James River Genealogy Club to meet Tuesday in Jamestown

Stutsman County residents trying to pin down a maiden name, a burial site or a farm family line will have a chance to compare notes when the James River Genealogy Club meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 1000 5th Ave. NE, in Jamestown.

The club has long served people working through family history questions in Eddy, Foster, Stutsman and Wells counties. It was formed in August 1990 by Alan Trullinger of Carrington and operates informally, without a charter or rules of order, as a place where people with an interest in ancestry can trade research tips and pool what they know.

That kind of local sharing still matters in a county where family histories often run through church records, cemetery books, obituary files and marriage indexes. The James River Valley Library System keeps a Stutsman County First Marriage Index covering 1884 through 1975 and a second marriage index for 1975 through April 2002. All Stutsman County marriage records are also available at the courthouse.

The library system also holds cemetery books for Stutsman County and surrounding counties, an obituary index for the Jamestown Alert and Jamestown Sun, and microfilmed copies of several Jamestown-area newspapers. For anyone tracing a great-grandparent or checking a spelling that has changed over time, those records can be the difference between a dead end and a workable family line.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota says genealogy and research sources are available in the Orin G. Libby Memorial Reading Room in Bismarck, with reference staff available by phone, email or mail. It also says many newspapers, state censuses and early atlases are available on microfilm through interlibrary loan, which can help researchers in Jamestown and across Stutsman County reach farther back into the record.

FamilySearch places Stutsman County’s organization date at January 4, 1873, and lists Jamestown as the county seat, a reminder that the county’s written history stretches across more than 150 years. That long paper trail is part of what makes local genealogy work possible, from homestead questions to military service records and the movement of families into the James River Valley.

The club meets on the first Tuesday of the month from April through November. June, August and October meetings are held in Carrington, while April, May, July, September and November meetings are held in Jamestown. Volunteers provide research help without pay, and donations are accepted to cover copying, mailing and other incidental expenses, along with new research materials.