yearbooks

Sandusky City Directories

Bound issues of the Firelands Pioneer, which features journal articles about early Erie and Huron County residents.

The many computers housed in the Lower Level of the Sandusky Library provide access to Ancestry Library Edition as well as Heritage Quest.

The Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library houses a multitude of photographs

as well as

newspapers, local government records, and cemetery records on microfilm.

The Sandusky Library features a local history blog.

The Follett House Museum has several multimedia links.

Another library that is close to Erie County is the Library of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio. The library has an amazing local history and genealogy collection.

The Obituary Index, housed at the website of the Hayes Presidential Center is invaluable for anyone looking for obituaries in Ohio.

Consider visiting these libraries in you are in the northern section of Ohio, but if you cannot go there in person, stop by their web sites.