Smithville couple to share genealogy adventures in Shreve program
Ann and Dave Tschantz will bring their family-research stories to Shreve on June 20, with free tips for tracing Holmes and Wayne County roots.
A free genealogy program in Shreve will give local residents a chance to hear how Ann and Dave Tschantz of Smithville pieced together their family history and what records helped them along the way. The talk, “The Wild and Wacky Adventures of Our Family Research,” is set for 1 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at Shreve Presbyterian Church, 343 N. Market St., and is open to the public.
The County Line Historical Society of Wayne/Holmes is hosting the presentation, continuing a public program effort that fits its stated mission of promoting interest in the history of Big Prairie, Centerville, Lakeville, Millbrook, Moreland, Nashville, Shreve and several townships in Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties. The society says it was formed in 1996-97, and the Shreve event adds another chance for people on both sides of the county line to compare notes on family names, church ties, school histories and old land ownership.
For anyone just starting to trace a family tree, the Holmes County District Public Library’s genealogy room offers a practical place to begin. Its holdings include deeds on microfilm from 1850 to 1984, wills from 1824 to 1938, marriages from 1821 to 1955, birth records from 1867 to 1956, and a Holmes County Cemetery Index and Cemetery Book with inscriptions through the early 1960s. The library also points researchers toward local genealogy and history resources and notes that its in-house marriage and death record holdings are limited, making the wider local network especially useful.
The Shreve setting gives the program added local weight. Shreve is in Clinton Township in Wayne County, was named for Thomas Shreve, who owned 1,400 acres there, and had a population of 1,497 at the 2020 census. Shreve Presbyterian Church says it has been “connecting people and ministry for 150 years,” a fitting backdrop for a talk about preserving family stories before photographs, letters and oral histories disappear.
Holmes County had a population of 44,223 in the 2020 census, and the county’s long history of family-centered research makes events like this especially useful. A nearby, free program can be the first step for people who have always meant to start searching and never knew where to begin.
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