Anderson County Historical Society

📰WE HAVE SOME VERY EXCITING NEWS!📰

Thanks to a $25,000 donation from Brown Forman, makers of Woodford Reserve, the Library is working to install a "Digitization Station" in an effort to preserve our rich local history. As you can imagine, older documents deteriorate over time. Their generosity will allow us to ensure we don't lose information that helps fuel historical research about Woodford County.

Here's where we can really help Woodford County... the Digitization Station will be open to the public to preserve your important documents and family history. Plus! Our digitized collection will be searchable over the internet. We hope to have our station installed by the end of 2024. The work of digitizing our collection will be an ongoing endeavor. You can even add your history! Watch the news spot on WDKY Fox 56 from this morning for more information.

Once again, we are overwhelmed by the generosity of Brown Forman, and their commitment to preserving local history and supporting community resources like the Library.

https://fox56news.com/video/woodford-reserves-25k-donation-paves-way-for-preserving-county-history/9897315/?ipid=ql

The Anderson County Historical Society will meet on Tuesday, July 9, at 6:00 pm at the Anderson Public Library. The guest speaker will be Joyce Bender.

Joyce will be speaking about Kentucky wildflowers. Bender served the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission for 31 years. During her tenure, the number of Kentucky nature preserves increased from 16 to 63, covering 28,000 acres.

Joyce helped establish the Kentucky and Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council, the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council and conducted prescribed burns as the first female burn boss in the state. Upon her retirement in 2017, the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission named a 1.35-mile trail at Crooked Creek State Nature Preserve the Joyce Bender Trail in her honor. In 2018, the Natural Areas Association (NAA) recognized Joyce as the recipient of the Carl N. Becker Stewardship Award in honor of her extraordinary commitment to advancing natural areas management techniques (including prescribed fire), educating the public regarding the impact of invasive plants, and building the Kentucky state natural areas. She continues to assist with natural areas management and to educate the public about being good stewards.

Meetings are free and everyone is welcome to attend.

The Anderson County Historical Society will hold a meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, at 6:00 pm at the Anderson Public Library.

For the June 11th meeting, Phil Maxon of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute will present: How events in the late summer and fall of 1862 in Anderson, Woodford, and Franklin Counties were preliminary to the Battle of Perryville.

Phil Maxson, a Lexington native, is a graduate of Centre College with a major in history. He has taught Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (Olli) classes for 12 years. His main interest is the Civil War in Kentucky and Abraham Lincoln. He has also done classes on George Rogers Clark, Camp Nelson, and Daniel Boone. His next Olli class this fall will be on Abraham Lincoln.

Meetings are free and everyone is welcome to attend.

Join us for a presentation on the filming locations of the 1967 movie “The Flim Flam Man”, which was filmed here in the Bluegrass. The presentation will be hosted by our current President Winfrey Adkins and guest speaker from California, Dennis Martin. The program will begin at 6:30 pm, Thursday, May 23rd in the community room of the Woodford County Library, 115 N. Main St. in Versailles.

(The below picture was taken by Jim Curtis on the movie set of “The Flim Flam Man” in 1966.)

The Anderson County Historical Society will meet on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at 6:00 pm, at the Ripy House, 320 South Main Street.

President George Geoghegan will give a presentation about his great-grandfather, Thomas B. Ripy and the Ripy family.

T.B. Ripy, son of Irish immigrant James Ripy, married Sally Fidler and they became the parents of 10 children.

Ripy became the largest independent distiller in Kentucky. We would own more than a dozen distilleries in his lifetime, including the T.B. Ripy Distillery in Tyrone, Kentucky, which was reportedly the world’s largest in the 1890s.

Having amassed a great fortune in the bourbon industry, T.B. Ripy built this impressive 11,000 square foot Queen Anne style mansion which was completed in 1888.

Meetings are free and everyone is welcome to attend.

The Anderson County Historical Society will hold a meeting on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at 6:00 pm, at the Anderson Public Library.

We will enjoy a video presentation by the late Ed Ruggles, recorded by Shelia McFarland. Ed enlightens the audience with stories and wisdom of his days in Anderson County.

Ed Ruggles passed away in 2023, at the age of 97. He was for sixty-plus years an active member of the Lawrenceburg and Anderson County community. Moving to Anderson County in 1954, Ed was the county extension agent and served in various community organizations.

Meetings are free and everyone is invited to attend.

If you were going to make a history tour of Lawrenceburg, which people, places and stories would we HAVE to include? The history of the homes on Main? Wilton Hawkins? Anna Mac Clarke? The Flim Flam Man? Bourbon History? Ted Turner? What say you? What's your favorite story to tell about Lawrenceburg?

A personal invitation to all visitors and followers:

If you're a new follower who recently saw one of the posts on this page or perhaps you've stumbled upon this page while attending , welcome!

As the virtual statewide genealogical society for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Society’s mission is to:

1. Facilitate Genealogy Education: The Society facilitates genealogical education, promotes standards, and shares best practices within the Kentucky genealogy community.

This year, Society members can experience over 30 live virtual events with some of the best and brightest speakers and educators in the genealogy community. Many of these speakers are talking about Kentucky specific topics extremely relevant to researching in the Commonwealth.

Most live events are also recorded and the recording and associated handout is available in our Learning Library for members to access and view on demand.

2. Make Kentucky Genealogy Records Accessible: The Society works to make accessible the important genealogy records of Kentucky through collaboration and digitization.

The Society's Kentucky Digitization Grant Fund has funded the digitization of rare Kentucky records for five years. These collections were setting on shelves and often inaccessible.

The Society's collaboration with FamilySearch is helping get Kentucky records digtized in counties throughout the Commonwealth with agreements already signed in Boone, Campbell, and Jefferson counties (and many more in progress).

3. Forge Community: The Society works to connect researchers of all 120 counties.

With over 1,000 members located throughout the Commonwealth, in all 50 states, and in several international countries, the Society connects Kentucky researchers located all over the place.

If you're not yet a member, but follow on social media, you're invited to become a part of this exciting next chapter in the future of Kentucky genealogy. We're just getting started!

Join today for $20 annually at https://kygs.org/subscription-plan/

(Membership in the Society is much more valuable than $20, but we keep dues low so as many people as possible can access and participate.)

More than 150 New Papers from the US, Canada, and Panama! - The official blog of Newspapers.com Take a look at the list of new papers we've added since January! We've got more than 150 new titles plus a new collection of Kentucky papers.

All you Lillard researchers - do you have any old photo albums of the family? I'm trying to find a picture of David Leonard "Len" Meriwether (1867-1929) who married Ophelia Lillard (1869-1937) in 1892. She was the daughter of C.C. Lillard and Susan Bond.

I have a picture of the Lillard family, and also a picture of Len and Ophelia's daughter Lillie. But not Len.
Thanks,
Sharon Pike