Hamblen County Genealogical Society

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Hamblen County Genealogical Society

HCGS MEETINGS
First Thursday of each month
5:30 pm Morristown Senior Center 841 Lincoln Avenue, Morristown

The Hamblen County Genealogical Society (HCGS) is a nonprofit society that helps to preserve the histories of the people of Hamblen County, Tennessee, and help those who are interested in discovering their own lineage.

03/31/2026

We meet again on 2 April 2026 at 5:30 pm in the Senior Center in Morristown. Our speaker will be Debra Williams from the Hamblen County Chamber of Commerce. Bring a friend!

02/19/2026

The Hamblen County Genealogical will meet on Thursday, March 5 at 5:30 pm at the Morristown Senior Center to hear Bryan Lawson show us how to effectively use WikiTree. For 17 years, WikiTree has provided free storage and easy access to family genealogy. We will learn how WikiTree is different from Ancestry and FamilySearch, and how to enter and share our own records and research. Everyone is welcome to attend.

02/13/2026

We are considering for March having a presentation on WikiTree as a genealogical tool. A lot of people are unfamiliar with WikiTree, or are skeptical because, like Wikipedia and FamilySearch, anybody can edit and (and potentially corrupt) profiles. Personally, I like it for storing and presenting the data I've researched. Please comment if you would have interest in a presentation on WikiTree.

01/31/2026

Reminder: HCGS will begin meeting again at 5:30 pm on 5 February at the Senior Center. Looking forward to seeing you all there. Tim Holder will be the presenter.

12/15/2025

The Hamblen County Genealogy Society will not meet in January.

11/01/2025

The Hamblen County Genealogical Society will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, November 6th at 5:30 PM at the Senior Citizens Center located at 841 Lincoln Avenue, Morristown. Our speaker will be Jason Chadwell, Park Manager from Panther Creek State Park.

09/30/2025

Time has a way of sneaking up on us. It is already time for our next monthly meeting, this Thursday, the second of October at 5:30 PM in the Morristown Senior Citizen Center.

09/22/2025

The following comes from Find-A-Grave and has been edited for length:

Back in 2012, strong winds unearthed long-forgotten headstones on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. One of the stones contained the name of Delia Oliver, who was 26 when she died in 1890. But why was it found on the beach?

In the early 20th century. San Francisco had a problem. Because of the city cemeteries, it was running out of space for the living. A law was passed in 1897 preventing new burials except in specific cemeteries. By 1900, all internments in the city were outlawed. Then officials started looking for ways to reclaim the real estate where cemeteries were located. At the time, San Francisco had four major cemeteries. All were at capacity and falling into disrepair. San Francisco decided to declare them a public nuisance and remove them. All but two cemeteries were required to reinter their dead. The remains were to be moved 11 miles to Lawndale, which was later renamed Colma. Relocating the more than 150,000 bodies was complicated. Officials attempted to contact the families of the deceased and charge them $10 to move their loved one’s grave and marker. If they couldn’t locate the next of kin, or they could not afford the relocation fee, their remains were dumped in a mass grave. Old headstones were either destroyed or reused in other building projects. Cemeteries began disinterring remains in the 20s and the last grave was moved in 1942.

Colma became known as the City of Souls. With only 2.2 square miles and fewer than 2000 residents, it has 17 cemeteries with 1½ million graves. Colma is the final resting place for many notables, including William Randolph Hearst, Wyatt Earp, Levi Strauss and Joe DiMaggio. As for Nelia Presby Oliver, whose headstone was found on the beach, she was reinterred in a family plot in another county, but her old headstone was left abandoned. Later, the city sunk it to prevent beach erosion. It remained on the beach, undiscovered for decades.

Photo credit: Colleen Sanders Broyles

09/09/2025

If you would like to become a member of the Hamblen County Genealogy Society and receive our Newsletter, you can send a $20 annual subscription-membership fee to: Hamblen County Genealogical Society, Attn: Ann Blomquist. 836 Zirkle Rd, Dandridge, Tennessee 37725. Ann can be reached at (865) 397-3738 or [email protected] for more information.

09/03/2025

Hello, Society members!

We will have our monthly meeting on Thursday, September 4 at 5:30 p.m. at the Morristown Senior Center.

We had such a wonderful sharing meeting last month when members said “Let Me Tell You About My Ancestor.” Thanks to everyone who participated!

Our speaker this month will be the historian and librarian from the LDS church who will talk about their resources for genealogical research in their library and online.

See you there!

07/21/2025

The Hamblen Co. Genealogical Society will meet on Thursday, August 7, at 5:30 p.m. at the Senior Center. To celebrate our 40th Anniversary, we will have an anniversary cake. We will not have a picnic. Our program will be “Let Me Tell You About My Ancestor” where members can share one of their ancestors for 3 to 5 minutes. We will get to hear about lots of different people who gave us our family history and we’ll get to know each other better. Please pick out one ancestor and tell us about that person. See you there!

Address

P. O. Box 1213
Morristown, TN
37816

Telephone

+14233077136

Website

http://hctngenealogy.org/

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