Happy New Year from the Guilford Historical Society

This is an actual Christmas Card received from Marlene O'Connell and her sister and mother. I think it is very reflective of our society and our area. What do you think? Also, we wish to express a hearty welcome to Marlene and her family as lifetime members! We also welcome Diana Heeman as a new member. Our membership is growing and local members are doing wonderful things to record the history of Guilford. Even those members that are a distance away (Many thanks Bruce) from Guilford participate when they can not attend meetings as they live too far away. We have collected many genealogies of which the last was the Sherwood ancestry. Many thanks to Lynn for the research and providing it. This was a great find as a few years ago we had another from the same family that provided photos so connecting the dots was exciting to put the two families together.

Another newly joined member had her ancestry on the Internet. As a result of a contact with her, a relative they joined also. Thanks Louise for sharing and adding Mr. & Mrs. Pearsall to our membership list.

Speaking of our membership list. Many of you do not realize how many are from other states. We have members from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington, Delaware, Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Arizona, Virginia, California, Florida, D.C., Utah, Michigan, and South Carolina. Many of you have contributed your genealogy to our files and also contributed photos of ancestors. I truly love the photos of the past residents of Guilford and they are really beneficial to our cemetery research.

Cemetery research and the committee headed up by Tina have done a great job. You saw the last piece on collecting cemetery wreaths to remember our veterans. Well, Betsy collected 17 wreaths, wow! That was terrific and thanks to all who contributed. At our January meeting we will find out how the placement of the wreaths went. Without all these volunteers on the special project committees we would never be able to produce such great results for our community.

So everyone contributes in some manner one way or another. Many thanks to all. We wish everyone a Happy New Year.