THE OHIO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Bellville, Ohio

Just a few years ago corn was growing in the field where this building now sits on SR 97 between Bellville and I-71.

Today it is the home of the state's genealogical society library due, in large measure, to the generous donation of the land to the OGS by Mansfield's James Gorman family.

It didn't hurt that the OGS was formed in Mansfield beginning in the late 1950s.

That's when Dr. William R.M. Houston, Louise Krause, Raymond and Nellie Dent,  Dr, David Massa, Dr. Elizabeth (Betty) Reed and others decided to formalize the group and subsequently filed for incorporation in 1959 as the OGS.

Dr. Houston wrote the group's first constitution and it began with 52 charter members.

The first annual conference for the group was held in 1962 and hosted in a Park Ave., West home provided by Dr. Houston.

The original OGS library was formed in 1971 and housed in three rooms of Dr. Houston's home.  The group purchased its first microfilm reader in 1972 by collecting S & H green stamps from its members.

A building fund drive was originated in 1976 which led to the purchase of a home on W. Third St., in Mansfield in 1980.  In 1987 the society moved to the Bushnell house on Sturges Ave., in Mansfield.

Ten years later they purchased a former furniture store at 713 S. Main St. where they were able to provide  handicapped accessibility and had room for their growing collection and office space all on one floor.

Today the library is just behind collections of The Church of Latter Day Saints, The Daughters of the American Revolution and the Fort Wayne, IN public library which continues to provide its duplicate publications to the Bellville library said Iona Shawver, a library volunteer.

A very noteworthy level of accomplishment, don't you think, for a group formed just over 50 years ago and bringing pride in its growth to the Bellville area which is functionally the state headquarters of the fourth largest genealogical collection in the US. 

Visitors are welcomed to the very modern OGS facility by its digital message sign in the top photo.  Evidence of the massiveness of the library's collection is apparent in the two lower pictures.

http://www.ogs.org/index.php