June 5, 2025 • 43 mins
Sarahbeth Farabee, head genealogist at the Shelby County Public Library and vice president of the Shelby County Historical Society, shares her passion for genealogy and the extensive resources available at the library's Kentucky Room.
- Started researching family history in her 20s by contacting distant relatives through letters
- Found surprising connections including relation to Francis Scott Key and an ancestor executed after the Battle of Kings Mountain
- Had a spiritual experience visiting her ancestor's pre-Civil War home in Ohio
- Offers free genealogy assistance to Shelby County residents regardless of where their ancestors lived
- The Kentucky Room houses family files, historical maps, newspaper archives back to 1841, and yearbooks
- Library provides free access to Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com for patrons
- Recommends starting research by interviewing older family members before knowledge is lost
- Suggests using Find A Grave, census records, and courthouse archives for research
- The Carnegie Library building (1903) stands on former cemetery grounds with preserved headstones
- Science Hill School for Girls 200th anniversary exhibit available at the Historical Society until year-end
Visit the Shelby County Public Library's Kentucky Room during regular library hours. Though it remains locked to protect rare materials, staff will gladly provide access to anyone interested in exploring genealogical resources.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Kentucky Hidden Wonders.
I'm Jeanette Marson and I'mMason Warren.
Together, we're uncovering thesecrets, stories and hidden gems
of Shelby County.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Kentucky From unforgettable places to
off-the-beaten-path adventures.
Join us as we explore Kentuckytreasures and Shelby County's
best-kept secrets.
Our guest today on KentuckyHidden Wonders is Sarah Beth
Farabee, who is the headgenealogist at the Shelby County
Public Library.
You wear a couple differenthats.
You're also the board vicepresident at the Shelby County
(00:53):
Historical Society.
You're a singer I don't thinkyou're singing for us today but
you're into a lot of differentthings.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, thank you for asking me.
I'm glad to be here.
Yeah, absolutely, so I wentthrough a little bit of your bio
just a second ago, butintroduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit about you.
Well, I'm a native ofShelbyville.
I've lived here my entire lifeactually, and I raised my family
here.
I have three children.
My dad was a local doctor, andmy dad was a local doctor, a
(01:24):
family doctor here inShelbyville.
My mother was a well-knownpianist and actually a concert
pianist.
She traveled around the world,and so it was an interesting
household to grow up in.
I have four siblings, so it wasa fun, exciting place to grow
up.
I always loved Shelbyville.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, we're lucky that you stuck around, lucky to
have you here.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So some say you are the go-to person for all things
genealogy.
How did you get started andwhat sparked that flame of
research with you?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, I have always loved history in general and so
I probably from the time I wasin my early 20s.
I really just got interested inmy own family history and I had
(02:30):
to just talk to relatives andthey would give me, you know,
names of obscure cousins that Ihad never even met in Georgia
but who might have someinformation, and I would write
letters to these cousins andthey were kind enough to respond
back.
And it just the moreinformation I got on my own
family I started with my dad'sside and the more information I
got, just the more I wanted toget and I just always was very
(02:53):
interested in it.
And then when, as the yearswent by, I would go for a long
time and not do anything with it.
But then, as time went on andAncestrycom and other websites
came up that you could findstuff online, boy, I just went
to town on that.
That was just great.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Once you get started on Ancestrycom, it's like a
rabbit hole that you can hardlyget out of.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's interesting.
It's very interesting.
That's very interesting.
That's very true, and I also mylate husband.
I'm a widow and my husbandpassed away from cancer 15 years
ago, but he was very greatabout being willing to let me
drag him around various statesto actually physically go to the
(03:41):
places where my ancestors lived, and that was really a lot of
fun.
We went to different towns, wewent to courthouses and
libraries and we went to a lotof cemeteries, and it was always
very interesting and fun to seethe area that they lived in.
(04:01):
And even actually, with oneancestor, I was fortunate enough
to find out that the house thatwas built prior to the Civil
War that my ancestors lived inwas still standing.
Oh wow, and it's in horribleshape, but it's still standing,
and so we got to see that.
Did you get to go in?
We did.
Actually, it is in Ohio, inrural Ohio, and um, it's on the
(04:28):
land that it was on, thatbelonged to my ancestors has
been turned into a uh like apark, for uh, that they have
grown back all the nativegrasses that would have been
around back in the mid-1800s andso the park rangers used the
house, basically just the verybottom level, just to sort of
(04:52):
hang their jackets in, and therest is in horrible shape.
But I talked one of the parkrangers into letting me go in
and my husband go in and he tookus in and you know raccoons had
been in there and it was prettyhorrible.
But but it's a two story, asolid brick you know house.
It's a substantial house and soI loved just seeing, even
(05:13):
though it looked horrible on theinside.
I really loved seeing theactual home where my you know
ancestors had lived, even duringthe Civil War, and it was
almost a spiritual experiencefor me.
It really was.
I really had to force myself tolike leave the leave to you
know drive away.
(05:34):
I was really just wanted tokind of stay there for a long
time, which I did.
But, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It is, and it's probably really neat just being
able to stand there in the sameplace that your ancestors once
stood.
That's very neat.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Absolutely.
I think maybe that's what makesit a spiritual place.
And what's odd is that thenight before that we went to
this house, there was atorrential rain.
We were staying in a hotel andthere was just a torrential rain
.
We were staying in a hotel andit was just a torrential rain
all night long.
And so the next day was a real,pretty sunny day, which a lot
(06:11):
of times happens after a bigrain, and we were just walking
around the outside of the houseand the rain, I guess, had
washed some dirt away from thehouse and I saw some old marbles
and broken crockery layingright by the house and you know,
(06:33):
actually, I picked it up andtook it home.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I probably would have also.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know, it was buried.
I think it was buried beforethat big rain and I was just
like, oh my goodness, look atthis.
It looked like it was, you know, a piece of brown crockery from
a bowl like a big bowl, andthen there was a couple of
pieces of white crockery and acouple of marbles.
And yeah, I've got them in abox, you know, at home.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So you could put archaeologists, yeah,
genealogists, archaeologists.
You could say.
You could say I was a thief?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
No, no, no, it's just archaeology, archaeology.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, it was really.
I got very excited when I sawit.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, sometimes when you are looking up your
descendants and all you havesurprises.
Have you found any surprises,as you were looking back through
your family and anything thatyou got really excited about
that you didn't know?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Well, I actually did.
One of the most exciting thingsthat I found out, when this is
on my dad's side is that when Iwas going through one of the
female ancestors and I wouldencourage people don't forget
your female ancestors.
A lot of times people just gothrough the male line but check
(07:45):
out their wives, because thoseare your great, great, great
grandmothers.
And a lot of times they havevery interesting relatives and
they have, you know, fathers orbrothers or whatever who fought
in the civil war, who fought inthe revolutionary war.
But one of the most interestingthings that I found out was
that we are, you know, it's notreal close, it's sort of like a
(08:07):
distant cousin, but it is in thefamily line.
We are related to Francis ScottKey, who of course wrote the
poem that became our nationalanthem, the Star Spangled Banner
.
So that was a thrill, and thenprobably there were a couple
(08:31):
others, but one that I guess itwasn't so much that it was an
exciting, because it's a tragicsituation but I've talked about
this a lot to different peoplewhen we've talked about
genealogy is that I did have thebrother of one of my direct
like probably eight timesgreat-grandfathers one of my
direct, like probably eighttimes great grandfathers his one
of his brothers.
This was during theRevolutionary War and the family
(08:51):
was split between loyalists andpatriots and some of the
siblings went one way and somewent the other and it was kind
of the America's first civil warreally was during the
Revolutionary War, and so thisuncle was a loyalist.
He fought in the Battle ofKings Mountain, which was in
(09:13):
South Carolina, but he was fromNorth Carolina and after the
battle, which was over veryquickly, the Patriots, hands
down, won that thing quickly.
He and about close to 900loyalists were taken prisoner
and marched to back across thestate line into North Carolina
(09:35):
and, unfortunately for him, someof the people knew him some of
the patriots and knew some otherprisoners, and they said these
are horrible people.
