The Jonesborough Genealogical Society (JGS) will be celebrating its 32nd anniversary and induct the “Hall of Fame” Class of 2022, Maggie Rowe, into the Jonesborough Genealogical Society “Hall of Fame” on Saturday, April 23, at 9:30 a.m. at the Jonesborough Visitors Center, 117 Boone Street, Jonesborough, Tennessee. The public is invited. Dr. Candace Forbes Bright with present a presentation entitled, “The Importance of Minority Representation in Heritage Tourism.” This Annual Membership Meeting will also be dedicated to the late Elaine Scott Cantrell.
Maggie Rowe grew up in Maryland close to Washington DC, the youngest of 7 cousins. As a child she often accompanied her mother and aunts on their genealogical hunts to graveyards, churches and libraries, where the genealogical bug bite her early. At the National Archives downtown, she would sit for hours scrolling through miles of microfilm looking for ancestors. She remembers visits to Gettysburg to find their German ancestors, which even eventually led to her traveling to Germany to visit living ancestors still there and visit her great great grandfather’s house.
Maggie moved to Greeneville in 1986, and with children of her own, it was many years before she could take up the search again. With the advent of computers, the internet, Ancestry and DNA and now time on her hands, the search for family history began anew. In 2002, she began researching her father’s side of the family, which is Irish. Maggie is married to Robert Rowe and has two sons. Through her research, she has discovered connections through her first husband’s family to Robert Young, and even Charles Duncan, who’s cabin is part of the Knob Creek Museum in Johnson City, and her husband’s family to Mary McKeehan Patton.
In 2014, Maggie was able to join the Jonesborough Genealogical Society, as the ancestors of my two sons were interwoven with Washington County history. Maggie has served on the Board of Directors since 2016 as a director before transferring to her current role as 1st Vice President, where she has enthusiastically served the society through engaging ideas that have led to programs and events such as the Washington County Heritage Fair and research trips for the society.
A resident of Jonesborough, Tennessee, Candace Forbes Bright, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at East Tennessee State University. Her research focuses on how we tell history in the United States and what that means for current race relations. Dr. Bright has published more than twenty articles and two books. Most recently, Dr. Bright has co-authored, Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum (UGA Press, 2022). She is currently funded by NSF to study “The Role of Museums in the Landscape of Minority Representation.”
The Jonesborough Genealogical Society was formed in 1990, when a group of local genealogists came together to create a genealogy collection at the Washington County-Jonesborough Library. On Wednesday, August 22, 1990, the Jonesborough Genealogical Society column, “Digging For Your Roots,” first appeared in the Jonesborough Herald & Tribune with Editor Elaine Scott Cantrell and first article written by Loraine Bennett Rae. the “Digging For Your Roots” column was written by Judge John Kiener. Today, the “Digging for Your Roots” Column has been revived and is in the Jonesborough Herald & Tribune each week. Today, the Jonesborough Genealogical Society meets on the 4th Saturday, January through October as we have our “Genealogical Day” at the Washington County- Jonesborough Library. The Jonesborough Genealogical Society also conducts Genealogy Help Nights on the second Saturday of each month from January-December at the Washington County- Jonesborough Library from 6 pm to 8 pm. We invite you to visit our web page at jgstn.org or join our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tnjgs/.
For more information on this event or any other event of the JGS please contact, Chad Bailey, President, at (423) 791-8295 or by e-mail at info@jgstn.org.