The Bond County Genealogical Society is a non-profit, tax exempt organization of family history researchers founded April 30, 1981. Our purpose is to honor the county’s founding fathers by encouraging the preservation, research, and dissemination of the rich genealogical heritage of Bond County. The Society is based in Greenville, Illinois a small community of seven thousand people located forty-five miles east of St. Louis, MO. Nestled in the hills of southern Illinois at the intersection of Illinois Route 127 and Interstate 70, Greenville has long been a crossroad for people migrating across the plains.
We had an informative meeting April 25, 2022 with guest speakers Ellen and Greg Thorson, volunteer ambassadors from FamilySearch.org! They presented the basics: searching historical records, non-indexed images, family trees (both collaborative and private types), genealogies, catalogs, and the digital library of books at the website by the international, nonprofit organization “dedicated to helping all people discover their family story.” Even with our decades of experience, we learned something new and are excited to begin using even more of the “Free Forever” website’s features and searches. Below are the PowerPoint presentation and a separate PDF handout of the FamilySearch.org Articles/Searches with a Bond County Focus, i.e. the links provided at the end of the PPT.
Are you reviewing 1950 Census Names, Families, and/or Headers?
Contact us and we’ll send you an invite to our Group. The Group allows us to track the work we do together and gives us access to the FamilySearch Messaging system!
Become part of this once-in-a-decade community project! You can help by reviewing a few (or up to thousands!) of the computer generated entries and fixing any errors that you see.
Be sure to refer to the help guides before getting started!
The House of David: Bentleys in Southern Illinois by David Murl Wall. This blue softcover 379 page tome published in 1989 is “dedicated to the memory of Nancy Luke (Bentley) Wall. [It was] researched and prepared by David M. Wall & Norma Jeanne (Metzler) Wall expressly for their children Joe, Steve, Dan, Mike, Pat, and Debbie.” The line of David Bentley (1790-1853) contributed largely to the population of Madison, Macoupin, Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois.
The Book of Warren – and related lines by David Murl Wall. This gray softcover 197 page tome contains the families: Warren, Cobble, Metzler, and Wall.
BCGS has been donated multiple copies of these family histories and we don’t need all of them! We are giving our extras away free! Pick one up at Bond County Museum in Greenville (Saturdays 10a-noon) or send us an email and we’ll work out media mail shipping! We actually have a few early editions of the Bentleys book, too (spiral bound, yellow cover, with handwritten corrections).
Haven’t attended a meeting in a while? We’d love to see you again. We’d love your ideas and energies in our corner. We have plenty of upcoming and continuing projects, both external and internal, to work on. And please remember to send in your annual membership renewals if you haven’t done that yet!! Plus, do we have your current email address? Are you receiving the twice-yearly Newsletter and invitations to society meetings and events?
BCGS meets jointly with the Bond County Historical Society for program and business meetings, generally at 7 p.m. on the 4th Tuesday of each month at the Bond County Museum (U.S. DeMoulin Mansion, 409 South Fourth Street, Greenville). Announcements will be made ahead of time whenever there is to be a specifically BCGS business meeting. Also, there will be no December meeting. Visitors are always welcome.
We are living through an important moment in history, and we want to hear how it is affecting the people of Bond County, Illinois and immediate surrounding areas.
As COVID-19 changes life to a “new normal,” BCGS is asking you to share, in your own words, reflections of your experience during the pandemic, for the benefit of future generations.
Whether you are in quarantine, sheltering at home, working in the medical field, homeschooling your kids, or adjusting your business model for uncertain times, your story is unique and valuable.
These submissions will be collected into a digital archive. In the short-term, we will share some of these submissions on social media, our newsletter, and in online exhibitions.
In the long term, these submissions will be used to inform future generations about life in Illinois during the COVID pandemic.
New to family history and ancestry research? If you are a beginner or a seasoned genealogist, take care of the time sensitive critical steps immediately and then you can take your time to learn how to set attainable goals as your genealogy experience grows.
Get started at any age, see if this is something your children would be interested in, do some storytelling about your ancestors or yourself, start a project to share your family history with others.
Highlighting new, revised, & significant topics.
The BCGS Library collection is housed on the lower floor of the Greenville Public Library. There is a booklet in the room which lists all the holdings, Guest WiFi, and a microfilm reader/printer for doing research in the Greenville Advocate and other Bond County newspapers.
The first lots of the city of Greenville were laid out in 1815. Less than two years later, Bond County was formed out of Madison County to its west; and, on the 3rd of December, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state of the Union. Greenville was established as the county seat of Bond County in 1821.
While not associated with Bond County Genealogical Society, Bond County ILGenWeb is a free genealogical site about the history of the county. The site hosts maps, name indexes, and so much more information. Its search engine may help you find clues for your research of ancestors and relatives of the county.
Got a tough family research problem? Looking for more individuals researching your ancestor? BCGS publishes queries that have a Bond County, Illinois connection. Please include as much information as possible to assist us with you research query.
We’ve revised our list of available volumes for sale and our shipping costs! These publications provide cemetery readings, marriage records, obituary transcriptions, member ancestor charts, church histories, naturalization, and a 1900 Census family quick-reference.
Dear Members and Friends,
I and the officers of the Bond County Genealogical Society send our best wishes, hoping this New Year finds you happy and healthy.
As always, we express our appreciation for your support.
Without your membership fees and donations, our nonprofit organization would not be able to offer a selection of diverse library resources and family history research assistance.
However, the time has come to ask for another type of support.
We need your advice in regards to the type of speaker programs, workshops, and events you would enjoy attending.
We need your interest in developing plans for future endeavors such as publications, tasks, and preservation projects...
Volumes 0-28 of the B.C.G.S. News have been digitized! Digital back issues are PDFs with searchable OCR. Download these back issues for free for personal use and research purposes only. Do not re-distribute!
You don’t need Bond County roots to join us for an exhilarating and rewarding experience exploring your family history. Join or Renew your BCGS membership for only $15 per year! We have a special offer that you can join both societies (Genealogical and Historical) for one year for only $20 – a $5 savings!
Since the moment the 1950 U.S. Census images were released by the National Archives at midnight on Friday, April 1, 2022, volunteers are busy ensuring that information indexed by computers is complete and accurate. By participating in this once-in-a-decade FamilySearch “1950 US Census Community Project”, you are helping people to discover details about their family that have been hidden for 72 years. You can help by reviewing a few of the computer generated entries and fixing any errors that you see.
Email your message, question, or comment to the volunteer researchers and corresponders at Bond County Genealogical Society.
Need to send an attachment? Use info @ bondcogen.org
Find us on Facebook or Send an Email.
For Book Orders, Membership Applications, Donations, Donated Materials, and General Queries/Questions:
Bond County Genealogical Society
P.O. Box 172
Greenville, Illinois 62246