They burned down our barns andthey've murdered people and
they've done this and they'vedone that Because they had been
at, basically, civil war foryears during the war and so they
(10:01):
had a trial, kind of like a—ofcourse the loyalists said it was
this mock trial and thepatriots said it was a
legitimate trial, and he and 29others were sentenced to death.
Oh wow, in a big, huge oak treeout on this farm which lived,
(10:25):
believe it or not, until the20th century, like, I think, in
the 90s, and the locals I'veread that the locals always
refer to it as the Gallows Oakbecause they remembered all
these years that these hangingstook place.
But anyway, poor man got hungand, ironically, one of the
(10:48):
Patriot officers who was overthe trial and who, of course,
witnessed it, was Isaac Shelby,our first governor of Kentucky.
So that was a tragic story in away.
I mean, I don't know who didwhat and all that about these
men who were condemned, but theonly reason that the others were
(11:10):
not hanged, because 30 weresentenced to die was someone ran
up and had information thatthis British officer, bannister
Tarleton, who was infamous forbeing really a cruel opponent,
he and his men were on their wayto where they were.
So they got out of therequickly, which saved the lives
(11:35):
of the other.
Like I said, they were going todo more than nine, but that was
just an interesting story.
It's written about in a lot ofdifferent articles and books.
His name was Captain JamesChitwood and he's named in these
articles and books a lot oftimes.
Sometimes they'll just say nineLoyalists were hanged, but two
(11:59):
of the Loyalist officers one wasa doctor who was the Loyalist
physician, and the other was alieutenant they both wrote
diaries.
I mean, they would write stuffevery day in like a diary and
they wrote all about it.
So I was able to find those twodiaries.
Oh, wow, because my husband andI one of the trips was to the
(12:21):
location of the Battle of KingsMountain, which is like a
national park, I guess now.
So they had a gift shop and thenin the I got you know they had
copies of these two diaries.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So that's how I know a lot about it.
That is very, very neat.
Before the show I had mentionedthat one of my surprises was to
find out that my family waswith Daniel Boone at Fort
Boonesboro, then came withSquire Boone to Shelby County,
which was a total surprise toShelby County, which was a total
(12:55):
surprise.
So I'm excited to know aboutyour genealogy library.
It's probably a treasure troveof hidden gems.
What can people like me whowant to know more, what can they
find in your wonderful library?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Well, we have what we call the Kentucky Room, which
is on the lowest level of theShelby County Public Library,
which is a Carnegie librarybuilt in 1903.
It's a beautiful library and inthe Kentucky room we have many,
many, many things.
We have Shelby County history.
We have a few surroundingcounties like Henry and Spencer
(13:27):
and Oldham.
We have a little bit on thosecounties.
We have history of Louisvilleand Jefferson County, fayette
County, lexington.
We have family files.
We have hundreds of family filesthat people have done their
research on their own family andthen they have made us copies
(13:47):
or it's letters that have beensent to former, many, many years
ago, people that helped withgenealogy, like 50 and 60 years
ago, who worked at the libraryas volunteers I think.
But anyway, there's many, manyfiles with a lot of great
information with specificfamilies.
(14:09):
We also have quite a goodcollection of books that people
have written about their ownancestors and I know you had
mentioned to me earlier when wewere talking about your family
name and I believe that Bantaand we have a book now.
Whether it's your family, Idon't know, but we have a lot of
(14:29):
information on the Boone family, you know, and on Squire Daniel
.
Other members and I have beenquite surprised at the number of
people that are related to theBoones that have come in.
You know, talking or told mejust I just in a conversation oh
, I'm I'm descended from SquireBoone or I'm descended from
(14:50):
Thomas Boone or this person orthat person a cousin of Daniel's
or another brother or one ofthe female Boones.
So that's been interesting tome to find that out.
But we also have a lot of fileson just Shelby County life, like
, for example, we have a file oneducation in Shelby County, on
(15:12):
schools, military government,commerce, cemeteries, veterans,
just a lot of, and a lot ofpeople who are doing some sort
of like they're working on aparticular thing that they need
information about Shelby County.
They have that's been helpfulto them.
Maybe they're not doinggenealogy but they're doing some
(15:36):
kind of an article for ourlocal magazine or whatever on a
certain school.
Or like we're doing a whole lotthis year on Science Hill
School for Girls, for example,because it's the 200th
anniversary of the founding ofthe school by Julia Tavis, and
you mentioned I was the vicepresident of the historical
(15:56):
society.
Part of my job is also planningprograms and so we have.
We're just really, reallycelebrating Julia Tavis and her
husband and the school and doinga lot of different things
related to that.
In fact, if people want to visitthe Historical Society building
(16:19):
the History Center, we havesome museum space upstairs and
two of the three rooms arededicated to Science Hill School
for Girls and Julia Tevis andthe Tevises and the Pointers as
well, so I encourage people tocome in.
That's going to be.
That exhibit's going to be upuntil the end of the year, so
several more months, so I wouldencourage people to come to that
(16:41):
.
But also in the Kentucky roomwe have civil war history, we
have a revolutionary war history.
We have some a few biographieson famous Kentuckians.
We have books for somebody whomaybe always wanted to do their
(17:01):
family tree but they just didn'tknow where to start.
Of course I'm there to try tohelp them in any way that I can.
I use a combination of what wehave in the Kentucky Room and I
do use Ancestrycom a lot becausea lot of information is on
there and they're always adding,they're adding documents and
(17:22):
they're adding information allthe time.
But I also have brought inbooks, ordered books to add to
our collection on how to work onyour genealogy and we have
specific books onAfrican-American history, on
Scotland, germany, scandinavia,that people.
Now these cannot be checked out, but you're welcome to come and
(17:45):
sit down.
We have a nice table and chairsdown there.
People can sit down and look up.
You know specifics about, ifthey know for a fact that you
know they're from Ireland orwhatever.
Now we also speaking ofAncestrycom.
It is free for patrons to use.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I was just going to ask that oh okay, yeah, because
I knew some libraries offeredthat that's so nice.
Yes, to ask that, oh okay, yeah, because I knew some libraries
offered that that's so nice.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yes, we have that.
Now you have to be physicallyin the library to use it, but
people are welcome to useAncestrycom and we recently got
Newspaperscom and those arethousands and thousands of
newspapers that are online thatyou can access.
I'm pretty sure that you canmaybe access that at home Really
(18:34):
, and we have some othergenealogy websites like
familysearchorg that you canaccess at home.
Now you have to have a librarycard and you just go on our
website and click on thedatabases and then pull up the
one you want, and then it shouldindicate to you if you could do
(18:56):
it from home and you put inyour big old, long library
number that's on your card andthen the last four digits are
the pen.
You have to put a four-digit pen, which is the last four digits.
So we also have a lot of oldschool yearbooks that people
have donated from Shelby CountyHigh School, shelbyville High
School and the little highschools before they consolidated
(19:19):
into Shelby County, like Waddy,simpsonville, cropper and these
different little communities inour county.
We have even a few of those.
So people do come in and theyenjoy looking through the
yearbooks and looking up theirparents or you know whoever.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I found my grandfather's senior photo from
when he was in high school,Shelbyville High School in one
of the yearbooks there one time,so it was just kind of fun to
send it to him and say do youremember this?
And it was a neat little momentthere.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, it's fun, it's fun to look and, by the way, I
graduated from Shelbyville HighSchool.
Yes, yeah, so did he Go.
Red Devils, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So and you talked a little bit about this but a lot
of people are curious abouttheir roots and where they come
from, but they don't know whereto start with looking for
genealogy and I know you'reavailable to help but what do
you suggest for someone thatwants to kind of go down that
rabbit hole, really of what itis?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Well, I would suggest , especially for young people,
talk to your parents.
Interview your parents If yourgrandparents are still here with
us.
Talk to your grandparents.
If you have great aunts, greatuncles, anybody in your family
you know, generations older thanyour generation, sit down and
(20:40):
talk with them.
