• Winter Genealogy Classes

The Cumberland Genealogical Society holds a series of Genealogy Classes during the spring of each year. The classes are held at the St. Clairsville Public Library and are open to the public. There is no charge for any of the classes. The exact dates and times of these classes are normally announced in the fall of the year. If you are interested in attending any of these classes or would like more information contact the CTGS at the address or E-mail listed at the bottom of this page.

Beginning Genealogy
This workshop is for the beginner who has had little, if any experience in tracing their family tree. The main focus here is to understand the basics of genealogical research and to show where to find the records needed in this type of research.

Intermediate Genealogy
In this workshop, some of the lesser known and less commonly used genealogical resources will be discussed. These resources can provide an alternative for those researchers who may have exhausted all of the usual research routes.

Genealogy Help Session
This is not a workshop, but rather a time where those in attendance can receive help from more experienced researchers. There will be a great deal of genealogical data brought in by members, as well as, all the materials that are already located in the library's genealogy room.

For more information about the classes, send your name, address and phone number to either of the addresses below and you will be notified of the exact date and time.
CTGS, P.O. Box 576, St. Clairsville, OH 43950-0576
or by Email to perkinsh@oplin.org

• Cemetery Restoration

One of the most important projects that the CTGS has undertaken is Cemetery Restoration. There are many cemeteries in Belmont County that have been abandoned and forgotten. As a result, most of them have fallen into states of major disrepair, as well as, being overgrown. While it would be impossible to restore all of these cemeteries, the CTGS has made it an ongoing project to work on two of these and put in the time and effort to restore them to a reasonable condition.

CTGS has worked on the restoration of the Zion “OLD DUTCH” Lutheran Cemetery which is located on Section 23 in Richland Towship. The most dominate family name that is buried in this cemetery is Ault, which is one of the first families to settle in the area. This cemetery dates back to about 1819 and has about 50-60 gravestones. There are many stone that still may be buried. The condition of the cemetery at the time the restoration began was extremely poor. About 80% of the area was covered by heavy briars and bushes with small trees having sprung up in the middle of the cemetery. Over half of the stones had been toppled by cattle that wondered in and some of them were broken. There were also a lot of “gaps” that we know must have stones that were buried over the years.

Our first step was to clear out all of the brush and briars. Once this was accomplished work could begin to locate as many of the buried stones as possible. Working with a transcription from the 70’s we realized that many stones were still buried. Using long thin rods as probes, a search was started to locate the buried stones. 27 stones were located and unearthed using this method, including 15 that were not on the earlier transcription. The next step in the restoration was to clear out all of the small trees scattered over the cemetery and to leave the largest ones. This was accomplished and we were looking at a very different cemetery from when we first began.

Now we were ready to begin on “BUTHCER CEMETERY”, which is just west of St. Clairsville. A donation was received to assist with the removal of the many large trees and help with some restoration of the old wall. This is a lovely old cemetery with the tall entrance gate still in tack, but going nowhere now but to the bit of church foundation that is still there.

The greatest part of working on this project is the satisfaction one feels by doing a job that you know “needs to be done”. On top of that , it’s a lot of fun! We have had as many as ten people working in the cemetery at one time and it is always a good time.

If you would like to make a donation toward the cemetery project please contact CTGS at
CTGS, PO Box 576, St. Clairsville, OH 43950