Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society
Researching Warren County and beyond! We are a FamilySearch Affiliate Library!
Announcements
Membership Renewal Time
We are continuing our membership drive for 2026. Membership fees are $25 for a regular membership (either single or family), and Life memberships are $250. New for 2026, members will have access to six of our WCGS publications in the Members Area! The books selected currently sell for $72.00, giving you added value to your membership as a show of appreciation for supporting WCGS. You can easily join WCGS or renew your membership online at https://www.wcgsohio.org/join-or-renew. Including an optional donation with your renewal helps us to keep these rates as affordable as possible and is greatly appreciated. Please contact us at 513-695-1144 if you would like a Membership Application sent by postal mail.
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Our Many Websites - An Update!
Not only is our old website back up and running, but we also now have access to the new and improved Warren County OHGenWeb site and the Warren County, Ohio, Virtual Cemetery! Many, many thanks to Randy Cummings for all his hard work and long hours put in to make this happen very quickly.
What Website to Use When:
This is our main website. Use this to join or renew your membership, find out what programs and meetings we are having, purchase new or used books, submit requests for help with research, Society information and history, and for quick research links.
This is our old website. Use this to access Online Indexes and other information that is more static in nature. Some of these resources and indexes are being updated and new information will be included in the main website (see above).
https://warren.ohgenweb.org/#gsc.tab=0
This is the Warren County OHGenWeb site. Arne Trelvik was the Warren County OHGenWeb coordinator for years and added massive amounts of information here. Many of you know how knowledgeable he is about the area and will appreciate being able to access what he has shared online.
https://warren.ohgenweb.org/Cemetery/burial.html
This is the Warren County, Ohio, Virtual Cemetery. Use this for information about all the cemeteries in Warren County, including description, location, veterans burials, photos of grave markers, etc. Best described as a labor of love by the people who built it, it is an incredible online resource.
If you happen to come across a page that is not quite finished yet, rest assured it will be soon! In the meantime, you can visit the older version on RootsWeb until everything is completed. This is an archived site that cannot be updated, and some information is completely outdated and incorrect.
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ohwarren/Cemetery/burial.htm
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For more information about which websites Randy is helping, please visit https://genwebs.org/. If you are interested in helping Randy with a small donation toward covering the costs of hosting these sites (including ours!), you can do so at this page on his website: https://genwebs.org/donate/
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Video Now Available
The recording from "Getting to Know Us: All you wanted to know about the Warren County Genealogical Society and Resource Library" presented by WCGS Volunteers November 12, 2025, is now available. The video can be found further down this page or by clicking HERE.
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New Book by Dana Palmer!
We just received word that Dana’s new book, Ultimate Guide to Mastering FamilySearch, is now available as an eBook, with the print version coming in mid-November. And even better, there is a pre-release discount being offered! Dana is a wealth of knowledge and those who have attended her programs, presentations, and classes know how much information she shares and the great attention to detail she provides. This is a perfect gift for holiday giving to ALL of your genie friends and will definitely be on our wish lists.
News Flash! The print version is now available:
https://genealogical.com/mastering-familysearch-by-dana-ann-palmer/
Upcoming Events
We are fortunate to have members and email subscribers from all over the world. Some upcoming meetings, programs, and events will be held virtually using Zoom to enable everyone interested to be able to participate.
Zoom invitations to Virtual Events are sent via Mailchimp email. To receive the Zoom invitation, please sign up for our email list using the e-News subscription form at the bottom of the page.
***You MUST be on our email list at least 24 hours in advance for Virtual Events.***
If you are new to Zoom, the first 1:22 minutes of this YouTube video may be helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAMDxH_H_Cs
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Flyers for programs and events can be found on our Events page.
November 12, 2025 - WCGS Chapter Meeting and Program
"Getting to Know Us: All You Wanted to Know about the Warren County Genealogical Society and Resource Library"
presented by WCGS Volunteers
Learn more about WCGS from Jim Brokaw, WCGS President; Jo Roth, WCGS Treasurer; Debbie Schneider, WCGS Membership Chair; and Paul George, WCGS Lineage Societies Chair. This presentation takes you on a photographic journey to the Resource Library and tells you more about the Society and its Volunteers.
As they say, here it is, warts and all! Jo had a last-minute laptop change and didn't have all the settings exactly right, Debbie had a new computer and was still learning about features such as her fancy camera, and given more time, a practice run probably would have helped us all!
Thank you to those who attended and a huge THANK YOU to those who came through with donations or pledges of money and offers of time. We are happy to report that we WILL be purchasing the book scanner that was on our wish list and will keep you posted about our progress with that.
Since the fall of 2018, the Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project has provided free online public access to digital images of the Lebanon Western Star from 1807 through 1922 on the Ohio Memory Project. These digital images were created from original copies of the newspaper located at the Ohio History Center in Columbus.
The online collection can be found by clicking the blue button with the title "Western Star ONLINE!" at the top of this section. A smaller version of the same button is a permanent link located directly above the menu on all pages.
The Alleen Stephenson Digital Newspaper Project is sponsored and maintained by the Warren County Genealogical Society. Using digitization and OCR technology, it provides free public access to nearly 27,000 pages of this historical newspaper. There are some issues missing, but the entire collection on hand is browsable and searchable by titles, names, or dates.
This project is dedicated to the remarkable Alleen Stephenson and was made possible through the generosity of Alleen's son and daughter-in-law, J. Todd and Rebecca Stephenson. For more than 60 years, Alleen wrote a much-loved column about the Kings Mills community that celebrated and preserved many aspects of the County's history.
The Western Star is Ohio's oldest weekly newspaper that started with the first issue on February 13, 1807, and ended with the last publication on January 17, 2013. This newspaper covered mainly Lebanon and southern Warren County. The first publisher was John McLean (March 11, 1785 - April 4, 1861), who was an American attorney, a political activist who served in the United States Congress, and a justice of the Ohio and the U.S. Supreme Courts. He started his legal career in Cincinnati and moved to Lebanon, Ohio, to open a law practice and dedicate his time to opening and running a weekly newspaper.
Recently, we were given a few complete issues of the Western Star publication. These are a GREAT addition to our collection of Warren County information. We would like to expand this collection. If anyone has some editions that have been saved and are no longer of use to you, please consider donating them to us. We are interested in issues from any time period. These can be dropped off or sent to us at the WCGS Resource Library, 406 Justice Drive, Lebanon, Ohio 45036.
About WCGS
The Warren County Genealogical Society (WCGS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and promote interest in collecting and preserving genealogical records. We are here to assist you in finding your ancestors and relatives and have many resources available to help you with your research. WCGS is a Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society.
Kroger Community Rewards
An easy way to support WCGS each time you check out at Kroger is to participate in the Kroger Community Rewards Program.
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Visit https://www.kroger.com and sign into your Kroger account.
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Click the icon above your name to access “My Account” and look for Community Rewards on that page.
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Select Community Rewards and search for us either by Organization Name or Number and enroll in the program:
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Organization Name – Warren Co Chpr of the Ohio Genealogical Soc
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Organization Number – SU662
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Then, every time you shop and use your Kroger Plus card, Kroger will make a small donation to WCGS! Yay!