And if you can't, even you know, tape what they say so you
won't you know, forget it, or atleast take notes.
But for older people, I wouldsay, even start out, you know,
talking about talking to yoursiblings.
They might know something thatyou didn't know and you didn't
realize.
If you have aunts and uncles orparents still alive, you know,
(21:04):
talk to them.
But if maybe most of yourrelatives, older relatives, have
passed away, for example, justsit down and write down
everything you can remember,like, write both your parents'
names and your mother's maidenname.
If you know approximately theyear or the specific year or
approximately the year they wereborn, that's very important.
(21:27):
As far as if you want to useancestry Also, just start with
your own parents.
And if you you know, let's saythat.
And, by the way, let me justsay this I help anybody who
lives in Shelby County, even iftheir ancestors are not from
(21:50):
Shelby County, even if theirancestors are not from Kentucky.
If they live in Shelby County,I'll be glad to assist them,
even if they're from Wisconsinor if they're from, you know,
georgia or wherever I also.
Well, I just lost my train ofthought, that's all right.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let me interject a thought.
So you and I and Mason have alltalked about some surprising
things that we have found in ourown genealogies.
Right, I was just wonderinghave you helped another person
where they found something sosurprising?
Can you think of an instancewhere you helped another person
(22:31):
and it was just a total surpriseto both?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, actually I helped a gentleman several
months ago from Maryland and hehad a lot of deep roots in
Shelby County and he ended uphaving the same ancestor like
his ancestor.
And a famous person's ancestorwere the same ancestor like his
ancestor and a famous person'sancestor were the same person
(22:56):
and the famous person was thefirst George Bush.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
President Bush.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
But the gentleman from Maryland was African
American.
Oh, that's interesting.
So you know, it was aninteresting journey.
He was a lovely gentleman.
This gentleman from we did a lotof back and forth emails and
the reason I, you know, even waseven in touch with him at all
is people go to our website fromaround.
(23:25):
I have gotten quite I mean manyemails from around the country.
I mean many emails from aroundthe country, people from
Colorado, california, hawaii,georgia, north Carolina.
This gentleman was fromMaryland, he was an attorney,
(23:51):
and they just go on our websitebecause they know that they had
Shelby County ancestors, becausethey're people that have done
work and done, you know,genealogy research, and so they,
uh, will go on, you know, clickand find the genealogy link.
It it has my name and and myemail and I'll get emails or
they'll just kind of email thegeneral library email, and then
I will contact them, or theywill write sometimes big, long
emails and say my ancestor isblah blah, blah, blah and they
(24:13):
have all the dates and what.
But I need to verify.
Could you help me verify?
Blah, blah, blah.
You know about this person orpeople, sometimes just several
ancestors, and so I've helpedpeople from really all around
the country and we've had peoplethat are coming through
Kentucky on the way maybe tosomewhere else, or even planned
(24:33):
a trip to come to Kentucky fortheir own family research from
other states.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I have always thought that genealogy and tourism went
hand in hand.
Because so many people travel,because even you had mentioned
you had planned a trip with yourhusband, you know, going the
same.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
So I have in my mind.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I'd like to do the same thing, and I know people do
that all the time, so I bet youhave people from all over the
world.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Well, I haven't had any international you know
people so far, but I have had,you know, several from Texas and
a Chicago area and differentplaces, but mostly it's the
majority are from emails, youknow, and our whole relation.
Now sometimes I talk on thephone with these people as well,
but anyway, it's very, it'svery interesting and fun to meet
(25:22):
different people, even if weall we do is email each other.
And people are very grateful ifyou find something, even just
one little thing, but if youfind a lot, they're just over
the moon.
I mean, they're just very, veryexcited and they're so grateful
and, you know, thankful andit's really a nice, you know,
it's a nice job because I feellike I'm, you know, trying to
(25:45):
make people happy as much as Ican, and they are, they're just,
they're lovely.
So but back, I'm sorry, back tolike, if somebody's just
wanting to just start fromscratch and they don't know what
to do, just start onegeneration at a time, I would
suggest that people go onAncestry.
Now you, like I said, you canuse it free at the library.
(26:06):
It's quite, it's kind ofexpensive.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
It is.
I looked at it just the otherday and I you know, decided not
to renew, so now I'm glad toknow the library does that yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
It's.
It is nice sitting in your ownhome you know doing it and and
just you know, in your pajamasor whatever.
But if you prefer not to dothat and spend that money, you
know you can go to the library.
But one good thing is thatthere's, you know, once you put
stuff into Ancestry, otherthings like, and they may own
all of this, I think they may bethere under the umbrella is the
(26:39):
newspaperscom, I think, andmaybe Find a Grave.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right, that's a great place too, find a Grave is very
good at because it gives you.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
It doesn't just show you the grave or whatever.
It tells these people's parents.
If they somehow have thatinformation, whoever's grave
you're looking at, they'll sayoh, father this name, mother
this name, spouse this name,children list, all.
You know some or all of thechildren.
So I have found in my ownsearch the names of the next
(27:14):
generation.
Before that I didn't know, andthen you click on that name and
go back another generation andyou can go back six generations
by just going on Find a Grave.
So I would just suggest thatpeople do use the online
services.
Some people say, oh well,they're not always accurate or
whatever, but a lot of it isaccurate.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
If you go by the census information, that can
help a lot and censuses have alot of good information on them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
They have the head of the household, the wife, all
the children, their ages, whatthe father does sometimes, how
much education they have, ofcourse, where they were living,
what county, and you can get alot of good information off
these documents.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Well, it sounds like I need to spend a whole day
there.
Absolutely.
So, I may come over and testyour skills, because I've always
had a question about that.
Henry Banta, shelby connectionto President William Henry
Harrison.
My dad had always said we wererelated somehow.
Through that, I'm gonna.
I'm gonna test your skills.
I hope you do come over.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I would love to try to help.
Oh I'd love it.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So changing gears just a little bit.
And you, uh, you touched onthis earlier, uh, kind of
offhand, uh, when you said thatthe library, the Shelby County
Public Library, is a Carnegielibrary.
So what does that mean?
What does it mean to be aCarnegie library?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Well, what it means to be a Carnegie library is.
We are a library that were ableto be.
It was built in 1903 and thecity of Shelbyville at the time
had applied to the Carnegie Iguess foundation that Andrew
Carnegie, the multi,multimillionaire, uh,
industrialist or whatever, um, Ithink he he was from Scotland
(29:00):
originally and he very muchbelieved in education and he
very much believed in inlibraries.
Thank heavens, because there'slike there's Carnegie libraries
not just in the United Statesbut all over the world, and so
they.
I think the way it worked, frommy understanding, is that the
(29:22):
city of Shelbyville, if theywould pay basically half of what
it would cost to build alibrary, the Carnegie Foundation
would, you know, finance theother half.
But, you know, the city ofShelbyville would have to
continue to be able to, you know, pay the expenses to keep it
open.
But it's one of a lot ofCarnegie libraries, I think,
(29:46):
around the United States,unfortunately, or some of them
at least, have been torn downand so we are lucky to have.
It's really a beautifulbuilding.
It's beautiful.
It's got a beautiful dome ontop and a lot of.
I've seen other.
Sometimes in my genealogytravels I've been in other
Carnegie libraries and a lot ofthem do have the domes and sort
(30:08):
of a characteristic.
But our library is veryinteresting in that it was built
on the location of two previousPresbyterian churches.
One was built very early, likeyou know, before, maybe before
1820, and it was just a framebuilding before 1820.
(30:35):
And it was just a framebuilding and, uh, this is
described as a terrible, like abad windstorm, I think maybe
tornado, because apparently lotsof buildings were damaged in
shelbyville at the time, butthat frame church was completely
destroyed, wow.
And so they rebuilt and theybuilt a more substantial
building and they were in thatfor years and meanwhile around I
(30:57):
don't know if I can get thedates right, but back in the
early 1800s we had one cemeteryin Shelbyville.
Of course, shelbyville was likea little village really.
Well, that filled up and theyneeded another location and so
they looked at the where thecurrent yard is, uh, of the car
(31:19):
of our Carnegie library, andthey were gonna.
They called that Shelbyvillecemetery number two, and so they
started bearing, you know,bearing people.
People started buying plots forthemselves and their family
members and so then also membersof the Presbyterian Church.
There was a section that couldbe for those families that went
(31:42):
to the church and then there waskind of a public area.
Well, we still have severaltombstones in the front yard,
yeah, and we have a bunch oftombstones that were picked up
and transferred to the back ofthe library which you can go
back and look at.
(32:02):
Yeah, they're really nobody'sburied in those locations, but
they didn't want the stones toget you know.
Yeah, damaged.
Damaged or broken or stolen orwhatever, and so they just have
them sort of back there together.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Are the graves still there?
I mean, it looks like you cansee indentations in the grass.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Okay, I've been told two things.
I know for a fact that a lot ofgraves were moved out to Grove
Hill Cemetery, which is our maincemetery here in Shelbyville,
when it was formed back in themid-1850s, and a lot were moved,
but I was told some were notfor whatever reason, and so
(32:44):
there are actual burials stillthere in the yard.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
But it's nice, the stones are still there.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Do you know anything like as you look at the stones
and the names and the dates?
Do you, as a genealogyprofessional, know anything
about those people?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Well, I actually I had thought a few months ago
that a project that I'd like tojust do myself is to look up
some of the names on Ancestryand get some information.
So that's on my to-do list.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
It's in the works.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It's in the works.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It would be interesting because I've looked
at the names and wondered youknow who were you and what?
Were you doing here in ShelbyCounty, each one of those names.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Fortunately for our records, the first librarian for
the Carnegie Library was MsBallard, I think she in 1908,
she took it upon herself and I'mso glad she did she went around
to every single stone that wasstill in the yard and she wrote
(33:54):
down every name and what was onthe stone, the dates, if there
was a little poem or somethinglike that.
So we have that record.
And then when they redid it Ithink it was 1979, a whole lot
of those stones could not beread anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
They were unreadable.
So thank heaven she did that.
I'm so glad she did.
Yes, yes, Excellent.
Now I know why I feel likepreserving family history and
genealogy is important, but I'dlove to hear why is it important
to you to save that history, tosave this knowledge and all
(34:34):
about the people from before us?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Well, as I said before, I'm a huge history buff
and I think, of course,genealogy and history are just
joined together very nicely.
I just think that it's soimportant to know where we came
from, who our people were, whatdid they do.
I'm also a member of theDaughters of the American
(34:59):
Revolution.
I traced and I have severalancestors who fought in the
revolution.
And you know to me, when youlook up your family history and
the more you find out about them, they really become real people
.
And if you're lucky enough tohave old photos of them and you
(35:19):
can you know like.
We have this great old photo ofour great-great-grandfather on
my mother's side, and every timeI look at him and he's about
1870, and he's all dressed upand he's a handsome guy he
really is Every time I look athis picture I can sort of see my
brother in his face.
(35:42):
Not like they're identicaltwins or anything, but I see
something about his face thatreminds me of my brother.
When I've seen photos of hisson, our great grandfather, I
see my youngest sister in hisface.
And if you're lucky enough thatsomebody in a letter or somehow
(36:06):
wrote down something about thesepeople, like their personality
or whatever, I think that it'sjust so interesting to think
gosh, is that where I got thatfrom?
I inherited that, or whatever.
But these people, a lot ofpeople say, well, I hate history
, it's so boring.
I mean, I didn't like it inschool because we just had to
(36:27):
memorize dates and these battlesand it was so boring.
History is all about.
It's nothing but people.
Right, it's all people, and soour you know, when I think of my
ancestors who fought in therevolution there, they were
fighting, putting their lives onthe line to, you know, for a
(36:48):
new country, to try to not haveto be under the heel of a, you
know, the British King.
And they won.
They won it.
They won the conflict.
A lot of blood, sweat and tears, but they won it.
And just the same thing withveterans like World War I and II
(37:09):
and you can find for both WorldWar I and II online.
You can find their draft papers.
I did find mygreat-grandfathers.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Oh good, I am kind of a generation off, so my dad
fought in World War II and hisfought in World War I, but I
found the draft papers.
Oh good, it was incredible.
They're interesting.
Yeah, very.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You can actually online, if they lived long
enough, you can findRevolutionary War pension papers
and those are papers that bythe time the US Congress passed
the law about 1832 or somethinglike that, to pay whoever still
was alive from the Revolution,who could prove that, you know
(37:58):
they had to come in and sit downand talk, you know.
And then there was a scribe whowas writing every single thing
down that they said.
But they're fascinating.
They tell about the battles,and then mine that I got into.
He got the mumps and they talkabout that he couldn't be in
this battle because he was sickwith the mumps.
And I mean they just tell theselittle bits and pieces of their
(38:22):
lives.
And so I just think it's soimportant to know where we all
came from and we're all going towork.
Not everybody's related toroyalty or whatever.
You know most people.
You look at the censuses theywere mostly farmers.
Occasionally there was ashopkeeper or a blacksmith or
whatever.
But just to know a little bitabout these people because their
(38:47):
DNA is inside of you.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
And I think it's just interesting to know where we
came from actually.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Oh it's definitely interesting.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Absolutely so, and correct me if I'm wrong on this,
but all of the resources in theKentucky Room are free to 2,
and that's all just eight hoursa week, but people can come in
(39:25):
any time the library is open anduse the Kentucky Room.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
It does stay locked because we have a lot of
one-of-a-kind books and foldersand whatever about family files,
folders and whatever aboutfamily files.
But just go to the main deskand just tell one of the
librarians I'd like to use theKentucky room and they will walk
you down and unlock the doorand people.
Now nothing can be checked out.
(39:48):
It's all reference material,but there's a lot in there and
people are very we love forpeople to use it.
So, please, I'm just I like toinvite people to come in and
check it out, and it's, it's inits own space.
It's a very, you know, it's anice, pleasant space to to work
on your stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I was gonna say, and last question before we wrap up
so are there any and you touchedon this a little bit earlier
but are there any hidden gems orlesser known resources in the
Kentucky room?
Hidden gems or lesser knownresources in the Kentucky room
that maybe?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
you think, something you wish other people knew about
.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yeah that you know that it's there, but it may not
get a lot of attention oranything like that.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Right, we have some old maps of Shelby County and
atlases from 1882, I think andpeople have found their family
farms back in know, back in 1882in certain sections of Shelby
County.
We have microfilm, we have amicrofilm machine and we do have
(40:49):
Shelbyville or Shelby Countynewspapers that go back to 1841.
And also on the microfilm wehave, you know, really old
marriage certificates.
We have, like deeds, and Iwould also encourage people, if
you can, online, if you can findwills or go to if your people
(41:12):
were from Shelby County.
They have the originals in thecourthouse annex building which
is right behind, like onWashington, right behind the old
courthouse.
They have lots and lots ofreally old In fact.
You know there's deeds andstuff that Squire Boone's signed
(41:33):
and I think Daniel has signed.
Oh, wow, because they kind ofdealt in land you know, for a
while.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Those are definitely hidden gems.
Yeah, did not know those werethere.
Yeah, of dealt in land, youknow for a while those are
definitely hidden gems.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah, did not know those were there.
Yeah, they're back, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
In the county clerk's office.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Yeah, you just go.
When you walk in the front door, you go straight back instead
of to the left.
Yeah, where you get your carstuff done, you go straight back
.
Okay, and then just tell theladies back there that you would
like to go back to the.
You know you want to look atold wills or whatever, and so
they'll direct.
I'm sure that someone wouldhelp you.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Oh well, this has been absolutely wonderful.
Well thank you.
So I'm going to take a Tuesdayor Thursday off and I'm going to
come and see you.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I would love for you to and see what we can uncover.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But thank you so, so much for being with us, for
sharing all your knowledge, andI hope everyone comes to the
wonderful Carnegie Library herein Shelby County.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
This has been Kentucky Hidden Wonders.
Thank you to Sarah Beth Farabeefor coming on the show and
thank you for listening.
If you've made it this far,make sure you subscribe and
leave us a review.
It means the world to us.
We'll return with a brand newKentucky Hidden Wonders episode
in two weeks.
Bye everyone.
Kentucky Hidden Wonders is aShelby KY Tourism production.
Your hosts are Janet Marson andMason Warren.
(42:54):
To learn more about Shelby KYTourism and to start planning a
visit, head to visitshelbykycom.
Welcome to Kentucky Hidden Wonders.
I'm Jeanette Marson and I'mMason Warren.
Together, we're uncovering thesecrets, stories and hidden gems
of Shelby County.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Kentucky From unforgettable places to
off-the-beaten-path adventures.
Join us as we explore Kentuckytreasures and Shelby County's
best-kept secrets.
Our guest today on KentuckyHidden Wonders is Sarah Beth
Farabee, who is the headgenealogist at the Shelby County
Public Library.
You wear a couple differenthats.
You're also the board vicepresident at the Shelby County
(00:53):
Historical Society.
You're a singer I don't thinkyou're singing for us today but
you're into a lot of differentthings.
Thank you for being here.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well, thank you for asking me.
I'm glad to be here.
Yeah, absolutely, so I wentthrough a little bit of your bio
just a second ago, butintroduce yourself.
Tell us a little bit about you.
Well, I'm a native ofShelbyville.
I've lived here my entire lifeactually, and I raised my family
here.
I have three children.
My dad was a local doctor, andmy dad was a local doctor, a
(01:24):
family doctor here inShelbyville.
My mother was a well-knownpianist and actually a concert
pianist.
She traveled around the world,and so it was an interesting
household to grow up in.
I have four siblings, so it wasa fun, exciting place to grow
up.
I always loved Shelbyville.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, we're lucky that you stuck around, lucky to
have you here.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So some say you are the go-to person for all things
genealogy.
How did you get started andwhat sparked that flame of
research with you?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, I have always loved history in general and so
I probably from the time I wasin my early 20s.
I really just got interested inmy own family history and I had
(02:30):
to just talk to relatives andthey would give me, you know,
names of obscure cousins that Ihad never even met in Georgia
but who might have someinformation, and I would write
letters to these cousins andthey were kind enough to respond
back.
And it just the moreinformation I got on my own
family I started with my dad'sside and the more information I
got, just the more I wanted toget and I just always was very
(02:53):
interested in it.
And then when, as the yearswent by, I would go for a long
time and not do anything with it.
But then, as time went on andAncestrycom and other websites
came up that you could findstuff online, boy, I just went
to town on that.
That was just great.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Once you get started on Ancestrycom, it's like a
rabbit hole that you can hardlyget out of.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's interesting.
It's very interesting.
That's very interesting.
That's very true, and I also mylate husband.
I'm a widow and my husbandpassed away from cancer 15 years
ago, but he was very greatabout being willing to let me
drag him around various statesto actually physically go to the
(03:41):
places where my ancestors lived, and that was really a lot of
fun.
We went to different towns, wewent to courthouses and
libraries and we went to a lotof cemeteries, and it was always
very interesting and fun to seethe area that they lived in.
(04:01):
And even actually, with oneancestor, I was fortunate enough
to find out that the house thatwas built prior to the Civil
War that my ancestors lived inwas still standing.
Oh wow, and it's in horribleshape, but it's still standing,
and so we got to see that.
Did you get to go in?
We did.
Actually, it is in Ohio, inrural Ohio, and um, it's on the
(04:28):
land that it was on, thatbelonged to my ancestors has
been turned into a uh like apark, for uh, that they have
grown back all the nativegrasses that would have been
around back in the mid-1800s andso the park rangers used the
house, basically just the verybottom level, just to sort of
(04:52):
hang their jackets in, and therest is in horrible shape.
But I talked one of the parkrangers into letting me go in
and my husband go in and he tookus in and you know raccoons had
been in there and it was prettyhorrible.
But but it's a two story, asolid brick you know house.
It's a substantial house and soI loved just seeing, even
(05:13):
though it looked horrible on theinside.
I really loved seeing theactual home where my you know
ancestors had lived, even duringthe Civil War, and it was
almost a spiritual experiencefor me.
It really was.
I really had to force myself tolike leave the leave to you
know drive away.
(05:34):
I was really just wanted tokind of stay there for a long
time, which I did.
But, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
It is, and it's probably really neat just being
able to stand there in the sameplace that your ancestors once
stood.
That's very neat.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Absolutely.
I think maybe that's what makesit a spiritual place.
And what's odd is that thenight before that we went to
this house, there was atorrential rain.
We were staying in a hotel andthere was just a torrential rain
.
We were staying in a hotel andit was just a torrential rain
all night long.
And so the next day was a real,pretty sunny day, which a lot
(06:11):
of times happens after a bigrain, and we were just walking
around the outside of the houseand the rain, I guess, had
washed some dirt away from thehouse and I saw some old marbles
and broken crockery layingright by the house and you know,
(06:33):
actually, I picked it up andtook it home.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I probably would have also.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know, it was buried.
I think it was buried beforethat big rain and I was just
like, oh my goodness, look atthis.
It looked like it was, you know, a piece of brown crockery from
a bowl like a big bowl, andthen there was a couple of
pieces of white crockery and acouple of marbles.
And yeah, I've got them in abox, you know, at home.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So you could put archaeologists, yeah,
genealogists, archaeologists.
You could say.
You could say I was a thief?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
No, no, no, it's just archaeology, archaeology.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yes, it was really.
I got very excited when I sawit.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, sometimes when you are looking up your
descendants and all you havesurprises.
Have you found any surprises,as you were looking back through
your family and anything thatyou got really excited about
that you didn't know?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Well, I actually did.
One of the most exciting thingsthat I found out, when this is
on my dad's side is that when Iwas going through one of the
female ancestors and I wouldencourage people don't forget
your female ancestors.
A lot of times people just gothrough the male line but check
(07:45):
out their wives, because thoseare your great, great, great
grandmothers.
And a lot of times they havevery interesting relatives and
they have, you know, fathers orbrothers or whatever who fought
in the civil war, who fought inthe revolutionary war.
But one of the most interestingthings that I found out was
that we are, you know, it's notreal close, it's sort of like a
(08:07):
distant cousin, but it is in thefamily line.
We are related to Francis ScottKey, who of course wrote the
poem that became our nationalanthem, the Star Spangled Banner
.
So that was a thrill, and thenprobably there were a couple
(08:31):
others, but one that I guess itwasn't so much that it was an
exciting, because it's a tragicsituation but I've talked about
this a lot to different peoplewhen we've talked about
genealogy is that I did have thebrother of one of my direct
like probably eight timesgreat-grandfathers one of my
direct, like probably eighttimes great grandfathers his one
of his brothers.
This was during theRevolutionary War and the family
(08:51):
was split between loyalists andpatriots and some of the
siblings went one way and somewent the other and it was kind
of the America's first civil warreally was during the
Revolutionary War, and so thisuncle was a loyalist.
He fought in the Battle ofKings Mountain, which was in
(09:13):
South Carolina, but he was fromNorth Carolina and after the
battle, which was over veryquickly, the Patriots, hands
down, won that thing quickly.
He and about close to 900loyalists were taken prisoner
and marched to back across thestate line into North Carolina
(09:35):
and, unfortunately for him, someof the people knew him some of
the patriots and knew some otherprisoners, and they said these
are horrible people.
They burned down our barns andthey've murdered people and
they've done this and they'vedone that Because they had been
at, basically, civil war foryears during the war and so they
(10:01):
had a trial, kind of like a—ofcourse the loyalists said it was
this mock trial and thepatriots said it was a
legitimate trial, and he and 29others were sentenced to death.
Oh wow, in a big, huge oak treeout on this farm which lived,
(10:25):
believe it or not, until the20th century, like, I think, in
the 90s, and the locals I'veread that the locals always
refer to it as the Gallows Oakbecause they remembered all
these years that these hangingstook place.
But anyway, poor man got hungand, ironically, one of the
(10:48):
Patriot officers who was overthe trial and who, of course,
witnessed it, was Isaac Shelby,our first governor of Kentucky.
So that was a tragic story in away.
I mean, I don't know who didwhat and all that about these
men who were condemned, but theonly reason that the others were
(11:10):
not hanged, because 30 weresentenced to die was someone ran
up and had information thatthis British officer, bannister
Tarleton, who was infamous forbeing really a cruel opponent,
he and his men were on their wayto where they were.
So they got out of therequickly, which saved the lives
(11:35):
of the other.
Like I said, they were going todo more than nine, but that was
just an interesting story.
It's written about in a lot ofdifferent articles and books.
His name was Captain JamesChitwood and he's named in these
articles and books a lot oftimes.
Sometimes they'll just say nineLoyalists were hanged, but two
(11:59):
of the Loyalist officers one wasa doctor who was the Loyalist
physician, and the other was alieutenant they both wrote
diaries.
I mean, they would write stuffevery day in like a diary and
they wrote all about it.
So I was able to find those twodiaries.
Oh, wow, because my husband andI one of the trips was to the
(12:21):
location of the Battle of KingsMountain, which is like a
national park, I guess now.
So they had a gift shop and thenin the I got you know they had
copies of these two diaries.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
So that's how I know a lot about it.
That is very, very neat.
Before the show I had mentionedthat one of my surprises was to
find out that my family waswith Daniel Boone at Fort
Boonesboro, then came withSquire Boone to Shelby County,
which was a total surprise toShelby County, which was a total
(12:55):
surprise.
So I'm excited to know aboutyour genealogy library.
It's probably a treasure troveof hidden gems.
What can people like me whowant to know more, what can they
find in your wonderful library?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Well, we have what we call the Kentucky Room, which
is on the lowest level of theShelby County Public Library,
which is a Carnegie librarybuilt in 1903.
It's a beautiful library and inthe Kentucky room we have many,
many, many things.
We have Shelby County history.
We have a few surroundingcounties like Henry and Spencer
(13:27):
and Oldham.
We have a little bit on thosecounties.
We have history of Louisvilleand Jefferson County, fayette
County, lexington.
We have family files.
We have hundreds of family filesthat people have done their
research on their own family andthen they have made us copies
(13:47):
or it's letters that have beensent to former, many, many years
ago, people that helped withgenealogy, like 50 and 60 years
ago, who worked at the libraryas volunteers I think.
But anyway, there's many, manyfiles with a lot of great
information with specificfamilies.
(14:09):
We also have quite a goodcollection of books that people
have written about their ownancestors and I know you had
mentioned to me earlier when wewere talking about your family
name and I believe that Bantaand we have a book now.
Whether it's your family, Idon't know, but we have a lot of
(14:29):
information on the Boone family, you know, and on Squire Daniel
.
Other members and I have beenquite surprised at the number of
people that are related to theBoones that have come in.
You know, talking or told mejust I just in a conversation oh
, I'm I'm descended from SquireBoone or I'm descended from
(14:50):
Thomas Boone or this person orthat person a cousin of Daniel's
or another brother or one ofthe female Boones.
So that's been interesting tome to find that out.
But we also have a lot of fileson just Shelby County life, like
, for example, we have a file oneducation in Shelby County, on
(15:12):
schools, military government,commerce, cemeteries, veterans,
just a lot of, and a lot ofpeople who are doing some sort
of like they're working on aparticular thing that they need
information about Shelby County.
They have that's been helpfulto them.
Maybe they're not doinggenealogy but they're doing some
(15:36):
kind of an article for ourlocal magazine or whatever on a
certain school.
Or like we're doing a whole lotthis year on Science Hill
School for Girls, for example,because it's the 200th
anniversary of the founding ofthe school by Julia Tavis, and
you mentioned I was the vicepresident of the historical
(15:56):
society.
Part of my job is also planningprograms and so we have.
We're just really, reallycelebrating Julia Tavis and her
husband and the school and doinga lot of different things
related to that.
In fact, if people want to visitthe Historical Society building
(16:19):
the History Center, we havesome museum space upstairs and
two of the three rooms arededicated to Science Hill School
for Girls and Julia Tevis andthe Tevises and the Pointers as
well, so I encourage people tocome in.
That's going to be.
That exhibit's going to be upuntil the end of the year, so
several more months, so I wouldencourage people to come to that
(16:41):
.
But also in the Kentucky roomwe have civil war history, we
have a revolutionary war history.
We have some a few biographieson famous Kentuckians.
We have books for somebody whomaybe always wanted to do their
(17:01):
family tree but they just didn'tknow where to start.
Of course I'm there to try tohelp them in any way that I can.
I use a combination of what wehave in the Kentucky Room and I
do use Ancestrycom a lot becausea lot of information is on
there and they're always adding,they're adding documents and
(17:22):
they're adding information allthe time.
But I also have brought inbooks, ordered books to add to
our collection on how to work onyour genealogy and we have
specific books onAfrican-American history, on
Scotland, germany, scandinavia,that people.
Now these cannot be checked out, but you're welcome to come and
(17:45):
sit down.
We have a nice table and chairsdown there.
People can sit down and look up.
You know specifics about, ifthey know for a fact that you
know they're from Ireland orwhatever.
Now we also speaking ofAncestrycom.
It is free for patrons to use.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I was just going to ask that oh okay, yeah, because
I knew some libraries offeredthat that's so nice.
Yes, to ask that, oh okay, yeah, because I knew some libraries
offered that that's so nice.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Yes, we have that.
Now you have to be physicallyin the library to use it, but
people are welcome to useAncestrycom and we recently got
Newspaperscom and those arethousands and thousands of
newspapers that are online thatyou can access.
I'm pretty sure that you canmaybe access that at home Really
(18:34):
, and we have some othergenealogy websites like
familysearchorg that you canaccess at home.
Now you have to have a librarycard and you just go on our
website and click on thedatabases and then pull up the
one you want, and then it shouldindicate to you if you could do
(18:56):
it from home and you put inyour big old, long library
number that's on your card andthen the last four digits are
the pen.
You have to put a four-digit pen, which is the last four digits.
So we also have a lot of oldschool yearbooks that people
have donated from Shelby CountyHigh School, shelbyville High
School and the little highschools before they consolidated
(19:19):
into Shelby County, like Waddy,simpsonville, cropper and these
different little communities inour county.
We have even a few of those.
So people do come in and theyenjoy looking through the
yearbooks and looking up theirparents or you know whoever.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
I found my grandfather's senior photo from
when he was in high school,Shelbyville High School in one
of the yearbooks there one time,so it was just kind of fun to
send it to him and say do youremember this?
And it was a neat little momentthere.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, it's fun, it's fun to look and, by the way, I
graduated from Shelbyville HighSchool.
Yes, yeah, so did he Go.
Red Devils, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So and you talked a little bit about this but a lot
of people are curious abouttheir roots and where they come
from, but they don't know whereto start with looking for
genealogy and I know you'reavailable to help but what do
you suggest for someone thatwants to kind of go down that
rabbit hole, really of what itis?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Well, I would suggest , especially for young people,
talk to your parents.
Interview your parents If yourgrandparents are still here with
us.
Talk to your grandparents.
If you have great aunts, greatuncles, anybody in your family
you know, generations older thanyour generation, sit down and
(20:40):
talk with them.
And if you can't, even you know, tape what they say so you
won't you know, forget it, or atleast take notes.
But for older people, I wouldsay, even start out, you know,
talking about talking to yoursiblings.
They might know something thatyou didn't know and you didn't
realize.
If you have aunts and uncles orparents still alive, you know,
(21:04):
talk to them.
But if maybe most of yourrelatives, older relatives, have
passed away, for example, justsit down and write down
everything you can remember,like, write both your parents'
names and your mother's maidenname.
If you know approximately theyear or the specific year or
approximately the year they wereborn, that's very important.
(21:27):
As far as if you want to useancestry Also, just start with
your own parents.
And if you you know, let's saythat.
And, by the way, let me justsay this I help anybody who
lives in Shelby County, even iftheir ancestors are not from
(21:50):
Shelby County, even if theirancestors are not from Kentucky.
If they live in Shelby County,I'll be glad to assist them,
even if they're from Wisconsinor if they're from, you know,
georgia or wherever I also.
Well, I just lost my train ofthought, that's all right.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let me interject a thought.
So you and I and Mason have alltalked about some surprising
things that we have found in ourown genealogies.
Right, I was just wonderinghave you helped another person
where they found something sosurprising?
Can you think of an instancewhere you helped another person
(22:31):
and it was just a total surpriseto both?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yes, actually I helped a gentleman several
months ago from Maryland and hehad a lot of deep roots in
Shelby County and he ended uphaving the same ancestor like
his ancestor.
And a famous person's ancestorwere the same ancestor like his
ancestor and a famous person'sancestor were the same person
(22:56):
and the famous person was thefirst George Bush.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
President Bush.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
But the gentleman from Maryland was African
American.
Oh, that's interesting.
So you know, it was aninteresting journey.
He was a lovely gentleman.
This gentleman from we did a lotof back and forth emails and
the reason I, you know, even waseven in touch with him at all
is people go to our website fromaround.
(23:25):
I have gotten quite I mean manyemails from around the country.
I mean many emails from aroundthe country, people from
Colorado, california, hawaii,georgia, north Carolina.
This gentleman was fromMaryland, he was an attorney,
(23:51):
and they just go on our websitebecause they know that they had
Shelby County ancestors, becausethey're people that have done
work and done, you know,genealogy research, and so they,
uh, will go on, you know, clickand find the genealogy link.
It it has my name and and myemail and I'll get emails or
they'll just kind of email thegeneral library email, and then
I will contact them, or theywill write sometimes big, long
emails and say my ancestor isblah blah, blah, blah and they
(24:13):
have all the dates and what.
But I need to verify.
Could you help me verify?
Blah, blah, blah.
You know about this person orpeople, sometimes just several
ancestors, and so I've helpedpeople from really all around
the country and we've had peoplethat are coming through
Kentucky on the way maybe tosomewhere else, or even planned
(24:33):
a trip to come to Kentucky fortheir own family research from
other states.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
I have always thought that genealogy and tourism went
hand in hand.
Because so many people travel,because even you had mentioned
you had planned a trip with yourhusband, you know, going the
same.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
So I have in my mind.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
I'd like to do the same thing, and I know people do
that all the time, so I bet youhave people from all over the
world.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Well, I haven't had any international you know
people so far, but I have had,you know, several from Texas and
a Chicago area and differentplaces, but mostly it's the
majority are from emails, youknow, and our whole relation.
Now sometimes I talk on thephone with these people as well,
but anyway, it's very, it'svery interesting and fun to meet
(25:22):
different people, even if weall we do is email each other.
And people are very grateful ifyou find something, even just
one little thing, but if youfind a lot, they're just over
the moon.
I mean, they're just very, veryexcited and they're so grateful
and, you know, thankful andit's really a nice, you know,
it's a nice job because I feellike I'm, you know, trying to
(25:45):
make people happy as much as Ican, and they are, they're just,
they're lovely.
So but back, I'm sorry, back tolike, if somebody's just
wanting to just start fromscratch and they don't know what
to do, just start onegeneration at a time, I would
suggest that people go onAncestry.
Now you, like I said, you canuse it free at the library.
(26:06):
It's quite, it's kind ofexpensive.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
It is.
I looked at it just the otherday and I you know, decided not
to renew, so now I'm glad toknow the library does that yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
It's.
It is nice sitting in your ownhome you know doing it and and
just you know, in your pajamasor whatever.
But if you prefer not to dothat and spend that money, you
know you can go to the library.
But one good thing is thatthere's, you know, once you put
stuff into Ancestry, otherthings like, and they may own
all of this, I think they may bethere under the umbrella is the
(26:39):
newspaperscom, I think, andmaybe Find a Grave.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right, that's a great place too, find a Grave is very
good at because it gives you.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
It doesn't just show you the grave or whatever.
It tells these people's parents.
If they somehow have thatinformation, whoever's grave
you're looking at, they'll sayoh, father this name, mother
this name, spouse this name,children list, all.
You know some or all of thechildren.
So I have found in my ownsearch the names of the next
(27:14):
generation.
Before that I didn't know, andthen you click on that name and
go back another generation andyou can go back six generations
by just going on Find a Grave.
So I would just suggest thatpeople do use the online
services.
Some people say, oh well,they're not always accurate or
whatever, but a lot of it isaccurate.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
If you go by the census information, that can
help a lot and censuses have alot of good information on them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
They have the head of the household, the wife, all
the children, their ages, whatthe father does sometimes, how
much education they have, ofcourse, where they were living,
what county, and you can get alot of good information off
these documents.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Well, it sounds like I need to spend a whole day
there.
Absolutely.
So, I may come over and testyour skills, because I've always
had a question about that.
Henry Banta, shelby connectionto President William Henry
Harrison.
My dad had always said we wererelated somehow.
Through that, I'm gonna.
I'm gonna test your skills.
I hope you do come over.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I would love to try to help.
Oh I'd love it.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So changing gears just a little bit.
And you, uh, you touched onthis earlier, uh, kind of
offhand, uh, when you said thatthe library, the Shelby County
Public Library, is a Carnegielibrary.
So what does that mean?
What does it mean to be aCarnegie library?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Well, what it means to be a Carnegie library is.
We are a library that were ableto be.
It was built in 1903 and thecity of Shelbyville at the time
had applied to the Carnegie Iguess foundation that Andrew
Carnegie, the multi,multimillionaire, uh,
industrialist or whatever, um, Ithink he he was from Scotland
(29:00):
originally and he very muchbelieved in education and he
very much believed in inlibraries.
Thank heavens, because there'slike there's Carnegie libraries
not just in the United Statesbut all over the world, and so
they.
I think the way it worked, frommy understanding, is that the
(29:22):
city of Shelbyville, if theywould pay basically half of what
it would cost to build alibrary, the Carnegie Foundation
would, you know, finance theother half.
But, you know, the city ofShelbyville would have to
continue to be able to, you know, pay the expenses to keep it
open.
But it's one of a lot ofCarnegie libraries, I think,
(29:46):
around the United States,unfortunately, or some of them
at least, have been torn downand so we are lucky to have.
It's really a beautifulbuilding.
It's beautiful.
It's got a beautiful dome ontop and a lot of.
I've seen other.
Sometimes in my genealogytravels I've been in other
Carnegie libraries and a lot ofthem do have the domes and sort
(30:08):
of a characteristic.
But our library is veryinteresting in that it was built
on the location of two previousPresbyterian churches.
One was built very early, likeyou know, before, maybe before
1820, and it was just a framebuilding before 1820.
(30:35):
And it was just a framebuilding and, uh, this is
described as a terrible, like abad windstorm, I think maybe
tornado, because apparently lotsof buildings were damaged in
shelbyville at the time, butthat frame church was completely
destroyed, wow.
And so they rebuilt and theybuilt a more substantial
building and they were in thatfor years and meanwhile around I
(30:57):
don't know if I can get thedates right, but back in the
early 1800s we had one cemeteryin Shelbyville.
Of course, shelbyville was likea little village really.
Well, that filled up and theyneeded another location and so
they looked at the where thecurrent yard is, uh, of the car
(31:19):
of our Carnegie library, andthey were gonna.
They called that Shelbyvillecemetery number two, and so they
started bearing, you know,bearing people.
People started buying plots forthemselves and their family
members and so then also membersof the Presbyterian Church.
There was a section that couldbe for those families that went
(31:42):
to the church and then there waskind of a public area.
Well, we still have severaltombstones in the front yard,
yeah, and we have a bunch oftombstones that were picked up
and transferred to the back ofthe library which you can go
back and look at.
(32:02):
Yeah, they're really nobody'sburied in those locations, but
they didn't want the stones toget you know.
Yeah, damaged.
Damaged or broken or stolen orwhatever, and so they just have
them sort of back there together.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Are the graves still there?
I mean, it looks like you cansee indentations in the grass.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Okay, I've been told two things.
I know for a fact that a lot ofgraves were moved out to Grove
Hill Cemetery, which is our maincemetery here in Shelbyville,
when it was formed back in themid-1850s, and a lot were moved,
but I was told some were notfor whatever reason, and so
(32:44):
there are actual burials stillthere in the yard.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
But it's nice, the stones are still there.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Do you know anything like as you look at the stones
and the names and the dates?
Do you, as a genealogyprofessional, know anything
about those people?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Well, I actually I had thought a few months ago
that a project that I'd like tojust do myself is to look up
some of the names on Ancestryand get some information.
So that's on my to-do list.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
It's in the works.
Speaker 3 (33:19):
It's in the works.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It would be interesting because I've looked
at the names and wondered youknow who were you and what?
Were you doing here in ShelbyCounty, each one of those names.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Fortunately for our records, the first librarian for
the Carnegie Library was MsBallard, I think she in 1908,
she took it upon herself and I'mso glad she did she went around
to every single stone that wasstill in the yard and she wrote
(33:54):
down every name and what was onthe stone, the dates, if there
was a little poem or somethinglike that.
So we have that record.
And then when they redid it Ithink it was 1979, a whole lot
of those stones could not beread anymore.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
They were unreadable.
So thank heaven she did that.
I'm so glad she did.
Yes, yes, Excellent.
Now I know why I feel likepreserving family history and
genealogy is important, but I'dlove to hear why is it important
to you to save that history, tosave this knowledge and all
(34:34):
about the people from before us?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Well, as I said before, I'm a huge history buff
and I think, of course,genealogy and history are just
joined together very nicely.
I just think that it's soimportant to know where we came
from, who our people were, whatdid they do.
I'm also a member of theDaughters of the American
(34:59):
Revolution.
I traced and I have severalancestors who fought in the
revolution.
And you know to me, when youlook up your family history and
the more you find out about them, they really become real people
.
And if you're lucky enough tohave old photos of them and you
(35:19):
can you know like.
We have this great old photo ofour great-great-grandfather on
my mother's side, and every timeI look at him and he's about
1870, and he's all dressed upand he's a handsome guy he
really is Every time I look athis picture I can sort of see my
brother in his face.
(35:42):
Not like they're identicaltwins or anything, but I see
something about his face thatreminds me of my brother.
When I've seen photos of hisson, our great grandfather, I
see my youngest sister in hisface.
And if you're lucky enough thatsomebody in a letter or somehow
(36:06):
wrote down something about thesepeople, like their personality
or whatever, I think that it'sjust so interesting to think
gosh, is that where I got thatfrom?
I inherited that, or whatever.
But these people, a lot ofpeople say, well, I hate history
, it's so boring.
I mean, I didn't like it inschool because we just had to
(36:27):
memorize dates and these battlesand it was so boring.
History is all about.
It's nothing but people.
Right, it's all people, and soour you know, when I think of my
ancestors who fought in therevolution there, they were
fighting, putting their lives onthe line to, you know, for a
(36:48):
new country, to try to not haveto be under the heel of a, you
know, the British King.
And they won.
They won it.
They won the conflict.
A lot of blood, sweat and tears, but they won it.
And just the same thing withveterans like World War I and II
(37:09):
and you can find for both WorldWar I and II online.
You can find their draft papers.
I did find mygreat-grandfathers.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Oh good, I am kind of a generation off, so my dad
fought in World War II and hisfought in World War I, but I
found the draft papers.
Oh good, it was incredible.
They're interesting.
Yeah, very.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You can actually online, if they lived long
enough, you can findRevolutionary War pension papers
and those are papers that bythe time the US Congress passed
the law about 1832 or somethinglike that, to pay whoever still
was alive from the Revolution,who could prove that, you know
(37:58):
they had to come in and sit downand talk, you know.
And then there was a scribe whowas writing every single thing
down that they said.
But they're fascinating.
They tell about the battles,and then mine that I got into.
He got the mumps and they talkabout that he couldn't be in
this battle because he was sickwith the mumps.
And I mean they just tell theselittle bits and pieces of their
(38:22):
lives.
And so I just think it's soimportant to know where we all
came from and we're all going towork.
Not everybody's related toroyalty or whatever.
You know most people.
You look at the censuses theywere mostly farmers.
Occasionally there was ashopkeeper or a blacksmith or
whatever.
But just to know a little bitabout these people because their
(38:47):
DNA is inside of you.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Right.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
And I think it's just interesting to know where we
came from actually.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Oh it's definitely interesting.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Absolutely so, and correct me if I'm wrong on this,
but all of the resources in theKentucky Room are free to 2,
and that's all just eight hoursa week, but people can come in
(39:25):
any time the library is open anduse the Kentucky Room.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
It does stay locked because we have a lot of
one-of-a-kind books and foldersand whatever about family files,
folders and whatever aboutfamily files.
But just go to the main deskand just tell one of the
librarians I'd like to use theKentucky room and they will walk
you down and unlock the doorand people.
Now nothing can be checked out.
(39:48):
It's all reference material,but there's a lot in there and
people are very we love forpeople to use it.
So, please, I'm just I like toinvite people to come in and
check it out, and it's, it's inits own space.
It's a very, you know, it's anice, pleasant space to to work
on your stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
I was gonna say, and last question before we wrap up
so are there any and you touchedon this a little bit earlier
but are there any hidden gems orlesser known resources in the
Kentucky room?
Hidden gems or lesser knownresources in the Kentucky room
that maybe?
Speaker 1 (40:21):
you think, something you wish other people knew about
.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yeah that you know that it's there, but it may not
get a lot of attention oranything like that.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
Right, we have some old maps of Shelby County and
atlases from 1882, I think andpeople have found their family
farms back in know, back in 1882in certain sections of Shelby
County.
We have microfilm, we have amicrofilm machine and we do have
(40:49):
Shelbyville or Shelby Countynewspapers that go back to 1841.
And also on the microfilm wehave, you know, really old
marriage certificates.
We have, like deeds, and Iwould also encourage people, if
you can, online, if you can findwills or go to if your people
(41:12):
were from Shelby County.
They have the originals in thecourthouse annex building which
is right behind, like onWashington, right behind the old
courthouse.
They have lots and lots ofreally old In fact.
You know there's deeds andstuff that Squire Boone's signed
(41:33):
and I think Daniel has signed.
Oh, wow, because they kind ofdealt in land you know, for a
while.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Those are definitely hidden gems.
Yeah, did not know those werethere.
Yeah, of dealt in land, youknow for a while those are
definitely hidden gems.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah, did not know those were there.
Yeah, they're back, you know.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
In the county clerk's office.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
Yeah, you just go.
When you walk in the front door, you go straight back instead
of to the left.
Yeah, where you get your carstuff done, you go straight back
.
Okay, and then just tell theladies back there that you would
like to go back to the.
You know you want to look atold wills or whatever, and so
they'll direct.
I'm sure that someone wouldhelp you.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Oh well, this has been absolutely wonderful.
Well thank you.
So I'm going to take a Tuesdayor Thursday off and I'm going to
come and see you.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I would love for you to and see what we can uncover.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
But thank you so, so much for being with us, for
sharing all your knowledge, andI hope everyone comes to the
wonderful Carnegie Library herein Shelby County.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
This has been Kentucky Hidden Wonders.
Thank you to Sarah Beth Farabeefor coming on the show and
thank you for listening.
If you've made it this far,make sure you subscribe and
leave us a review.
It means the world to us.
We'll return with a brand newKentucky Hidden Wonders episode
in two weeks.
Bye everyone.
Kentucky Hidden Wonders is aShelby KY Tourism production.
Your hosts are Janet Marson andMason Warren.
(42:54):
To learn more about Shelby KYTourism and to start planning a
visit, head to visitshelbykycom.
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